Cruising World - February 2016

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FEBRUARY

2016

cruisingworld.com

12

Use Your Head

for a More Stable

Toilet Seat

“Don’t laugh,” writes

Pam Wall. “This is a

serious business! How

many of you have been

sailing in a brisk head-

wind heeled over, or a

rolling quarter sea, or

a seriously lumpy piece

of ocean? You go below

to relieve yourself, and

the boat is bouncing

around, maybe heeled

over quite far, and that

toilet seat is sliding all

over the place!” Read

Pam’s toilet seat tips,

including some DIY

modifi cations, at her

blog, Pam Says.

cruisingworld.com/

1602head

Hurricane Hole

The Robertson family

is preparing Del Viento

to ride out the tropical

cyclone season on

a mooring in the

relatively protected

waters of the Vava‘u

island group in Tonga.

Michael Robertson

writes: “It’s unnerving.

There is no concrete,

perfect list of things

we can do to guaran-

tee a good outcome

if Mother Nature

unleashes on Tonga

and Del Viento. It’s a

matter of doing our

absolute best with all

the knowledge we have

and can get from oth-

ers, and then hoping

for luck.” Read about

storm preparations at

Michael’s blog,

Log of Del Viento.

cruisingworld.

com/1602delviento

Our belly-dancing fellow sailors (“Be It Hermit or Herd,” January 2016) are both doc-

tors. Dr. Nadire Berker (with the diamond in her navel) is an orthopedic pediatrician

and a specialist in cerebral palsy. Her husband, Selim Yalcin, was head of orthopedic

surgery at Istanbul’s largest teaching hospital. They have written many medical text-

books as well as a huge book on Istanbul’s maritime history. They have been dispensing

a lot of free medical advice for patients and local doctors as they travel around the

world on their boat. — Carolyn Goodlander, Via email

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NOW THERE YOU GO AGAIN
Once again, you’ve taken a won-
derful story about cruising with
kids, “Hunting for the Kids Fleet”
(October 2015), and ruined it with
accompanying photos of children
not wearing PFDs. Astonishingly,
this seems to happen regularly in
your magazine. As the father of
three sailing boys who love read-
ing Cruising World each month, I
do everything I can to encourage
them to stay safe on the water. Re-
peatedly showing kids without life
jackets undermines that message
and seems counter to what your
mission should be. We are also
avid cyclists, and those magazines
would never post a photo of any-
one, child or adult, riding without
a helmet.
Harry Greenspun
Bethesda, Maryland
ODE TO OFFSEASON
CRUISING
We sailed Ty g a, our Lagoon 39, to
the Greek island of Kastellorizo
on April 23, 2015. The town was
active, though in lull-before-
the-storm mode. In a month,
the bulkhead rimming the town
would be loaded with visiting
boats. The shoulder cruising sea-
sons have much going for them.
Chris White
Via email
CHECK THAT CHAIN
My wife and I sail a 34-foot boat
on the Gulf Coast. Last spring
we were anchored behind Santa
Rosa Island near Fort Walton
Beach, Florida, in about 10 feet
of water with a sand bottom. I
set a 35-pound CQR on 90 feet
of stainless chain with a shock-
absorbing snubber. Around 2
a.m. that night, a squall hit with
winds approaching 50 knots. It
blew for almost 45 minutes before
subsiding. The next day I raised
the anchor and we sailed on to-
ward Pensacola, but around noon
we were caught in open water in
Santa Rosa Sound as another se-
vere storm approached. This time
I set two anchors, a 16 -pound For-
tress on mostly 5/8-inch nylon,
and the CQR on all chain. Again
we had no problems, even though
the winds again blew to near 50.
Unfortunately the anchor wind-
lass motor failed during chain
retrieval, so for the remainder of
the season I retired the CQR and
all chain rode. This year I fi nally
got around to pulling the anchor
windlass and replaced the motor.
As I was feeding the chain back
down the hawsepipe, I noticed a
single link, not far from the an-
chor attachment, that looked odd.
On closer examination, I saw the
link’s weld had parted, and the gap
was fi lled in with mud.
This was supposedly high-
quality chain from a local vendor.
Initially I’d felt that I could trust
this chain, as it had been holding
up well for almost 15 years. But
after this link failure, I decided
to load-test it at a local machine
shop. We hooked it to an overhead
10-ton hoist and attached about
15 feet of chain to a 500-pound
weight. The chain snapped be-
fore the weight was fully lifted. It
should have held 1,300 pounds or
more. When another section was
tested, it failed the same way. And
I trusted this chain to hold my
boat in storm conditions!
Just fi nding this one broken
link was a stroke of luck. After
all, how often do we inspect an-
chor chain link by link? When so
much depends on securing our
boats to the bottom in a storm,
I strongly urge readers to check
their anchor chain link by link
as part of their spring fi tting
out; even better, do a load test.
You just can’t take anything for
granted when it comes to secur-
ing a boat in a storm.
William Capelle
Gulfport, Mississippi CAROLYN GOODLANDER (TOP), CHRIS WHITE