Surreal. Not a breath of wind tonight. The sea’s surface is flat and unbroken. The sky is utterly cloudless and filled with stars. A half moon lights up the entire…
Cruising
The perfect boat: what makes an ideal offshore cruising yacht?
Choosing a boat for offshore cruising is not a decision to be taken lightly. I have researched this topic on dozens of rallies, speaking to hundred of skippers. Everyone you…
Ocean cruising experts share their sailing knowledge
The World Cruising Club is hosting a series of forums this autumn, where ocean cruising experts will be trying to inspire sailors to extend their boundaries
Faeroes to Norway in a Wayfarer dinghy – Frank Dye’s extraordinary tale of sea survival
When I was a student in Liverpool in the mid-1960s, sailing the university’s Firefly dinghies when I ought to have been studying, the local hero was a young man called…
Could a floating shipping container sink your yacht? How real is the danger?
It is the stuff of every sailor’s nightmare – the unseen object, lurking beneath a wave, which punctures your hull or smashes your rudder mid-ocean. Never have our oceans seemed…
Chris Tibbs on a dream Atlantic crossing and a heavenly Caribbean winter
There is only one adjective that adequately describes our transatlantic crossing with the ARC last year and the season of Caribbean cruising that followed it: fantastic! The rally was my…
30 expert tips for crossing the Atlantic – from checking the sails to choosing crew
1. Keep the downwind sailplan simple What’s the best sail configuration for a downwind crossing? Actually, the chances are you already have sails that are perfectly suitable: a robust genoa…
10 practical tips for perfect downwind sailing in the Tropics
Between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn lie the tradewind belts, separated by the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) known to many sailors as the Doldrums. The extent of the tropics…
Disaster relief by yacht – how cruisers around the world are doing their bit
Gusting up to 190mph, Cyclone Winston was the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded reaching land in Fiji and the South Pacific Basin. On 20 February 2016 the Category 5 Severe…
Rio, a cruiser’s perspective – should you drop everything and sail there?
Scarcely ruffled by a lazy late afternoon breeze, the sea was an oily pink and orange lake. Two miles to the north, an endless chain of tall, strangely curvaceous grey…
Is world cruising still safe? Elaine Bunting talks to long-term cruisers
Recent attacks on sailors in the Caribbean and Indonesia have raised concerns about the safety of world cruising, but the reality is that with a small amount of caution this…
Bear necessities: cruising the Broughton islands on Canada’s Pacific coast
We left Dead Point at 0800 in a flat calm and entered Beware Passage – inauspicious names for cruising in dense fog, but we had used this rock-ridden channel before…
Bluewater cruisers give us their top pick of galley equipment
Pressure cookers were the most popular galley appliance for their convenience and time- and energy-efficient means of preparing food. An airtight lid allows the ingredients inside to cook speedily as…
Cockroaches, weevils, moths. How to keep bugs at bay on board
A movement caught out of the corner of my eye: something furtive, small and fast. I must have imagined it, but I’ll have to take a closer look. Reluctantly, I…
French sailor on a world tour via the North West Passage with a red hen
Guirec Soudée met Monique during a stopover in the Canary Islands when she joined him on what had been up to then a solo transatlantic voyage. The 24-year-old Breton was…
What are the best remedies for seasickness? We find out in our transatlantic survey
Seasickness is an age-old problem, but how common is it and how can we prevent or treat it? We conducted a survey among 450 sailors taking part in the ARC…
Bras d’Or lake in Nova Scotia is an oasis of calm
Our Mason 44, Frances B, on the run from ever-colder climes farther north, swept by Cape Anguille at the tip of St George Bay on the south-west coast of Newfoundland.…
A late summer cruise on the wild west coast of Ireland
lt’s the last sail of the season. The harbours are empty save for a few stragglers in denial of a season that never was, hoping to catch a final magical…
World ARC crews talk to us in Colombia, first stop on their circumnavigation
Thirty-three yachts are in the early stages of a 26,000-mile circumnavigation with the sixth World ARC. It’s a 15-month cruise in company from Saint Lucia and the first stop was…
Sail repairs on the fly – how to make essential fixes while at sea
During last year’s ARC I was to be found at one point on the pulpit restitching the foot tape of our headsail. I was clipped on a short tether with…