Sea Savvy

Are you strong enough to survive 13 hours in the water? That’s exactly what the writer did when he chaperoned an ocean survival course.

My wife and I commanded the Harbinger from 1994 to 1996.

The sights and sounds of a fine schooner can bewitch, and keep the enamored
returning, in body and mind, forever.

Installing a bilge counter is an easy project that lets you know if your bilge pump is working overtime when you’re not around.

The world’s most common big batteries are called flooded or wet cell, as they have enough liquid acid to cover the battery plates.

At the engine instrument panel, there are usually alarms for low oil pressure and high coolant temperature, often with
monitoring gauges. Although there are new technologies, most gauge transmitters (typically called senders) work on an
electrical principle of varying resistance.

Boat-trailer decouplings that lead to deaths and criminal prosecution are so rare that the Boat Trailer Manufacturers Association doesn’t even have statistics about them, says Darren Envall, the group’s assistant executive director.

A Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook heavy-weather crew rescued four stranded men from an “unseaworthy” 22-foot boat in Raritan Bay, New Jersey, late last year.

I sold my 53-foot Gulfstar motorsailer a little while ago. I hated selling her, and I miss her dearly. But the idea is to get a boat that’s smaller and much faster. We’re no longer raising and educating a family aboard, so we’re looking hard to find just what we want.

The night gyrated in bright strobe as lightning shattered the
blackness, flashing white cracks into hell. Rain began tentatively
as large, heavy drops, but that quickly changed.