Sail Far Live Free

Spring commissioning always involves taking inventory of spare parts, gear and safety equipment to make sure we're prepared for the season ahead. Invariably, it feels like our flares are expired every spring, though in reality I believe they have a shelf life of about 3 years. When they are truly expired, I'm always at loss for how to properly and safely dispose of them. Replacing them requires a $40 purchase. These are minor hassles for the inherent safety (and USCG compliance) that carrying the flares onboard provide. But have you read the what the USCG says about electronic alternatives? From Title 33 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Subpart 175.130: Any of the following signals, when carried in the number required, can be used to meet the requirements of 175.110: 1) An electric distress light meeting the standards of 46 CFR 161.013. One is required to meet the night only requirement. 2) An orange flag meeting the standards of 46 CFR 160.072. One is required to mee

"At the end of your life, you're not going to remember all the knick-knacks and gadgets you had around you ... you're going to remember how far you could see when you looked out on the horizon.  - Amy Lukas Have you seen the t-shirt that says "You can't buy happiness, but you can buy a boat and that's just about the same thing"? Best friends Amy Lukas and Mary Catterlin would argue that you don't even have to buy the boat. Instead, you can build one from a single cottonwood tree and sail it on a 1,200 mile 93 day circumnavigation of Lake Michigan that's filled with happiness. I suppose it started with Mary wanting to own a boat but not being able to afford one. So naturally she decided to make one. A downed cottonwood tree provided the materials. She then spent three years carving the hull out of the tree trunk and creating her very own dugout canoe. Makeba (mah-KAY-buh) was born. With Amy's help, outriggers and a sailing rig from a Su

One of the great joys of owning a boat is anchoring out, whether it be for one night, one week or some portion of a lifetime. I love the -isms of life on the hook: escapism, minimalism, hedonism, tuism. Yes, tuism is a real word. It's the theory that individuals have a second or other self. So I think I'm using it correctly when I say I'm a different person at anchor. Life is slower. My mind is clearer. It's here that I live in the moment. But I digress, so let's get to the point of this post, which is to review an option for a portable, battery powered anchor light. Obviously, we've got a masthead anchor light on our sailboat, but it's the only remaining bulb on the boat that's not LED. This bothers me. I'm a big proponent of LED bulbs on boats because of their energy efficiency and long life. And I admit to neurotically losing a bit of sleep at night thinking about the incandescent bulb eating up juice from the house battery bank. I know the

"Peace is not found in a calmer storm, it's found in a better boat." - Travis Meadows I don't know what Yachtworld.com's web traffic stats are, but I'm guessing they pull huge numbers from both keel kickers and serious buyers trying to answer one basic question: What sailboat should I purchase for cruising? There's already been a lot written on the topic by sailors far more accomplished than me. For starters, I can't recommend these enough: Charlie Doane's The Modern Cruising Sailboat , John Kretschmer's Sailing a Serious Ocean  and Beth Leonard's The Voyager's Handbook . So I'm not going to reinvent the wheel with this post nor am I going to try to create the definitive source of information about choosing a cruising sailboat. Instead, I'm going to share a few simple tips I've picked up through reading, sailing, purchasing 5 boats of my own, and interacting with online sailing communities and some old salts on the doc