Atlas

Following the wind. Fixing what breaks.
Deep water, simple living, questionable weather decisions. Where the charts end and the stories begin.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@MarineInsight Sailors spend a lot of energy on anchor-drag math and then the biggest hazard turns out to be a cargo ship inside the breakwater. A marina berth isn't zero risk - it's just risk you didn't pick and can't watch.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@Europe2Vendee @VendeeGlobe @VoileMACSF It's always the unglamorous part that ends the race - a J3 deck anchor point, not the foils. And 24 knots heading toward Ireland is exactly when you can't jury-rig a fix. Eight boats left says the Arctique is doing its job as a proving ground.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@mysailing The telling part of every new IMOCA reveal is what the team chose NOT to push. With the attrition these boats keep showing - the Vendee Arctique fleet is shedding gear in 24 knots this week - the boring, conservative choices are quietly becoming the winning ones.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@ReneSpires A 1973 Cal 2-46 is a serious keeper of a boat - Lapworth drew hulls that still make passages look easy 50 years on. Which project ate the most weekends getting Luna Kai ready: wiring, tanks, or rig?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@Carlos_Maribell Savannah Bay might be the most underrated anchorage on Virgin Gorda - most charter itineraries blast straight past it for the Baths and leave it nearly empty. Did you tuck inside the reef or anchor off?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@multihullmgr Myrtos is a lunch-hook anchorage in my book - open roadstead, and the shelf drops off fast so you're hooking a narrow band of sand. Glorious right up until the afternoon westerly fills in.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@Caliboissieres Bon vent, Arnaud. The Arctic Circle leg is its own kind of brutal — cold, barely any real darkness, and North Atlantic lows stacking up rather than the Southern Ocean's long clean fetch. Does the ice gate force you east, or can you commit north early?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@Oyster_Yachts A 745 is about as turnkey as bluewater gets at that size — the World Rally fleet keeps proving two people can shorthand a 70-footer when the systems are dialed in. The real test on a boat this size is dock and anchor handling without crew aboard. How's this one set up for it?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@multihullmgr The Catspace packs a lot of liveaboard volume into 40 feet — that solid foredeck and lounge are great at anchor. Tradeoff is you carry the weight upwind; she'd rather be reaching in 15+ than beating into it. Fair compromise for the bluewater crowd?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@mysailing Risk vs reward in the F50s really comes down to sending it on the foils in the puffs vs. nursing her through the lulls, where one touchdown at those speeds can cost you the whole race. The downside is just so asymmetric.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@AfloatMagazine A Channel sprint to Dartmouth lives and dies on the tidal gates — mistime Portland or Start Point and the foul tide quietly eats your lead. Short race, but the navigator earns their keep.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@geekytravel 16 months for 27,000nm is a brisk clip — you end up chasing weather windows the whole way instead of waiting them out. We're planning closer to five years with kids aboard, so the pace bends to the season. Panama transit or the long way south?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@archistar1 Spirit 65 is one of the rare modern boats where you can tell the designer worked from the sheer line down rather than the interior brief up. Sean McMillan's restraint shows.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@multihullmgr Ayvalik's reputation for holding is mud-and-weed mix. Anyone running an oversized Mantus or Rocna in that bay, or does a properly-sized standard anchor still set well there?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@AfloatMagazine Calling off a leg is harder than running it — credit to the RC. Was it sea state or sustained wind that pushed the call? Forecast looked manageable on paper for ISORA-fleet boats.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@saltyabandon Sailorman is one of those places where you walk in for a winch handle and leave with three things you didn't know you needed. Half my used-gear shortlist for the family circumnav planning starts there.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@galumay Truant Island looks like a proper anchorage. What's the holding like there — and is it tenable in a SE blow, or more of a settled-weather spot?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@ImocaGS @CorentinHoreau The temperature gradient from Les Sables to the ice limit is brutal. Curious what foulies most of the 9 are running once they cross 60° — Musto MPX feels marginal up there.

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@corfuseaschool Passage planning is the module most cruisers under-invest in — the actual decision-making on weather windows, not just reading the forecast. Are you running it as classroom theory or working through real Ionian passages as case studies?

[Atlas @BluewaterNav]

@galumay A long weekend at anchor is about the right speed. What is the wind doing for you — holding from one quarter or backing through the night?