I would hardly describe myself as all-knowing, but at age 93, with a lifetime of offshore sailing experience in my bag, I’ve seen a lot. These days, I can walk on a boat that is preparing to head south and immediately start making a list of improvements.

Here are some of the most important things I’ve learned about how to make your voyage south safer and easier.

No matter what route you take to the Caribbean, or what time of year, your chance is high of running into blows of at least 25 to 30 knots. To prepare, when you’re still in your own home waters, head out with a crew in a good blow and push the boat really hard on various points of sail. Reef the main, and reduce the area of the headsail. On double headsail boats, get rid of the jib, shorten down to staysail and double-reefed main, beat to windward, heave-to, reach and run downwind. Install and test the emergency tiller.

You will undoubtedly discover deficiencies in sails and gear. Fix them, wait for the next blow, and then repeat the process. Your fear and anxiety about being on the boat in heavy weather will eventually vanish.

Next, check your mainsail and mizzen reefing systems. In moderate conditions. reef and double reef a couple of times. If you have single line in the boom reefing, then have a good rigger un-reeve it, get rid of the twists, and then re-reeve it.

Single headsail boats heading south should contact a great rigger. Have him design and install a removable staysail stay. This stay should be parallel to the headstay, meeting the mast about where the head of the reefed main will be. Then, have a hanked-on staysail built. Stow it and its sheets in a tight, double-zippered turtle bag, and secure it alongside the mast.

When cruising the Caribbean, before leaving the lee of an island, set up the staysail stay, hoist the staysail, roll up the genoa or jib, and reef the main. You’ll have a comfortable passage.

You’ll also want an easily rigged, easily disconnected main boom anti-jibing preventer rig and reaching sheet. (My own failure to install one of these ended my own boat’s 114-year career.) Start by securing a becket block to the end of the boom. To the becket, secure a wire or Kevlar line about 6 inches shorter than the length of the main boom. Secure the end of the line to the gooseneck with a light lashing. Through the block, reeve a line that’s double the length of the main boom, plus about 15 feet. Secure this line to the gooseneck, and coil the excess line.

From the stem head or bowsprit end, rig two spinnaker pole foreguys with both ends secured to lifeline stanchions alongside the mast. Once the wind goes aft, and the boat is sailing on a broad reach or almost dead downwind, you can disconnect the line under the boom, attach it to one end of the spinnaker pole foreguy, run the other end back to a cockpit winch or cleat, and set the man boom foreguy preventer up tight. You now have a preventer running from the end of the main boom to the stem or bowsprit end, making it impossible to jibe.

When sailing broad off, attach one end of the reaching sheet to the genoa. Run the other end through a block that’s well forward of amidships, then back to a cockpit winch. Trim the genoa with the reaching sheet. This will open up the angle, allow the main boom to be eased, ease or eliminate weather helm and eliminate chafe. The boat will also be faster.

A double headsail rig is great because it can be properly shortened down in heavy weather, but one problem is that when broad reaching, the jib sheet chafes on the main boom. This problem can be easily eliminated. Go hard on the wind, use tape to mark the jib sheet about 4 feet forward of the rail cap lead block, and then roll up the jib and cut the jib sheet off at the mark. Join it with the section that has been cut off by using a double sheet bend. Mouse the ends of the knots with whipping twine or electrical tape. Then, when sheets are eased and chafe begins, attach the reaching sheet to the jib sheet forward of the knot. Rig the reaching sheet as described above, opening the angle and eliminating chafe.

When you are out there pushing the boat hard, double reef the main and reduce headsail area. On a double headsail boat, experiment by rolling up the jib completely, sheeting the staysail flat, and tacking but holding the staysail sheet. Experiment with main trim and helm angle. Hopefully, you will end up lying about 60 degrees off the wind, with little or no headway slipping to leeward, leaving a smooth slick to windward.

If the staysail is roller furling, then roll up one full roll so that even the worst gust will not blow the sail out of the foil. Ketches and yawls usually will heave-to with the staysail aback and mizzen trimmed flat, or sometimes under mizzen alone.

The modern fin-keeled single headsail sloop with no forefoot to prevent the bow from falling off is almost impossible to get to heave-to. Just try jogging along on a double- or triple-reefed main. Each boat is different, so you’ll have to experiment. After trying to heave-to in a real blow in a single-headsail boat, you will probably be persuaded to install a removable staysail stay with a hanked-on staysail.

Next, have a sailmaker check all your boat’s sails. In general, on any well-used sail, have him stitch 2/3-foot in on the leach on each seam for the main and headsails. If the main is old, then replace it with a Doyle fully battened stack pack main or the equivalent. This quality of sail will outlast its cover, in my experience, especially if you protect the sail from the sun.

Change the fuel filters on your engine and generator under sail while the boat is well heeled over. It’s a different job than when you do it in port. Practicing will mean that on your way south, if the filters need to be changed at sea, you will be able to do it.

Buy spare belts, and make sure you have the tools to adjust tension. Change belts to make sure you can do the job with little difficulty.

When it comes to bilge pumps, the vast majority of today’s boats have a pair of 10-gallon-per-minute pumps with short handles. These can be inadequate to move large quantities of water. A 30-gpm Edson diaphragm pump with a 42-inch handle will move large quantities of water and can be pumped for long periods without wearing out the pumper.

Loss of steering or loss of rudder should not be regarded as a complete disaster, but rather a major inconvenience. On boats with a twin wheel installation, install an emergency tiller 6 feet long, hinged so the forward end is at a convenient height. If a cockpit table obstructs the end of the tiller, then the table base should be altered so that the table can be easily removed.

While sailing up and down the islands of the eastern Caribbean, spinnaker poles are rarely used, but if your trip south is at the beginning of a cruise to the Pacific (where you will be doing a lot of downwind trade wind sailing) then it is worthwhile to re-rig your spinnaker pole stowage. Stow the pole or poles vertically against the mast, with the inner end on a slider that goes up the mast. It makes rigging and unrigging the pole fantastically easy.

There is nothing that gets crews seasick faster in heavy weather than a stuffy cabin. Install proper ventilators. Double opening hatches—which can be opened facing aft under a dodger at sea, or reversed in port to gather air—are a great bonus. In port, good wind scoops will make life more comfortable belowdecks in even the hottest weather.

When heading south, you are not racing. If the wind goes light, you can motor-sail. If you keep engine revs down to 1,200 or less, your range will be considerable. If it starts to blow hard, then slow down to be comfortable.

Have a minimum of four crew with offshore experience. All too often, the crew is a couple heading south for semi-retirement with friends who may be good sailors, but who are not experienced offshore sailors. They run into heavy weather and things start falling apart, sometimes disastrously. If you fit that description, then hire a good delivery skipper to sail with you. In some cases, a boat’s previous owner can serve this purpose. After 52 years of owning the 46-foot yawl Iolaire, I sold her and served as the new owner’s sailing master/coach on a 500-mile passage.  

A good crew is also necessary because fatigue is the rust that destroys boats. With five crew on board, you can stand watches four hours on and six off. It is essential that there are at least two bunks set up so the off-watch crew can comfortably sleep, no matter the angle of heel. Test the bunks along with everything else in heavy weather.

Crew also need to be well-fed. I have always insisted on a solid breakfast, soup and sandwiches at lunchtime, and a solid dinner. There is rarely a reason to miss a meal, especially if, before you head offshore, you make up a pasta sauce, beef stew and a chicken for roasting. That will give you three meals semi-prepared for cooking in heavy weather. A pre-cooked ham is also wonderful for snacks.

Seasickness can take trial and error to resolve, but anybody who is prone to it should start taking their preferred remedy 24 hours before the trip starts. Those who are seldom seasick should start taking their remedy before heavy weather is predicted to arrive.

All boats heading offshore should stow the ultimate seasickness cure: suppositories of promethegan. Pills are useless, as they just keep coming up, but the suppository gets into the system and produces an amazingly fast recovery. I have had completely disabled crewmembers fully recover in four hours with the suppositories.

Keep this article handy when planning your passage south. If you follow the advice, you’ll boost your odds of enjoying a successful voyage south—even if you run into heavy weather.

The post Southern Comfort: Tactical Tips for Sailing South appeared first on Cruising World.

It’s time to make your plan to join the largest rally from the U.S. to the Caribbean. Discover paradise. Make new friends. Experience a season in the warm and beautiful Caribbean.

Countdown has begun for the Salty Dawg Sailing Association’s Fall Rally to the Caribbean. Are you onboard? Click here to find out more.

The Fall Rally to the Caribbean will be heading to beautiful Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. And, if things ease up in the Bahamas, there will be boats making landfall in gorgeous Harbour Island, Eleuthera.

Departure is scheduled for Nov. 2 (weather permitting) from the Chesapeake Bay. Prior to departure, veteran Salty Dawgs will be ready and willing to help with passage preparations. With COVID-19 concerns our social activities will be limited. We’ll be conducting webinars in lieu of in-person seminars and Zoom Meetings in lieu of in-person general meetings and Q&A sessions.

Like our recent Homeward Bound Flotilla, we will have a Government Support Unit, a first for our Fall Rally, to keep organizers and participants up to date on changing restrictions at departure and arrival locations.

Once underway, our PredictWind-sponsored “Follow the Fleet” tracking system will follow your progress based on the position reports you send either electronically or by radio. Friends, family, and armchair sailors can follow your track.

Each Captain receives daily weather updates by email from Chris Parker at Marine Weather Center and can access personalized weather routing suggestions, if needed. Daily SSB radio nets keep boats in contact with each other, sharing tales of offshore problem-solving and fishing success. In addition, our Shoreside Team monitors your progress and becomes an important element of our response in case of emergency.

WHY RALLY?

• Education: Pre-departure webinars with experts and vendors. Learn how to prepare and what to expect on your passage to the Caribbean.
• Safety: Pre-departure expert advice, professional weather routing before and during passage, daily fleet tracking and check-ins, daily social radio hour, Fleet Safety Net, USCG monitoring.
• Networking: Network with other participating sailors. Learn and share information. Build lifetime friendships with traveling buddies.
• Resources: A staff of “like sailors” who support you from pre-departure thru post-passage. Extensive network of offshore cruisers. Expert information from product manufacturers. Discounts on slips and moorings, marine products and services. Fleet tracker for family and friends. Crew List Service.
• Flexibility: We provide the resources, information and advice to help you realize your sailing dream, but you maintain the flexibility to make your own decisions.

Salty Dawg burgees are found on vessels around the world. Between 2011 and 2020 the SDSA has put on 30 rallies with 3,800 sailors participating on 1,350 boats. Over 3,200 sailors subscribe to our bi-monthly newsletter, Dawg Tales. Membership in the Association is available to anyone interested in passage making or long-distance cruising. We’d love to have you join us!

Click here to find out more about the 2020 Fall Rally to the Caribbean.

Click here to register.

The post Salty Dawg Fall Rally to the Caribbean 2020 appeared first on Cruising World.

This letter originally appeared in the Waterway Guide. Reprinted with permission.

Remember when you were in school and a few kids did something wrong and the whole class got punished? If so, then welcome to legislation—Georgia style. Georgia is now home to the most restrictive boater legislation in the nation. This past week the Coastal Resources Division (CRD) of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) posted the announcement of the implementation of HB201 on their website. You may recall this is the bill I warned Liberty and Bryan County residents about last summer. A hodgepodge of disjointed topics, the bill included anchoring permits, logs of pump-outs, fees and the establishment of anchorage areas. Did you catch that folks? Not just authorization to tell you where you CAN’T anchor but where you CAN anchor. The announcement this week (via Administrative Order from DNR Commissioner Mark Williams) graciously informs the public that “The Commissioner hereby ORDERS that anchorage areas for the purpose of overnight anchoring are established throughout all the estuarine areas the state…”. In other words, a right we have enjoyed for centuries in waters most boaters and boating organizations believe to be federally controlled (see the commerce clause of the US Constitution) has been granted to us by the DNR. This should be challenged in a court of law.

If you go onto the DNR website they will tell you “HB201 is a new law that mainly affects waste discharge from vessels with marine sanitation devices (MSDs) and overnight anchoring in coastal waters”. Folks, this is disingenuous at best. HB201 was NEVER about concern over the cleanliness of Georgia’s waters. It was about getting rid of a couple of nuisance boats in the coastal Georgia area to make a couple of powerful people happy. It was their scenery that was getting polluted—not the water. To fix their problem, Representative Don Hogan (Brunswick, GA) with the help of others crafted HB201 at the urging of DNR. Why? Because DNR needed a way to make these 2 complaints go away and establishing setbacks under the guise of clean water was deemed the answer. The hen has now come to roost in the form of this new DNR Administrative Order which outlines the following:

ONE. It restricts overnight anchoring within 1,000 feet (that’s over 3 football fields) of any structure, such as public and private docks, wharves, bridges, piers and pilings, except in areas near marinas. This 1,000’ offset needlessly eliminates anchorages all over the state. It will affect numerous boaters many of which transit Georgia waters as part of the annual migration along the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) that brings in millions of dollars to Georgia businesses. Additionally, an unintended consequence of this ill-conceived legislation is that it gives private landowners jurisdiction over public waters free of charge with no need for a bottom lease from the state. Essentially waterfront owners now control thousands of acres of public water at no cost. I seriously question the legality of this action and challenge any attorney reading this to take action.

TWO. Commissioner Mark Williams and the DNR have created an animal known as Marina Zones, which wasn’t even in HB201. These will allow boaters to anchor as close as 300 feet to marinas or facilities that provide fuel, dinghy access, provisions, vessel maintenance or other services, regardless of whether other structures exist nearby. This, of course, begs the question, if we can anchor 300’ from a marina, where there are numerous comings and goings, why are we prohibited from anchoring 300’ from any other structure where there may be no or very limited activity? It makes zero sense but then it doesn’t have to as long as it makes the two waterfront owners happy. It would seem the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many.

Many boating groups to include the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), Boat US, Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA), Marine Trawler Owners Association (MTOA), American Great Loopers Cruising Association (AGLCA), and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association (AIWA) were never consulted before the legislation was passed. Most importantly, the general boating public was unaware of the bill until it had already passed. A public hearing occurred on June 17, 2019, in Brunswick where we voiced our concerns and were assured no rules would be implemented until they were vetted with the boating public. Afterward, at a July 31, 2019 “Stakeholders’ Meeting,” which I and several boating representatives attended, we collectively recommended 150’ setbacks from marinas and private structures. Personnel at DNR were informed that a 1,000’ setback was far too large yet that has now been implemented. So much for transparency and open dialogue with the public.

The General Assembly didn’t just take away the freedoms of Georgians, they also took away the freedoms of every American transiting our waters from other states. DNR never had any intention of engaging any of the end-users–Georgia boaters and visiting boaters to the coastline of Georgia. Actions speak much louder than words.

So, what can we do? I invite the citizens of coastal Georgia to join me in writing and calling both the Governor’s office as well as the Commissioner of DNR.

Governor Brian Kemp 206 Washington Street Suite 203, State Capitol Atlanta, GA 30334

Phone Number: 404-656-2846 Toll Free: 1-800-436-7442

Contact via web form: https://gov.georgia.gov/contact-us/constituent-services

Commissioner Mark Williams 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE Suite 1252 – East Tower Atlanta, GA 30334

Phone number: 404-656-3505 Contact via web form: https://gadnr.org/sendemail

Maps of restricted anchorage areas by county can be found here: https://coastalgadnr.org/Liveaboards

If you want to keep abreast of what’s happening, join the Facebook group Save Georgia’s Anchorages at https://www.facebook.com/groups/SaveGeorgiasAnchorages/.

Sincerely,

Jack White, boater, Liberty County resident and former GA State Representative, House District 3

The post Update: Anchoring in Georgia appeared first on Cruising World.

The end of the Atlantic hurricane season marks the beginning of the annual cruising migration to the Caribbean, and this past week the Salty Dawg Rally arrived in Antigua and Eleuthera, Bahamas, and the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers departed the Canary Islands for their transatlantic run.

The Salty Dawg Sailing Association hosted its ninth Fall Rally to the Caribbean with 69 boats participating. Monohulls made up 67 percent of the fleet, but the 23 multihulls taking part in the rally made this the largest fleet of multihulls ever to depart the U.S. in an organized event!

Captains in this year’s rally, which departed Hampton, VA on November 2, could choose from two arrival ports—Antigua or Eleuthera, Bahamas. Both locations welcomed the sailors with open arms and a week or more of planned activities.

These “Safe Arrival” celebrations honored everyone’s offshore accomplishments with happy hours, yacht club receptions, an official Safe Arrival Dinner and much more. The boats in this year’s rally hailed from seven different countries and ranged in size from 30-70’ with the majority in the 40-49’ range.For more information and to join the Salty Dawg Sailing Association, visit the SDSA website.

Over 1,000 sailors on more than 250 boats crossed the 2019 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers starting line in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on November 24. The majority of boats will take 18 to 21 days to make the 2,700-nautical-mile Atlantic crossing, arriving in Rodney Bay Marina, Saint Lucia. Whatever time they make landfall, every boat will be met at the dock by Saint Lucia Tourism Board and World Cruising Club staff bearing a welcome rum punch and cold drinks. There is a full schedule of events in Rodney Bay for all ARC crews and their friends and families, culminating in the ARC prize giving on 21 December. Learn more about the ARC and track all of the boats as they make their way to the Caribbean at the World Cruising Club website.

The post Rally Time 2019 appeared first on Cruising World.

Cruising down the California coast in the long, lazy days of late summer was extremely satisfying. Despite much of the conventional wisdom, the bays and harbors that dot the shore are actually well-situated for comfortable daysailing, and slow-paced mornings segue into exhilarating afternoons galloping ahead of the sea breeze to reach the next anchorage by sundown. As my husband, Neil, and I sailed southward aboard our Liberty 458 sloop, Distant Drummer, we sought out attractions to amuse even the most seasoned cruiser; nature and history provide a wealth of interesting places to explore, the cities are teeming with shopping, and there is a plethora of sights to see from fun parks to film studios.

While cruising in California, I was captivated by the tales of R.H. Dana, who spent two years aboard a Boston brig loading hides between San Francisco and San Diego. His memoir Two Years Before the Mast served as an intriguing cruising guide, and it was interesting to compare our passage of today with his voyage nearly 200 years ago.

Monterey Bay and Point Conception

After a voyage south from Alaska, we had been in the San Francisco Bay area for six weeks, and had explored most of its nooks and crannies. We had cruised up the Delta, hung out around the Bay, and sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge enough times to finally catch it unadorned by its habitual foggy shroud. As we passed under the bridge for the final time, we were graced with a visit from a pair of humpback whales. It was fantastic to watch them surfacing and breaching so close to the entrance to the bay.

The passage from San Francisco to Monterey was a leisurely three-day cruise, motor-sailing in the gentle morning breeze until a brisk northwesterly filled in during the early afternoon. The first night we tucked in behind the breakwater at Half Moon Bay and stopped for the second night at Santa Cruz. We dropped the hook on the east side of the pier, slap-bang in front of the world-famous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. As an aficionado of fairground kitsch, I rushed ashore to revel in all the fun of the fair. Later, as we tried to sleep, it was not the throbbing music and screams from the amusement park that kept us awake, but the raucous barking and snorting from the sea lion colony beneath the pier.

Crossing the bay to Monterey on a crisp, blue-sky day with a 20-knot breeze on the starboard quarter was magical sailing; we were almost sorry to arrive there. A mooring field occupies the area to the west of Fisherman’s Wharf, so we anchored on the east side and settled in for a calm, clear night. Monterey Harbor is one of the few anchorages that is exposed to winds from the north, but luckily the breeze had backed to the southwest and we were protected behind Point Pinos.

Back in the early-1800s, Monterey was the seat of the Spanish government and boasted the only custom house on the California coast, which can still be found standing in the presidio by the wharf. We sauntered along Cannery Row past the old clapboard sardine-canning factories, which have been renovated and transformed into fashionable shops and restaurants. The town was lively with summer tourists, but we saw no sign of the “cock-fighting, gambling of all sorts, fandangos, and every kind of amusement and knavery” that Dana reported. It’s a shame, really—it sounded like fun!

Heading south from Monterey, we had a boisterous overnight passage around Point Sur with a 6-foot swell and the wind gusting over 40 knots on the starboard beam. At sunrise we noticed that a seam close to the top of the mainsail had split, so we decided to stop in Morro Bay to repair it. We slipped through the channel between the sand spit and the peak of Morro Rock, and thankfully dropped the hook in the anchorage area opposite the old power plant. A colony of sea otters lives in Morro Bay, and they are constantly diving and feeding, playing with and nursing their fluffy pups in the tranquil water. Watching their antics provided a perfect distraction as I sat in a billow of canvas stitching the mainsail.

RELATED: Sail to Catalina

Point Conception is a cape with an unhealthy reputation for strong winds and rough water; Dana reported “gales, swept decks [and the] topmast carried away.” We were somewhat luckier, enjoying a beautiful sail from Morro Bay to Santa Barbara in a 15- to 20-knot breeze with a full jib and two reefs in the newly stitched mainsail. We stopped overnight in Cojo anchorage, a small cove that shelters behind Point Conception and has a great view of the lighthouse. It is one of the oldest lighthouses on the California coast but is rarely visited because land access is restricted by the military and a private ranch, so only mariners get to see it.

Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands

Santa Barbara is a day’s sail from Point Conception. The wind was light, but we had the dependable southerly California Current helping us along, and we arrived in time to drop anchor to the east of Stearns Wharf as the sun set. We enjoyed sundowners on the aft deck with a view of the twin towers of the mission peeping out among the whitewashed walls and red-tiled roofs of the town, and the surf pounding on the golden beach.

Santa Barbara is a day’s sail from Point Conception. The wind was light, but we had the dependable southerly California Current helping us along, and we arrived in time to drop anchor to the east of Stearns Wharf as the sun set. We enjoyed sundowners on the aft deck with a view of the twin towers of the mission peeping out among the whitewashed walls and red-tiled roofs of the town, and the surf pounding on the golden beach.

The only downside of being anchored in Santa Barbara was the difficulty in finding a place to land the dinghy to go ashore. The surf makes a beach landing difficult; Dana described a group of Sandwich Islanders as they rowed their boat in to the shore: “They gave three or four long and strong pulls and went in on top of the great wave.” We weren’t quite up for that, and eventually we were able to buy a three-day permit to use the “skiff row” inside the marina.

It was a clear, sunny day when we departed Santa Barbara, and we had a fantastic sail across to the Channel Islands. With just the headsail up, we were flying along nicely in a steady 20-knot sea breeze that blew until the sun went down. Santa Cruz Island is the largest of the group of steep, craggy isles that lie on the south side of the Santa Barbara Channel. We anchored in Pelican Cove, a pocket-size crevice in the sheer cliffs that make up the north coast of the island. The anchorage is exposed to weather from the north, but even a mild westerly swell wrapped around and in to our spot, giving us a slightly rolly night. Pelican Cove has no beach, so getting ashore is hazardous. Instead, we pumped up our inflatable kayak and explored the bay from the water, paddling among dramatic caves and sea arches.

Little Scorpion Cove at the east end of Santa Cruz Island is an imposing anchorage lined with tall cliffs and tottering sea stacks. The water is as clear as gin, and it was mesmerizing to watch the kelp fronds swaying in the swell as it dashed against the rocky islands. We dinghied ashore to a small sandy beach and climbed up the steep path for a walk along the clifftops.

It was a glorious day, the visibility was sensational, and it was wonderful to see Distant Drummer anchored in the bay below and with Anacapa Island fading away into the distance.

Ventura and Santa Monica Bay

As we continued southward down the coast, finding somewhere to drop anchor became more of a challenge. San Diego and the bays of the Channel Islands are the only natural harbors in Southern California. Many ports have an anchorage area behind a breakwater, but anchoring in these zones is often limited to a ­maximum stay of 72 hours. These areas are patrolled by harbor police who seemed bent on steering us into marinas like sheep into a fold. As an alternative, many yacht clubs in North America have a brilliant system of reciprocity, of which we took advantage. They offer a few days of free moorage and hospitality to cruisers visiting from other clubs, and this provides a great solution to cruising without mounting up huge marina bills.

The strong northwest winds that whistle around Point Conception and the western Channel Islands in the summer months tend to die out once they reach the Santa Monica Basin. We recrossed the Santa Barbara Channel from Santa Cruz Island to Ventura, motor-sailing in light airs, and tied up at the Ventura Yacht Club. We received a hearty welcome at the club and an invitation to join in a potluck dinner at the clubhouse that evening. We had a fine time chatting with the locals, listening to a few yarns, and gaining a bit of local knowledge about favorite spots.

We were warned that Point Dume is another headland with a ruthless reputation. The Pacific swells pound through the gaps between the Channel Islands and wrap around Point Dume, making the anchorage at Paradise Cove just behind the point untenable except in the calmest seas. We struck it lucky again with surprisingly serene conditions and spent two fantastic days anchored there. Snorkeling at the point with a couple dozen sea lions was an unforgettable experience. They circled playfully around us and were very curious, often swooping up for a closer look. Their bodies, which seem so cumbersome on land, were lithe and graceful underwater.

The Malibu shoreline between Paradise Cove and Santa Monica is home to some of the hottest real estate in the world; stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Ellen DeGeneres keep the prices sizzling. As we sailed around the bay to Marina del Rey, we enjoyed gawking through binoculars at the luxurious beach houses and sumptuous palaces in the hills above.

At Marina del Rey, a roadstead anchorage lies close to the entrance channel, however the outer breakwater provides little shelter from the swell, and anchoring there can be pretty rough. Instead we tied up inside the harbor for a few days, first courtesy of the Del Rey Yacht Club and then the California Yacht Club; we were beginning to get the hang of the reciprocal system. Marina del Rey is just south of Venice Beach and Santa Monica, and is an ideal place to leave the boat for a visit to Hollywood and Beverly Hills. We bought a 48-hour hop-on/hop-off bus ticket, climbed up to the open-air top deck, and gorged ourselves on Hollywood craziness.

San Pedro Bay and Catalina Island

It is a short hop down the coast from Marina del Rey to San Pedro, where Dana noted, “There was no sign of a town, not even a house to be seen.” Incredible! Nowadays it has been engulfed by the Los Angeles sprawl. The dock area of San Pedro and neighboring Long Beach is enormous, channeling vast quantities of imported goods into the United States. The harbor in San Pedro has an extensive complex of marinas, but a small corner behind the breakwater has been allocated for anchoring. We dropped the pick there and soon had a visit from the harbor police, who generously gave us a permit to stay for two weeks. This gave us plenty of opportunity to explore the area and share some good times with cruising friends who are based there.

Dana reported that the “rascally hole of San Pedro” (love that description) was unsafe during the violent northeasterly winds that blow out of the desert in fall and winter. These hot, dusty winds are known as Santa Anas, and the west coast of Catalina Island is a great place to shelter from them. It is also a favorite place for Angelinos to unwind on the weekend and, as a consequence, the most popular bays are full of moorings. However, cruising boats can usually find room on the fringes and in the deeper water to drop the hook. We anchored in Catalina Harbor on the west coast and walked across the isthmus to the small community of Two Harbors, which lies on the east side of the island. The red dust and eucalyptus trees reminded us of northern Australia. We propped up the bar in Harbor Reef Restaurant, sipped a couple of icy cold beers, and enjoyed the casual and easygoing pace of island life in the low season.

Little Harbor lies south of Catalina Harbor on the west coast. It has no settlement—just a couple of empty beaches, a campsite, and a dirt road connecting it to the rest of the island. In the evening, we went ashore to use the showers, and as we were soaping up, we were startled to see two bison grazing among the palm trees. It was astonishing to see these primeval beasts on a small island just off the Southern California coast. Apparently, 14 bison were brought to the island in 1924 to be extras in a film called The Vanishing American. When the filming finished, so did the money to transport them back to the Great Plains (or so the story goes), but they seem to be thriving in their exile.

The Oil Islands provides another surreal anchoring experience. These are man-made islands that lie off Long Beach Harbor and were constructed in order to develop the Wilmington oil field that underlies San Pedro Bay. The good people of Long Beach liked the money but didn’t like the view of ugly production platforms. So islands with palm trees were built around them, and fake apartment buildings were erected to disguise the unsightly drilling derricks. Although anchoring is allowed behind White Island only on weekends, the Oil Islands offers a bizarre alternative to tying up in a marina.

Dana Point and San Diego

After a couple of weeks of happy gunkholing in San Pedro Bay, we departed for San Diego, the last leg of our California cruise. A light wind was blowing from the southeast, and we tacked laboriously between container ships and the Oil Islands. We passed Newport Beach, where the coastline begins to rise and high cliffs replace the famous sunbaked Californian beaches. After a hard day of tacking, we reached Dana Point and decided to call it a day, hoping for better wind in the morning. The bay at Dana Point is protected by a long breakwater and is almost completely full of marina berths. There is a small anchoring area behind the breakwater, but we enjoyed a reciprocal night at the dock courtesy of the Dana Point Yacht Club.

Dana Point is the zenith of Dana lore; statues of him abound around the town, and a reproduction of the brig Pilgrim lies in the bay. He is immortalized for an incident that happened at San Juan while they were collecting and loading hides. Dana wrote that tossing the hides from the bluffs down to the beach was much quicker than carrying them down the dangerous cliff path. When a hide got stuck part way down the cliff, he was lowered down “by a pair of top-gallant studding-sail halyards” to dislodge it. In doing so, he became a bit of a local legend, and the area previously known as San Juan was renamed Dana Point.

When we woke the next day, the wind had veered to a robust southwesterly, and we had a glorious sail down to Mission Bay—a large, shallow inlet that lies just to the north of the city of San Diego. Low bridges prevent sailboats from accessing most of the bay, but Mariners Cove is a lagoon close to the entrance channel, and it’s where we found a spot to anchor. Sipping sundowners in this tranquil cove while basking in the golden light of the setting sun was heavenly. The next day we rounded Point Loma, giving it a wide berth because of the kelp field on its seaward side, and passed through the channel into San Diego Bay.

Dana considered San Diego to be “the best harbor on the coast, being completely land-locked, and the water as smooth as a duck pond.” These days, the duck pond behind the sandbar is filled with container ships and naval vessels, superyachts and sailboats. The anchorage rules in San Diego require visiting boats to be inspected for safety and seaworthiness at the Harbor Police Dock. Having passed inspection, we were issued a 30-day permit for the A-9 Cruisers Anchorage that is located conveniently close to downtown. From the anchorage, it is just a stroll along the waterfront to reach the Maritime Museum and USS Midway, and a short walk up the hill to the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park. The downside of the anchorage is that it is located adjacent to the runway of the international airport, and the noise pollution is off the scale.

The late-summer and early-fall months were a perfect time to be cruising southward down the California coast. Although the winds were often light, we could rely on the afternoon sea breeze to switch on the turbo, and on our good buddy, the south-setting California Current, to keep us moving in the right direction. We greatly appreciated the yacht-club reciprocal-membership system, and give a big shout-out to the clubs that generously hosted us along the way. In the 200 years since Dana visited California, mega-metropolises have mushroomed in once-deserted bays. Harbors are now cluttered with marinas and anchoring rules, but for the most part, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that there is still room for the freedom-loving cruiser to swing on the anchor and be delightfully content.

After purchasing Distant Drummer in Thailand 13 years ago, Suzy and Neil Carmody have crossed the Pacific, and sailed down the West Coast from Alaska to Panama. This year they will transit the Panama Canal to cruise the Caribbean. For more on their adventures and tips on living aboard, visit their blog.

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Halfway from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda one recent November, all four crews on the boats in my offshore sailing program listened rapt to the drama unfolding on the VHF radio. We could hear only the U.S. Coast Guard side of the conversation as they rescued the crew of a boat in trouble, but that was enough for all of us.

It was a stinky night, blowing 35 knots and gusting over 40 out of the southeast—our course to Bermuda. The rain was pelting down, and big sloppy seas were coming from three different directions. On our matching 46-foot performance cruisers, all four skippers had independently arrived at the same solution for dealing with the conditions.

Before darkness closed in, we’d doused the main, rolled up the jib and set the hank-on heavy staysail/storm jib on an inner forestay. We jogged along with the wind at about 60 degrees apparent doing 4 or 5 knots of boatspeed, waiting for the wind shift we knew was coming from listening to the high-seas forecast on the single-sideband radio. We knew this gale presaged a cold front and that by sunrise we’d be loving life as we ran toward Bermuda in a clear 25-knot northwesterly.

We later learned that the Coast Guard had pulled all five people off a well-built, 50-foot double-headsail-rigged cruising ketch about 80 nautical miles from our position. Its crew had tried to cope with the deteriorating conditions by dousing all sail and motoring into the wind. In those conditions, they’d ended up rolling the gunwales under. Then the engine quit. As they drifted, the deck was leaking, and every member of the crew was seasick, cold, wet, scared and exhausted. Calling the Coasties for rescue seemed like a no-brainer, and the decision was unanimous. With that call, the owners of the boat gave up on the cruising dream they’d been working toward for many years.

Practicing Patience

Every November, the southbound routes from the East Coast are furrowed with sailboat wakes as cruisers abandon the rapidly approaching icy winter weather and set sail for the tropics. Some head for Florida, others for the Bahamas, and still others for the Caribbean. Some crews prefer to buddy-boat their way, some like to join rallies, and others prefer to sail by themselves. In more than three decades of sailing other people’s yachts (and lately my own boat) south in the fall, if there is one piece of advice I’d give anyone contemplating this voyage it would be: Throw away your calendar. The weather is what it is, and your schedule matters not a whit.

On a recent passage with a couple starting their dream of cruising the world on a well-found heavy-displacement cutter, we ended up stuck in Beaufort, North Carolina, for a full month as one system after another pounded through at 36- to 60-hour intervals. There was just no way we could pick a decent window to get across the Gulf Stream and far enough along the track to Tortola in the British Virgins to make it clear of the storm paths rolling through.

A couple of professional delivery crews passed through town and made a break for it, but they later reported very miserable passages and told me I’d done the right thing in waiting with my inexperienced crew. In the end, we had a delightful passage in near-ideal conditions. After completing that trip, I returned to Beaufort to get my own, much faster boat with a more experienced crew. I ended up waiting for another week for a weather window before we left. The point is you have to be patient. Good—or at least reasonable—conditions will roll around sooner or later. I tell my clients, “You’re cruising; you’re already home, so what’s your rush?”

I usually leave sometime in November from Newport, Rhode Island, bound for Bermuda. If you have a good boat capable of making the 650-mile passage in five days or less, except in rare years, you should be able to pick a good weather window, if you’re patient. Note how many times I qualified that statement. We have much better weather information nowadays than when I started delivering boats, but bear in mind that weather forecasting is not perfect, nor are professional weather routers. You, your crew and your boat should be prepared to get clobbered. Just as important, you should be prepared to motor if your boatspeed drops below about 5 knots; save the purity of sailing for when you’re south of Bermuda. That piece of North Atlantic water on the way to Bermuda bears a justified fierce reputation. It’s not a place to lollygag. For forecasts and Gulf Stream info, I use the excellent GFS forecast models from passageweather.com.

Planning and Preparation

Before I leave on a passage, I have my sails professionally inspected and any defects repaired. I have them pay special attention to batten pockets and sail slides. Sailmakers will do this for you for at a ­surprisingly reasonable price.

Another thing I do is load up the boat with spare fuel filters. I get a couple of 5-micron elements for the engine and at least half a dozen 30-micron elements for the Racor filter. You might run for years along the coast on the same filter, but once you get offshore and the seas start bouncing the boat around, any crud in the bottom of the fuel tank gets shaken up, and you’ll find yourself having to change filters until your tank is clean.

Along those lines, make sure your engine is happy being run for a long period. Test it by motoring continuously for several hours. Too often engines in sailboats are used simply to leave the mooring and charge the batteries. That’s a rotten thing to do to a diesel.

Your engine manual should tell you what rpm you should achieve running in forward gear. Get clear of other boats one day, and slowly mash the throttle all the way to the limit. Leave it there for five minutes or so. You won’t hurt your engine. Check the engine temperature to make sure it stays under about 180 degrees. If it doesn’t, it’s time to give your cooling system some love. If it revs above the maximum rpm rating, you might be able to add pitch to your propeller; if it comes up short, you might have too much pitch. (Obviously, I’m simplifying, so check with your mechanic before making changes.) Your cruising rpm is 75 to 80 percent of maximum rpm. Top up your diesel tanks and run for several hours at that speed, then fill the tank again to give you an idea of your fuel consumption; this will be an important number to keep in mind when you start thinking about fuel management on passage. Bear in mind that running at 60 percent of max rpm can greatly increase your range when you have to stretch your fuel in a prolonged calm. I always leave my main up for a little extra push and to damp any rolling—unless the sail is slatting hard, which can kill your sail in short order. Bear in mind also that it is not really that hard to make 3 or 4 knots just sailing in light airs.

While you’ve been preparing your boat and stowing spares, you also should have been thinking about crew. I like a three-person crew who can all steer a compass course and know how to sail, including when to trim or ease the sails, and when to call the skipper with questions. A three-person crew allows my favorite watch system: three hours on and six hours off. This allows the skipper and crew almost a full night’s sleep every nine hours, a vital element for keeping everyone safe and happy.

Enticing a good crew to take the time out to sail with you is a conundrum often solved with the promise of good food. My basic rule for provisioning is to never put any food on the boat that you wouldn’t eat at home. So no canned stew and very few tins of tuna, and definitely none of those cups of soup you add boiling water to. Our daily routine is for everyone to help themselves to breakfast cereal (unless someone feels like cooking for the crew); lunch is help-yourself cold- cut sandwiches, though in colder weather we’ll sometimes fall back to tomato soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches. And there is always plenty of peanut butter and jelly aboard.

Except in the roughest weather, we do our evening meal together at the 1800 watch change. Stews, chili and other meals can be premade and frozen before departure. Unless it’s rough, pasta is easy to cook underway and, along with rice, makes easily stowed emergency provisions too. Look at cookbooks and the People & Food column in this magazine and vary the menu, concentrating on stick-to-your-ribs meals up north and lighter, quickly cooked or uncooked fare once you reach the tropics.

Under Sail

All the care you put into provisioning will come to naught if your crewmembers aren’t hungry. Seasickness is the bogeyman for every sailor new to offshore passagemaking, and more than a few experienced sailors too. Experience has shown me that getting your favorite medicine into your system three days before your planned departure will go a long way toward preventing “Gulf Stream gastritis.” It doesn’t seem to matter which medicine you take (I use Bonine, which doesn’t make me as drowsy as some other meds), just get it into your system. During my offshore sailing program one year, I followed this plan when I left Newport for Bermuda with 54 people (aboard 10 boats) who’d never been to sea before. Only one mighty-man-of-the-sea who “never gets seasick” was sick. My wife follows this prescription and has gone from getting seasick on a dewy lawn to running the boat all night on the 200-mile passage across the Gulf of Maine from Cape Cod to Mount Desert Island alone on deck. A last important note: Don’t try a new seasick medicine for the first time right before your passage. A couple hundred miles at sea is not the place to discover you have a nasty or dangerous reaction to ­whatever you took.

When we left on the passage that caused the crew of the 50-footer to abandon ship, our forecast had called for the southeasterlies to blow at a manageable 25 knots, not the 35 to 40 we got. If that unfortunate crew had known to hoist a staysail and perhaps a reefed mizzen, and then either jogged long as we did or hove to, they might still be living their dream on their boat.

Heaving to is one of the most important of an offshore skipper’s tools. To heave to, you back your jib or staysail—that is, you sheet it hard on the wrong side of the direction the wind is blowing—and sheet in your reefed main enough to keep the wind about 60 degrees off the bow with your helm lashed hard over as if you’re trying to get the boat to tack. Done correctly, the boat will sit quietly through pretty intense conditions. This is a technique worth discussing and practicing before departure.

Though it happens, with modern forecasting and patience, you will rarely encounter storm conditions on the short legs from New England to Bermuda, and from Bermuda south to the islands, but it is best to understand and be prepared should it hit the fan. Fatty Goodlander’s excellent book Storm Proofing is recommended reading before you set sail.

Yes, reading articles like this one is enough to scare anyone into taking up RV’ing, but don’t let it. There is little that is more satisfying than sailing your boat at sea toward a distant horizon. There’s a reason so much has been ­written about the romance of the ocean. It’s worth the trouble to just get out there. And as Joshua Slocum once wrote, “To any young man contemplating a voyage, I would say go!”

One final word: Cruising sailor Douglas Bernon told me that before he and his wife, former CW editor Bernadette Bernon, left on their multiyear cruise, I had given him the most important of any advice he’d received before they left. “No matter what,” I’d told him, “each day, be sure to stop whatever you’re doing, relax, and watch the sunset.” And so I pass that along now: Don’t get so caught up in the preparation and operation of the boat that you forget to have fun!

As a delivery skipper, Andrew Burton has logged more than 350,000 nautical miles under sail. Aboard his Baltic 47, Masquerade, he also helps those new to passagemaking understand what it takes to cruise offshore successfully under the auspices of his company, Adventure Sailing. Upcoming voyages include passages from Rhode Island to Bermuda and the Caribbean, cruising through the islands, and a celestial-navigation passage from the British Virgin Islands to Key West. For more information, visit his website.

If the weather is bad, and systems keep moving through too often to leave you without a good window to make Bermuda from New England, the best option is to hop down the coast to Beaufort, North Carolina, one of my favorite ports on the East Coast. Typically, from New England, I head west down Long Island Sound to New York City. From Sandy Hook, New Jersey, at the entrance to New York Harbor, it’s a 110-mile hop down the Jersey shore to Cape May. I’ve had easy rides in smooth water half a mile off the beach, though it was blowing 40 knots from the northwest.

If conditions become uncomfortable, you can bail out into Manasquan Inlet or Atlantic City, where you’ll find good year-round marinas. From Cape May, it’s 150 miles across the mouth of Delaware Bay and down the DelMarVa Peninsula into Chesapeake Bay, where you can either head down the Intracoastal Waterway or pop into Hampton or Little Creek, Virginia, while you wait for a perfect weather window to sail the 200 miles around Cape Hatteras to Beaufort. From Beaufort, if you want to carry on to the Caribbean, it’s 850 miles to the important 25 degrees north, 65 degrees west waypoint that lines you up to reach across the trade winds and westerly current the final 400 miles to the Virgin Islands.

If you’re heading to the Bahamas or Florida, and prefer to be on the ocean rather than the Intracoastal, from Beaufort you have the choice of making the 150-mile overnight run to the Winah River or the 200 miles to Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is a good jumping-off spot for 25N/65W, but it’s no shorter than leaving from Beaufort.

South of Charleston, you have lots of ports to choose from in Georgia, should you want to tuck in, including Port Royal Sound, the ­Savannah River and Brunswick.

In the 300 miles down the east coast of Florida to Miami, without local knowledge, your ports are limited to Jacksonville, the sometimes-tricky St. Augustine Inlet, Cape Canaveral, Fort Pierce, Lake Worth Inlet, Port Everglades and, finally, Miami. The latter three are good spots from which to jump across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.

If you’re heading to the Caribbean, you won’t have done yourself any favors by departing from so far south; it’s still 850 miles to the 25N/65W waypoint, and now you stand a good chance of having to sail upwind a good part of the trip. Your tactic here should be to wait for a cold front to approach. As the wind veers from the prevailing southeast, make your departure when it is out of the south making for Great Isaac Cay at the entrance to Northwest Providence Channel. The wind will continue to veer as the front approaches and moves through. If you can make good speed, you might carry southwest to northwesterly winds most of the way to the waypoint.

An alternative is to island-hop all the way to the Virgin Islands via the “Thorny Path,” about which much has been written.

Rally Ho

Hank Schmitt, the founder of the crew-­networking service Offshore Passage Opportunities, this year will be running the 20th edition of his North American Rally to the Caribbean (NARC). Starting October 26 from two locations—Newport, Rhode Island, and Little Creek, Virginia—the NARC will call in Bermuda on the opening leg before the second stanza carries on to St. Maarten. The rally is free and includes discount docking space, parties, professional weather routing, and much more. For more information, visit the event website.

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Increasing criticism and confusion continues over Georgia’s new regulations for boaters who want to spend the night on their vessels. Following a public hearing in Brunswick on June 17, 2019, boating groups and industry representatives have expressed strong opinions that the new laws scheduled to go into effect in January are not necessary and the most restrictive in the United States.

At the core of the issue is how Georgia defines “live-aboard vessels” and where and when those vessels may anchor in the state’s coastal waters. There are additional regulations for requiring a permit to anchor, proof of pumping out holding tanks and criminal offenses for non-compliance.

RELATED: Update on the Proposed Georgia Anchoring Rules

Georgia-based marinas are also affected by the new laws, which are the result of passage of House Bill 201 (HB201) in the last session of the state’s General Assembly. Citing increased problems from derelict and abandoned vessels, and irresponsible boaters dumping untreated waste into the state’s waterways, the legislation purportedly was crafted to address those concerns. No empirical evidence has been offered by the state to support these issues.

Charlie Waller of Isle of Hope Marina says, “Unfortunately, the bad press from this bill is overshadowing some really creative work going on right now by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Georgia DNR who are making some of the most significant improvements to the state’s Intracoastal Waterway that we have seen in many years, such as dredging the channel near Jekyll Creek and other problem areas.”

Boaters are aiming their disapproval of the new laws across member forums, social media platforms and in blogs. The six distinct issues causing alarm are:

• The unclear and ill-defined label of “live-aboard vessels”
• Directing Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources to designate where boats may anchor versus where they cannot
• Restating provisions of the Clean Water Act specific to holding tank regulations
• Requiring boaters and marinas to create and maintain logs of when and where their vessels’ holding tanks were pumped clean
• Creating a permit and possible fee structure that vessels must apply for prior to anchoring
• Rolling up all the new laws into a criminal offense for non-compliance if cited and convicted

Discussions continue with Georgia DNR representatives who have taken the lead on evaluating comments from public hearings and submissions. While already signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp, another round of discussions may be forthcoming in the weeks ahead with industry representatives to assess the regulations and consider options for revisions.

Written comments are important to the official record and will be accepted through July 15, 2019. You are not required to be a Georgia resident. Send comments to: Kelly Hill, Coastal Resources Division, One Conservation Way, Brunswick, GA 31520. Email: Kelly.Hill@dnr.ga.gov

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Ed Tillett, editor-in-chief of Waterway Guide attended this week’s public hearing that addressed new anchoring restrictions in Georgia’s estuarine and tidal waters and offers this report.

Boaters, industry representatives and marine business owners all voiced their recommendations and concerns about House Bill 201, which was recently signed into law and contains several provisions that could prove to be the strictest and most far-reaching impediments in any U.S. state for those planning to anchor their vessels overnight in coastal waters.

As proposed, the new regulations would require a paid permit for anchoring in Georgia’s tidal waters whether one night or longer, and that vessel owners maintain records of where and when they conduct pump outs of their waste holding tanks. The measure also directs the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to establish anchorage areas.

RELATED: New Anchoring Rules Pending In Georgia

Of those who registered to speak, the predominant opinions were that new regulations and laws are not needed because most boat owners are responsible and conscientious, and additional oversight and fees are unwarranted and difficult to observe while traveling. There was almost unanimous concern that DNR is now authorized to delineate specific anchorage areas rather than adhere to existing policy that allows vessels to anchor anywhere provided they are outside navigable channels.

Doug Haymans, Director of the Coastal Resources Division of DNR, opened the meeting with an overview of the legislation and intent of the proposed regulations. Protecting existing sensitive shellfish areas and future aquaculture areas, alleviating derelict and abandoned vessels, and curbing nuisance vessels from operating outside of current law were given as the primary reasons for the new regulations. He also explained that the new laws will carry criminal penalties with their enforcement falling under Title 52, Chapter 7 of Georgia Code.

Active boaters, including Georgia residents and extended cruisers passing through the state, representatives from BoatUS, the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association (AGLCA), Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA), Marine Trawler Owners’ Association (MTOA), Georgia Marine Business Association (GAMBA), Waterway Guide Media and DeFever Cruisers Group presented recommendations and remarks questioning the reasons for the new regulations and how they will be enforced. There were approximately 70 attendees at the meeting.

A theme throughout the hearing was that Georgia has presented no evidence that boats, whether in marinas or at anchor, are polluting the state’s waterways. Additional questions to DNR representatives regarding the number of derelict and abandoned boats were met with estimates of “135 to 145” problem-vessels statewide. There also appears to be no record of the number of nuisance calls or complaints about live-aboard persons violating laws or regulations. Many in the public hearing asked why solutions are being offered for problems that don’t appear to exist?

NMMA’s Lee Gatts, manager of southeast policy and engagement, presented detailed comments to the proposed regulations and said that NMMA “strongly opposes” many of the provisions. These excerpts are from a prepared statement:

• The draft regulations and HB 201 require the state to prohibit anchorage everywhere except in designated anchorages. We believe the proposed regulations should be amended to require just the opposite. Anchorage should be allowed in estuarine waters by default, with restrictions put in place only to prevent hazards to navigation, and near boat ramps, in-water structures and areas deemed to have a specific need for protection, including shellfish beds.
• We strongly object to even the concept of treating anchorage in Georgia’s public waters like a hotel. We know of no state that charges boaters by the day to anchor in its waters. We do not believe this permit scheme will be enforceable given the severe shortage of on-water patrols and other resources. We expect it will be extremely costly and difficult for the state to provide sufficient education to transient boaters to create even minimal compliance with these fees.
• HB 201 goes to great length to create criminal penalties for a boater to not purchase and properly display an anchorage permit and/or to fail to retain records proving the use of a pumpout facility. Therefore, a person who anchors for a week in a lesser-used portion of a Georgia estuary faces a criminal penalty for failure to purchase a $20 sticker.
• Georgia’s marinas should not be required to maintain a record of pump outs, for what appears to be a way to cross-check the validity of a boater’s records. This excessive mandate places an unfair and costly burden on the businesses, and provides no benefit to the State, the environment or boaters.

Waterway Guide Media’s publisher, Jeff Jones, says, “We believe in safe boating, travel and adventure on America’s waterways. We stand with AGLCA, SSCA, MTOA and GAMBA in their position that if Georgia must enact laws that it believes will reduce derelict and nuisance vessels, and that charging boat owners to anchor is a solution, we support no fees for anchoring in Georgia for a 60-day period for vessels that are attended. If setbacks are needed, we support 150 feet from marine infrastructure. Extended cruising and long-range boating activities should not be overly impacted by this approach.”

Representative Don Hogan (R), District 179 of St. Simon’s Island was the sponsor and author of House Bill 201. Rep. Hogan spoke at the end of the hearing and thanked attendees for their comments and insight. He suggested that with the information presented during the public hearing, further consideration of the new regulations may be warranted. When questioned by some attendees whether he would consider repealing or revising the legislation, he said that he will evaluate the ongoing comments but could not commit to such an effort at this time.

DNR representatives and others on hand from Georgia’s legislature appeared to have been influenced by the keen insight and distinctive requirements of transient boaters and their lifestyles. There was strong sentiment expressed for another round of hearings to assist legislators in fully understanding the issues associated with the provisions of HB 201. Although no confirmation date was given, another hearing may be scheduled for October 2019.

Written comments are important to the official record and will be accepted through July 15, 2019. You are not required to be a Georgia resident. Send comments to: Kelly Hill, Coastal Resources Division, One Conservation Way, Brunswick, GA 31520. Kelly.Hill@dnr.ga.gov

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North and southbound East Coast sailors whose travels take them along the Intracoastal Waterway in Georgia should pay close attention to evolving regulations that could dramatically affect access to transient anchorages.

Proposed changes could limit the use of some areas for overnight or longer-term anchoring, create a permit requirement and institute possible fees, among other new regulations.

Cruisers will be able convey their concerns directly to lawmakers at a public hearing set for June 17, 2019 in Brunswick, Georgia, or they can submit written comments through July 15, 2019.

House Bill 201 (HB201) was signed into law on May 7, 2019 and authorizes the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to begin developing regulations and enforcement provisions specific to when and where vessels may anchor and to create a permitting process. Further language in the new law addresses revisions specific to where liveaboard vessels may be located and how owners must manage waste in their onboard holding tanks.

Kim Russo, Executive Director of America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association (AGLCA), has been following the legislation for the past few months and says, “As written, these regulations will have far-reaching effects on recreational vessels that use the AICW in Georgia during their trips north and south. We are crafting proposed changes to submit during the upcoming public comment period that better reflect the requirements of boaters.”

The measure was introduced in February 2019 and sailed through both houses of the Georgia legislature. (See the bill’s history here .) In addition to near unanimous backing by the General Assembly, it was also supported by the Georgia Wildlife Federation and Georgia Conservancy. Many boating organizations whose members comprise active and transient cruisers are opposed to much of the language in Georgia’s new law and have expressed dissatisfaction at not being included in the planning of the legislation.

Leadership of the AGLCA, Seven Seas Cruising Association, Marine Trawlers Owners Association and ad hoc groups and committees are rallying to influence the follow-on actions by the DNR, which is responsible for defining and promulgating any new regulations. Social media sites and member forums have been abuzz for the past two weeks with concerns that Georgia’s legislature and associated agencies misunderstand the state’s resources and has mismanaged the process. The firestorm of protests and social media postings indicate a great deal of concern and bitterness by thousands of mariners who regularly spend weeks and months aboard their vessels either moving through the state or enjoying their home waters.

Much like Florida and other states where anchoring in public waters is prevalent, Georgia is grappling with an increasing number of derelict, abandoned and unattended vessels that pose multiple problems for communities, in addition to more full-time liveaboard persons. (See Background and Synopsis included in the Proposed Regulation Changes.)

At the core of this issue is the ongoing concern by boaters who transit America’s waterways that their options for dropping an anchor out of the channel for a night, or several nights, is being increasingly encumbered and subject to more government oversight and enforcement. Most are asking if the anchoring regulations in Florida and Georgia portend similar actions by other states and municipalities in the future.

Coastal communities, neighborhoods, waterfront residents, marinas and private property owners are putting the pressure on their government representatives to stem the tide of unprincipled boat owners who abandon their vessels, leave them unattended at anchor without reasonable supervision or thumb their noses at regulations while anchored for months on end in the same place. As a result, conscientious boaters see their choices limited, as in the case of Florida’s increased enforcement and oversight of anchored vessels, which may sometimes be warranted and sometimes not, depending on the interpretation of local law enforcement.

Among the many questions on the minds of boat owners is what will Georgia decide? What happens in the next state to address the issues? How many different regulations do I have to know when passing through different jurisdictions? What are the consequences of noncompliance?

The public hearing on the proposed amendments will be held in Brunswick, Georgia on Monday, June 17, 2019, at 5:30 p.m. at the Coastal Regional Headquarters of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources located at 1 Conservation Way, Brunswick, GA 31520. You are not required to be a resident of Georgia to attend or submit remarks.

Written comments will be accepted through July 15, 2019. Send them to: Kelly Hill, Coastal Resources Division, One Conservation Way, Brunswick, GA 31520. Kelly.Hill@dnr.ga.gov

Ed Tillett is Editor-in-Chief of Waterway Guide Media.

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Caribbean 1500 boats at Nanny Cay, BVI

****Camaraderie, weather routing, competition, and discounted fuel and dockage are just some of the reasons why hundreds of sailors choose to cruise in company. Here are some of the rallies leaving this fall from the U.S. to destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico.

Caribbean 1500
More than 1,200 boats and 5,000 ralliers have participated in the Caribbean 1500 since it began in 1990. This popular event leaves from Hampton, Virginia, on November 4, 2012, and heads down to either Green Turtle Cay (for ARC Bahamas participants) or Nanny Cay, BVI. The Caribbean 1500 attracts a diverse fleet of experienced sailors on racing designs, classic plastics, production cruisers, and multihulls. Kids and pets are also frequently aboard! Planning seminars are available as well as a pre-departure tutorial, and crew is available if needed.

North American Rally to the Caribbean
Leaving from Newport, Rhode Island, the NARC has the northernmost starting point, making it a more challenging undertaking. The fleet, which consists of professionally captained Nautor’s Swan sailboats and experienced blue-water sailors, will set sail on November 1, 2012, and head to St. Martin with a stopover in Bermuda. For more information on the NARC, or for crew positions, contact Hank Schmitt at Offshore Passage Opportunities.

Salty Dawg Rally
Also leaving from Hampton, Virginia, on November 4, the Salty Dawg Rally is a low-key cruise in company that winds up in the BVI. Started last year by cruisers Bill and Linda Knowles, who sail aboard their Jeanneau 54DS Sapphire along with their salty dog Brie, the event continues to grow in popularity. The Salty Dawg Rally is free for participants and provides lots of perks and discounts.

Baja-Haha Cruisers Rally
This hugely popular event attracts more than 200 boats for an annual cruise down the West Coast from San Diego, California, to Cabo San Lucas at the end of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. The 750-mile downhill run is open to both sail and power boats that are longer than 27 feet, and there’s two stops along the way that are timed so that even the slowest boats will have at least a day of R&R at each port. This year’s Baja-Haha is the 19th annual rally and the boats depart on October 29. Social events at each of the stops ensure that a good time is had by all.
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