Sail with New Freebooters

Jim Murrant, author of The Boating Bible Manual of Seamanship, includes an excellent video of what happens when you use various different means to fight an oil or fat fire in a pan on a galley stove. Just about everybody knows that you should not use water, but this video shows how much better it [...]

Did you realise that the first artificial fibre, artificial silk, later known as viscose and now called rayon, was created in 1799 - before the Battle of Trafalgar? However, since this fibre is derived from wood cellulose, it doesn’t count as a synthetic.
Synthetic fibres consist of man-made polymers - very long molecules with a repeating [...]

I believe I’ve done just enough photography to understand what makes a good picture, and what you have to do to get it. I’ve even managed to take one or two exciting pictures with modest, and in some cases ancient, equipment, and I can do some basic manipulation with Photoshop or The Gimp.
However, I am [...]

Source: Inmarsat Newsroom
On 11 Feb 2009,  Inmarsat C helped to repel pirates who tried to attack a bulk carrier in the Indian Ocean.
The 53,500 DWT vessel was approximately 100 miles south east of Socotra Island when the attack happened.
Five pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault guns approached and attempted to board. They fired towards [...]

Batteries aren’t a limitless source of power
Batteries are storage devices, and you shouldn’t even use more than half what they store if you want them to keep working for more than a few cycles.
There are three ways you can refill (i.e. recharge) them:

by plugging into the electrical system supplied in a marina berth
by using a [...]