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Cruising Shot of the Week

Don't you wish you were there? This week's cruising shot is from Ron Koris and was taken on St. Martin in January.

Inspire others! Send in your cool cruising shot to comments@cruisingcompass.com

Dock Talk

High-tech search for missing sailor

After 10 days, San Francisco sailor and prominent Microsoft engineer Jim Gray is still missing. Last week’s extensive Coast Guard search has turned up no sign of the missing man or his 40-foot C&C Tenacious. The tech industry, in which Dr. Gray played a large role, has taken the search into their own hands, or more accurately, their computers. Thousands of volunteers have spent hours going over satellite images of the California coast and near-coastal waters for any sign of the red-hulled boat. More than 500,000 images, provided by NASA, have been poured over by friends, colleagues and volunteers, and yet the sailor’s whereabouts are still a mystery. The search is now being expanded to Mexico. For more information on the search and to find out how you can help, visit www.SearchForJim.com

Bigger, better computers for NOAA

More accurate boating forecasts may be in the future. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has announced that it has activated its newest weather and climate supercomputers, increasing the computational might used for the nation's climate and weather forecasts by 320 percent. The new IBM machines process 14 trillion calculations per second at maximum performance and ingest more than 240 million global observations daily.

The primary and back up systems will enable the National Weather Service to deliver more products, with greater accuracy, at longer- lead times. These supercomputers will consume more data and generate highly advanced models that may enable meteorologists to begin making significant inroads in cracking hurricane intensity forecast challenges. Learn more about NOAA at www.NOAA.gov (it’s a very large site with loads of info).

Boating smarts

Last week’s poll indicated that the majority of the Cruising Compass community feels that mandatory boater education is a step in the right direction, which is a good thing since most states now require it with the rest probably following soon. If you or someone in your family needs to fulfill a boater education requirement either for the state or for insurance reasons, there are two great sites that have all the info you need. Check them out at www.AmericasBoatingCourse.com and www.boat-ed.com

Cool Things to Do

Pointers from the pros

North U, a division of North Sails, is conducting seminars on racing trim and tactics. The seminars are over two days, one day for trim and the other for tactics. Give yourself a competitive edge this racing season by learning racing techniques from seasoned pros. The seminar will be held this weekend (Feb. 10-11) in both Boston and Toronto. This is a popular seminar series that is held many times all over the U.S. and Canada throughout the year. For a complete schedule or to register for this weekend’s seminars, visit www.NorthU.com. The cost for this two-day seminar is $300, which includes books and trim and tactics CD-ROMs.

Strictly Sail Miami

Looking for something to do over the long President’s Day weekend? Escape the winter blues and head on down to Miami, Fla., for the 66th Annual Miami International Boat Show and Strictly Sail. This HUGE show features something for everyone and is known as the place to check out new marine electronics. The show runs from Feb. 15th through Feb. 19th, and the Strictly Sail portion will be at the Miamarina at Bayside. For more info, check out www.strictlysail.com While you are there, say hello to the Blue Water Sailing crew in booth 204!

Cruising tips from the guy who wrote the book

Cruising author and master of all things diesel and electric aboard Nigel Calder will be presenting a two-day seminar on coastal and offshore cruising. This seminar will cover everything from choosing the right boat to getting along with your diesel engine to heavy weather sailing techniques. The course will be heavy on technical details and resources, with plenty of time for Q&A. It will take place Feb. 24th – 25th at the RTM STAR Center, Dania, Fla. The cost is $250 for SSCA members and $300 for non-members. Sign up at www.ssca.org

Affordable sailing instruction

Want to learn to sail, but can’t afford expensive classes? Check out your local USCG Auxiliary. For $60, the USCG Aux. in Marina Del Rey, Calif., offers a weekly class that teaches the fundamentals of sailing and includes a textbook. For more info, visit www.smbcga.org/BoatingClasses.php

Boat Rat's Tip of the Week

Get more light for fewer amps

It always amazes us how much electricity it takes to run a modern cruising boat. And, because we are so used to having easy and bright lighting wherever we live, sailors are no longer willing to read by kerosene lamps or hang a kerosene storm lantern in the foretriangle for an anchor light. No, we want and need plenty of light, just as we want and need to run a laptop, stereo, SSB, TV and more. The net result is that we are spending amps like crazy and have to regenerate them with purpose.

There are a couple of really good solutions to the lighting issue that can really save on power consumption and give the bright illuminations that you want. The first is to replace incandescent lights with fluorescent units. Tucked away under side decks, inside cabinets and even over head, modern fluorescent lights can give off any level of candle power you desire. And, you can adjust the color of the lights with partially opaque sleeves that fit over the bulbs – so you can have the warmth of incandescent bulbs without the electrical draw. These are great for offshore sailing, since it is easy to set up one or more fluorescent bulbs with a red sleeve that will give you a nice red glow below decks that does not impair your night vision. Look at the lights available from Alpenglow to see some very attractive and creative fluorescent solutions. www.alpenglowlights.com

The second solution comes from the rapidly expanding world of LED lights. LED are now on the market to replace just about any incandescent bulb on your boat from the 20-watt bulb in the tri-color masthead running lights to the running lights at deck level, to all of the lights throughout the boat's interior. The new LEDs draw only milliamps of power and have incredibly long lives. Also, they come in various colors so you can imitate the yellow tinge of an incandescent light or go with a bright white light. Or, you can install a red LED at the chart table and throughout the boat for night running. LEDs are relatively expensive but they make a very good long-term investment that will save you plenty of battery charging time and reduce wear and tear on the batteries. Have a look at the bulbs and other products from Mastlight at www.mastlight.com.

For the Hungry Crew...

When on passage, nothing beats the ease of baking with a mix. Having mixes handy allows you to whip something up in much less time and with less mess than if you had to dig all of the ingredients out of the lockers. While you can easily buy pre-made mixes in grocery stores, they are simple and very cost effective to make yourself. Good ones to have on hand are a generic baking mix (like Bisquick), brownie mix and hot chocolate mix. By making the mixes yourself while in port, you can control the quality of ingredients and make mixes that are healthier than you would find in the store.

Here is a recipe for a baking mix that you would use like Bisquick. Some tasty items to make with it include biscuits, muffins, coffee cake and cobbler. Use the mix within a month, and if you are cruising in a warm climate, try to keep it refrigerated or at least in a cool locker below the waterline. Store in an airtight Ziploc bag or Tupperware-type plastic container.

The Master Mix

• 9 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/3 cups powdered milk
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1/3 cup baking powder
• 2 cups shortening

1. In a large bowl, stir the dry milk, baking powder, sugar and salt into the flour; mix thoroughly.

2. Cut the shortening (try using a pastry blender) into the dry ingredients until the mix is the consistency of cornmeal.

3. To measure, pile the mix lightly into a cup and level off with a spatula or the back of a knife.

Yield: 10-12 cups

Cruising Community

The wonders of cruising

Thanks to Cruising Compass reader Dimas who sent in the cool shot .

"Passing by the Brazilian southeast coast (Abrolhos Archipelago), we met a Jubart whale feeding her baby. This was the best shot we got during the long crossng of the Atlantic, from northwest France to the southern Brazilian coast (August 4th to October 25th)."

Website of the Week

The Sailing Channel

Ever wish that there was a TV channel dedicated to cruising? There is! It just happens to be on the Internet. The Sailing Channel is a cool site that has both continuous and on-demand programming and it all has to do with cruising. The programming is free, and there are also cruising videos that you can purchase and download. Click the link “Watch TV on the Sailing Channel” to see the continuous programming, and check out the tab labeled U.S. Sailboat Show for loads of cool interviews. Take a look at www.thesailingchannel.com

Mindbender

Where are you?

We heard this one from a bus driver in Chicago last week while attending the Strictly Sail boat show at Navy Pier: There are two points on the globe from which you can go due south for 100 miles, then due east for a 100 miles and then due north for a 100 miles and end up exactly where you started. Where are those two starting points?

Send your answers to comments@cruisingcompass.com. A winner –who will receive a Blue Water Sailing hat—will be selected at random from all of the correct answers.