Table of contents for July - August 2018 in PassageMaker

Pixie Dust At the Grand Banks Yachts rendezvous in Roche Harbor, Washington, there were plenty of nicer boats in the marina than Tinkerbell, but not many with a better name. This month’s Viewfinder is a reminder to send in your best boat names for a chance to win cool prizes, including one of two em-trak AIS packages, an Icom IC-M25 VHF handheld, and whatever else we can rustle up between now and July. Voting will take place on Facebook (PassageMakerMagazine) during the month of June and July, so don’t forget to vote for your favorite. Contest winners will be announced in the September issue and online at passagemaker.com. Love to shoot pictures? Want to share your adventures? Send us your favorite photos (in high resolution) with a description, and we’ll…

ONE MINOR CORRECTION Dear Jonathan, Thank you so much for your review of CrewWatcher (“Paraphernautica” May/June 2018). We appreciate the editorial and photo coverage we received. You state at the end of the piece that, “If you’re not wearing a life jacket, it’s significantly less useful.” I think its worth mentioning that CrewWatcher is designed to be very flexible. As you said, it can be attached to a dog collar, but most importantly, it can be easily attached to any piece of clothing as well. It can also be placed in a towed dinghy so that if the dinghy separates from the boat, the alarm will sound. Also, while underway or at anchor, you can mount it on top of a bilge pump so that an alarm will sound if…

We live on a vast, underexplored planet that is largely ocean. About 70% of the world is covered by water and despite modern technology, GPS navigation, and advanced engineering of vessels, the ocean is still unforgiving. Coastal navigation, with risks of running aground and inconsistent weather and sea patterns, can also be challenging and hazardous. Incomplete data limits our ability to make basic predictions about ocean weather, assess the environmental impact of oil spills, or estimate the impact of changes to ocean acidification. A large portion of our knowledge of the ocean floor is based on lead-line measurements or echo soundings. For recreational boaters, a healthy marine environment is fundamental. It literally floats our boats. But the ocean also affects those who do not boat: Scientists agree that there’s oxygen…

Every boat owner knows the importance of hauling out. Power wash the bottom and apply fresh antifouling, change the zincs, inspect the shaft seals, through-hulls and transducers. Put her back in the water and touch up the brightwork, polish the stainless, clean the cushions. Hauling out annually will help keep your boat shipshape; neglect it for even one season, and you’ll inevitably regret it. The time has come for this magazine to spend some time at the yard. We’re working on a design and content overhaul to prepare PassageMaker for many cruising seasons to come. Like the familiar rumble of your Ford-Lehman, you’ll recognize longtime contributors Steve Zimmerman, Nigel Calder and Dag Pike. We’re also adding some new voices, such as Robert Reeder, Cecilia Kiely, Bob Arrington and Stephenie Hollyman…

The clear blue underwater space around us stretched to infinity—the visibility must have exceeded 100 feet. Clouds of fish hovered above, between, and behind the exquisite coral. These waters off Pulau Kri have one of the world’s richest coral communities. Green, red, yellow, and purple, the coral covers the slanting bottom in mushrooming plates, circles, antlers branching like trees, and frilly lace. It wasn’t all dreamy beauty, though. A lightning-fast strike of a shark on a hapless grunt scattered schools of minnows. But they soon settled back into the magical waterscape. Hengki Kolit, our translator, guide, and friend aboard Whale Song, our 94-foot expedition motoryacht on the way westward from Papua New Guinea, pointed us to Raja Ampat—a region off Irian Jaya in the Indonesian islands fabled by world-wise scuba…

Whenever I can limit the number of dirty dishes I create making dinner, I know there will be a big appreciative smile from my favorite dishwasher (aka “the Captain”). These two Puerto Rican—inspired recipes allow me to do just that. Centuries-old Puerto Rican cuisine shows influences from Europe (mainly Spain) and Africa, as well as from the indigenous Taíno culture. And beginning in the latter part of the 19th century, ingredients from other North American cuisines began to make their way into Puerto Rican dishes as well. But one traditional Puerto Rican ingredient has remained. Many Puerto Rican savory dishes, including stews, rice, seafood, meat, and poultry, call for adobo seasoning. Unlike other adobo seasonings found in the Philippines, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the Southwest United States that are vinegar-based,…

When I was a kid my best friend Mike’s father had a small Cessna plane that they used to take on day trips and the occasional vacation. Finding transportation on the ground for two kids was always tricky, and I remember when he bought his first two motorized scooters as a solution (or at least that is what he told his wife). I think Mike and I put more hours on those tiny weedwhacker engines tearing around town than his family did on any Cessna trip. Eventually enough noise complaints were filed, and when the cops informed us the scooters were no longer considered street legal, we were crushed. It was back to pedaling our bikes around town. Since those days, compact transport has always fascinated me. I remember when…

The cabin top on this Downeast cruiser has been well executed. Let’s start with the mast: The wide footprint of the base will spread the load nicely, avoiding flex that would invite leaks. The air horns slope downward, an important detail that will help them drain quickly. I like the redundancy—two GPS antennas and two VHF antennas. And the extra elevation of the VHF antennas will extend their range a bit, by roughly a couple of miles. The life raft has been placed free and clear of obstructions and lends itself well to the adage, “Always step up into the life raft.” A handrail nearby would be helpful, though, as rough conditions might make standing somewhat challenging. At the aft end, three flexible low-profile solar panels have been installed. This…

All the Oceans, a recently released memoir from yacht designer Ron Holland, is sure to become a classic on the bookshelves of anyone interested in the world of yacht design from the 1970s to the present. At the age of 16, Holland began to immerse himself in the world of offshore sailing and yacht racing, and he went on to design and sail some of the world’s fastest speedsters in some of the most challenging races. This first-person account of his epic career introduces the reader to his contemporaries including Olin Stevens, Doug Peterson, Laurie Davidson, Bruce Farr, Gary Mull, and Charlie Morgan. And it’s not just other legendary designers that we get to meet through the pages of this book. Over his career, Holland became friends with such notable…