When we got our boat from the factory, we had ordered it with a square-top mainsail. Square-top versus Pinhead The “standard” sail in a pinhead sail, which is shaped like a triangle. A square-top sail is a trapezoid shape. The foot is wide and has a 90-degree angle on the front corner. The head is…
I completed our offshore medical kit and am super proud of it! In our offshore emergency medicine class, we covered a lot of important topics regarding health and safety at sea. The professors provided us with an example inventory. We also had a good discussion during our class on what we should have onboard. Our…
Time keeps ticking away and we slowly get closer to when Starry Horizons will be in the water. We hit a big milestone this past week as we submitted our final list of options we want from the factory. The amount of time we’ve had since Annapolis has been both an exercise in patience and beneficial as it’s…
The dingy and its outboard engine are a vital part of the cruising life, shuttling us to and from the shore, to other boats, and carrying all manner of items for us, from groceries to scuba/snorkel gear etc. Choosing the right combination has taken a lot of time and research. Here’s the thought process that went into…
While in the planning process of outfitting a blue water catamaran, we knew that it would be a multi-step process. One of the most important steps that we took was to install a reverse osmosis watermaker. We picked a Cruise RO watermaker, and five years later, we are still incredibly glad we have it. Why…
There have been a number of times where we have been at boat shows or meeting people and talking about our life. Back in the early days, we wished we had an easier way to exchange information other than just writing down emails on a spare scrap of paper. Boat cards sound pretty common in…
This is a topic no one particularly likes to contemplate. It’s great to be prepared for a man overboard scenario, and Amy and I have been trained to handle the boat if one of us goes overboard, we do focus more on prevention. Years ago, I was captaining one of the dinner cruise boats out…
Electricity. It’s something we use every day, but it’s always been one of those mysteries of the world to me. Volts, watts, hertz/frequency and many other terms all seem like they’re from a foreign language. Sure, I took physics in high school and can barely remember diagramming out various circuits and doing some calculations, but that…