UNSAFE PASSAGE
25 April 2024 · 20 min · 76K views
What this video covers
A solo sailor navigating the Whitsundays in Australia transits the "Unsafe Passage," a shallow channel marked by sandbars, by timing the crossing for two hours before high tide.8:50 The route saves a three-to-four-mile detour but requires slow speeds to avoid grounding.8:50 During the transit, the vessel encounters heavy traffic, prompting the operator to disable the AIS collision alarm to avoid constant alerts, relying instead on visual observation.18:49 The sailor performs several boat modifications, including installing a drone-mount phone holder to secure an iPad for navigation and replacing reefing horns with clips to simplify mainsail handling.14:29 Maintenance tasks include servicing a two-stroke outboard motor, using a green container to distinguish pre-mixed fuel, and using duct tape and a lighter to fuse rope ends for easier threading through clutches.7:20 The sailor also experiments with a portable solar blanket to supplement existing deck panels when charging batteries.12:02
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