Safety on the water

The best site I've found that discusses safety is https://www.boatsafe.com. Before you do anything else, go there, bookmark the page and start reading.

Here's a good link that describes some safe sailing basics for all ages. Thanks to Brittney B. age 8, for the link!

Boating and Yacht Safety for All Ages

Weather basics

Here's a great explanation of clouds and basic weather courtesy of NASA. If you need to check your weather, go to weather.gov.

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Learning important knots

AnimatedKnots.com is a great website devoted to knots. You can watch them in slow motion and see all the steps to most of the knots you'll likely use aboard a boat.

Safety while sailing

Here's an article about clothing that'll keep you safe.

Things to consider when sailing offshore and general seamanship.

Have a complete ditch bag just in case. Here's a good article about it. The Complete Overboard Bag

Tying a bowline without the rabbit or fox

Follow vessel traffic via AIS

Check your charts

Here's a great link for NOAA's online charts. They're not a substitute for paper charts, but they are really helpful.

NOAA Charts Online

Things to practice and things I teach....

• Crew Overboard/Safety Equipment
• Motoring/docking in tight quarters
• Basic sailing and boat handling
• Anchoring techniques
• Rules of the Road and terminology
• Basic knots (e.g., cleat hitch, bowline)

Some cool pictures and videos

Orca and sharks

Satori and the Perfect Storm

and another account, with pictures of the boat after the storm....

NY Times article about Satori

So you think your compass is reliable...