SAIL.SailMagazine

One of the more common questions I get about life aboard is, "How do you make it all fit?"  That's easy.  Step one: prioritize.  We follow a simple space allocation formula on Papillon.  I'll draw you a pie chart.

By: Mia

You will see it everywhere; the magazines are covered in tips how to get your boat ready for the spring.  Check your rig and mast if you had it out during the winter, check all running rigging, how is the engine doing after a winter in hibernation, any new leaks that need to be fixed? 

They seem to be getting the hang of it, but I doubt very much they are anywhere near as smooth as Emirates Team New Zealand. 

Still, nice to kow there might be a real race.

A big part of the allure and thrill of the sea is its capacity to form up into massive walls of water that reduce humans to awestruck little players on a stage of overwhelming scale.  

Just watch this mesmerizing homage to a mega-day at Teahupoo (via), and see if you can avoid both cringing and feeling a sense of wonder that these surfers even dare to ride:

BIGGEST TEAHUPOO EVER from UnFuzzy on Vimeo.

And then move onto this scene of humans facing a big sea in an entirely different context (via). Instead of whimpering, they are giddy with the excitement of it. That says it all.

We keep meaning to walk around town—get out and do something productive. But day after day Lowe wakes up from his nap and Ouest says, “I want to go swimming. Be a mermaid.” So off to the beach we go. Then we plan on going out for tacos for dinner, but by the time we get home from the beach we’re all sun-baked, tired, and ready to call it a night—so instead of tacos Ali whips up grilled cheese sandwiches and mounds of fruit. We eat, bathe, and go to bed. It’s incredible sometimes how quickly a day can disappear with these two around.

What does it cost to cruise? What's a reasonable amount to budget for a sail around the world? Is X amount enough to live comfortably on a sailboat? It doesn't matter how you word this question, we've heard them all a hundred times.

Well before Ali and I ever started cruising we kept track of our expenses. Closely. We have always been the type of people who would notice when there was a new ninety-nine cent charge on the electricity bill and then call to complain about it. Nothing irks us like getting pinched for a buck or two or five without our consent. And hey, knowing where your money goes should be the number one financial goal of everybody out there anyway. When people ask us how we afford to live the life we do our answer is rarely about how we make our money, and instead centers on knowing exactly how we spend our money. Making money is the easy part—most of us have been doing that since we were tweens—it's the spending money that causes problems.

The picture above is of the stern gallery of the HMS Implacable, on display at the UK National Maritime Musuem. It is all that is left of a ship of the line that was first launched by the French in 1800, and scuttled by the British in 1949, following WWII. Here's the Old Salt Blog:

She was originally the French Navy’s Téméraire-class ship of the line Duguay-Trouin, launched in 1800.  The Duguay-Trouin fought in and survived the Battle of Trafalgar, only to be captured by the British in the Battle of Cape Ortegal and renamed Implacable.  When scuttled in 1949,  HMS Implacable was the second oldest ship of the Navy after HMS Victory. There were major protests against her disposal, but given the post-War austerity, the British government decided against the cost of her restoration. In 1947 the British government had offered her to the French, who also declined the offer based on restoration costs.  The Implacable’s figurehead and stern galleries were removed prior to scuttling and are on display in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, while her capstan is on display at the maritime museum at Rochefort. The protests over the scuttling of HMS Implacable are believed to have contributed to the British government’s decision to preserve the clipper ship Cutty Sark.

At the time, I am sure, the scuttling made economic sense. But as you watch the video below it is hard not to feel sad at the sight of a majestic piece of history--the source no doubt of many stories of bravery, cowardice, sacrifice, and triumph--sinking beneath the waves.

It ia always moving to see a ship die. It is especially so when the ship has seen so much,  and it is being deliberately sent to the bottom.

Written by Ben Ellison on Mar 18, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I went to the marine chandlery right across the street from the marinas today in order to pick up a tube of 4200 caulking. And you know what? They don’t carry 4200! I know, right? If I were to open a chandlery—which I totally should because I love any business where the margins are like 500%—I would only have three things on my shelf: a big jar full of miscellaneous stainless bolts and screws, Delo oil, and 4200. That’s it.

Found my tube of 4200 up the street so now I can get back to coating the boat in a one inch thick cocoon of it.

I've done more than my share of SailRocket updates, because Paul Larsen's quest for the outright speed record was epic. 

But you can't beat a series of detailed television reports for digging deeper, and adding to your understanding. So let's check in on the excellent Shirley Robertson, who has one of the best jobs in the world at CNN's Mainsail (One gripe: Hey, Shirley, why oh why is there no dedicated Mainsail RSS feed?). Cuz she has aired an excellent account of Larsen's SailRocket journey, in all its frustrations, setbacks, and, eventually, glory. Check it:

The Beginning

Getting It Going In Namibia

The Payoff

OF ALL the supernatural entities we sailors must cope with while messing around on our boats none are more heartless than the dreaded Bilge Gods. As long as there have been bilges on boats, these evil spirits have been lurking down there, waiting patiently to consume any Very Important Object an innocent mariner might temporarily hold in his or her hand. Even if you are on deck, or at the very top of your mast, as far from the bilge as you can possibly get, it is a scientifically proven fact that all you need do is let slip your grip on a VIO for but an instant and somehow it will end up in the hands of these greedy gremlins.

There's not a lot of great sailing programming on television, or in theaters. But there is a documentary series called "Sailing Around The World," that is working hard to take viewers deep into the experience of ocean racing.

The series started with a documentary about the 2008-2009 Vendee Globe race. The film-makers must have liked the whole sailing scene, because they continue with a series of films featuring Derek Hatfield's rebuilt Open 60 as it is raced across the world by a crack team of Canadian Olympic sailors, led by Richard Clarke. The next installment, The O'Canada Project, chronicles the start of the campaign (both of these first two films are available for rent on iTunes and Amazon).

Now the next two films in the series, The California Campaign, and The Transpac, are coming. They feature the O'Canada team racing in a series of coastal Cali races, and then competing in the big one: the Transpac.

Here is the trailer for "The California Campaign":

And here is the trailer for The Transpac:

Without young kids the months just sort of disappeared without anything to mark them. Now I feel the passing of each month deeply. The changes happening faster than I can do anything to stop them.

We joke with Ouest all the time that we don’t want her to get any bigger, that we want her to stay our little girl. And she comes firing right back with, “No, me big girl. I want to be a big girl.” And I remember childhood the same way—as kids we just want to be bigger, more grown up, with every passing day.

It's been a while since we've indulged. Also, it's Wednesday. So let's take a break from tragedy, America's Cup navel-gazing, and billionaire fantasy, and engage our inner sailing lust.

Because that's the primary emotion that results from peering through the internet window at the sleek, sexy, hybrid-electric,TAG 60 catamaran.

It's enough to make you want to sell your soul. But let's bring it down a notch, and lie back with a soothing, virtual, cigarette, courtesy of "The Following Sea" Tumblr blog. It is a daily source of exquisite photographs of

It isn't often that I really miss "land" things.  But every once in a while, I'd like to have a bath.  Unlike the kids, I can't fit in a five-gallon bucket.

I once made the mistake of musing aloud that I would like to take a bath.  Erik, fixer of all problems, immediately started offering solutions.

Settled in to our new digs today: washed the boat, played at the other marina’s playground, hit the OXXO for iced coffee, and screwed around on deck. That’s it.

Written by Ben Ellison on Mar 12, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub