Before reading on, please take a moment to fill out this week’s survey so we can share your knowledge and experiences with the Cruising Compass family. Thanks.
Have you converted your mainsail to an in-boom reefing and furling system?
Thanks to all of you intrepid sailors who replied to our survey on cruising to higher latitudes. Many of you have done so. Of those who answered, 53% have sailed to higher latitudes. As to where readers have sailed, the favorite destinations on the West Coast are British Columbia and Alaska while on the East Coast the destinations are Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In Europe and Scandinavia, favorite destinations include the Scottish Isles, the Shetland Isles, and the coasts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. In the Great Lakes, Lake Superior surely qualifies as high latitude sailing.
Of those who have not yet sailed north, 38% say that high latitudes are in their future cruising plans. The anticipated destinations are all similar to the regions mentioned above. But, several readers mentioned their plans to sail the Northwest Passage, Greenland, Iceland and Norway’s Lofoten Islands and the Svalbard Archipelago.