Seamanship and Navigation, March 2024

Sailing from Panama to San Diego, Thoughts on a circumnavigation

Seamanship and Navigation, March 2024 Sailing from Panama to San Diego By Bill Morris Most Pacific sailors and published cruising guides will tell you there are two ways back to Southern California from Panama: a motor bash 3,400 miles along the coast of Central America and then up along Baja, or out to Hawaii, over the Pacific High to San Francisco, and then down the coast, rounding Point Conception (a.k.a. Little Cape Horn). But there is a third way back: a sail from Panama to California via Clipperton Island with very little motoring. > READ MORE Related articles from Ocean Navigator archives Where's your AIS? To the editor: Aboard our Moody 422, Astarte, we love reading books about sailors of old. That's when cruising by the sun, stars and moon were the norm. Finding your way through reefs was done with a lookout high in the rigging and sheer luck. Watch systems were strict and bells were rung to indicate the passing hours. We read with awe how these vessels made it to their designated port. Good seamanship was key to survival. Now we have it pretty easy out here, relatively speaking. There are so many tools available to help with navigation, watches and repairs. GPS and chartplotters have made sextants, paper charts and dead reckoning just about obsolete on some boats. And, thanks to radar and AIS, some boaters now do watches while watching a movie in the comfort of the stateroom! Dependence on these tools is a big mistake, though. It is a dangerous habit to not do a real watch keeping a lookout for ships rather than enjoying a movie. It is not prudent seamanship. > READ MORE Thoughts on a circumnavigation Nat Warren-White recently completed a circumnavigation aboard his Montevideo 43, Bahati. Here are some of his thoughts about "tying the knot" — crossing his outbound track — and the changes that are inherent in so momentous a voyage. "I first read Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World as a teenager and I dreamed of following in his footsteps from an even earlier age. At 21 I almost managed to embark on the journey I would ultimately have to wait until age 61 to complete. In retrospect, I was probably better equipped in all but the physical aspects to take on the challenge in my later years. Fortunately, my body and mind stood-up pretty well to the demands of ocean passage-making though Neptune easily found my weak spots. Finally, and surprisingly, the hardest part of the journey came when I was tethered to terra firma and not when we were offshore (with the exception of my two solo passages through the Straits of Malacca). > READ MORE Ocean Navigator March/April 2024 Click the cover to view the articles in the March/April issue of Ocean Navigator.  Copyright © 2024 Maritime Publishing, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website. Our mailing address is: Maritime Publishing 3980 Sherman St Ste 100 San Diego, CA 92110-4314 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.