Offshore Sailing and Cruising with Paul Trammell Paul Trammell

Merrill lives on his Tashiba 36 in a Marina in Boston and runs the business Shipshape, which connects marine contractors and boat owners. We talk about the pros and cons of living in a marina, marina pirates, dating while living in a marina, drunks falling off docks, dinghies, through-hiking the Appalachian Trail, making 1000 origami cranes, shopping for a boat, Shipshape, sailing destinations in New England and Boston, Nova Scotia, Panama, hunting for lost planes in The Bahamas, treasure hunting, writing, running over a red nun buoy in a catamaran, and more!

Olivier Hendrix is a long-time offshore sailor and the develper of iNav4U. We talk about sailing in the Mediterranean and Patagonia, storm training in the North Sea in the Winter, going overboard while tethered to the mast, staying warm in the North Sea, iNav4U, and much more.

Part 2 of my interview with Steve Alexander, who lost his autopilot on the way to the Azores from Bermuda. He also had failing backstays on the way, and a lost swing-keel. We talk about all this, as well as getting weather reports while offshore, Irridium, Starlink, Garmin InReach, approaching islands safely, provisioning, the danger of deferring responsibility, the importance of emotional support during a crisis, and much more

Steve was recently sailing from Bermuda to the Azores when he had a series of misfortunes, including losing the swing keel, backstay failure, and autopilot failure, leaving him undercanvassed and forced to steer when awake, and hove-to when sleeping, for about three weeks. We also talk about his boat, a Brewer 12.8, his previous boat, a Hallberg Rassy Rasmus, designing a windsheild for his boat, losing the swing keel between the Bahamas and Bermuda, safety, perseverance, Starlink, PredictWind, sailing solo vs with crew, and more.

Bob Bitchin is a sailor, a biker, an author of 11 books, and publisher of Latitudes and Attitudes magazine. We talk about sailing on other people's boats, anchoring on the Pacific side of Panama, fin-keel boats vs full-keel boats, eating rattlesnakes, working as a bodyguard for Evel Knievel, motorcycle clubs, similarities between biking and sailing, the brotherhood of sailors, ketches and sloops, sailing with Greenpeace on a suare-rigger, in-boom furling, Share the Sail charters, and much more.

Simon is the sales manager for North America for Victron Energy. We talk about lithium vs AGM batteries, alternator charging, DC/DC chargers, designing a solar array, starter batteries, the value of finding good information and asking questions, questions from Patreon patrons, high-output alternators, remote monitioring of your electrical system, expanding a solar array, sizing and inverter, and more.