The Panama Canal is a crossroads of the maritime world. About 40 ships a day transit the canal, ranging from yachts to warships and everything in between. It’s a critical economic link between the West Coast and East Coast of the Americas, a monumental civil engineering project, an important political achievement, and a milestone for cruisers. The vast majority of circumnavigating yachts transit the canal, and hundreds of cruisers who … Read more
Tuesday, April 23 – Saturday, April 27, 2019 The Slowboat team will be presenting the following seminars at Trawlerfest 2019 in Seattle, WA. All seminars will be held onsite at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront. Seminar registration will be at the hotel. We hope to see you there! Packing, Provisioning and Preparing Your Boat for the Inside Passage to Alaska Tuesday, April 23, 2019 8:30-10:30 a.m. $65 Before you embark … Read more
Kevin and I had a handful of boat projects to take care of on Airship last week, but as soon as we finished the projects that required we be at a dock (and near the hardware store and West Marine) we took off for a few days of winter cruising in the islands. We are seriously enjoying the extra space and livability this Nordic Tug 42 has over our NT34. … Read more
One of the most important skills for successful cruising is understanding the weather and how it impacts your plans. This doesn’t mean being a meteorologist, making your own forecasts, or interpreting esoteric weather charts. Rather, it means selecting the right forecast from professional meteorologists (NOAA, Environment Canada, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), utilizing real-time weather data from the multitude of weather reporting sites along the coast, and adjusting cruise … Read more
With Seattle in chaos and normal obligations cancelled because of snow in the forecast, we sought refuge on the water. What better place to spend the blizzard than Blake Island, we thought. So on Friday, after doing battle with every other Seattleite at the grocery store (50 minute line at Trader Joe’s!) we cast off. The locks, unlike the grocery store, were deserted—no waiting on a snow day! By mid-afternoon … Read more
Windy.com is our single favorite weather resource for cruising the Pacific Northwest. We never ignore the official NOAA or Environment Canada marine forecasts, but Windy offers a much more granular look at the weather. Environment Canada and NOAA forecasts cover large areas over many hours with wind speeds expressed in big ranges (10 knots or more). Windy allows you to pan and zoom to the area you’ll be traveling, and to … Read more
You may recall back in November we bought a beautiful and very clean 2006 Nordic Tug 42, and we sold our 2013 Nordic Tug 34′ “Airship”. We’d had our Nordic Tug 34 for four years, and in those four years we spent over 900 nights aboard and 2,700 hours underway, went to Alaska and back four times, around Vancouver Island three times, and spent countless days exploring Puget Sound, the … Read more
January 25 – February 2, 2019 It’s that time of year again! The Slowboat team will be presenting six different free seminars at the 2019 Seattle Boat Show. We are excited to share our knowledge with the boat show crowd to help people have a richer, safer, more satisfying cruising experience. Hope to see you in Seattle! WiFi in the Wilderness – Connected Cruising Kevin Morris, Sam Landsman, Laura Domela Saturday, January 26, … Read more