When you’ve got a steady breeze, comfortable seas, and the boat is moving sweetly along—it’s tempting to slip into a casual watch schedule. But when a cold front approaches, the wind rises, and the boat demands undivided attention, that’s when discipline pays off.
Getting Fixed on Cel Nav
This past weekend 59 North hosted a celestial navigation workshop at the Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis. I grabbed Haven and his stroller at some calculated times to coincide with bottles and naps… the rhythms to which my life beats these days. Over the course of two days, I was able to grab a few hours worth of celestial review … Read More
Sailing at Night: Can You See in the Dark?
This post originally appeared on our blog, Sailing Simplicity & the Pursuit of Happiness. View this post and many others at SailingSimplicity.com By understanding how your eyes work in low-light conditions, you can ensure that your vision doesn’t fail you when you most need it. The sun is just about to touch the horizon and you’ve spent the last hour … Read More
The Knot You Never Thought You Needed
This post originally appeared on our blog, Sailing Simplicity & the Pursuit of Happiness. View this post and many others at SailingSimplicity.com SOME KNOT TIPS FOR CRUISERS: ADD A WELL-PLACED SLIPPERY HITCH TO ENSURE THAT YOUR KNOTS COME UNDONE WHEN YOU WANT THEM TO. When my husband, Ben Eriksen, and I began sailing together we learned a lot about trust, each other … Read More
Our Hourly Boat Check Routine
Sailors love checklists When we first talked about our Boat Check many of you asked for more details. Well – you asked, and we responded. “Boat check” is something that the off-going watch does before they are relieved of their duties. It takes about 15-20 min to do a thorough job. Our watch schedule on our sail training expeditions is usually 6 … Read More
What Scares You While Sailing?
This post originally appeared on our blog, Sailing Simplicity & the Pursuit of Happiness. View this post and many others at SailingSimplicity.com I had the opportunity to speak on the women sailors panel moderated by Pam Wall at the Chicago Boat Show. A question was asked of the panel, “As a woman, what is it that scares you while sailing?” I was … Read More
Six Things We Added To Our Norseman 447 We Love
In the first part of this series, I discussed some of the features of our Norseman 447 that are inherent to the design and build of the boat that we have come to know and love. In this post I’m taking a look at a few of the items we have added to the boat to help make it our … Read More
Six Things We Love About Our Norseman 447
We are just about 2 years into ownership of Rocinante our Norseman 447. In that time we’ve sailed her just about 8,000 nm and we’ve gotten to know her a bit better. She’s a lot different than our previous boats, but still considered a classic… one of Bob Perry’s best designs. She sails and handles wonderfully in all conditions we’ve experienced so far. The … Read More
Sailing to Bermuda: Weather Planning
We left Fishing Bay at around 1500. A few hours after we planned, but for good reason. There were some last minute projects to take care of… final installation of the Monitor control lines, pad eyes for better dinghy lashing angles as well as going over sea-cock locations and our new Viking 8 Person Liferaft deployment procedures with our crew. Plus … Read More