2 days ago
Topic:
Shetland Light Dues
GingerPosts: 13
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Hi Lisa,
We (Alchemy) were in and out of Lerwick and the SIs over a number of years (~~2014) and even over wintered our boat there one winter. We never heard a word of what you report.
Not only was Lerwick wonderful but also the archipelago for land or water cruising.
As Americans, the UK allowed us 6 months as opposed to Europe and Norway where we had to be out in 3. From Lerwick it was an easy overnight to the Norway coast and then back at the end of 3 months.
A historical book of great interest to the area is “The Shetland Bus” about WWII and the boat traffic from the SIs to Norway.
I have notes on Lerwick and the SIs and Norway if interested. Contact me off-line at alchemy128(at)gmail.com.
My best, Envious of your being in those waters, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
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3 days ago
Topic:
Shetland Light Dues
Simon CurrinAdministrator Posts: 831
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Lisa,
The Northern Lighthouse Board collect Light Dues for the General Lighthouse Fund but, as far as I am aware, it is only paid by commercial vessels and is based on tonnage.
We have never been asked to pay in the UK but lighthouse fees are levied on leisure craft in some Pacific Island nations eg Tonga.
Simon
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3 days ago
Topic:
Shetland Light Dues
Romy.McIntoshPosts: 3
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Hi Lisa,
You could try contacting the PO for Shetland and see if he has any more information: Andrew Halcrow, elsiarrub@gmail.com
Thanks!
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4 days ago
Topic:
Shetland Light Dues
Charles.LenhoffPosts: 7
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Friends,
I received an email out of the blue from Cristina Sutton who claims to be a "Light Dues Administrator" in Shetland...
She's asking a dues payment for entering Lerwick from Norway in July on our boat.
I called her and she explained the dues were for using the lighthouses as navigation aids.
She sent us the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 which outlines her claim for Light Dues.
But nothing in applies to us and something smells fishy here.
Has anyone heard about this?
~Lisa
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21 days ago
Topic:
Chesapeake to UK Spring 2026
DickPosts: 425
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Ken, Sorry for the redundancy, I just noticed that I had already replied to this stream. Dick
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21 days ago
Topic:
Chesapeake to UK Spring 2026
DickPosts: 425
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Hi Ken,
I suspect you are aware of the newly published CCA Essential Guide to the Viking Route. I was part of the group who wrote it. My wife and I did the VR from Europe to North America in 2017. Had the VR guide existed, it would have saved us well over a hundred hours in preparatory research in the year before we left and answered many of the questions that were difficult to get information on.
It was a great way to get across the Atlantic. We were not in “delivery mode” and spent most of the season in the crossing cruising the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland, before fetching up in Newfoundland: and then falling so in love that we stayed in the Canadian Maritimes for the next 3 years.
Come back with questions.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
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22 days ago
Topic:
Chesapeake to UK Spring 2026
Ken.ColePosts: 1
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Hi Philip,
My wife and I are planning to cross 2026 summer to northern Europe. We may not be beneficial as crew, but happy to collaborate or buddy boat across. We are wintering in Annapolis, MD (Chesapeake) and at the moment evaluating the north Viking route across. We have several friends that may join as crew for different legs, and may know 1-2 that could potentially crew with you. Feel free to reach out. Best,
Ken
SV Remedy
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28 days ago
Topic:
Electronic Navigation Systems V2
Alan LesliePosts: 3
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This new publication from the Royal Instuitute of Navigation is excellent and should be on the reading list of every amateur skipper and navigator.
Free download : https://rin.org.uk/page/ENav
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10/11/2025
Topic:
Norfolk to USVI
Juan Borg ManducaPosts: 1
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Hi, we are waiting for a weather window to cross from Norfolk to the USVI in our monohull. If any other boats have the same plans, please let me know as will be great to buddy up.
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05/11/2025
Topic:
Southern Chesapeake Bay, 11/11/2025
Tad.ThompsonPosts: 1
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Looking for crew member to join me for a sail down chesapeake bay from deltaville to Portsmouth, VA. on my Tartan 37. 1 day, Tuesday, November 11. Tad Thompson, 804-240-4993
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03/11/2025
Topic:
observation on flooding the cockpit
DickPosts: 425
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Hi all, an observation:
There is always concern about getting pooped. And, one might make a case for canoe sterns being more vulnerable as there is less reserve buoyancy so the stern might not rise to get above a following wave as a wider stern would. In numerous miles in boisterous conditions and large seas from the stern, Alchemy (a Valiant 42) has never taken a drop of water into the cockpit from the stern. But it has happened twice in my memory that we have had substantial (~~70+% filled) water flood the cockpit. Both times we were going fast on a beam-ish reach in moderate winds and swell and things lined up so we rolled into a wave which came sweeping down the leeward deck pretty much filling the cockpit.
I now consider this event statistically likely in those sailing conditions. Had we not had a seat-level bridgedeck, significant water would have sluiced below decks making for a big salty mess, but not anything dangerous. With the bridgedeck, the foot well was filled and we received a nice demo of the time it takes for the water to drain out. No water found its way below.
As an under-way habit all cockpit lockers are secured with a clip and, the latch being secured also compresses the gasket a bit.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
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02/11/2025
Topic:
Messenger line hack
Simon CurrinAdministrator Posts: 831
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A great tip - thank you Dick.
Simon
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02/11/2025
Topic:
Messenger line hack
DickPosts: 425
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Hi all,
A winter mast-up messenger line hack:
Removing one’s running rigging lines and replacing with messenger lines for the winter if your mast is left up is just wise.
I looked at my messenger lines waving in the breeze with some trepidation for years wondering how they would fare over a long and windy winter. And then, some random comment, led me to wrap the messenger lines multiple times spiral-like around whatever stay, shroud or rf foil was handy. This kept them well behaved, unlikely to chafe or to jump out of the sheave, etc. and much less likely to break with all the problems that follow from that.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
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26/10/2025
Topic:
Chesapeake to UK Spring 2026
DickPosts: 425
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Hi Chris and Phillip,
A few words on the Northern route below;
The route you are contemplating has a wealth of suggestions as it is so commonly done: I believe I used Jimmy Cornell’s World Passage book along with articles on the subject. There is a lot out there. The big question is how early to leave and still ensure (or make least likely) having a hurricane join you.
The best advice we received was not to treat the Azores as just a “fuel depot” mid-ocean. So, we spent the season crossing and spent 6 weeks in Bermuda, almost 3 months in the Azores visiting 8 of the 9 islands (just fabulous) before fetching up in Portugal in late September or so.
Feel free to come back with questions.
My best, Dick Stevenson. s/v Alchemy
The Atlantic Canadian Maritimes are, indeed, wonderful cruising.
An alternative: a west>east Northern route to Europe (CA, Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, Scotland/Europe) is covered in the new “CCA Essential Passage Guide to the Viking Route” (as is the more commonly accomplished east>west Viking route) along with a wealth of guidance on sailing northern waters.
There is also a new edition of the CCA’s cruising guide to Newfoundland as well as updates/new editions in the works or accomplished to CCA guides to the Canadian Maritime waters (Nova Scotia, Labrador, the Gulf of St. Lawrence).
Over 3-4 years, I spent 4+ months each season cruising this area and did the Viking route on a return to North America in 2017.
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25/10/2025
Topic:
Chesapeake to UK Spring 2026
Chris.LobelPosts: 1
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Hi Philip,
Have you thought about taking northern route back - Nova Scotia - Newfie - Azores . The passage from Newfie to Azores is only 1200nm and Canada is an awesome cruising area.
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25/10/2025
Topic:
Sailing to Scoresbysund, Greenland
Henrik JohnsenPosts: 1
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We sailed 2400Nm from our home port on the west coast of Norway to Scoresbysund on the east coast of Greenland this summer. Feel free to check it out here<
edited by Moon on 25/10/2025
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18/10/2025
Topic:
Pacific crossing
navegante1105Posts: 2
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Hi, I am Agustin, Gran Canaria Port Officer. I am pleased to offer my help as crew for anyone crossing the Atlantic this year, or crossing the Pacific.next year. I have done an atlantic crossing, and I did Panama channel crossing and sailing to Galápagos islands early this year. My desire is to do the Pacific crossing to French Polinesia. As I said, I have experience on Panama canal crossing and sailing on Galápagos islands. I speak spanish( helpful when staying in Panama and Galápagos),and speak english too.
Cheers, Agustin.
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14/10/2025
Topic:
Social Media for nostalgics (SSB)
DickPosts: 425
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Hi Simon,
A wonderfully written appreciation: thanks for sharing.
Alchemy’s passage -making has often been made to feel less isolated by our SSB skeds with other vessels going a similar direction.
It should be noted that some of the nets, particularly some of the weather nets, are done on SSB Amateur (Ham) radio frequencies (at least the last time I paid attention) the license for which is very much easier to obtain now that Morse Code proficiency is greatly reduced.
My best, Dick Stevenson, KC2HKW, WCZ7717
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13/10/2025
Topic:
Social Media for nostalgics (SSB)
Simon CurrinAdministrator Posts: 831
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Social Media for nostalgics
I love being connected to all things digital 24/7 and freely admit that I have a nerdy part of my brain that can be dismissive of analogue evangelists.
But this year something changed. The imminence of a significant birthday sparked a nostalgia for the early days of our ocean passage making. This coincided with our buddy boats all having rubbish vhf aerials, a crossing of paths with a passionate radio HAM and the existence of some terrific SSB nets a thousand miles away.
Single Sideband Radio, or SSB for short, is a high frequency, decades old, radio communication technology that’s powerful enough to span a hemisphere. Until the millennium it was the only way boats communicated when crossing oceans. Those that had it used SSB to get weather forecasts, report their positions and summon assistance when sinking. It worked most of the time but it had its quirks and propagation of radio waves could be a bit too hit and miss for my liking. Nevertheless, we used it loads in the 90’s.
When we built Shimshal 2 we installed our old SSB radio from her predecessor but it sat at our chart table both unloved and unused for two decades as satellite technology extinguished the need for old fashioned radio. Many, including me, have said that SSB is dead and cannot be resuscitated.
Then, on a lovely afternoon in Tonga, Mike called by in his dinghy and offered to test our SSB set in the hope that we might tune into an impromptu group of friendly cruisers all heading in the same direction. Mike is, perhaps, more nerdy than me but embraces old technologies as well as the new. He measured the power our SSB sent to our backstay aerial and smiled at his findings. He then spent 90 minutes re-programming our set to make it almost analogue-idiot proof. How could we say no to joining his fledgling ‘Impromptu Net’?
My first problem was that the net was to be run at 0700z and I hadn’t a clue when that was but it did sound awfully early for a notoriously late riser. Google helped by explaining that HAM radioists call UTC ‘Z’ for reasons that remain unknown. So 0700Z translated into a much more acceptable 2000 local time.
I was so amazed that anyone heard me at all when I made my first, faltering SSB call in 20 years. Indeed, I was so shocked that I lost my powers of ‘radio-speech’. All that I had learned on a long range radio course in 2003 deserted me and I fluffed and jumbled my lines. For that transmission I was given the ‘dog’s breakfast’ award by the silky smooth net operator and took my rightful place at the bottom of the class.
Luckily, there was some stiff competition for the bottom of the class and soon I was joined by those who reported their position in decimals of a degree and those that mixed their SOG’s with their COG’s. The harder we tried the harder it became to string radio-fluent words together.
It didn’t matter. The background noise from radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere blurs the message and, in the days when analogue was all we had, clarity counted. But now a quick WhatsApp clears up a mis-spoken word and the muddled messages can easily be unscrambled by a glance at our digital gizmos that broadcast SOG and COG to giant public databases every minute of every day.
What did matter is that we were communicating by voice in a time-honoured fashion across hundreds of miles of ocean. It was,unexpectedly, rather lovely. Human voices, wrapped in crackles and punctuated by weird, otherworldly, noises were bouncing from boat to boat with a little help from the the upper atmosphere and a mysterious thing called propagation. Magical. We had our own, old-style, social network,
As with all social media I quickly became re-addicted and, within a few days, I was reaching out for more with growing enthusiasm. I hooked into Gulf Harbour Radio in New Zealand and had nighty chats with Patricia and David who we hope to meet up with when we make it to Auckland. Patricia even complemented me on the strength of my signal!
Most enjoyable of them all was the ‘Broken VHF Net’ between us and our buddy boats with the wonky aerials. Being just over the horizon their signals came booming in and we all enjoyed the nightly chatter that is part of being human. We were proud that our own mini-net may not always have been in perfect radio-English!
So SSB is not dead. It’s a wonderful social media for the nostalgics amongst us who value friendly voices mixed with a little static and a smattering of ionospheric distortion. We will be reaching out to our SSB equipped friends when we next cross an ocean.
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12/10/2025
Topic:
12V panel replacement
DickPosts: 425
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Hi Tim,
Are you planning to do the works yourself?
Putting in a 12v panel with breakers can be pretty straightforward, but I wonder whether your concern is undoing what sounds like an unusual electrical design that causes regular problems.
It is not easy, and probably unwise, to work on a boat’s electrical system without schematics. I would start by developing a schematic for your present DC system and then move on to designing your new 12v system with breakers. Schematics allow you to do the bulk of the thinking work ahead of time and will save many hours in the long run.
While doing so read a couple of the excellent books on marine electrical design and work practices. Both are excellent winter projects.
But, in particular, get a copy of ABYC’s standards (they have a reduced rate for boat owners) or the EU equivalent.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Come back with any specific questions.
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