Ocean Navigator: Captaining the Big Ship

Do you enjoy water adventure? I sure do- especially if someone else is tending to the navigation while I site back, sip my beer, and enjoy the view. Magazines about water recreation aren’t too difficult to find but most of them deal with small boats and recreation on the level of a lake or river. If larger bodies of water are your style, then you might enjoy Ocean Navigator, a publication dedicated to those who like to sail the ocean blue.

Basic Contents of This Magazine:

Ocean Navigator offers 64 pages in each issue. Monthly departments include:

Chartroom Chatter- This is the news section of the magazine, complete with stories of tragedy, political issues, environmental concerns, and other official information.

Marine Tech Notes- This is a product review of sorts, of a navigational electronic device.

Power Voyaging- Large, powered vessels and the equipment that makes them run are spotlighted in this department.

Correspondence- Maintenance, voyaging tips, and other general advice are found in these departments.

Nav Problem- The closing to each issue, this one page department offers education material about past or present oceanic situations and events. There is even a quiz at the end to test your knowledge.

Featured articles make up the remainder of each issue. There are usually four or five of these and they are usually divided into categories like Ocean Voyaging, Safety Gear, etc.

Cost to Subscribe:

Ocean Navigator sells for the base price of about $25.95 for a one year (6 issues) subscription. This means that each issue will cost you about $4.33, representing a savings of about 35% off the cover price. The deals on the internet are not much better than this. It is one of those magazines that doesn’t want to budge on its base price, although I did find a few offers that included two additional issues for the same base price.

Magazine Website/Customer Service:

To learn more about this magazine, the place to visit is oceannavigator.com. There are many articles that can be read on- line, through the web site. However, some can be read only by those who are subscribers. If you want to subscribe or speak with a rep, the number to call is 207-822-4350.

Final Thoughts:

Ocean Navigator is one of several boating/aquatic magazines that I read and it is the only one in the group that is dedicated to ocean vessels and ocean travel. It is a magazine designed to appeal mainly to those who captain a large yacht and who like to read about the adventures of others, as well as read about official news and other information.

I am not the type who has any interest in getting behind the wheel and navigating a large ocean vessel so the articles in Ocean Navigator that are specific to the technical navigation or maintenance of a vessel are not very interesting to me. However, I can see how these articles are valuable to those who navigate large boats and ships for a living. They can help with everything from repairing a damaged rudder to changing the engine oil.

The parts of Ocean Navigator that I like best are those that relate to news and adventure travel. Chartroom Chatter is the department I like best because it covers news, political concerns, book reviews, and other things that can be enjoyed by casual passengers like me. The other departments do not interest me much, so I usually turn next to the individual featured articles. This is where I find the best articles in each issue. Again, I am not too interested in reading about safety gear and maintenance; I look for articles about adventure travel, education, history, etc. More photos would be nice, but the magazine is still pretty good in this area.

Ocean Navigator is a short magazine, and this fact can be very frustrating for those who really enjoy reading this type of material. It’s one of those magazines that cuts articles short just when it seems to be getting warmed up. There is limited space in each issue, so the writers have limits to what they can say. Add to that the fact that the magazine is published only once every two months and it’s easy to see why the frustration level for fans of this magazine is so high.

Overall, Ocean Navigator is a good magazine and it’s the type I would likely enjoy more if I was a captain of a yacht or other large vessel. Still, I think it’s a good magazine for those who like to read about oceanic adventures even if it isn’t as colorful and flashy as some of its sister publications and even if its base subscription price is quite high.