cruising

Presented by Vetus-Maxwell. Got a tip? Send it to sailmail@sailmagazine.com Fall in line In the days before GPS, the best trick outside the book for finding a harbor in dense fog went like this: if it’s surrounded by rocks, forget it; if not, in you go, but never try to hit it ...read more

It’s the 23rd night of our 29-day, 3,000-mile passage from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. As I settle into my watch, I try not to be concerned about the secondhand parts I installed last-minute, parts that are now being stressed to their breaking point. ...read more

As our boat was readied for our Tongan adventure, we sat at Mango, the waterfront restaurant at the Sunsail base. We were relishing the free Wi-Fi when the checkout manager, Raymond, came by our table, stuck his hand out to the nearest graybeard and said, “You must be the ...read more

It’s like riding a bronco with a fire hose spraying in your face: four unrelenting knots of current pushing you into 4 to 6ft smackers. Lumpy. Bumpy. A rodeo. A mistake. Anything but pleasant. When my partner, Phillip, and I were planning our first voyage to the Bahamas on our ...read more

Darkness had fallen and the howling wind almost drowned out the voices coming over the VHF radio. “Lights on! Blow horns!” “Make noise to alert the crew!” “Shine the spotlight on the cat by the shore, it’s dragging dangerously near our bow.” These were calls to action, not ...read more

Like most soon-to-be cruisers and fellow dog owners, I fantasized about life on the boat with woman’s best friend. I pictured cruising the waterways with my faithful companion, his ears flapping in the wind as he stood on the bowsprit looking down at the dolphins in the bow ...read more

The memories are vivid. Dolphins and diesel fumes. A blood-orange moon rising to starboard as engine trouble loomed to port. A spinnaker like a taut, glowing veil before a sun that shone down later on its wet, shredded remains. We were 30 days at sea, a virgin ocean-crossing crew ...read more

Let’s face it—without islands to sail to, cruising wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. No matter where you sail, arriving at a destination by boat has a magic of its own.  Mount Desert Island By Tom Egan44.3924° N, 68.3021° W All the qualities that make Maine a great cruising ...read more

Mine is a fishing family. Whether we are running lines off the stern, spearfishing or casting from the boat, we’re always fishing. So, of course, we were fishing while we sailed as part of the 2015 Pacific Puddle Jump. Among our mini-group of boats, a competition had been ...read more

Do you have photos of your pet onboard? We'd love to see them! Send them to sailmail@sailmagazine.com. ...read more

You almost have to pinch yourself sailing around Thailand’s Phang Nga Bay. It’s like entering a lost world in a Hollywood movie. Rising dramatically from an emerald sea are surreal, gravity-defying limestone towers (karsts) which have been sculpted by millennia of monsoon rain ...read more

Five Farangs in Thailand A motley crew explores Thailand’s fabled Andaman Sea on a charter catamaran Read Paul Gelder's full story HERE. ...read more

A trail of broken promises leads to yet another dream fulfilled It is a very slippery slope, this business of owning sailboats. We all like to throw around the old saw about the two happiest days of our lives when buying and selling them, but the first time I ever bought one, ...read more

As a child, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say, decisively, a marine biologist. Did I have any clue what a marine biologist was? Not really. I was only 5. But it sounded smart and had something to do with the water and seals. Today, however, as ...read more

Something’s wrong. Something doesn’t sound right. What had jolted me out of my on-watch daydreams? I listened carefully; the steady rhythm of the engine faltered again. I was alone in the cockpit, in the darkest part of the night, and our engine sounded as if it was about to ...read more

Over my family’s sailing years, I have enjoyed hundreds of potlucks, sun-downers, aperitifs, parties, morning coffees and afternoon drinks. Very often, I am pulled aside by one of the adults and vigorously interrogated on my opinions of cruising as a kid. Do you like cruising? ...read more

It’s just another day in the San Blas islands. We are in the dinghy, heading out with our snorkel gear to a site we’d heard about called the Hollandes Caves. As we make our way through the gin-clear water of the channel to the shallow back reef, a 4ft wide southern stingray ...read more

If you’ve ever dreamed of anchoring behind a reef with palm-fringed island lined with white sandy beaches and crystal clear water, you may have been dreaming of Panama’s San Blas Islands. Read about Panama’s San Blas Islands here... January 2017 ...read more

Looking back over the years we’ve been running our Pittman Innovation Awards, it’s incredible to see the variety of different products that have been featured. There’s been everything from sails to navigation aids to clever little gadgets that can’t help but make you wonder, “Why ...read more

No one worries more about what’s really inside their water and fuel tanks than a dedicated cruiser on the go. On many boats tank inspection ports are an afterthought, but thanks to Dutch marine-systems specialist Vetus, that should soon be changing. Vetus’s new universal ...read more

Many cruisers like the idea of carrying scuba gear, both for underwater exploration and underwater repair and maintenance jobs, but are thwarted by the expense and sheer bulk of the equipment involved. Now the folks at Mantus Anchors have shattered that barrier with a new ...read more

When you’re sailing in the Aleutians, Kodiak, and Prince William Sound, common wisdom says you need to be out of the Gulf of Alaska by September first at the latest before the hurricane-force winds of autumn arrive. So, you could just head south to Mexico, escape the band of ice ...read more

I have often said the cruising community is a small family spread out over a large canvas, and as proof of this, I can point to an encounter I recently witnessed in the un-nautical micro-nation of Andorra, high in the Pyrenees Mountains. This was in the home of Edward Allcard, a ...read more

I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to refer to peer-to-peer (P2P) boating as pier-to-pier—it’s irresistible. The proliferation of the sharing economy has birthed P2P boating and with it, more players in the field of direct boater-to-renter vessel chartering. So I wanted ...read more