SAILtheCHANNELdotCOM

For many years we raced on the SF Bay. Events like the Three Bridge Fiasco, Delta Ditch Run, Silver Eagle, and Double-Handed Farallones provided us with many thrills and challenges. Now it’s time to slow down the pace and take a bit of time to smell the roses.

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 [...]

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. [...]

Most cruising guides tell you that stopping in El Salvador is not a very good idea. They say that the place has no safe harbors and has been at war for a long, long time. But we’d been at sea for almost five days, including the night we spent hove-to off the entrance to Bahia del Sol.

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 [...]

Like you, the idea of voyaging under sail infected me at an early age. I don’t think I took it seriously. It was a fantasy. People who actually did push-off were wild-eyed adventures or rich jet-setters. The reality of voyaging crept up on me slowly after years of day sailing, racing, and weekend cruises. One day I [...]

 The Skipper always makes the RULES.

The Rules are subject to change at any time without prior notice.

No Crew can possibly know all the RULES.

If the Skipper suspects that the Crew knows all the RULES, the Skipper must immediately change some or all of them.

The Skipper is never wrong.

If the Skipper is wrong, it is because [...]

Blowback is the unanticipated consequences of your actions. Everything you do produces some blowback. Sometimes blowback can get serious.
This is the story of some serious blowback from living the dream of sailing away.
Stories about the trials of voyaging in small boats usually contain hair-raising accounts of life-threatening adventures and heroic deeds. Crews lash themselves to [...]

Download Bahia del Sol, El Salvador
Download Listen to story as a podcast
Let us know what you think of the podcast idea [ratings]
 
Here’s the story…
 
After a week of Tehuantepecers, a weather window finally opened and we departed Huatulco, Mexico in the company of several other boats bound for Costa Rica. We crossed the infamous Gulfo Tehuantepec [...]

Flowing northward at 4 to 6 knots, the Gulf Stream between the Florida mainland and Bahamian archipelago is effectively the largest river in the world. Even a mild wind blowing against it’s massive flow causes vertical waves to build, creating conditions that are dangerous. Marc Kraft, Owner and Operator of Pacific Yachting, remembers. (STC Ed.)

MANY [...]