Do You Know Your Stuff? No 2....

...So here we go then, boating grey cells at the ready...

1. You see dark clouds approaching and a swell develops before any wind arrives. Is there a significant depression approaching or a local thunderstorm?

2. Do tides run more quickly or more slowly in shallow water close to the coast?

3. A navigation light where the duration of light and dark are equal is described as what?

4. You stand in the cockpit so that your height of eye is 3m (10ft) above sea level. Will the distance of the horizon be a) 3.6 miles b) 4.7 miles or c) 5.9 miles?

5. If a yacht or motor boat is on loan or under charter, should the burgee flown be that of the owner or the skipper/charterer?

6. One of your crew suggests adding a Barry Manilow CD to the emergency grab bag. Why?

7. You are reaching on starboard tack at night. You see a yacht off your starboard bow which is running before the wind but you can’t be sure if her mainsail is set to port or starboard. Should you give way?

8. Can a yacht with an 8ft draft and a 19ft mast sail to Paris, France? (Don’t panic! We have faith in you and anyway this is just the sort of question that sets you apart from the crowd!)

9. You have an injured crew overboard. What knot could be used to create a double sling with which to lift the casualty out of the water?

10. Over an open stretch of shore, would an afternoon Lake breeze likely to blow offshore or onshore?

L.eave your answers in 'comments'. For the correct answers, sail by in a few days time.

Sailing By The Bar

This swim-up bar is somewhere in Cuba. For 1000 sea miles points, can you tell me in which hotel you can find it?

Answer posted 11 May 2007. Well done all those who immediately recognised the swim-up bar at the Sandals Resort, Varaderro, Cuba.

Sailing By The Dinette

Joan: "I’ve just started doing the Lotto 6/49 because there’s an Oyster 49 for sale and I’m sure it’s got my name on it. But chatting to various friends, it seems I should lust after a catamaran. Even James has one now which he keeps in the BVI. So it must be so. Which one should I long for?"

Bob: "The great advantage of a cat’ is that you can sleep on opposite sides of the boat".

Steve: "The only Oysters you’re going to be able to buy with a ten dollar Lotto win are the ones you buy from Loblaws. You could get a cute little kitty kitty from the animal Humane Society for ten bucks. I’d go for the cat’. It won’t give you salmonella".