Archive for March, 2009

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A voyage worth talking about

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Tonight we’re going to RANSA, our yacht club, for a talk by Alex Whitworth, skipper of Berrimilla, a Brolga 33 that is currently wintering on the hard in Falmouth.

What’s so special about Alex and Berrimilla?

This time last year they were making final preparations before sailing from Sydney to Falmouth via the North West Passage! What started as an invitation to observe the total solar eclipse on 1 August 2008 on Devon Island, became quite an adventure as you can see from the blog of the voyage.

The invitation* was from Pascal Lee who runs NASA’s Haughton-Mars Project there.

* When on the Berrimilla website, scroll down to see Pascal’s hand-drawn map.

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What’s your dream destination?

Monday, March 9th, 2009

It’s always good to dream. It’s a way of visualising what you wish for and then you can work to make it come true.

The other day Annie excitedly showed me a blog where one of her comments had been picked up and republished by Adam Turinas in a subsequent blogpost at Messing About in Sailboats. What pleased her most was that the photo at the head of the post was of her dream destination.

Two of the others posting their dream destinations were JP of Captain JP’s log and Tillerman of Proper Course, who have both been blogging since 2005, so Annie was particularly chuffed to be in such company.

For the incurious who are not prepared to click through on the above links, here is an extract from Adam’s blog:

Last but not least, Annie inspired me with somewhere I have never heard of. Sign me up!

Sailing from anywhere on the east coast of Australia to Lord Howe Island, mooring in the lagoon, going ashore and enjoying a few days in this World Heritage listed paradise.

One of the best things is that there’s a limit of 400 tourists staying on the island at any time.
http://www.lordhoweisland.info/

Now that Annie’s revealed her dream destination, what’s yours?

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Splicing – a money-saving skill

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

It’s a funny thing about people and technology – when something new comes along they are either complete Luddites and refuse to accept it, or they adopt it wholeheartedly and throw out the old way of doing things.

 

It’s a shame and it’s also wasteful. There is nearly always something in the old way that is worth keeping and using with the new.

 

What I particularly have in mind is splicing. It is true that modern ways of joining lines have largely superseded splicing but there is one splice that every sailor worth his or her salt should know – the eye splice. Why? Because every boat in a marina is tied up with lines with an eye splice in at least one end. The eye splice is either simply looped over a cleat or bollard and the other end attached to the boat. Or the splice is pushed through the eye of a cleat and the line taken through the splice, so making the attachment permanent.

 

The owner who can do the splices for his boat is going to save himself hundreds of dollars during his boat-owning lifetime.

 

On the Skipper and Crew, Knots and The Language of the Sea CD there is video of how to create an eye splice.

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