Posted by admin on January 30, 2012 under Bareboat Charter | 
If you ever thought of checking off a dream sailing vacation in Tahiti from your bucket list this is the opportunity to get that one taken care of.
Announcing the 2012 NauticEd Post Graduation Sailing Adventure
If you’re a NauticEd Bareboat Charter Master or plan on being one before June next year, then come celebrate your graduation by sailing with us in our Post Graduate Sailing Flotilla to one of the world’s most beautiful and tropical locations – Tahiti.
Sailing Vacation in Tahiti
Tahiti sailing is amongst the very best in the South Pacific. Tahiti is blessed with some of the most beautiful islands in the world with many high volcanic islands that drop dramatically into the ocean enabling sailing right alongside the coastlines and into protected bays.
Personally, I have lead dozens of successful and extremely fun flotillas world wide and I’ll be on hand to serve as your Fleet Admiral throughout the flotilla. I co-authored the NauticEd Bareboat Charter Clinic and really know how to put together an event like this so that every day is packed with fun including water and beach games and competitions but also so that everyone feels looked after and safe.
Program includes:
- Week long sailing charter in Tahiti
- Daily activities including water and beach bound competitions
- Mini sailing regatta
- Treasure hunts
- Your selection of vessels (subject to availability)
- Professional Fleet Admiral to lead, guide and assist
- NauticEd Flotilla tees and hats for Captain and made available for Crew
- Sign off on Bareboat Charter Practical Proficiency Verification Certificate
- Prize giving event at conclusion for fun weeklong happenings including first to spot a whale and the infamous BLUE and BLACK DUCK awards
- Full event management
- Airport pick-ups and drop off in Tahiti
- Personalized DVD of the event
- FREE NauticEd crew course for all your crew members
Shortly we’ll be all the details however, if you want to guarantee a reserved spot on this flotilla, contact
NauticEd Sailing School as quick as possible to get a place in the queue. We’ll only take a max of 5 boats in the flotilla.
The adventure starts June 16th.
Posted by admin on under Celestial Navigation |
This weekend I visited a very special and historically significant celestial navigation place. It’s called Mercury Bay and it’s in the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. Cooks beach lies on the edge of Mercury bay and is thus named after lt. James Cook, the famous world explorer of the 1700’s. Cook visited Mercury Bay in his ship the Endeavour between November 5th and 15th, 1769. Cook also named the bay thus because this is the place where he and his astronomer Charles Green set up to watch the solar transit of Mercury on November 9th. So why would he do this? What’s the big deal?
The Memorial at Shakespears Head, Cooks Beach
The Royal Astronomical Society knew of the coming solar transits of Mercury and Venus in 1769. With funding from the King, they sent out many people to observe these celestial events in different parts of the globe. The observations would help in determining much about distances in our solar system. Cook’s first stop was to be Tahiti to observe the Venus transit, then after that he had been directed further south to find a great southern continent that was assumed to exist. In October 1769 he came upon New Zealand whereby he waited until November 9th to observe the Mercury transit.
As a side effect of these observations, some accurate longitude information could be determined from the observation posts. In those days, calculating longitude accurately in remote locations was almost impossible because you needed to know the time in Greenwich, the 0 degree longitude datum. But with out a time piece that would stay accurate on a rolling sea how could you know the time?
In theory here’s how the longitude determination simply works. Let’s just say that the event would take place at Midnight Greenwich time. But the Endeavour’s crew observed the event to take place at noon local time. That would mean that Cook was 12 hours away from Greenwich. Since the planet rotates in 24 hours and there is 360 degrees in a circle, 15 degrees represents 1 hour.
As a quick aside explanation of that. Let’s say you know the time in Greenwich is 1 pm yet the local time where you are is 12 noon. You are 1 hour away from Greenwich and thus 15 degrees west. This is how time relates to longitude.
Thus, in the example, Cook would have been 12 x 15 = 180 degrees away from Greenwich. Cook would have gained the local time by observing the apex of the sun to obtain the local accurate noon time. Plugging in the real numbers then, the Royal Astronomical Society of England was later to determine the longitude of a place about 300 yards west of the river at the east end of Cooks beach by comparing the time of the occurrence in Greenwich and the time at Cooks beach (plus a few other factors like diameter of the earth etc). The observation place on Cooks beach is 174 deg 45 min west. Cook went on through March 1770 to draw a very accurate map of New Zealand charting most of the coastline almost exactly. Also as a result the Royal Astronomical Society was able to determine a measurement of the Earth to the Sun. Their results differ only 1/8th of 1 percent from today’s measurements. All pretty impressive I say and thus making Mercury Bay a worthy place of historical significance.
Place where James Cook observed the transit of mercury
Several years later Cook returned to New Zealand carrying the latest technology, a chronometer. Commonly known today as a watch. The watch invention was very significant because it was immune to the rolling seas. Knowing the exact longitude, Cook was then able to reset his watch to the correct time upon arrival in New Zealand noting the daily offset in seconds the watch would have suffered on the trip between England and New Zealand. He then went on to use his watch to calculate and reposition accurately all of the Pacific islands he discovered and revisited from his previous visit, again taking into account the time offset.
View of Cooks Beach - No wonder he stayed here 10 days
The NauticEd celestial navigation course written by Captain Ed Mapes is a great start to understanding the technical details of calculating longitude using a noon shot of the sun. Take the NauticEd celestial navigation sailing course today.
One of Cook’s favorite Pacific islands besides New Zealand was Tahiti. Tropical warm waters, an abundance of fresh fruit and friendly people was one of his reasons. Speaking of Tahiti, if you obtain the NauticEd sailing certification of Bareboat Charter Master rank before June this year, you’re invited to get on a jet liner fly at 500 miles per hour and captain your own luxury modern sailboat using a wonderful GPS in our sailing flotilla starting June 16 this year. Can you imagine giving that invitation to Cook? Count yourself lucky, but only if you take advantage of this offer.
Visit our Sailing flotilla opportunity in Tahiti
I guess we’ll have to visit the place where he observed the Venus Transit – come join us.
What the heck? Take the plunge and a jolly good worthy life challenge – become a NauticEd Bareboat Charter Master now!
Posted by admin on January 8, 2012 under Bareboat Charter, Crew, Rules of Right of Way, Sail Trim, Skipper |
This is the 2012 New Years Resolution Sailing Tip
This issue’s sailing tip is a pretty simple one. It will lead to you having more valuable practical sailing experience than you’d ever imagine. And it fits nicely in with any new years resolutions you might be considering.
When I lived in Austin Texas, I raced a lot with the local sailing club there on Lake Travis, an inland small lake. And I have to admit that much of my finer technical sailing knowledge came from those many regatta races.
When a sailboat racing next to you is inching ahead moment by moment you learn quickly the importance of accurate sail trim. And talk about drilling the rules of the nautical road – wow when you’re on collision course with dozens of yachts you’ve got to know the rules.
Here’s the tip: Join a local yacht club this year.
At NauticEd we REALLY believe that practical sailing experience is one of the keys to becoming an excellent sailor (of course we’re making a big assumption that you don’t have a goal to be a crappy sailor).
A bit of History: When we designed the NauticEd sailing certifications, we consulted with dozens of sailing instructors and many of the world’s largest charter companies. With out any hesitation, they all rated practical sailing experience as a must have to becoming a competent sailor (durh). When we looked at every other global sailing certification, none required practical sailing experience as a prerequisite to gaining the certification. That’s a bit strange we thought because in this digital age, it’s easy to write an algorithm that can combine theory knowledge and practical experience (well not that easy but you get the point).
Then we looked at the scuba diving industry and the scuba certifications. We found that the theory education was excellent but practically – if you can barely swim, you’ll still end up with a certification. Still strange! The scuba magazine editorials are full of complaints about new divers banging into the protected reefs because they can’t do the most basic buoyancy control.
When it comes down to it I guess, most certifying companies are more interested in the $ than the true competency of the student. Thus we decided to set the competency bar high so that the charter companies could truly trust a experience and theory based certification.
So here’s the big “but” that people ask us all the time then.
“But … how do I get sailing experience when I don’t own a boat”.
Well… in virtually every city with a sailing waterway there is a yacht club.
- Joining a yacht club is pretty simple and relatively inexpensive for the return you’ll get. Costs range from $40 to $80 per month. And if you own a boat, many times the marina fees are less expensive than a regular marina.
- Some clubs are very racing focused some are not. I’ll maintain however that even if you’re not a racing type person, racing experience will improve your cruising sailing skills vastly. Racing is like learning a language by immersion.
- Yacht clubs are highly social and so you’re going to meet a lot of very cool and interesting people who will become your friends. Throw away the preconceived notions of the stereotype snooty stuffy yacht club and just join one and find out for yourself.
- Yacht clubs many times have a nice pool for the kids to hang out in and they will get to hang out with other yachting type kids. A vast improvement from learning life skills at the mall.
- Yacht clubs organize weekend sailing trips away. These are usually very fun flotilla events. Here you can learn a lot of overnighting and anchoring skills.
- Occasionally yacht clubs will also organize a bareboat charter sailing holiday to places like the Caribbean, Mediterranean or the pacific islands. This is a great opportunity to join in on the safety of a flotilla.
Some people think that if you don’t own a boat, then what’s the point of joining a yacht club. However, if you don’t own a boat, then you should definitely join a yacht club. Here’s a big fact. Virtually all boat owners are desperate for crew for either racing or cruising events. This is proven by the dozens of post-its on the yacht club notice board from skippers looking for crew.
Typical Yacht Club Notice Board
So – this year, join your local yacht club. Put your name up on the notice board that you’re willing to crew. Commit to some regatta race series. Do some boat jumping to find the boat/crew/skipper that you like. Make some friends. Get lots of sailing experience and most importantly, fill out your free NauticEd electronic sailing logbook. As with above, your logbook is the single most important thing that the charter companies look at when you are trying to charter a boat.
And one more comment – years ago when I ran a large yachting membership program, the biggest reason that people dropped out was that they did not have friends to go sailing with them. A mistake that I made was that we should have promoted our boat owning members to also join a yacht club. There, they would have found plenty of new friends to go sailing with, from the exact same notice board mentioned above. If you own a boat – join your local yacht club this year.
Happy Sailing Experience!
Posted by admin on January 6, 2012 under Bareboat Charter, Coastal Navigation, Rules of Right of Way, Skipper |
Where were you over the holidays? Sailing?
If you tried to email us over the holidays, you would have gotten a polite “out of the office notice”. We were busy catching up with our Canadian friends who have been sailing the world with their three kids for the past four years on a 42 ft PDQ Antares Catamaran. Early last year we meet up with them in New Zealand in the Tasman Bay (see the video in New Zealand). This year we meet with them in the inland water ways around Brisbane and the Gold Coast of Australia. Sailing with the Ellsay’s on Stray Kitty is a real insight to the lifestyle of world cruisers. They’ve certainly got it down and watching the kids in action with the lines and fenders was pretty impressive. This adventure was particularly interesting because of the intercoastal navigation issues in and around all the waterways. So here, I thought I’d relate a few stories as highlights of the issues and proof that both theory and practical knowledge is king.
Waterways south of Brisbane
One beautiful sunny afternoon we were anchored at a place called Jumpingpin. We went for a walk along the beach and came across a uniquely Australian experience by encountering a group of wallabies hoping across the sand.
Jumpingpin - A popular day stop (so long as you anchor properly)
After a nice stretch along the beach we returned to the boat just in time to beat an approaching thunderstorm. And in Ausy fashion, this one turned out to be a real beaut. About the time winds reached a peak of 40 knots we realized the washing was still on the lifelines and my bald head got a real pelting with the huge sideways rain drops as I brought in the now drenched washing. All the while that I was doing this, Chis, the skipper was pulling out fenders ready to fend off any of the at least ten yachts that were now dragging anchor.
To make matters worse, the tidal range in the area is around five feet. This creates particularly strong tidal currents in the narrow waterways. As the thunderstorm pelted us, the tidal current had risen to about 5 knots and was flowing in the same direction as the wind. This put huge forces on the anchors and it was pretty hair raising to see how fast the boats that had drug anchor were flying by. As an observation, almost all of the boats that had drug anchor and were now trying to reset them were using CQR plough type anchors.
The Dreaded CQR Anchor. Leave it at home.
Stray Kitty uses a Rocna roll type anchor and it held fast. Of course, in typical style of many boaters, the scope used was also way to low on boats that were dragging. And so we were able to watch the comedy of anchoring errors unfold in front of us. In reality there was no comedy. Some of the dragging boats were coming way too close, way too fast.
Boats anchored at Jumpingpin. Anchor scope too small and CQR Anchors caused dragging.
Next, one of the boats that re anchored abeam of us did it a bit too close and so as the current reversed later that night we began to come dangerously close. We elected to raise anchor and reset further out into the channel. However this presented quite a challenge with site selection. The wind was flowing in one direction whilst the current was in the other, and, we knew the current would again reverse before we awoke. Couple this with the difficulty in determining distance at night from other boats made us both glad of our previous anchoring experiences and knowledge. The worse scenario consequence of dragging anchor in the night and being washed out of the protected albeit high current waterway into the huge breakers coming in thought the cut was not one I wanted to spend to much time thinking about.
Another challenge was the markers. First off, Australia abides by IALA-A system which is opposite to the America’s IALA-B system of navigational marks. I.E. red right returning doesn’t work – it’s green on your right when returning. And in the USA the intercoastal water way fairly consistently uses green to seaward along the full length of a waterway with specially marked intercoastal day marks. IE heading from New Jersey past Florida and onto Texas you would keep green intercoastal daymarks on your left. In Queensland, they don’t seem do that and so the green and red swap inconsistently up and down the waterway.
Red Day Marker
Sometimes the red and green swap sides, some times they don’t. They seemed to use the yellow special purpose marks to designate a channel intersection rather than a preferred channel marker with red over green or green over red that is used in the USA.
Special Purpose Marks designating a channel intersection
Twice we were caught out nearly heading onto a sand bar because the day mark swapped over. The Australian navigation system also uses cardinal marks. Being able to read these quickly kept us out of trouble when it came to isolated dangers.
East Cardinal Mark (Safe Water to the East of this mark)
On top of all that, sand bars move and so your highly relied upon GPS map showing the exact position of the day marks can’t be trusted. When sand bars move the local coast guard move the day marks to remark the proper deep channel. So you can be looking at your GPS telling you that the channel is in one place when the marks tell you some thing else. Which do you trust? You have to trust the day marks.
Waterway Chart. Even with GPS don't rely on the chart. Follow the day markers.
Twice we had to turn right angles to follow a day mark went the GPS was telling us that the depth was one foot. Of course a slow and easy pace combined with the depth sounder readings is essential. Still, when you have only two feet to play with below the keel, sometimes it’s not the greatest comfort.
We tried our best to time our sailings each day with the changing tidal current so that it would help our speed. On the day that we approached Surfers Paradise this was not the case however and our 7 knot though the water speed only gave us a three knot SOG (speed over ground) due to current. On one particular day we had to ensure that we crossed under powerlines at half tide or lower due to the height of Stray Kitty’s mast.
Under Sail (actually me just posing for the shot)
As hairy as I seem to have made the above sound, we definitely had a spectacular time visiting this area. It’s off the beaten track when it comes to top charter locations around the world and probably for good reason due to the complexity and also due to the spectacular and more popular Whitsundays area to the North.
There are two highly relevant NauticEd sailing courses to this article. The first is the NauticEd Anchoring a Sailboat Sailing Course. I’d venture to say that none of the power boats that drug anchor that day would have done so if they’d taken this course. First thing they’d have done was to leave the CQR in the garden at home and secondly they’d have understood scope a little better. Surely those people are embarrassed that they drug so badly.
The second course that would really help someone enjoy our intercoastal venture as much as we did would be the Coastal Navigation Sailing Course. This course teaches in depth the navigation marks of both IALA-A and IALA-B systems including cardinal marks.
The other comfort to the whole trip was having very experienced world cruisers on board. After a hard day of tidal currents, thunderstorms, crazy reversing navigation day marks and shallow waters we were rewarded with gourmet type dinners under the southern sky. The crew of Stray Kitty, after living on their cat every day for the past four years, did not sacrifice food quality one bit and were even able to whip up a birthday cake for me on the 31st.
The Crew of Stray Kitty (next to their Christmas Tree)
Other tasty delights on the menu were kangaroo, pork roast, shrimp pasta, steaks, roast turkey, gammon (cooked in the oven on board), plenty of salads and cookies. Some great Australian and new Zealand wines were poured on top of the above in the warm southern hemisphere summer over the Christmas and 2011/2012 new year.
Christmas Dinner Table Setting Aboard Stray Kitty
Thanks to Stray Kitty and her Crew!!!!!!!!!!!
Christmas Dinner with Alexandra, Andrea, Grant, Ryan, Christine, Cari, Chris, (Vanessa photographer - Nikon D3100) on Stray Kitty - a 42 ft PDQ Antares Catamaran
