Coastal Explorer is a humdinger of a new PC charting program. It's remarkably fast and bug free for 1.0 software, deftly handles most raster-chart flavors as well as free NOAA vector ENCs, and has planning and underway interfaces that I find both comprehensive and comprehensible. Even the most curmudgeonly of traditional pencil-and-paper navigators will likely be impressed with this $300 program's unique integration of Coast Pilot and gazetteer data, plus other features too numerous to list. Rose Point Navigation; 425-765-2976
Shade in a tube
Panama Jack purports to use a patented process to achieve the highest level of protection ever achieved in a sunblock lotion. Surf 'N Sport SPF 75 (3 ounces for $9) is also waterproof and "designed to blend easily into skin with minimal rub-in." While it actually took some vigorous rub-in on my freckled hide, the stuff seemed to work noticeably better than other gunks I've tried. But remember—as my dermatologist never fails to note—no sunblock is a complete substitute for protective clothing. Panama Jack; 800-932-2431
Tidy wires
ZipSleeve is a 24' tube designed to discipline the multiple shore cables that may currently snake chaotically from your boat to a dock pedestal or lie tangled in your lazaret. It's 4" in diameter and made of UV-treated nylon fabric with marine-grade plastic zippers. Velcro tabs spaced every 15" let you hang your freshly sheaved cable bundle on a stanchion or whatever. The extra-long end tab shown is for restraining excess wire. The $30 ZipSleeve is available in six colors. ZipSleeve; 800-808-8711
Blow out
The BlastItOut clog-clearing and -flushing kit may look like a bag of bits you could collect at a hardware store, but just try to find all those rubber stoppers. Plus you get well-illustrated instructions on how to use the parts, along with your pressure water system or a dock hose, to blow debris out of your seacocks, head lines, raw-water inlets, and so on. The $30 kit can also be used to flush fresh water through your systems via a seacock when you haul out. BlastItOut; 941-268-1469
Traveling duffel
Gill has added inline-skate wheels and a zipped-in extractable handle to its Jumbo Wet 'n' Dry Bag. The resulting $126 Wheel Bag weighs less than 10 pounds but holds 29 gallons of gear. Seamanlike features include a large wet compartment, a mesh drainage pocket, a waterproof bottom, and an integral shoulder strap for those situations where you can't skate. Gill North America; 800-822-6504
