FineEdge.com

Captain Kevin Monahan is a Canadian Coast Guard officer with more than 20 years experience navigating the British Columbia coast as a small vessel captain. Born in London England in 1951, Monahan emigrated to Vancouver, and attended the University of British Columbia. His articles have appeared in various magazines including Westcoast Fisherman (now Fisherman Life), Pacific Yachting, Northwest Yachting Magazine, and the Fisherman's News. Monahan worked as a fisherman for 12 years, then on ferries and coastal transports, before joining Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans as a patrol vessel captain.

After the merger of the Canadian Coast Guard with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, he continued as commanding officer of a Coast Guard Cutter. In 1999 he joined the Coast Guard's Office of Boating Safety as head of inspections and investigations for the Pacific Region, where among other responsibilities, he developed training for police and Coast Guard in electronic navigation and enforcement of small vessel safety regulations. From 2001 to the present he served as the Superintendent of the Office of Boating Safety (now part of Transport Canada Marine.) Monahan holds a Master, Intermediate Trade (unlimited tonnage) certificate.

Captain Monahan has provided expert testimony in court a number of times, including expert testimony on the navigational uses of GPS. He is the author of The Radar Book – Effective Navigation and Collision Avoidance and Local Knowledge--A Skipper's Reference, and is the principal author of GPS Instant Navigation and Proven Cruising Routes Volume 1--Seattle to Ketchikan all published by Fine Edge. He is also a contributor to Don and Reanne Douglass's famous cruising guides, Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia and Exploring the South Coast of British Columbia.

Captain Monahan and his wife Nancy now live in Sidney, British Columbia.

Mark has been boating and sailing in the San Juan and Gulf Islands, and along the coast of British Columbia for over 18 years. Mark has also cruised extensively in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, the Greek islands, and Central America as well as along the West Coast of the US. His boating experience began in Ocean City, New Jersey, where at the age of 15 he started working in marinas learning how to repair boats and engines as well as race both sail and power boats. Mark is a regular columnist for Northwest Yachting Magazine writing on cruising destinations and also writes for other nautical magazines. He has been an instructor for the North U., the sailing seminar program run by North Sails across North America, as well as a frequent speaker at boat shows and nautical events.