Welcome to Cruising Compass. This newsletter has been designed with cruisers in mind and offers all who wish to participate a forum for new ideas, personal stories, comments and more. Your contributions are welcome. Whether you sail across your local bay or around the world, Cruising Compass is for you.

Cruising Compass is brought to you by Blue Water Sailing magazine. The magazine's editors and regular authors are a rich source of knowledge and information on everything to do with boats, sailing, cruising and the world of voyaging. So, send us your questions and we will do our best to find the answers for you, which we will publish in the newsletter.

Correspondence should be e-mailed to [email protected].

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Voyaging With Mahina Expeditions
On to Spitzbergen and the Arctic Circle


John Neal and Amanda Swan-Neal run Mahina Expeditions aboard their Hallberg-Rassy 46 Mahina Tiare. Over the past 12 years, they have taken hundreds of sailors with them to some of the world's most exotic cruising locations. Sailors who join John and Amanda receive in-depth instruction in the art and science of cruising, offshore sailing, navigation, safety and seamanship.

This year they have generously consented to allow the readers of Cruising Compass to sail with them via the regular logs of their sailing adventures. We pick them up in mid-May as they prepare to depart from the Hallberg-Rassy yard in Sweden on their voyage to Spitzbergen.

Leg 1 - 2001: May 15, 2001 - 57.42N, 11.57E - Log: 41,767 - Baro: 1005 mb.

We are moored in front of Gothenburg Opera House. In just 15 minutes, the first sailing leg of our 12th season starts! For the past two-and-a-half weeks, we have been getting Mahina Tiare ready for her longest season ever, from May 15, 2001, here in Gothenburg, to February 15th, 2002 in lovely Hilo, Hawaii.

We had excellent help from the busy crew at Hallberg-Rassy, and arrived back in Ellös to find MT already painted, waxed, rigged and launched. Vickie Vance (Leg 1 - 1991), owner of HR Parts and Accessories, helped us track down the last little spare and replacement parts, and for that we owe her a big thanks!

We also owe a word of thanks to Magnus Rassy for organizing our haul-out and winter storage, and to Bo (and his ever-friendly and helpful crew) for helping us sort out our recommissioning

The 45-mile sail south from Ellös to Gothenburg was in hot sunny weather (hard to believe it snowed the week before we arrived!) past dozens of little postcard-perfect Swedish villages on coastal islands. It's been a bit cool and hazy, but this morning the sun is beaming through and it looks like we have a great forecast beneath which to blast directly offshore to Norway.

I'd better go up and greet the crew as it's nearly noon and they are pacing the dock, eager to join us! We look forward to sharing this year of adventure with you. For more information on Mahina Expeditions log onto www.mahina.com

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Free Guide to Sailing Adventures


In the July-August issue of Blue Water Sailing, the first annual guide to World Sailing Adventures was published as a free insert. BWS has these stand-alone guides in stock and will send one to you Free. The 36-page guide covers bare- and crewed-boat chartering, sailing schools, offshore sailing expeditions and extreme sailing adventures. All you have to do is e-mail BWS at [email protected]. Please allow two weeks for delivery - and make sure you send your complete address!

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Pacific Voyaging: Rhythms


The following surfaced by way of e-mail from Garland and Diana Flournoy who are sailing across the South Pacific from the Galapagos to the Marquesas Islands aboard their Little Harbor 50 Cornelia Maria.

A new record! Every morning we check our deck to see what has come aboard during the night. This morning there were 15 squid! There are always lots of flying fish, some up to ten inches long, but never so many squid. We have been at sea two weeks now and have at least one more week to go. We are keeping three-hour watches 24 hours a day. Day and night have melded together as we have become immersed in the rhythms of the sea... sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset. Sometimes at night, we lie on the cockpit cushions and look up at the sky. We watch as the mast swirls back forth dancing through the stars and chasing the constellations as they move across the heavens. The waves, ever constant, rise and fall, surge and shimmer with phosphorescence and hiss and crash with a lulling melody. If we try to hold our bodies perfectly still, we can feel our internal organs swaying with the rolling seas. Somewhere we've read that human bodies are mostly sea water. It is true for us. We are at one with the sea. Peace of the rolling seas.

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You've Got Mail: Let Us Find Your Next Boat


Tell us which boat you're looking for and let Yachtworld's Personal Boat Shopper do the rest. The Personal Boat Shopper will search more than 47,000 active broker listings and will notify you by email when a boat matching your criteria is available. With more than 400 new listings a day on our site, the Personal Boat Shopper is the easiest way to find just what you're looking for. www.yachtworld.com

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Lightning Strike Prevention
A Word to the wise from BoatU.S.


Late summer also brings thunderstorms and lightning. An examination of BoatU.S. Marine Insurance claims for lightning damage over five years finds that sailboats with auxiliary engines and multihulled sailboats are most likely to be struck, followed by trawlers, sailboats without motors, cruisers and runabouts.

"A thunderstorm can contain the same raw power as an atomic bomb. It isn't that unusual for a boat to be damaged or even destroyed by millions of volts of electricity ricocheting around as it seeks a path to the ground," pointed out Bob Adriance, technical director of BoatU.S. Marine Insurance. While nothing is failsafe when lightning is concerned, Adriance gave several tips to help sailors protect themselves in a lightning storm:

* In thunderstorm season, monitor the weather (including the VHF weather channel) to hear any storm warnings for your area. Get in early if you can; if you're on the open water, it may be possible to maneuver around the storm.
* In the event of a storm, stay inside the cabin. If it's necessary to go on deck, stay away from mast(s), stays, metal railings, etc. Down below, avoid chainplates and large metal appliances such as refrigerators and stoves.
* Unless it's an emergency, crew should not use VHF radios during a storm.
* In an open boat with no cabin, stay low in the boat and remove all metal jewelry.
* Stay out of the water and don't fish during a thunderstorm.
* Disconnect power leads and antenna leads on electronics.
* Unless it's serving as the lightning rod in a boat's lighting protection system, lower the antenna.

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The Crazy Cruising Life - Brazil From: Bill Healy, Amadon Light (Tashiba 40), Salvador da Bahia, Brazil


We just got back to Salvador (Brazil) after a week in Rio for the boat show. Well, the boat show was just a front for going to Rio. The setting of the city is incredible; no other place comes close. The meeting of ocean, bays, mountains and city is breathtaking. Riding the cog railroad up to Christ The Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain, taking the cable car up to summit of Sugar Loaf... highlights to say the least. We walked into the Rio Yacht Club, only to be treated with complete disdain by the gate attendant, who refused even to even let us go to the office. In my native tongue, I said to my friend Gary, "Well, they certainly know the meaning of disdain here." An elderly lady within earshot immediately came to our rescue and escorted us to the office. We were given a friendly welcome but with the crazy instruction: "Do not take any photographs."

Once inside we made the rounds. What luxury. What grandeur. A special shop with a fulltime attendant, just to do pedicures. Separate shops for barbering, hairdressing, and very expensive clothing, plus a special rep on the premises for Mercury outboards, and a chandlery. Numerous other special services as well. Several old-world libraries and living rooms for relaxing. Long, shaded, pastoral loggias, with quiet uniformed attendants serving tropical drinks to elderly Rockefeller look-alikes. The Commodore's office suite could pass as the Oval Office in Washington. The whole 30-acre club gives the appearance of a resort hotel, with yachts and hardstand thrown in to enhance the view of adjacent Sugar Loaf hanging over our heads.

A South African boat was on the hard, and we spoke to the skipper. The boat had been left on a mooring for a year, and suffered the typical disaster of "being very well cared for" by a paid attendant. Ports left open, birds nesting inside, leaks going undetected, the mooring line parting, the boat going on the rocks and half filling with water. All monthly service fees paid in advance, of course.

Then, the fellow mentioned an American boat just in: Nero from Hawaii, with friends of ours we hadn't seen since Manila in 1990. They had arrived from South Africa, and we enjoyed a great reunion, talking halfway into the night. Then, it was time to leave Rio and get back to our boat Amadon Light.

A Brazilian TV crew was here this morning, making us the subject of a program on living with alternative energy. They liked our flair for solar and wind power, not to mention the watermaker squeezing fresh H2O from the sea. As there was no wind, the interviewer would spin the wind generator by hand, then do a quick talk. Then spin it again and talk again, spin it again and talk again, to get that dramatic footage.

Down below they filmed water running from the galley faucet, never knowing that it was from a 500-year-old spring nearby because our PUR 40 watermaker is not currently working. Then, I sat at the computer and picked up radio-relayed weather reports and sent e-mail, checked the radar, the depth, the temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure, all while powered by nature. I even offered to show how we dispose of human waste, but when I demonstrated the pump handle on the head, the producer informed me that they were only interested in natural energy, not natural waste. When all was said and done - in Portuguese with translations - I believe they were thinking that there must be an alternative to this way of life.

Well, we are back to reality, and getting ready to go north. There are 60 unread e-mails to catch up on, fresh and chemically preserved foodstuffs to be bought and stowed, and a final face-to-face meeting with the faceless bureaucrats of Salvador in order that we might clear out and continue on our way. Never a dull moment, all powered by the sun and the wind. Except for that pump handle in the head.

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Avoid the Van Gogh Boatspeed Sensor


Boatspeed paddlewheel sensors can be damaged by floating debris, a lifting strap placed over the sensor in the yard, or an overeager crewmember clearing weed from the paddle. Repair kits are available with a new paddlewheel and pin. Simply pry back the "ears" at the bottom of the sensor with a wide flat tool and pop in the replacement paddlewheel and pin ? easy! Unfortunately it is really easy to break off one of the ears - especially if the plastic is cold. The whole sensor will have to be replaced if this happens - quite a bit more expensive than a repair kit. Try soaking the sensor in warm water for a minute or so before prying it open. This hot tip brought to you by Ockam Instruments: visit our website at www.ockam.com

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Classic Cruising Tale Reissued on 25th Anniversary
Lin & Larry's Cruising in Seraffyn undergoes complete refit


Go small, go simple, go now, say the Pardeys. Their message has inspired three generations of sailors and has kept Cruising in Seraffyn consistently near the top of nautical bestseller lists for more than two decades. The romance and excitement of a voyage through Mexico and along the Spanish Main is here, enhanced by 16 pages of color photos, a new foreword, and new appendixes. The new edition will appeal to anyone with an adventuresome spirit.

Given two circumnavigations and ten published books to their names, Lin and Larry Pardey have received more awards for their pursuits than Tom Hanks has for his. Some have called them "the enablers," and the 25th anniversary edition, with its special introduction "Anyone Can Go Cruising" and its new appendix "Affordable Attainable Dreams," continues in the couple's tradition by encouraging others to ignore the dream crushers and grab hold of the grand opportunities offered by exploring under sail.

Cruising in Seraffyn has sold over 50,000 copies in five editions and three languages. The Pardeys have also added a 16-page, full-color album with 35 new photographs for this silver anniversary edition. Completely redesigned, the book will inspire new readers and appeal to fans who already enjoy the special world according to Lin and Larry.

After spending two seasons helping raise funds for CRAB (Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating), which encourages those with disabilities to get out sailing, and further funds for Hospice, Lin and Larry plan to voyage toward Bermuda and beyond aboard their 29-foot engineless cutter Taleisin. When asked how long they will continue their peripatetic ways, the Pardeys still answer, after 32 years of cruising under sail, "as long as it's fun."

The new edition of Cruising In Seraffyn is published by Paradise Cay Publications and is available in most marine bookstores.

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