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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.

Many years ago I would drive up Highway 1 from Santa Cruz to San Fransico with my young son to survey the sea conditions before racing my sailboat along that notorious section of coast. I kept him entertained during the drive with stories about monsters that inhabited the region. In stormy weather, Pigeon Point, the location [...]

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!

We landed in Saint George Harbor, Bermuda, in late May of 2002 after a boisterous and eventful five-day crossing from Norfolk, Virginia. There we met the crews of other eastbound sailing vessels, all closely monitoring daily weather forecasts. Every afternoon we gathered in a little waterside pub to talk about the 1800 miles of water [...]

“It’s fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that—-it’s all illusion.Unknown is what it is. Accept that it’s unknown and it’s plain sailing. Everything is unknown—-then you’re ahead of the game.
That’s what [...]

Two years into our voyage the Yucatan current catapulted us northward in a great arc toward the east coast of the United States. From the Keys, we snaked our way in and out of the inland waterway toward the Chesapeake Bay. Along the way we used the few anchorages we could find between $100-a-night marinas. [...]

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 [...]

We achieved escape velocity on a foggy September morning. Songline, ship-shape and bristling with new boating gadgets, loped southward on a light westerly. Over the days and weeks that followed we grew accustomed to the rhythms and routines of voyaging. For the first month life seemed idyllic.
Then the Second Law of Thermodynamics (Entropy) began to [...]

It seems that every year around late September or early October there comes a perfect evening in Santa Cruz, California. It’s Indian summer. A balmy breeze blows along the shoreline. The full moon rises with the setting sun. Locals beat a path to the sea and in a bacchanal display […]

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 [...]