When you are travelling offshore to destinations unknown, then you need to have a fully stocked medical kit on board to enable you to cope with any situation. You could be at sea for days or weeks – which makes getting to a pharmacy quite difficult. Then when you arrive at one of the deserted…
I love flags, when yachts are flying them it looks like a real celebration going on. I fly mine at every suitable opportunity! Flags have a lot of history in the yachting world – mainly for being a way of sending messages to one another before the days of VHF and mobile phones. These days…
I would highly recommend to everyone – even people on land to take a marine medic course. I did the Marine Medic course last year – there are two to choose from – Coastal and Offshore. If you are an adventurous person and are regularly away from immediate assistance then this course is highly valuable. Going…
Living in the South Island of New Zealand means that we get our fair share of dirty weather tracking up the country so I have got a healthy respect for Mother Nature and her power having been caught out in a storm or two while out sailing. And many more occasions I have spent sitting…
I love learning new things, especially about sailing and boating. Whilst there is no legal requirement in New Zealand for sailors to have a licence or official qualification, the rest of the world does. So I figure that while I am shore based I should learn as much as I can and get as many…
Wildwood is my current yacht. I have had her for 11 years, and love sailing her around Lyttelton Harbour, Banks Peninsula and more recently up the Coast to the Marlborough Sounds. She is an excellent cruiser/racer yacht and she is perfect for the kind of sailing that I am doing at the moment. Type of…
There is a common saying about the stages of seasickness. The first is when you are afraid that you are going to die, the second stage is when you are afraid that you won’t… I absolutely HATE being sick and will do everything I possibly can to avoid it. So what causes sea sickness and…
I am currently studying for my Ocean Yachtmaster Certificate. The syllabus requires that we learn about all sorts of different aspects of navigation, safety, boat handling, and much more. So this post is about all I need to know about Radar! For the Ocean Yachtmaster certification, you need to have a general understanding of the…
Astrolabe Sailing 