![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMG_6015-300x225.jpg)
An Accidental Enterprise
Packaged gear for the new webstore. One of the things that keeps life interesting is trying new things: a new ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/20231128_071457-225x300.jpg)
A Foray into the Fast Unknown
Ganymede: a heavy, full-keel, gaff-rigged cutter. It has probably become obvious to the alert reader that I’m partial to full-keel, ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2145-300x225.jpg)
A Synthetic Rigging Upgrade: Vectran to Dyneema
Ganymede sailing hard with synthetic rigging. Masthead with soft attachments and the Lashing Tang When we first rigged Ganymede’s light-pole ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/20230830_192924-225x300.jpg)
Refit and Relaunch
Picking Ganymede up with an hydraulic trailer Launching by trailer at a public launch ramp in Bristol The surest way ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/20230309_083737-225x300.jpg)
Believe in the Method
The beginning of the method And if I haven’t had time to update this blog lately, dear Reader: be comforted! ...
![Greenland Fjord](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/mblog1-300x225.jpg)
Returning to Normal?
The Arctic is not most people's "normal" I wondered, as Polar Sun rolled downwind across the Beaufort Sea along the ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/cblog7-rotated-e1688687475152-300x181.jpg)
The Final Push is Half the Battle.
Gjoa Haven, on King WIllian Island, Nunavut. It was as if the world had run out of interesting, that week ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/eblog17-300x225.jpg)
A Farewell to Ice
Hanging out in Pasley Bay We weren’t expecting to get out of Pasley Bay on our last day there, and ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/qblog11-300x200.jpg)
Foolish, Careless, or Unlucky?
Pack ice approaching Pasley Bay. “Well,” we thought. “Here we are again!” I’m talking, of course, about the south arm ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/eblog12-1-300x200.jpg)
Farthest North
Beechey Island, at 74 1/2 degrees North latitude. It was cold as Polar Sun motored at length into the spacious ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/pblog1-225x300.jpg)
Managed Expectations
Crossing Baffin Bay from Greenland to Baffin Island. The tricky thing about expectations is that no matter how well you ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Iblog19-225x300.jpg)
The Treasures of the Snow
The Icefjord I'm about to talk about. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time in Aasiaat. To begin with, ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/hblog3-300x225.jpg)
Into the Arctic
Nuuk is very lovely when the weather's good... Nothing I had ever read or heard had led me to believe ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/kblog3-225x300.jpg)
Late Nights and Big Crossings
Red Bay, Labrador It was supposed to be an easy run from Flowers Cove, Newfoundland, to Chateau Bay, Labrador: gentle ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/nblog6-300x225.jpg)
Leaving with Regret
Cruising Newfoundland with the family some years back. There have been, in the nearly thirty years that I’ve been cruising, ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ablog3-300x225.jpg)
Sailing for Greenland
Polar Sun, a Stevens 47, enroute to Greenland For nearly a year before this trip began, neither Mark nor I ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/lblog13-225x300.jpg)
When Time is Short
Breadboat on a trailer A test-row on Psammead. When only a few weeks were left before my departure for a ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/gblog13-225x300.jpg)
Preparing for the Unknown
Ganymede's cabin getting stowed and sorted for a voyage to the tropics. Once there, all you need is bare feet ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Bbblog1-300x225.jpg)
Winter’s Final Bite
The final blow to the canopy, after the snow receded. I mentioned, a few posts back, the ill-fated bow shed ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DSCN5395-1-300x225.jpg)
Invention’s Other Mother
Adapting a bracket for the windvane while at anchor One of the reasons that the old saw about necessity being ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/20210127_081940-300x225.jpg)
Catching up Some More
Ganymede uncovered in winter In a huge departure from my normal practice of letting everyone forget I even have a ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/DSCN5249-300x225.jpg)
Catching Up
A half dozen or so blog posts back, before getting distracted by the tiny schooner Pshrimp, I hinted at a ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_5956-300x225.jpg)
All You Can Really Want
View from Cathedral Ledge in New Hampshire For about a week after the first failed launch of Pshrimp that I ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMG_5052-300x225.jpg)
The “P” is Psilent
Emily paints Pshrimp's name on It happens, from time to time, that an alert reader or acquaintance will express wonder ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/40-300x225.jpg)
A Paper Trail for a Plywood Boat
Spring, where we live, always comes in fits and starts. Last month I wore shorts to work; two days later ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DSCN4811-300x225.jpg)
A Season for Not Much
February in New England When King Solomon famously said that there is a season for everything, he obviously had not ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/DSCN4793-300x225.jpg)
A Man’s Home is His Boatyard
A tiny schooner, a canopy, and a dinghy. Of all the advantages of owning a decent-sized property rather than renting ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/DSCN4770-e1605207451459-225x300.jpg)
Feeling Technical
When I pitched the idea of a series of boatbuilding articles to Cruising World magazine fourteen years ago, I sent ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Capella-022-225x300.jpg)
Casting Bread on the Waters
What goes around comes around, they say. I little imagined, when I gave away my first cruising boat more than ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200605_132650-300x225.jpg)
Post in the Time of Pandemic
I had hoped, while writing the last blog post, that by the time I wrote this next one the whole ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20190716_181512-300x225.jpg)
Nothing to Blog About
For the last, oh, more than a year now, the realization has been growing that it’s been a long time ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DSCN3131-300x225.jpg)
A Seafaring State of Mind
Life—at least mine—seems to come in phases. There are seasons when it feels like all I do is grind itchy ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/IMG955634-300x225.jpg)
A Navigation Experiment
After spending only half the winter grinding fiberglass in the boat shop I mentioned in my last post, my full-time ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/DSCN0744-300x225.jpg)
Always Just a Little More
And if I haven’t blogged all winter, it’s mostly because, unlike last winter when I had plenty of time to ...
![Coracle in the Kickemuit: center of excellence](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DSCN1989-300x225.jpg)
Will There Be A Mad Cow?
My wife Danielle and I have been married for quite some time. How long exactly I can’t say—no doubt my ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DSCN1870-1-300x225.jpg)
A Sailing Bonanza
Every once in a while, the changing tides of life and work leave me not with a mountain of things ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IMG_0754-e1505607521219-225x300.jpg)
Ready for Summer in Time for Fall
With the coming of summer, and having the dinghy project wrapped up, I was finally free to turn to a ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DSCN0908-300x225.jpg)
Working Outside Again
Of all the benefits of warm weather, being able to work outside is one of the finest—having the dinghy twenty ...
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A Little Breather….Cloth
While I was willing, as the last blog post illustrates, to paint in almost all conditions in order to get ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/DSCN0579-300x225.jpg)
The Most Pessimistic Painter
There was a delay of some weeks in working further on the dinghy, since Ganymede needed to be finished and ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSCN0377-300x225.jpg)
No Regard For Tradition
With the buffing to shiny of the dinghy plug, which is where the last blog post left her, things could ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/DSCN0360-300x225.jpg)
A Red-Letter Occasion?
It is telling, perhaps, of how uninteresting sanding is, that every time you get to move from one grit to ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2007_06_23-22-300x225.jpg)
A Sandwich of Affliction
There seem to be three choices open to the person who finds he keeps needing to do something completely repugnant ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/DSCN0219-300x225.jpg)
Late to Supper
Given the severity of the last several winters, I had never imagined that it would be possible to do fiberglass ...
![An impromptu post-curing oven.](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/DSCN0188-300x225.jpg)
A Whole Lotta Boat Building
It was pretty agonizing, trying to decide whether to make any modifications to Ganymede's cockpit geometry. I mean, since I'm ...
![Children in the boatyard](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2010-12-22-Cartagena-Colombia-086-225x300.jpg)
Interesting Times?
It's the dead of winter again, and with all my rigging projects wrapped up till spring comissioning time, I have ...
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Never Say Never
Some years ago, when nearing the completion of our home-finished boat, I testified in a magazine article that once I ...
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Too Hot to Think
I'd like to say (and think) that the reason I haven't written a blog post all summer is because I ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/IMG_6194-300x225.jpg)
A Good Job to Have
When I became captain of an 80-foot sailing schooner roughly one year ago, I really didn't want too much more ...
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Plumbing Implausible
A couple of blog postings ago I promised you, my readers, details on Ganymede's new plumbing setup. This will probably ...
![Sailboat Rigging: Toggle in use.](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Toggle-in-Use-300x225.jpg)
Taking Time to Tinker
One of the things I almost regretted giving up when we went cruising was a workshop—a place to fiddle about ...
![2016 Winter in Bristol](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bristol-Winter-2016-e1455986942281-300x225.jpg)
In short, what winter ought to be like.
After the dreadful hue and cry of the past three winters, each marked by some extraordinary extreme—whether violent gales, or ...
![Carbon fiber gaff jaws](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Crude-Leathering-2-300x196.jpg)
Activity is a Virtue
I had reproached myself on more than one occasion last winter for leaving Ganymede in the water rather than hauling ...
![Making the best of that pesky sheet](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/5-225x300.jpg)
Keep On Sailing
Ever since our move ashore, the care and upkeep of Ganymede has been necessarily pushed to the back burner. It ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2013-04-06-chart-coloring-006-300x225.jpg)
The Zartman Nautical Depository
One of the best parts of preparing for a cruise on Ganymede (and on Capella before her), was the day ...
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In For a Penny, In For a Pound
One of the advantages of living and working in a boatbuilding town is that you’re surrounded by boatbuilders, and boatbuilding ...
![A porthole's perspective of the anchorage at sunset.](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/6-300x295.jpg)
Captains Outrageous
Sailing season has returned to New England again, and is quickly going into full swing. There’s nothing like the strong ...
![Regalvanized Anchor](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-04-18-Galvanized-anchor-002-300x225.jpg)
Improving, Maintaining, Re-inventing
It seems pretty cliché to say that winter seemed long—no doubt every winter in every generation has seemed long, especially ...
![Snowy Splicing Days](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-14-snowy-spicing-days-014-225x300.jpg)
Throwing Caution to the Winds
It is, by all appearances, the dead of winter. There’s piles of snow all around—not as big as when we ...
![Ganymede Under Full Sail](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/photo-5-300x225.jpg)
Precautionary Maintenance and General Purging
There are few things more satisfying to my seafaring soul than periodically emptying the boat of EVERYTHING and giving her ...
![Salty Sailor](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Newport-christmas-041-225x300.jpg)
Abednego Marine
One of the pitfalls of reading too many books in your youth is that you’ll go into situations with preconceived ...
![Halyard Toggle Shackle](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Throat-halyard-toggle-shackle-on-Ganymede-225x300.jpg)
The Day of Small Beginnings
One of the hardest things about setting out cruising five years ago was closing down the business I had created, ...
![Ganymede sailing in Narragansett Bay](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ganymede-in-Narragansett-Bay-300x225.jpg)
Civilized Yachting, or, The Benefits of Dry Saltines
One would think that having a job where you spent twelve hours a day sailing would leave you ready to ...
![Kids Climb High](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2014-07-21-Exeter-Hikes-073-225x300.jpg)
The Genie of the Lamps
Even though it’s happening more and more often, it doesn’t fail to astonish me whenever I get an email from ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2014-07-17-Whaling-Museum-141-e1405614206168-225x300.jpg)
Multiplied Exponentially
Going to captain’s license school is kind of like getting a college degree in English: it’s absolutely useless for any ...
![Headlamps](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Headlamp-300x225.jpg)
Chimney Chronicles
For the nearly five years that we’ve been living full-time aboard Ganymede, our lighting situation has been a never-ending saga ...
![Newport Harbor Anchorage](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2012-09-17-Newport-RI-002-300x225.jpg)
The Root of all Evil
Inevitably, the arrival of spring in Newport heralds the arrival of boats—boats by the hundred, flocking to the sailing capital ...
![Schooner Mystic Whaler](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/She-Schoons-300x225.jpg)
Why is a Schooner?
For as long as I can remember there has been a story of how the particular sort of boat known ...
![Timeless Navigation Equipment](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/1-navigation-equipment-300x233.jpg)
Seamanship Undefined
There’s a lot of talk, in online forums, on blogs, and in magazines, about what exactly constitutes ‘Good Seamanship’. For ...
![Easton's Beach](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1a-Eastons-Beach-300x225.jpg)
Spring into Action
We had begun to despair, some of us, that spring would ever arrive. As the season advanced into what should ...
![The Perfect Cruising Boat](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/3-Ganymede-Sails-Home-300x224.jpg)
The Perfect Cruising Boat
Every so often, an aspiring seafarer will log into an internet sailing forum and ask, “Exactly what is the perfect ...
![Mold Waxing](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2008_04_11-3-225x300.jpg)
Building Boats Again
What do sailors do when they come ashore? Build boats, of course. When Ganymede launched, three years after construction began, ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2011-01-25-El-Salvador-to-Cartagena-082-300x225.jpg)
No Metric Equivalent
I saw one time, at a museum in Virginia, a curious watch with only ten hours marked on the dial ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/b-300x225.jpg)
Now What? How to Become Landlubbers Again
The worst thing for me about taking a break from cruising is having to find a job. Not the job ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1-Sailing-through-New-York-300x225.jpg)
Not A Day Too Soon
As we had struggled up the St Lawrence River and down the canal systems toward the Hudson river, discussion of ...
![One lock upstream of the Hudson River, northbound boats have a choice.](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Erie-and-Champlain-Canals-300x225.jpg)
All in a Rush in New York
They say that one can get used to almost anything, if done often enough. I wasn’t so sure of that ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Lake-Champlain-Reflections-300x225.jpg)
Another Place on the List
Our last day in Canadian waters began with a bang; a series of bangs actually, as the first grey light ...
![Mast Tabernacle](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Mast-Tabernacle-225x300.jpg)
Over The Hump
“No worries,” I had been telling everyone for the last month—everyone who had pointed out that to go through the ...
![Quebec Yacht Club](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/4-Quebec-Yacht-Club-300x225.jpg)
Almost There: Home Stretch on the Unrelenting River
The charts we bought in Newfoundland for the St Lawrence River have a neat feature: a letter inside a little ...
![Rimouski and Quebec Flags](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/3-Rimouski-225x300.jpg)
Hope Deferred, and Hope Again
Matane, Quebec, is on the south shore of the St Lawrence River just at the edge of where it narrows ...
![Dewdrops at Dawn.](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/3-Mingan-Archipelago-300x225.jpg)
Aurora Borealis Cruising
I’ve never been good at reading tide tables—not because I can’t muddle out an answer from them, but because my ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2013-06-06-Shelburne-to-Lunenburg-078-225x300.jpg)
Looking Back
It seems a shame to break the flow of narrative as succesive blog postings take you with us from faraway ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Havre-St-Pierre-beach-225x300.jpg)
The Race Begins at the End of the Road
Natashquan, Quebec, was until very recently the literal end of the road. Though it now goes a few miles further ...
![Washicouti Bay](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Washicouti-Bay-259x300.jpg)
Milestones and Obstacles
There was ice on Ganymede’s decks the morning we left Harrington Harbor. No surprise—it had been chilly enough to have ...
![La Tabatiere](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/La-Tabatiere-300x225.jpg)
Living History in La Tabatiere
La Tabatiere, which evidently comes from a French word meaning “The Tabatiere,” is the hub of the outport settlements between ...
![mossy ground cover](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2013-09-16-St.-Paul-River-to-Petit-Rigolet-Quebec-060-225x300.jpg)
The Windy Wilds of Quebec
Our first stop in the province of Quebec, at a little place called La Falaise, was all among rocky islands ...
![Petit Rigolet](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Petit-Rigolet-300x225.jpg)
The Last of Everything
“Dig out some more rice while you’re down there,” I called, upending the last little bit out of the ready ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Cape-Onion-Coast-300x225.jpg)
The End of Newfoundland
The very top of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, at almost 52 degrees of North latitude, is a chilly place ...
![St. Anthony's whale watching trail](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/St.-Anthony-whale-watching-trail-225x300.jpg)
Quirpon is pronounced “Cahr-poon”
St Anthony, Newfoundland, was not an unpleasant place to spend a week. There were two decent grocery stores, a public ...
![Spotty Point Trail](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Spotty-Point-Trail-300x225.jpg)
Turkey Necks in Fleur-de-Lys
La Scie, just on the north side of Cape John, is the first of the old French fishing ports encountered ...
![Exploits](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Exploits-300x225.jpg)
Where North is Down
We were talking about Labrador, a local and I, and I asked him whether a place was further up along ...
![Twillingate water tower.](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Twillingate-water-tower-300x225.jpg)
Noseworthy for Mayor
At first, Twilingate appeared to brim with promise. Negociating the approach channel we saw the back of a Foodland supermarket ...
![Fogo Settlement](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Fogo-settlement-300x225.jpg)
Fogo Finally
Blown Away in Lumsden It blew near-gale or gale force four out of the five days we were at Lumsden ...
![Lumsden Wharf](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Lumsden-wharf-300x225.jpg)
Lumsden Days
Berry Bounties Ganymede likes what every sailboat does; give her a wind just forward of the beam, a little more ...
![Ireland's Eye, Newfoundland](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/2013-07-31-Old-Perlican-to-Trinity-036-225x300.jpg)
Are We in Narnia?
The north coast of Newfoundland is indented by three or four deep bays, each full of islands, fjords, tickles and ...
![Atlantic Vista](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Ocean-View-300x225.jpg)
What a Perlican Isn’t
Puzzled in Old Perlican It was our first stop after leaving St John’s—a small, crowded harbor, very busy, and full ...
![St. John's Harbor](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/St-Johns-Harbor-300x225.jpg)
Turning the Corner
One feels like a chump, almost, motoring through a calm with storm canvas up, but it had seemed prudent, given ...
![Fermeuse Boatyard](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2013-07-18-St-Pierre-to-Newfoundland-066-300x225.jpg)
Current Collision at Cape Race
We had been sailing through heavy fog for two days as we approached Trepassey harbor, helped along for the last ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2013-07-06-Sydney-to-St-Pierre-054-300x225.jpg)
Time to See the Sea
To the very end, I think, we did our utmost toward the big transatlantic plan. Rushing through Nova Scotia and ...
![St. Pierre cemetery](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/St.-Pierre-Graveyard-300x225.jpg)
A Little Slice of France
Summer, it seems, has arrived at last here in the middle north, and we got a beautiful weather window to ...
![Bras D'or tides](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Bras-Dor-tides-300x225.jpg)
The Bras D’or Lakes lead us to Dragon Boats in Sydney
We had arrived in Canso with a slight feeling of urgency. Originally we had hoped to be sailing across the ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Dinghy-in-Marie-Joseph-225x300.jpg)
Tickled in Canso Bay, NS
In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candlelight. In summer, quite the other way, I have ...
![](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/2013-06-17-Halifax-Ganymede-toggles-and-mast-hoops-038-300x225.jpg)
Halifax to Weather
At the tail end of the weather forecast on the VHF radio, the only sort we can pick up on ...
![portable water tanks](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Portable-Water-Tanks-300x225.jpg)
Lunenburg Hospitality
Lunenburg proved everything we could wish in the way of amenities. Two grocery stores, a big hardware store, laundromat, library, ...
![Nova Scotia sun hat](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Nova-Scotia-sun-hat-300x225.jpg)
From Shelburne, NS to the Caribbean?
Shelburne, NS is a good harbor, in spite of a local Katabatic-sort of wind effect, where every afternoon we were ...
![Grilling in the fog](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/foggy-day-grilling-225x300.jpg)
Sailing around Cape Sable
The wind finally laid down in Provincetown, though not until it had gotten really ugly, with Ganymede bucketing in three-foot ...
![Watching the Cape Cod Canal go by](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sailing-into-the-Cape-Cod-Canal-300x225.jpg)
Passage to Provincetown
When I am in my ship, I see The other ships go sailing by. A sailor leans and calls to ...
![linseed oil](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/linseed-oiled-bulwarks-300x225.jpg)
Ready or not?
“Ready to go yet?” I heard the question over and over today. Fair enough—we’ve been ‘getting ready to cruise’ ever ...
![Ganymede's bulwark planking](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Ganymede-Bulwark-outer-layer-225x300.jpg)
Cruising Provisions and Preparatory Projects
I’d like to say that we’ve accomplished much in the week and a half since Ganymede relaunched and we returned ...
![Ganymede's lettering and fresh paint](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/13-04-27-pool-001-300x225.jpg)
Ganymede’s Haulout
Just Like Old Times After spending two days working on Ganymede’s outboard engine, trying to get gasoline through the fuel ...
![kids with knives](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ganymede-winter-canopy-removal-002-300x225.jpg)
Ganymede out of her Winter Coccoon
And if the morning begins inauspiciously, should you still carry on with the plan? That was the big question Saturday, ...
![Ganymede's Kitchen Sink](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ganymedes-Kitchen-Sink-225x300.jpg)
Ganymede’s Non-systems
Six Simple Alternatives to Common Cruising Clutter As we prepare Ganymede to head off on the next and biggest leg ...
![hand colored charts](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013-03-30-charts-and-easter-eggs-034-300x225.jpg)
Ganymede’s winter turns to spring
It has been the longest, coldest winter Ganymede has ever seen—rightly so, since it’s our first in these northern parts, ...
![cling-wrap on charts and cruising guides](https://zartmancruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013-03-20-Antigones-Birthday-and-chart-wrapping-013-300x225.jpg)
Welcome to the Zartman cruising blog
Welcome to Zartman Cruising, the blog with which we hope more fully to chronicle our family’s sailing adventures, with all ...