How-to: Seamanship

BRINGING ALCHEMY TO THE WIND “Because it wasn’t there.” Sir Edmund Hillary All photos by Kimball Livingston Oops, I guess that’s a slight misquote of Hillary. But how else to introduce Rick Cavallaro, who invented an unproblem and then solved it—to the consternation of many an internet flamer—and opened up new possibilities in wind energy extraction, all [...] …Read More

The Coast Guard announced it will be cracking down on the practice of bow riding, meaning you can’t ride in the bow cockpit, as pictured above, while the boat is underway. According to the Coast Guard News website, this will take effect in the 5... …Read More

And what rough beast, it’s hour come ’round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born? All photos by Kimball Livingston Below, friends, is a document that I want on record at the Blue Planet Times. I’ll be referring to it on Monday, when I write the story of the first vehicle ever to go Dead [...] …Read More

After testing Sirius satellite weather on the chartplotter, I signed up for the service myself. Since I take my kids out on offshore adventures that may range 60 to 70 miles from the boat ramp, I wanted to be darn sure I knew what weather was coming, and how to avoid it. And avoid it [...] …Read More

Siwash at Cueva Valdez Once she held the Around Catalina record, now she’s 100 years old and it’s time to party. So if you hear a bit of shouting this Saturday, coming from the direction of Howland’s Landing, Catalina, the action is probably on the deck of the redoubtable Siwash, a piece of floating history. Is there [...] …Read More

The Molokai Strait   75 luxury bluewater expedition yacht Hercules is an examples of top-of-the-line everything. For the ocean adventurer, the Molokai Strait yachts are built with steel hulls and aluminum topsides, lots of displacement and fuel. I first saw the 75′ Hercules at the Newport, Rhode Island, boat show in the fall of 2008 and [...] …Read More

Bailing mahi mahi at the lobster pots along the edge of the Continental Shelf is one heck of a fun way to fish; there’s a ton of action, the fish jump and fight like crazy, and they taste darn good, too. Yesterday a weather-window opened up wide, so we launched the WriteAway and headed out [...] …Read More

From Noah to the sinking of the whaleship Essex to The Perfect Storm, maritime disaster stories have kept audiences riveted in accounts recorded on the written page. But in the Youtube and reality TV era, and particularly with the immense popularity of Deadliest Catch, the written word has some stiff competition. It is against these [...] …Read More

Adding a high accuracy fuel flow meter onto your boat is a much easier installation then most people would assume, and it gives you some important advantages. Let’s face facts: just about anyone who’s run a boat for years on end has either run the fuel tanks dry, or come close enough that they’ve stressed [...] …Read More

Do you need to troubleshoot your Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, Evinrude, or Mercury outboard? Even though most of today’s outboard engines require a full-blown laptop scan to diagnose, some common problems can be addressed rather easily… if, that is, you know what to look for. Electrical issues and the number one problem, when your outboard won’t start. To [...] …Read More