I. Before Leaving Dock 1. Know and check your ground tackle 2. Anchor sized adequately for boat? 3. Owner aware of strengths and weaknesses of their anchor type? 4. Rode long enough for adequate scope in anticipated anchorages? 5. Chain leader on rope rode? 6. Anchor and rode in good shape and ready for deployment? [read more]
Harbor-Hopping from San Francisco Bay to Puget Sound
By David Steele WE DID IT! Two months and 800 nm from San Francisco Bay to Neah Bay, the entrance to Puget Sound. 134 total hours in nine legs, six of which were overnight passages to time bar crossings. This was a big deal for us because Darlene gets very seasick on the ocean and [read more]
The Miracle Dinghy
James Stein tells the story of losing his dinghy off Pigeon Point on the way to Santa Cruz during SJSC 2015 Sea Otter Cruise and it’s miraculous recovery the next day.
Close Encounter with Whales in Monterey Bay
Close encounter with whales in Monterey Bay during 2015 Sea Otter Cruise aboard Angelina Rose with James Stein and David Steele
Sailboat Engines
By Eric Jorgensen, SJSC Safety Officer The entire experience of modern sailing differs from “traditional” sailing in many ways. Modern boat designs, entirely new classes of equipment, overcrowded cruising grounds and limited access to ones’ boat have driven the need for new techniques and in some cases rendered certain well established aspects of seamanship completely [read more]
2015 Angel Island Father’s Day Cruise
On the right is a photo of the participants in the SJSC potluck BBQ on Saturday at Angel Island. They came by boat and by ferry. (Not pictured: Rachael and Karl Gibson, Katrina Reardon and fiancé Jim, David and Darlene Steele, and Sara Dyslin who was up the tree taking the picture.) Pete Gibson and myself came over on Thursday [read more]
Coast Guard Releases Boating App
by Lu Abel The Coast Guard has just released a smartphone app aimed at recreational boaters. Here’s what it looks like on the right. It offers a pretty wide variety of features. I’ll note what they provide and my opinion of them: 1. State boating information. A pointer to state web sites. For California, at least, the state [read more]
Chartering from the First Mate’s Point of View
By Marsha Dyslin We have chartered boats 9 times since 1991 (to Grenada, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, La Paz, British Columbia, Belize and have trailered our previous boat to British Columbia and Southern Cal. , sailing to Catalina Island. Our first charter with the girls was when they were 5,8 and 10 years old, and we had 4 adults for the [read more]
Food Safety for Everyday Sailing Activities
By Nicole Jorgensen Food safety is important every day, and becomes more relevant as the weather warms up. No one wants to become ill after a wonderful day of sailing and feasting. Our social events often have food as a focus and all of you make and bring some of the most delicious foods! A little known fact is that [read more]
Updating Your Charts
By Eric Jorgensen As a follow up to Dave Norris’s article last month, this month’s safety corner will expand on that information and offer a few suggestions to keep you from discovering recent changes to navigational hazards the hard way. The first step to ensuring that you are navigating with safe charts is to know what charts you are [read more]
Get together in the cockpit at a cruise
Daisy sailing SF Bay
Welcoming Mike Dyslin ready to raft up