Getting serious...

Being in the Caribbean during "H" season is never a lot of fun... On one side it is the best time of year as the weather is mostly great and the tourists are at a minimum but the overall stress level that comes from a daily eye on the endless weather systems and tropical waves is anything but fun.

Of course, next season we plan to be somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic sipping Pastis (Pastis being a GOOD thing) and watching the world go by free from the stress and worry of when and where the next tropical weather system will arrive.

The process of getting "So It Goes" ready for the trip is actually something I'm looking forward to and includes a self-steering vane, some interior refinements, getting rid of the (much hated) deck to hull join lip/rubber molding, a couple of cunning plans and a seriously off the wall bad-ass paint job of yet undecided type... but can you spell dazzle?

Sort of grows on you...

Why bother

I really have to quit reading the news... Mass plankton die offs, recession woes, Congress votes no on health care for 9/11 responders, and July is a record month of pointless carnage in Afghanistan... just sort of starts the day out as something of a bummer!

Checking the weather I see ...

I'm going back to bed...

Just maybe the guitar/boat solution...

Budgets and boats...

Most of us on boats live on a budget and are quite obsessive about where the pennies go. So when cruisers get together we can be quite boring comparing the prices of beans in out of the way places...

So, you can understand the WTF moment I had reading about how of the 9.1 Billion dollars earmarked for rebuilding Iraq, 8.7 billion dollars is unaccounted for...

Read more about it over at Good Blog

Neat...

A very neat little post on Nigel Iren's Romilly...

a not so clean wake...

Folks in the Caribbean who do work for mega yachts all know that you never work for anything but cash and never ever let a mega run up a bill as folks with big boats are pretty lax about such little things as writing checks and boats have been known to slip their lines and depart before paying their bills.

Not exactly a clean wake as the SSCA promotes.

Then there is this one... Sounds like perfect Senatorial material!

How wealthy boat owners pay their fair share...

Latitude 38 takes on Senator Kerry and kicks some butt!

My take on it all is a great argument against trickle down economics (IE tax breaks for the uber-wealthy) as this is how rich people game the system... If you want to stimulate the economy give tax breaks to people who will spend them in their communities!

Nuff said!

Far off places... SHINY!

One of the best events to befall us on our voyages with Loose Moose 2 was breaking a bunch of ribs just before our planned departure for the Caribbean... a few days later, fully provisioned and just hurting a bit, we shoved off and pointed the boat towards Barbados. Can you spell dumb?

After 24 hours of pain, I was more than certain that I was in no real shape to continue the passage and we made the decision to turn around and head back to Las Palmas which, it turned out, was way more than the right decision as it was a life changer.

Up until this point in our cruising we had been in a hurry... In a hurry to get to the Med and once we were in the Med in a hurry to do the Med so we could get to Gibraltar, once in Gibraltar we were in a hurry to get to the Canaries and once we were in the Canaries we were in a hurry to get to the Caribbean... Can you detect a pattern?

My very painful rib situation forced us to STOP for a bit and get off the treadmill of moving forward for the sake of motion and to sort out what (for us) cruising was all about. For instance...

Most people do not realize just what a great cruising ground the Canary islands is as folks simply use the Canaries as a place to provision, fix things and wait for a weather window to make passage to the Caribbean and, as a result, no one actually sees what a wonderful place and people live in the Canaries. Being stuck a year waiting for the next trade winds to come around let us really get to know the Canaries...

We also found that we could make money and fend for ourselves quite happily outside the mainstream workaday and consumer yachting world making a tidy sum with our sewing machine, tools and hookah rig which has given us a knowledge that we could pretty much get by comfortably anywhere we decide to cruise... a lesson well worth a few broken ribs!

The year we missed crossing was also one of the worst years in the Caribbean for hurricane activity and as reports of the carnage of hurricanes Marilyn and Luis in the Caribbean, we realized our plans would have had us sitting either in St Martin or St Thomas where hundreds of boats were destroyed and many lives were lost. The fact that if not for a few broken ribs, our boat might have been destroyed or worse, was a lesson that also made a profound change in our cruising philosophy... and while shit happens sometimes it saves us from even worse shit!

 

A lot of Boat Bits readers write and ask about the "PLAN" and all I have to say about that at the moment is we plan to get back to real cruising... We love the Caribbean but it has not been real cruising for a long time and it is more than time to look for other places maybe a little less crowded and different. The appeal of empty anchorages, real cities and a variety of cuisines is a big draw which needs to be fulfilled and since we were in such a big hurry to do the Med the first time around the thought of doing it at a better pace is tasty (or as they say in the Firefly universe... SHINY).

But as we learned way back in the Canaries what happens and where we wind up is something of a variable process as we have a lot of places on the must do list and what happens and where we wind up all depends...

and that's a good thing!

Electric fences and cunning plans

Since we were speaking of things pyratical and as it is more than problematic to do the razor concertina wire thing to most sailboats... What's a poor boy to do?

Here in the Caribbean most thefts from boats seem to be of the swim/row out and pilfer variety, though sadly, there seems to be a trend towards a more boat-invasion model.

The only thing we have had stolen off of "So It Goes" since we have had it was a mask and snorkel of mine which I am pretty sure I must have left on the side deck instead of putting it away in the dive locker (my bad). I would not be surprised if the reason for the theft was the fact that I left our boarding ladder down rather than stowed on the lifeline... again my fault.

Of course, we make an effort to keep "So It Goes" less than pristine as the last thing we want to look like in an anchorage is well off or rich and simply prefer the boat to blend in with all the others without any signs that there is anything worth stealing aboard. For the most part, we always anchor as far out as possible and away from the herd as in my experience, having known no shortage of villains, I do know that in most cases your average thief prefers less work rather than more and won't make the effort to swim/row out to us if there are closer (and more lucrative) targets about.

Since "So It Goes" is an older (1969) sailboat we also do not have the sugar scoop stern so popular these days, which just screams stealthy easy-on/easy-off access to villains. To board us they have to come over the side which is more likely to let us know someone has come aboard and is much more visible from a distance.

The only other real precaution we take is that we do not have a name on our dinghy as nothing says "Come Out and Steal Stuff" as your boats name on the dinghy sitting all day at a dinghy dock!

Which is not to say we have not had the odd cunning plans to make "So It Goes" even safer but so far nothing that has quite worked. Though the exclusion zone by radio controlled model boat seemed to have promise, and to be honest, the one with the anvil from the masthead WAS something of a disaster!

The current plan of teaching Ninja repel-boarders-martial-art-techniques to Buffy and Willow has not yet seemed to get past the wax off wax on stage but we are working on it.

On the other hand, while not quite so cunning, the idea of making your lifelines do double duty by turning them into an electric fence actually does seem like a reasonable approach and solar powered systems are both cheap and workable... In my case of course, I'd be much more likely to forget to turn it off and do myself some damage coming back to the boat but it is a thought that just might work.

Pirates and the like...

The Maritime Security Centre, Horn of Africa has published a pamphlet "Best Management Practice 3: Piracy off the Coast of Somalia and Arabian Sea Area"...

Not exactly warm and fuzzy stuff but it just might come in handy if you plan to be in the area in the foreseeable future.

You can download it here

A boat for sale...

You don't often see boats with electric drives for sale and for someone adverse to DIY and looking for a turn key sailaway cruising boat ready to go where you point it... Might want to check out Interlude

Soft shackles and Dynex...

Colligo Marine shows us how to make a soft shackle with Dynex Dux...

Anything to read... Turn and face the strange

I subscribe to most of the sailing/boat magazines but sadly those days of looking forward to new issues are long past. Not that there is not good stuff being written, but it's got pretty hard to find it these days among the revamped press releases masquerading as content or the we're-simply-shilling-for-a-company-that-spends-big-bucks-on-advertising boat reviews or articles. Face it, when was the last time you read a review in a magazine where they said something sucked?

Of course, with such crappy content it's hardly surprising that sales are down. In this worsening economy magazines should be putting more effort into giving us a product that makes us want to spend our money on their next issue instead of pandering to advertisers at the expense of their readers, who from where I sit, deserve better.

Then again, these days there is a lot of good boat journalism floating about on the web. Voids tend to fill up, and if the boating press is not going to serve its niche someone else will... Right now blogs and sites like Sailing Anarchy are beginning to be the place real people look for information and sailing related content and it won't be long before advertisers figure that out... Ch-ch-ch-changes!

A little nightwatch music... Los Lobos has a new album!

Some songs and bands really lend themselves to the night watch mix tape... Los Lobos always has a way of winding up hitting just the right note about 4AM.

Check them out...

Enjoy!

A good forum...

I tend to read a few forums of the nautical and cruising variety but for me most of them are less than pleasurable experiences as there are simply too many negative folks about looking to make someone else's life even more unhappy than they are. So much so, that with some forums I find myself cringing when I open them; much like picking up a rock and seeing what lies below...

Not so with The Plastic Classic Forum which is always an upbeat and  positive experience. Throw in the fact that there is a lot of great info on bringing classic plastic sailboats back to life (albeit with a Pearson slant) makes it all the better.

Well worth a visit!

Scary shit...

James Kuntsler points out some bump-in-the-night stuff...

Weather...

Not quite the sunny Caribbean today...

The current weather system does not appear to be too much of a threat for us but it will most likely dump a lot of rain on Haiti who could use a break or two as with the aftermath of their earthquake they are still in a world of hurt.

Which brings up a thought... Just why, of all those pledges of aid and money, have only about 2% reached Haiti?

Hard drive thoughts... and a point of progress

For the most part I have somewhat gloomy thoughts about the future (my fault of course as I read the news) but every once in awhile I have moments of clarity that there is hope... of sorts.

Yesterday when I turned on my computer, up popped one of those little notes that told me I had bugger all hard drive space and to get with the program pronto and either dump some needless stuff or get a bigger drive... The thing is, I thought I had a bigger drive. I actually remember when buying this computer that I thought it would be impossible to ever fill up a 120 GB drive!

Younger readers might not understand, but when I bought my first computer it did not even have a hard drive or that down the line when I did get a computer with a hard drive that the hard drive was a whopping 125 MB (we are talking serious state of the art at the time) so the idea of filling up a 120 GB drive actually seemed like a task of Herculean proportions...

Apparently not so hard when you have a raging interest in new music, boat designs and like-minded political thought... a MB here and a MB there actually adds up rather quickly to a whole bunch of Gigabytes!

The solution is simple. All I have to do is add a new and bigger drive which costs hardly anything and, this is where the hope comes in, as every once in a while I find myself up-close-and-personal with real progress and that is no bad thing!

Progress is GOOD and don't let anybody tell you different. Right now I'm sure you are thinking "and exactly what does this have to do with boats"?

Well, point of fact, quite a bit. Boats and boat stuff should be getting better and we, the folks driving the boats, should be getting better at what we do as well. In fact, if there is any one group that should be dubbed with the term "progressive", it is cruising sailors who apparently unknowingly are blazing a path to how the world can live well with less...

Think about it for a moment... Even the most energy-inefficient, power-guzzling, cruising boat has a carbon footprint considered impossible by those currently making energy policy decisions in Washington. Over and over we hear that using less is impossible and living within the means of our planet is just not going to happen, but we do it day in and day out. Solar and wind generation have long since become commonplace in the cruising fleet, while in Washington they keep telling us the same old same regressive party line "it's not ready yet, too expensive and we need a breakthrough".

Progress is not about waiting for a breakthroughs or saying we're not ready. Progress is about moving ahead and whether it is better energy generation or sailboat design we should be all over it and complacent is not a word that should even be in our vocabulary.

Progress is good...
(say it loud and say it proud)

Just another day in the tropics...

Living on a boat in the tropics gives you a little different perspective from time to time. For example, while sitting on the foredeck this afternoon we were talking about this and that and the subject came around from possible hurricanes and the weather (normal for this time of year) to the price of cheese and on until we started talking about Dengue and just maybe since we've been feeling less than tip top that just possibly we had a mild case of Dengue fever... Could be, as the place we were building the mast was a mosquito farm and I would not be too surprised if a lot of those mosquitoes had stripy legs!

We have both had Dengue before so we know what bad Dengue is like but mild not so much. Down here in the USVI you can't get checked for Dengue as they like to pretend it does not exist (can't scare those tourists away) and even if you do have it there is bugger all that can be done except to ride it out.

Which brings me to a really excellent article on Malaria that anyone thinking of visiting the tropics should read... The Tenacious Buzz of Malaria.

Making the case for a bigger boat... a little 12 string!

I've never been much of a mandolin or violin player... I reached a point where I was OK but nothing to get excited about and the truth of it is, it was just too much like hard work. That said, I have always really liked the tonal range of the mandolin and have from time to time wanted to add one to my quiver.

A long time ago (back when Brian Jones was the primal force in the Rolling Stones)... Vox got clever and put together a really neat mando-guitar which was a solid body downsized 12 string but at the time I was no great fan of Vox guitars, so while I thought it made sense, I was not overly interested...

For me, Vox always had a "clunk" factor that got in the way of very cool guitar ideas in that their concepts were awesome but by the time they had a marketable guitar it just did not feel... right.  But maybe that's just me.

I renewed my interest in the mando guitar however when Phantom Guitarworks started making better-than-Vox copies of Vox guitars and lo and behold their mando-guitar was no exception. While it looks like a Vox and talks like a Vox it is just so much more. The Phantom Guitarworks line makes me all warm and fuzzy (their teardrop 12 string is really awesome and makes me want to play "Good Things" really loud)... But we were talking about their Mando which seriously rocks!

But... and there is ALWAYS a "but" where guitars are concerned... Jerry Jones the ace guitar builder who mines the vein of Danelectro goodness also has a Mando-12 called the "Shorty" with a long horn body style and all the street cred available to those who get the incredible hipness of "masonite"! Is this guitar cool or what?

Ooh... The Phantom or the JJ Shorty???

Maybe both...

Mike is happy with his electric drive...

Over at the Bianka Blog Mike gets all warm and fuzzy about his motor...

We all need a little more history...

Over at the Latts and Atts and Margaritaville forums, folks are upset with Jimmy Buffet because he said something or other about an ex-president. You can almost smell the burning Parrothead hats on the breeze...

That really depresses me and it just reinforces the feeling that "we are most certainly not in Kansas anymore" mindset that makes me wonder if I have somehow sailed to some alternate universe where everything is way off kilter and Barry Manilow just won the Nobel Peace Prize for his good works as the new Pope.

Yeah, seriously unreal kind of vibe as we all know that the Pope is not Barry Manilow but is, in fact, an ex-Hitler youth and what exactly does that say about our "real" reality?

History is an interesting thing and a tool of great power. A fact that those who do not take note of history and what has gone before should. History has a nasty knack of coming around and biting those on the ass who do not pay attention to it...

Offhand I'd say that Mr Buffet pays attention to history as it unfolds and for Jimmy to get where he is against all the odds it is a sure thing he is nobody's fool. If he said something I'd most likely listen. If for some reason it went against my world view, I'd pause for a moment and give it some thought and check it out because there is a better than even chance he'd be right.

But, that's just me...

Not The same old same old... or why we need more charter boats like this

Our business as charter brokers is very rewarding as a whole (after all we sell folks fun and how great is that) but it does come with no small amount of frustration as we see new boats gets swallowed up by the same old same cattle boat mentality. It's not their fault, really, as there is no small amount of pressure to get in line and become sheep-like from various forces, but in doing so, they do both the industry and themselves a real disservice.

Which is why the very existence of a boat like Wanderbird is so refreshing as it is most certainly not the same old same! While it breaks the same old same rules, it also opens all sorts of niche sailing and exploring opportunities for those folks who'd like to do a charter but don't have any urge do the standard "if it's Tuesday we must be anchored off Foxy's let's go buy the t-shirt" sort of charter that so many of our clients find boring. What is not boring is Wanderbird's plans for the future which are more along the lines of... inspired! They even have just about the best budget trip we've ever seen in their Tramp steamer voyage...

It doesn't have to be the same old same...

Then again, it takes a special sort of person or crew to build your own niche and that goes especially for charter yachts. The downside is that not everyone gets the fact that being different or unique is really a great selling point, and selling something different or unique in a world populated by folks of limited vision can be... well... frustrating. On the up side, once you do it and it works, everyone and his brother will be trying to clone or steal your niche once you have shown it successful but by then you will own it. Success, of course is the best revenge!

Do it right and they will come...

More DIY goodness... Self steering

Self steering is another of those things that tend to polarize boat folk into various (if not quite foaming at the mouth) groups. While there are many sub-groups, the basic line up boils down to auxiliary rudder and servo pendulum; both of which work finest kind but have different advantages and disadvantages...

For the home builder DIY guy the auxiliary rudder system makes all kinds of sense but surprisingly there is not a lot of information about in the way of how to build one. Part of this could be because the auxiliary rudder is so simple that you hardly need plans to make a successful one or more probable that for those who are real geeks in regards to building self steering systems are attracted more to the more complicated geek fest that is the servo pendulum!

Right now on "So It Goes" we have a DIY clone of the excellent French Atoms servo pendulum gear and while it works just fine, we do plan to replace it with an auxiliary rudder for a couple of reasons. The first being that the auxiliary rudder system is just that and in the event of losing our spade rudder we would be able to use the self steering to steer the boat. While the second is that in our experience the auxiliary rudder system gives more scope for boat balance as you can use your main rudder to fine tune balance and balance is all about where it's at.

For those who might suggest going with an autopilot rather than a self steering gear, I could go into a long extended rant on the subject but to save you the PAIN will just let you ponder the initials NFW...

As I mentioned, there are a great many resources for those embarking on building a servo pendulum gear but for those interested in an auxiliary rudder, not so much, but three excellent ones do come to mind...

1. Nick Skeates designer of the Wylo had an article some years back in PBO on building his auxiliary rudder self steering system which is excellent (article can be found in the files section of the Wylo group) which is both easy to build and robust gear.
2. Paul Fay a designer (of steel boats as well) has an excellent vane gear as well which is dead simple and should work well on pretty much any boat.
3. For anyone deciding to build a self steering gear I'd advise they download the most excellent download by the blog Sarana at Sea ... money well spent!

Between these three articles you will have more than ample information to build a vane gear for a couple of hundred dollars or less, and able to take you anywhere...

How cool is that?

I sailed an ocean...

On taking things to extremes... the budget conundrum

The cruising community has no shortage of factions on a lot of subjects, and one that really seems to get people riled up is the whole cruising budget discussion. Over at Cruisers Forum there is a thread with over 200 posts on the subject of "Can you cruise on $500 a month" and the gist of the thread, as I read it, is some say you can and some say you can't.

Of course, it's not that simple and what bothers me is that it gets polarized and political which is never helpful as passions rise folks tend to quit thinking and before you know it people are telling people their mothers wear army boots!

The thing is both sides of the argument could learn from the other side to their own benefit and learning is always a good thing! The other problem is that once polarized it becomes political, and the less politics of cruising we have the better.

So where do I stand on the $500 a month cruising budget (me being Mr Cheapseats, need you ask) and is it doable?

Doable... for sure, and if done right, nowhere near the realm of dumpster diving, sacrifice and deprivation that those who pooh pooh the idea will point at. Those with some brain cells can even do it in something approaching style and luxury... as it is not at all about doing without but simply losing the waste and superfluous baggage we don't really need to carry around.

Which sort of brings up back to the political and polarization subject... If you are choosing to be cheap to prove someone wrong, make a point, or set a record, it's not going to be fun so why bother? Cruising should be fun and it should be done in style and comfort as life is simply too short not to make the best of it.

Life, as they say, is good...

a double standard...

Watching the antics of the US Coast Guard (affectionately called "our bitch" by BP execs) in the Gulf does not fill one with any optimistic warm and fuzzy feeling that those responsible for this madness will be doing any perp walks... ever. On the other hand, I'm sure they will be arresting and prosecuting to the full extent of the law any clean up workers who might accidentally drop a rubber glove or reporters with the audacity to do their job. I'm told it is all about priorities...

Bummer! But then corporations get the government and laws they pay for... So it goes.

Today's mind boggling news story on the oil front is that there are 27,000 abandoned oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico and while there are laws and regulations that say these are supposed to be plugged and inspected but in actuality are not. Seriously scary stuff.

The Board Lady... An excellent site

An excellent site for folk who have the new generation (epoxy) surfboards and the need to repair them... Check it out!

How things work... Sorta/kinda

I've always liked the whole Rube Goldberg breakdown of system to try and get a handle on just how stuff affects other stuff whether it is on a boat system (like self steering) or any system that is complicated... Because it gives you the BIG PICTURE!

Of late, it is a pretty safe bet that those running the show (well at least those who profess they are running the show) don't even have a hint of what the big picture is anymore whether it is global warming, immigration, apparently endless war, how to deal with oil spills, or economics... Can you spell FUBAR?

Sort of like the world being run by the Three Stooges!

Which is why I miss the cartoons and drawings of Reuben Goldberg as he always showed the big picture and brought a smile or two in the process... and face it, the folks running the show apparently need visual aids!

Maybe this one will help...

The 4th and broken crockery... I need a cannon and I need it NOW!

I thought I'd leave the July 4th posts to others less prone to going ballistic and frothing at the mouth. Besides, on s/v So It Goes there was needful stuff to do involving BBQ pork and yams that needing tending to...

Plus it was hard to write with the overlaying sound of Thomas Jefferson spinning like a top at the liberties being taken with his view of what liberty should have been. There was an excellent July 4th post that, while written by a Canadian, pretty much says it all and is well worth reading.

On the other hand, I really do feel the need to either rant or be proactive and get a cannon, as the July 4th parade through the anchorage of overpowered, penis-enhancing, wake makers out burning $500 bucks worth of gas for a few hours of pedal to the metal fun and frolic has not left me best pleased. Broken crockery and glassware on "So It Goes" does not as a general rule make this fellow a happy camper!

Of course, I really should take the long view and enjoy the fact that these boats in a few years will be rotting hulks as fuel will no longer be available for that sort of conspicuous waste and idiocy. Then again, there is a lot to be said for instant gratification in the guise of exploding cigarette boats and general mayhem that a cannon on the foredeck of "So It Goes" would provide...

Fun, as they say, for the whole family!

The urge to listen to the crowd...

Over at one of the forums I check out from time to time, there is a discussion about sailing from Florida to Puerto Rico in a small boat and most of the discussion is of the "why you should not" rather than the "go for it" sort... Which is odd, as the forum in question is called "Sail Far" and not "Ship it down"!

Of course, a lot of the reasons brought up are valid on one level but they all seem to leave out a few very important points...

Experience... The guy wanting to go does not have any blue water miles and while it makes sense to get some experience, the only way to get some blue water experience is to do some blue water sailing.

The boat is too small... Well, not really. It is small but seaworthy (it's a CAL20) and more than capable of doing the voyage and it does happen to be the boat he has which is no small factor in the decision making process.

The voyage will take too long... Well, it is a sailboat! All voyages take too long and it is simply part of the gig and certainly not a deal breaker of note.

The reason I mention all this is simply whenever you bring the decision making process to a group the system will always bog down and either become a negative or worse simply wind up in a stasis situation. Over the years we have noticed it time and time again when groups of cruisers found themselves ready to set off on a passage the tendency was to sit and wait for better weather, smaller seas, or some other undefined need that was simply never going to happen... Meanwhile, the cruisers not part of the group or on the fringes would simply pull up their anchors and quietly sail off into the sunset.

The same problem arises in danger situations (Danger! Danger! Will Robinson!) like approaching hurricanes or suchlike. Folks sit around talking about whether they should run for cover, haul their boats, or other proactive acts. As they sit, the storm comes nearer and nearer... Again, those not into the whole decision-by-committee thing run off to the mangroves, put out lots of anchors, and wait in relative safety as the others find themselves in stasis.

Getting back to the question of whether this guy should sail his CAL 20 down to the Caribbean... Well, it all depends. The real question is does he WANT to sail his boat down and is he willing to do what it takes to make it happen?

If he does, well he can always pick up some blue water experience before going down as there is always someone looking for crew and the only way to get experience is to go sailing.

Whether such a voyage is right is more about what is right for the man in question and only he knows what the answer is...

Just the sort of book everyone should read...

If there is one huge misconception in the whole realm of sailboat design, it is that size somehow equals seaworthiness... Just ain't so!

When we lived in France it was no big thing to meet a couple on a quai in a little Muscadet who had just returned from doing an Atlantic Circle or some such voyage and if you questioned them about the suitability of their craft to cross the oceans the reaction you'd most likely get was one of surprise and most likely the phrase "Petit bateau, petits problèmes ".

Big boats by their very nature become problematic. As things get bigger and more elaborate systems come into play, things get complicated and complications are not happy making things at sea.

Of all my favorite boat designs, the CAL 20 has a very special place in my heart. Over the years CAL 20's have made some very impressive voyages, not the least being the 2008 TransPac when the CAL 20 "Black Feathers" became the smallest entry in the history of the race to compete and cross the finish line.

While "Black Feather" was not the first or even second CAL 20 to cross from California to Hawaii it was the first to race. The preparations taken to prepare the CAL 20 for a trans Pacific crossing are of great interest to anyone considering sailing small boats any distance. Actually when I think about it folks with much bigger boats could learn a thing or two about what's important by looking into how the other half lives.

Lucky for us, Robert Crawford has made the process accessible in his book "Black Feathers: A Pocket Racer Sails The Singlehanded TransPac" which really covers it all for anyone considering adapting a pocket cruiser or racer to go far... It really is a must read!