Table of contents for September 2016 in PassageMaker

Pantaenius, a U.S. marine insurer, told PassageMaker that it will be offering coverage for American boats traveling in Cuban waters. This eliminates a major barrier to cruising and fishing Cuba. Ten months ago, the division of the U.S. Treasury Department that regulates interactions with Cuba under the U.S. Embargo announced that U.S. citizens with a legal reason to travel to Cuba could do so by boat—their own boats. However, the regulations did not permit U.S. insurers to offer hull insurance. Thus, insurance issues have proven to be the major disincentive for the many American boaters dreaming of visiting Cuban waters. This was true when AIM Marine Group (PassageMaker’s parent company) organized a Cuba rally in April and as articulated to us by the many boaters who have sought to visit…

I’ve long felt that the DeLorme inReach is a valuable safety and communications tool for boats that sometimes go beyond reliable cellular or VHF contact with friends, families, and rescue centers. But one gripe for skippers hoping to use an inReach as their only offshore communications device was the lack of weather forecasting. There were some necessarily crude third-party solutions, but now DeLorme is offering easy-to-use and understand forecasts, both marine and terrestrial. I’ve just been testing this and many other inReach features in Cuba, though the legality of taking a satellite messenger/tracker there is still uncertain. The new weather feature works with either the $300 inReach SE or the $380 Explorer model (which adds routing and high-res tracking to the handheld). You can request forecasts from the handheld but…

Many builders bandy the label “expedition yacht” around these days, and for a builder to invoke the name Magellan, the first circumnavigator in 1519, takes a certain chutzpah or perhaps even hubris. Azimut, a brand perhaps best known for sleek yachts designed to move crumpets and champers to and fro along the Riviera, has carried it off in fine style, and has created a yacht you might want to use to cross the 100-fathom curve outbound. Part of the four-yacht series, the Magellano power cruisers range from 43 to 76 feet, several well-publicized offshore cruises proved that the line-up is more than able. This, however, is cruising with a difference. This is cruising in grand style, not man-against-the-elements. Not when you have helm chairs upholstered in alligator, Lucite racks for…

Boat buyers often take strong positions on galley stoves, insisting that they would never expose themselves to the risks of an explosion posed by propane. A propane explosion seems much riskier than plugging in a shorepower cord. But which is more dangerous? Before we answer that question, let’s look at the ubiquitous shorepower cord. We treat electrical connections on our boats with great care, vigilantly crimping ring terminals onto wire ends and connecting them with machine screws or nuts onto studs. In addition, we secure all wires to minimize movement, and we make sure we keep all connections away from salt water. In some cases we apply coatings to minimize oxidation and corrosion. We handle all connections that way, with one notable exception: the shorepower cord. Instead of ring terminals…

Goal Zero Sherpa 100 Perhaps the only thing better than going off the grid entirely is having the ability to take the grid with you. Designed with photographers working in earth’s extreme, remote environments in mind, Goal Zero designed the Sherpa Power Pack to enable those who rely on electronics to be able to cut the cord without cutting off their power supply. The larger of the two options, the Sherpa 100 clocks in at just under 2 pounds, yet offers users a powerful, 98Wh (11V) Lithium-ion battery linked to an array of ports to charge everything from DSLR cameras to phones, tablets, and laptop computers. Goal Zero also offers an optional AC inverter, making the Sherpa compatible with nearly anything with a cord in all environments imaginable. Sherpas can…

It’s a dark and squally night in November 2014. Vestas Wind, one of the boats participating in the roundthe-world Volvo Ocean Race, is romping along at 16 knots in the Indian Ocean. There is a loud crack—the daggerboard has sheared off. The boat pivots hard to port; the keel strikes the bottom and Vestas Wind is aground in 6-foot breaking seas on the Cargados Carajos shoals, 240 miles northeast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. As waves wash over her, Vestas Wind pitches and rolls violently, and starts to break up, losing both rudders, the keel, and large sections of the hull. Water floods belowdecks and the ship’s lithiumion batteries begin to smoke, threatening to go up in flames. In the early hours of the following morning, the crew scrambles…

UNDERWATER TOUGH So, now that you’ve got all your equipment and you’re PADI-certified for scuba diving, what’s next? Well, if you want to document all that shimmers and glimmers underwater from the Caribbean to Kona, try out the new TG-Tracker waterproof video camera from Olympus. Featuring many of the bells and whistles of more expensive cameras, the TG-Tracker offers waterproof shooting to 100-foot depths without a special housing, a wide-angle frame-of-view (so you can get the entire whale in frame), and an LED headlamp to illuminate that chest of sunken treasure. In addition to its shooting chops, the TG-Tracker is packed to the gills with data-tracking tools that pair with onboard GPS including e.Compass. It also sports an accelerometer and barometric pressure, temperature, and water sensors. And if shooting in…

In addition to serving as the Senior Electronics Editor to PassageMaker and her sister publications, Ben Ellison writes and maintains the electronics blog, Panbo. With more than 75,000 monthly visitors, Panbo is dedicated to reviewing and reporting on the latest and greatest in marine electronics. What pulled you into marine electronics? In 1971 some friends and I thought it a good idea to sail around the world in an old wooden sloop. That was overly ambitious, but I did enjoy budget cruising the East Coast and Caribbean, and I also fashioned a career as a professional yacht skipper and seamanship instructor, as well as trying my hand at commercial fishing and work boating. Navigation was a particular interest and as the first GPS and digital charts on personal computers came…

Steel is a boatbuilding material that you normally associate with ships, rugged workboats, and large superyachts. Without a doubt, composites in various forms rule the power cruising sector, though you can still find a few trawlers with aluminum hulls. Everybody associates steel with corrosion. Think back to that car you may have had 50 years ago, which, after a few years on the road would show signs of rust. Think back to the workboats of that same era and rust was the predominate color of the hulls. However, there is one country where steel yachts are alive and well and that is Holland, where years of tradition and development have ensured that steel yachts have survived to compete in the modern world, and leading the charge is yacht builder Linssen.…

Food on a cruise can be transcendent. On a bad passage, the right meal can lift your crew from a mutinous depression to a sublime postsupper stupor. That may be a lot to ask of a Vienna sausage, but fresh fish and lobster are the perfect meals to quell any potential after-dinner uprising your crew may be planning. In two years of cruising, Karen and I have learned a few things about good food while living aboard. First, the freshest food at sea is … well … seafood. Second, many cruisers don’t know how to harvest supper from the seabed, particularly if it means snorkeling and using a spear. Karen likes to fish with a spinning rod from the deck or dinghy. I like to snorkel, spearing fish and lobster…