by Deborah Bach
May 16 2012 in Currents, Seamanship by Deborah Bach
In recognition of National Safe Boating Week, from May 19 to 25, the U.S. Coast Guard is reminding Northwest boaters to take steps to be safe on the water. The Coast Guard offers the following tips in its press release: Take a paddler education course. Paddlesports are the fastest growing segment of recreational boating, with [...]
by Vincent Pica
May 11 2012 in Navigation, Seamanship by Vincent Pica
No accident at sea will ever have the blame apportioned 100 to zero, and as a boater you are obligated to use all available means to maintain a proper lookout. This means if you have radar, you had better have it on. But who wants that extra responsibility? Well, we’ve all heard the expression, “Ignorance [...]
by Deborah Bach
Apr 12 2012 in Currents, Seamanship by Deborah Bach
A recent spate of fatal boating accidents in the Northwest has prompted a warning to boaters to be careful on the water. There have been nine fatal boating accidents since mid-March in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, five of them in Washington. The accidents had three common factors — cold water, no life jackets and small [...]
by Vincent Pica
Mar 23 2012 in Seamanship by Vincent Pica
Spring has officially arrived, but as anyone who boats in the Northwest knows, that doesn’t make the region’s chilly waters any warmer. And boaters need to be aware of just how dangerous it can be if they’re not prepared. Warm Air + Cold Water = Risks! I like a warm day early in the season as [...]
by Bill Ray
Mar 22 2012 in Seamanship by Bill Ray
Those who drown in cold water (68 degrees or less) tend to do so in the first few minutes – surviving long enough to have hypothermia is a sign you might make it. Learning the facts has changed the way Jan and I use our PFDs (life jackets) aboard. Tragic stories abound locally. Two [...]
by Alan Niles
Mar 10 2012 in Life Afloat, Seamanship by Alan Niles
We were surrounded by miles of open water in the Gulf. Revival, our 26-foot motor-less sloop, felt insignificantly small. The fact that it was night made the sea seem even more vast. The wind blew steady 30-plus knots with gusts around 40 and the seas heaved up, with closely stacked waves rising 10 feet on average as reported [...]
by Bill Ray
Feb 20 2012 in Navigation, Seamanship by Bill Ray
Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman says we have two mental systems that see the world very differently. System 1 is our subconscious which continuously watches and listens, looking for interesting or threatening things, processing huge amounts of raw perception into manageable meaningful associations. This intuitive system 1 then passes its executive summaries to system 2, the [...]
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