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The Sailboat Cruiser ~ Issue #13 October 16, 2014 |
HiThe Sailboat CruiserThe Sailboat Cruiser is the free monthly newsletter of sailboat-cruising.com and sets out to bring you the news, views and general musings of, well, me - a sailboat cruiser, and owner of the website. If you like this newsletter, please feel free to email it to your friends. If one of your friends did forward this to you and you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting The Sailboat Cruiser Newsletter #13 - October 2014What's in This Issue:
Free Cruising GuidesThere are 9 of them so far, all for the Caribbean:~
They're all written by Frank Virgintino, and they're very, very good. Clearly Frank has put a lot of time, resources and energy into producing these great guides for the Caribbean cruising community. If you're planning to cruise among these wonderful islands - or just want to read and dream - then these cruising guides are essential reading. Thanks, Frank. Download them all here - For Free! I must be getting old...Just why are mundane, everyday events frequently described as either 'aaaawesome' or 'amaaaaaazing'?Midway across the Atlantic, while standing her 4 hour night watch, Mary decided she had to wake up her slumbering skipper (me) to share in the experience. "It's awesome" she said. And so it was. On this clear but moonless night, the horizon was only discernible as the line at which the stars stopped. We felt very small, suspended under a dome of twinkling eternity on a black restless sea. Truly awesome, and a very appropriate use of the word. Words like awesome and amazing should be reserved for extraordinary events and experiences like these - definitely not for describing a marginally above-average bacon sandwich or the like. Yeah, you're right - I am getting old. Local Marine Weather ForecastsIt's easy to get distracted when you're working at a computer. There I was - supposedly putting together this newsletter - when I found myself browsing for a local marine weather forecast.It wasn't long before I found a marine weather site I hadn't seen before - metmarine.com. It's not yet worldwide, but if you cruise in one of the following areas you'll find it very useful:~
Having selected your area you'll be taken to a subset of smaller areas, one of which will provide a local forecast for your particular area. For instance, I clicked on
Channel Coasts
and found that Region UK7 covered my home port (Plymouth) within the inshore area from Dartmouth to Looe.
The forecast given for UK7 was:~ Today from 07:00 BST 10/10/2014 1009mb Steady to 1009mb Wind SW 4 Backing SSW 2 Fair, Max Temp 16C Tonight from 19:00 BST 10/10/2014 1009mb Steady to 1009mb Wind S 2 Veering SW 1 Cloudy, Min Temp 13C Tomorrow from 07:00 BST 11/10/2014 1010mb Steady to 1011mb Wind SW 2 to 3, easing to 2 later Brief Showers, Max Temp 16C Clear, simple, concise and accurate information. Exactly what you need for a daysail along the coast or a longer passage across the English Channel to France. But I didn't stop my web browsing there. Soon I found a site which dealt with...
Electronic Passage PlanningYou can have hours of fun with this - even if you don't plan on going anywhere!Most passage planning software comes in the form of a programme that you have to pay for and download to your computer. Not so this one; it's embedded on a website - and it's free! What's more, it includes weather routing. Take a look at cruiseaider.com here... How about a trip from Poole to Cherbourg this coming weekend?
Hmm, F8 on the nose. Perhaps not this weekend...
The wind arrows show the average strength and direction for the passage, but the tacks are calculated on the basis of the forecast strengths and direction at the time you'll be on that leg of the passage. Clever stuff. What is currently missing from this programme is the effect of tidal streams, but I understand the website owner and developer, Yuri Zisman, is working on incorporating it in a future update. With that additional functionality it will be, er, awesome... This Month's Fishing TipThe classic knots and hitches we all rely on to secure and operate our sailboats - the bowline, clove hitch, rolling hitch, reef knot, cleat hitch, round turn and two half-hitches, sheet bend, figure-of-eight stopper knot etc - all work well in rope - but are absolutely useless for nylon fishing line.Sailing knots have two primary functions - they must be reliable, but easy to undo. But reliability is the only requirement for fishing knots - you don't untie them, you cut them off. Unlike rope, nylon monofilament fishing line is smooth, slippery stuff. You need to use specialist knots if they're not going to slip under load. Of all the fishing knots, the uni-knot is you'll find most useful. And here's how to tie it:~ 
So that's the Uni-Knot, but it's not the only fishing knot you need... A Free eBook!What you really need is my new Free eBook - 'All the Fishing Knots You Need!'
But 'Free'? Do I really mean free? Well sort of, in a 'no such thing as a free lunch' sort of way. Here's the catch... Tell us the tale of one of your sailboat fishing exploits for publication on sailboat-cruising.com and I'll send you the eBook. Do we have a deal? Yes? Excellent! Tell us your sailboat fishing story here! More 'Likes' Please...
Sailboat-Cruising.com has a Facebook Page!
Clicking the image here will take you right to it, where you can browse through many more posts and articles. Please take a look, and feel free to make a post - and don't forget to 'Like' us of course... Thanks! Visit sailboat-cruising.com's Facebook Page... And finally...If you know anyone who might be interested in the contents of this newsletter, feel free to email it to them. It's not secret!And this newsletter can be a two-way thing. If you've read anything you'd like to comment on, or perhaps there's an event you'd like to see announced in a future newsletter, then please let me know. See you next month! 
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