Armchair sailing

I mentioned before that I enjoy the Furled Sails podcasts. I was intrigued by the one I listened to today about the Atlantic InterCoastal Waterway caught my attention. The idea of taking a sailing boat on inland waterways from Boston to Florida is an intriguing one. Having spent several family holidays in the Outer Banks soaking up the history of shipwrecks along the Carolina coasts, I can see the attractions of missing that part of the ocean trek south although I'm not sure how much sailing you'd get in. Even if you join the AIW in Norfolk, Virginia , it would still be 1,200 miles which could be a lot of motoring in a small boat! The podcast was an interview with the authors of the Managing the Waterways books which sound like just the thing if you wanted to do this trip. Other interesting resources were here , here and here .

Back down to cruising speeds and planning the trips we're going to take. I have begun to browse the passage planning software that's out there - not PC-based chart plotter stuff of which there is plenty, but packages devoted to voyage planning. I have enjoyed in the past playing around with Virtual Passages which describes itself as "The Ultimate Passage Planning Tool". The company adds "Take Armchair Voyages Across the World's Oceans using Actual Daily Weather and Nautical Charts". Sounds just like this blog, eh?

This is about as far from leisurely cruising as you can get. The French "Hydroptère" team ran through the 45 knot barrier in December and is closing in on the elusive 50 knots - the sailing equivalent of the sound barrier in post-WWII aviation. Check out the video on their home page if you think you've ever had a 'sleigh ride' down-wind. Impressive to note that they hit this speed with what appears to be two reefs in the main.

What do you think about Elaine Bunting's question on her Yachting World blog regarding the Island Packet SP Cruiser ? I like the more conventional IPs, but this one, I must say, does nothing for me. What's the boating equivalent of doing 40 mph in the outside lane of the motorway?

Once the boat is decided (an eternal process, of course), the next issue is to decide where to go to and from. My favourite resource for this is the encyclopaedic World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell. If you wish you were sitting in San Diego, wanting to sail to Hawaii and on from their to Guam and Hong Kong, it can tell you when the winds and currents will be in your favour and, just as importantly, when the weather won't. Endless dipping-in fun. The next one on my wish list is the companion volume, the World Cruising Handbook . This tells you more about what to do when you get there. Noonsite is the related web site which includes updates and corrections to the World Cruising Handbook.

A grey, cool weekend (by Hong Kong standards) is a good time to be thinking about boats which would/could take you around the world. I divide these fantasies into two groups; the ideal boats for spending time in sheltered coastal waters around beautiful islands (Greece, Caribbean, Phuket, Barrier Reef, etc.) and those which would get you from one to the other - probably not the same boats. For category one, I hav e hankered after the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey DS range for a while. Not too much of the floating caravan look about them and beautifully set up for island hopping and lounging. But, those big windows make me nervous about the blue water at which time my mind turns to the likes of the Rustler 36 , the Bowman 40 and Rivals. Best kept out of marinas and in the open oceans those...

When we're not working...not often enough...we should be doing something completely different. I love sailing and, like most sailors, would like to do more of it. I devote quite a lot of time and attention to working out where, when and how. Of course, on which boat is also a great topic. And, while "on other people's" is the only sensible answer to that question, who wants to be sensible in these matters. There are surprisingly few blogs out there addressing this. I've found the furledsails.com podcasts and then a lot of sites which regurgitate PR for the grand sponsored round the world drag races. Not much, though, about regular sailors planning their trips. So, here goes.