Sailors Rescued in Philippines

This sufficiently freaked my mother out as we are leaving to sail on a cat in a few weeks. These guys dont seem all that bright though. They had no emergency distress equipment or long distance communication. They were saved because a women on the boat eventually got her husband on her cell phone. Its a strange looking boat too. Apparently the storm took out the rudder and some radio equipment.

To replace the rudder the took apart the boom and made a makeshift rudder?? Dont cats have 2 rudders??

It took the US coast guard 3 days and several hundred thousand dollars to find them.

Rolling Hitch in Action

Its a bit tough to see, but essentially they have a jammed winch and the line has a load on it (jib sheet). They tie a rolling hitch around the line and use another winch to remove the load from the jammed winch.


Good intructional from Animated Knots

Sailing to Cuba

The restrictions are being eased a bit, so that if you are a school or other organization you can visit the island. Still not tourists, but i wonder if you have a regatta or other formal organization if you an visit? It would cause a large decrease in visitors to other island destinations, which means more open moorings, hopefully.

im on a boat.

Lightning

some good tips from sailing breezes:

Head for safety: When storm clouds gather, head for shore. The worst place to be is on the open water where you and your boat are the tallest lightning rods around.

Try a little radio: An old sailboater’s trick is to turn on an AM (not FM) radio to listen for static. This will tell you if there’s an electrical charge building around you. Small, cheap portable radios are best.

Go below: If you do see lightning zaps too close for comfort, go below, if you can. That gets you away from all that metal in the cockpit.

Stay away: If you do go below, stay away from the mast-to-keel area. That’s the primary route of the lightning seeking a place to exit.

Don’t go near the water: Avoid any connection between yourself and the water. Your body is a better conductor than air, and lightning will like you better than air as a better route. You become a human lightning rod.

Magnetic Poles Shifting

Tampa had to close its runways to paint new coordiantes on them as a result of the earths poles shifting. The magnetic variation is now different. Its also going to affect drift calculations when going over a long distance.


Im guessing this will also mean sailing charts (the rose) will have to be reprinted?

It may also be responsible for the animal deahts, but thats a seperate story.

more Here.

Snubber

I hadnt heard of a snubber before, its used once you have set your anchor to take load off of the anchor rode or windlass. According to the video below you attach the snubber using a “devils claw” or rolling hitch to the chain. The other side of the line is cleated to the bow of the boat, and you let out enough anchor rode so that the snubber is taught, and chain is loose.

also came across an interesting merchant, called SHOCKLES which supplies snubbers and some other, similar products.