Nautical Mind Blog

Over a dozen beautiful tall ships will be plying the waters of the Great Lakes this summer as part of the American Sail Training Association’s Great Lakes United Tall Ships Challenge.  Ships like HMS Bounty, Germany’s brig Roald Amundsen, and Toronto’s own STV Pathfinder and TS Playfair will be competing in a race and series of events around the lakes, designed to spread knowledge of water conservation and youth sail training.  They’ll be tied up alongside The Nautical Mind in Toronto between June 30th and July 4th.  If you come to Harbourfront to see them, be sure to stop by our store to check out our fine selection of books about Explorers and Old Ships.

Ann’s new book, The Spice Necklace: A Food-Lover’s Caribbean Adventure, is a follow-up to her national bestseller, An Embarrassment of Mangoes.

That Receta’s first visit to Antigua coincided with the annual Classic Yacht Regatta here was totally unplanned. Supposedly, we were stopping only briefly, quickly heading on to Barbuda to meet cruising friends. But when you’re cruising, it’s a very good thing to cast your plans in Jell-O.

Margeta-O II gets the gun!

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The American Sail Training Association‘s annual conference is being held this week in Toronto, just around the corner from our “brick and mortar” storefront.  We welcome the delegates to town and hope they have a productive and enjoyable conference.

We’ll look forward to seeing  you again this summer at the Toronto Waterfront Festival.  For ASTA tall ship spotters, Thad Koza’s Tall Ships is a great reference to member vessels and organisations.

The loss of the Concordia in February was a deeply saddening disaster, redeemed by the survival of the entire crew.  It is remarkable both that a modern tall ship was lost due to a knock down, and that despite the loss of the vessel, the entire crew survived.  Their survival is a testament to the quality of the crew and the importance of safety drills.  The findings of Transport Canada and other maritime bodies investigating the sinking will be greatly informative to safety-conscious mariners.  In the mean time Tall Ships Down by Daniel S. Parrott, former skipper of the Pride of Baltimore II, is the definitive book on tall ship safety and stability.  It is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in the mechanics of nautical disasters and how to prevent them.   The Handbook of Survival at Sea is another excellent book, now discounted, detailing methods and strategies on survival once a disaster has occurred.