SAILtheCHANNELdotCOM

Grenadines, April 2008
The Liat turboprop’s engines droned loudly as we cruised over the Caribbean Sea at 15,000 feet. The three hour flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico would bring us to Kingstown on St. Vincent Island—just a short taxi ride from Sunsail’s charter base and our departure point for a week of sailing among the [...]

We consistently sailed in the front half of the fleet. Our starts and beats often had us in fourth and fifth places. We tended to loose places during our reaches. We also lost some boats when our traveler exploded in race 1 and our Genoa sheet exploded in race 2.

In a gust the mainsail’s leech cord parted just below the first reef. The sail zippered open. The boom dropped. Jaws dropped. Eyes popped. It was our first practice and the boat was disintegrating before our very eyes!

Winter storms are raging and the Santa Cruz Harbor entrance is closed . . .

So I started wondering if maybe I could figure out a good reason to keep the thing even if I do have computers coming out my ears, and then it struck me. If I could get my navigational and SSB radio software running on it, it might be perfect for sailing.

I HAVE HAD A LONG HISTORY WITH BOATS, as I was born in England to parents who worked for the Falmouth Dockyard. Falmouth is at the extreme west of England and is a large British port. It is closest to the USA, and that made it an extremely important strategic port during World War II. [...]

It seemed to me that Brad, a big man with a correspondingly huge basso voice, was the ringleader. But it was Karen who was first to grab the wheel as soon as the boat got a bone in her teeth. None of them were really experienced sailors but, to my delight, there wasn’t a slacker in the bunch. Every one of them sported big smiles as we powered up the little Beneteau and started punching our way into the cold Pacific swell. Brad was the first to give voice to the idea. “You know what I want to do?” he said with a big grin, “I want to go down to the Caribbean and race in the Heineken Regatta!

What drove us to do something as crazy as making a sailing DVD? Here’s the backstory.

Click here to purchase the whole DVD
In late 2004, we returned to Santa Cruz, California after a six-year voyage that took our family through the Panama Canal, across the Atlantic, around the Mediterranean, and home again. Once returned, Monica, a physical [...]

What drove us to do something as crazy as making a sailing DVD? Here’s the backstory.

Click here to purchase the whole DVD
In late 2004, we returned to Santa Cruz, California after a six-year voyage that took our family through the Panama Canal, across the Atlantic, around the Mediterranean, and home again. Once returned, Monica, a physical [...]

When I was a young boy, my father and I would take walks along the seashore and he would quote “Sea Fever” from memory, thus infecting me with an archetypal imagery that has sustained me through life’s many trials.
Share This