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An open water vessel is designed to recover quickly from a 180-degree overturn without sinking. Think about that. Its ridiculous. What is crazier is that apparently that can happen quite often. If you listen to the interview on my blog with Michael King, you will hear him say that it happens quite frequently. I am not going to lie to you, I would probably pee at least a little bit if that happened to me. 

So, with that in mind you need to take all of these things into serious consideration when choosing your vessel. 

1. Make sure it is both big enough to hold up in crappy weather and small enough for you to handle. 
2. It must be in sound condition and structure, and a dry boat. 
3. It needs to have good ventilation through the cabin. 
4. A heavy displacement cruiser with a full keel (It has to sit pretty deep in the water.)
5. Diesel engine powered at no less than 3 hp/ton. This makes it strong enough to make its way when motor sailing even outside the harbor. 
6. Get a firm fiberglass hull because it is easier to look after. 
7. Fiberglass deck because it is easy to maintain and make sure it doesn’t leak before you buy it. 
8. Lots of easy to reach and well ventilated storage. You need to have enough room for clothes and supplies. 
9. Good footing on the deck. 
10. Good drainage on the deck for when it is raining or you are punching through waves. Fun stuff. 
11. Through bolted deck cleats. 
12. 2 anchors. The backup is for typhoon conditions. Also make sure you have plenty of extra chain. 
13. A large fuel tank with a range of at least 500 nautical miles. 
14. Outsized water tanks that will support your crew at least a month without rainwater catching. 
15. Keel stepped mast. 
16. Good handholds and deck room. 
17. Make sure all of the berths can accommodate a guy that is at least six feet tall. 
18. Refrigerator. 
19. Autopilot
20. Swim ladder. 
21. Cloths to put up between the off crew and the common area. 
22. Propane stove
23. Instructional manuals on how to repair everything. 
24. Maintenance record. 
25. Deisel heater. 
26. Life raft, man overboard module, flares, fire blanket, fire extinguishers. 
27. Marine VHF radios. 
28. Dinghy with an outboard motor so you can get on land. 
29. Radar. 
30. Wind Instruments
31. Depth Sounder
32. And make sure the boat is pretty. It’s like your wife. Your going to be looking at her for a long time so make sure your ok with that. 

Sails:

1. Jib with roller furling.
2. Staysail that is easy to detach.
3. Stormjib.
4. Storm trysail.

So, if you have stumbled upon this page and you have some free time, you may learn how to tie a bunch of random knots today. You could be “that guy.” All of the knots are more than helpful to a sailor; they are necessary.

Knots are used in an almost infinite variety of ways by a sailor. You may need to tie two lines together, tie up to a post or cleat, or secure the entire boat.

While there are many more, here is a list of the most commonly used knots. The accompanying links will also take you to an instructional video on how to tie the knot. I don’t know how else you would learn how to tie a knot besides visually.

Neat Knot

COMMONLY USED KNOTS:

Square knot – this knot is used to tie two different lines together. Video

Sheet bend – this knot is also used to tie two different lines together, but is better than a square knot for lines that are different sizes. Video

Bowline- this knot is used to tie a line to a post. Video. It can also be used to tie a line around a person’s waist. Video

Clove hitch – this knot is also used to tie a line to a post. Video

Round turn and two half hitches – this knot is used to tie a line to a pole. Video

Figure eight – this is used as a stopper knot. Video

Cleat hitch – this knot is used to secure a line to a deck cleat. Video

The best thing to do is to memorize these knots, but the truth is that it will take a little bit of time. Oh life. You may want to have a guide on your boat just in case you forget something. Now I am not talking about a little Ecuadorian guy with a machete named Guito because that doesn’t make any sense. I am talking about a guide book of all the different kinds of sailing knots. Here is a link to thumb through one of the better knot books. Of course there are many others and it’s a pretty straight-forward topic so you can’t really go wrong with any of them.

Have fun and if you have another day of being “that guy”, I have heard some good things about basket weaving.

You can start by rejoicing in the fact that you do not have to make your own website. And what I mean by that is that you do not have to speak R2D2 to be able to script your own website. Instead you can use something called a content management system. An example of this is WordPress, the website that I use to publish my own blog.

Users of blogging content management systems sign up with a site for free and set up their blogs. Using the tools that the management system gives them, they can post their information on the internet. It makes it incredibly simple to start your own website where you can publish just about whatever you want. Scary but neat. the Yin and the Yang. The apple and the orange. The hippopotmus and the duck. Whatever you want to call it.

Click here to sign up for a free WordPress account.

Once you have an account there are lots of different things that you can do. For example you can post pictures of your trip, videos, music, interviews with whales, and of course recordings of insane rants that you went on when after you caught the scurvy because you didn’t bring enough fruit.

Important sailing tip #216, remember to bring enough fruit so you don’t catch the scurvy. You and your shipmates already bother each other enough, insanity won’t help anything.

Rumor has it, you will have a lot of free time out there so you can get pretty creative with your blog and there are a lot of different things that you will discover with it. It will also be interesting for you to hear back from people what they think about your trip. This blog will open up your trip to anyone who stumbles upon it on the internet. People can comment directly on your blog and you may find yourself in a conversation with someone who has been where you are going. Maybe they will give you some tips on different things to check out while you are there. Who knows?

Good luck and stay tuned to the blog that’s more reflexive than Jay-Z. And thanks to the anonymity of the computer screen, just as cocky. Oh wait my real-life friends actually read this. My cover is blown.

Okay so back when we hated trees more people used to write down the happenings of the day in a journal. You know the ones. The books with nothing in them. Brought to you by the same people who sold blank greeting cards and pet rocks.

Anyways, ship captains made up a pretty big chunk of the market because they used them to make their captain’s logs. The only problem was that when the boat was attacked by sea monsters, tidal waves, or common everyday accidents, the log might fall overboard. At that point it becomes destroyed by water or lost forever.

Well now we have these things called computers. There are other useful tools involved too like the internet and satellites. What you can do is start a blog on the internet in order to keep a record of what is happening on your trip. Those loved ones back home, and random strangers from all over the world, can then read your blog and be updated on your adventure. You can even post things like videos and pictures for them to see. And this way you don’t have to write things separately to all of the different people back home. Instead they can all just come to one convenient place to get all the information they need. It’s not like you are going to have a bunch of free time floating around in the middle of the oceans for weeks or anything like that.

Now if your computer gets tossed overboard, it is fine because all of that information is then backed up on a server somewhere in Japan or something. And since people don’t play with Pokemon anymore, they stopped making them fight and just use them to protect your servers now. So while you won’t be able to write for a while, unless you brought another computer, at least all of the information that you have recorded will be stored for free and can be looked back up once you get to port.

Still a good graphic, even though it's subtly offensive

Here is the map that I have made and my crew (two best mates, yeah Australia) will hopefully be updating. 

Read the Full Story.

This story is very frustrating to many people because it seems that a bunch of rag-tag pirates should not be able to create this much of a problem for the world’s military superpowers. Honestly, the pirates are just very well prepared. The operation is very sophisticated involving hi-tech equipment like satellite phones and GPS. They are very well armed and reportedly get tips from ports in the Gulf of Aden which is where ships pass through before sailing down and around Africa’s east horn. The pirates launch very powerful speed boats off of mother ships and then board their targets using grappling hooks. The captured vessels are then taken to the pirate hub town of Eyl where they can protect the ship and hostages until the ransom is paid.

They cannot be stopped because their really is no international legal system to try persons accused of piracy. Also, military intervention is difficult because of the variety of nationalities within a group of hostages. More practically speaking, the pirates operate in a gigantic area of water making it’s protection extremely challenging and yes expensive.

If you wonder why they do what they do you can stop because it is just for the money. They have no employment opportunities in their country as it has been fighting for 17 straight years. Half of the population relies on food-aid to survive. A lot of these pirates are actually former fisherman who have been put out of business by large trawlers that are taking advantage of the Somali government, or lack thereof, and catching all of the fish.

The Danger Zone

Read the Full Story.

Q: Who has been kidnapped?

A: Paul Chandler, 59, and his wife Rachel, 55. A British couple from Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Q: What were they doing?

A: They retired early, put their money into the boat and equipment and set sail. They have been aboard their Rival 38 yacht for the past three years.

Q: When and where were they kidnapped?

A: Friday October 23, 2009 in the Indian Ocean, a few miles from the Seychelles Islands. They were heading for Tanzania.

Link: Yacht Pals has the route they were on, and where they were kidnapped.

Q: How were they kidnapped?

A: Pirates pulled alongside during the night while Paul was off watch and they came aboard with guns. The couple was then forced to motor towards the Somali coast.

Link: Over the phone Paul tells the story while being held.

Link: Entire transcript of the conversation.

Q: Where are they being held?

A: They were aboard the Kota Wajar, a container ship from Singapore. The pirates had them in the Captain’s Cabin. They have now been moved 35 miles inland from the coast to the town of Haradheere. The move came due to fears among their captors that Islamist militants are planning to kidnap the kidnapped. The captors feel they will be better protected in their Haradheere stronghold as it is a known pirate haven.

Q: What are the pirates’ demands?

A: 7 million dollar ransom, although a deal for as low as $165,000 may being reached as the pirates now realize that the couple is not very wealthy. They have already taken everything of value off of the Lynn Rival, the couple’s yacht.

Q: Will the British government comply?

A: Not with the 7 million dollar demand, but the government and family are now working on the lower ransom.

Link: Government’s comments.

Q: How is the couple being treated?

A: They are safe. In a phone interview, Rachel described their captors as, “…very hospitable people.”

Link: Read the interview.

Stay tuned with any of these news sites to stay updated with how the couple is doing. It seems that the deal for a lower ransom should be completed very soon. If so the couple should be back home safely in the near future. Here are a few British news sites covering the issue: Times, Newstin, and Mirror.