There to Here – The Pros & Cons of Chartering

/
There to Here – The Pros & Cons of Chartering

Chartering was perfect for this period of our lives. There was no cleaning, maintenance or repairs to worry about. Something wrong? Just call the charter company to fix it … immediately … and it went on the owner's tab, not ours. We had the best of both worlds. Though we only chartered in the Carib and Florida because of our time constraints, there are bareboat chartering opportunities available worldwide … Asia, the Med, the South Pacific … you name it, if there's water and fine sailing, there's probably a way to charter a boat.

Read More

Blue View – Insulation Testing

/

When we were in Patagonia a few years back, we tied up at a marina in Puerto Montt for several weeks. We dug out our power cables and the appropriate connectors and adapters, and connected to shore power at the nearest power box. All was good for awhile, but every few hours the GFCI breaker would trip, and Nine of Cups, as well as the three other boats connected to the circuit would lose power. This was quite annoying, and when we mentioned it to the marina manager, he called an electrician in to investigate. We were very embarrassed to learn it was our 5-year-old power cable that was the cause of the problem.

Read More

Looking for the Lost Colony – Roanoke Island, NC

/
Looking for the Lost Colony – Roanoke Island, NC

While in the Outer Banks, we were quite interested in visiting Roanoke Island, noted for its centuries' long mystery regarding the Lost Colony. We drove across the Croatan Sound bridge to Fort Raleigh on the northeast end of the island. It was early. There were no cars in the parking lot except for the on-duty ranger. We had the place to ourselves.

Read More