Monday, February 12, 2018

Couple with zero sailing experience loose everything!

MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A couple who abandoned their workaday lives to buy a sailboat for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure instead lost almost everything when it sank on day two of their journey off Florida.

News outlets report that Tanner Broadwell, Nikki Walsh and their pet pug escaped injury when the 28-foot boat hit something and capsized Wednesday in the Gulf of Mexico near Madeira Beach. But the couple says just about everything else on the boat floated away.

"How do I have everything," Walsh told the Tampa Bay Times, "and end up in a s----- hotel with nothing?"

The couple had no sailing experience, save for some help from Broadwell's father.

They said they planned to escape modern life on the sailboat after leaving Breckenridge, Colorado, last year. Now Broadwell says they have no jobs, no savings and no place to go

Local boat captains say sandbars often shift in the channel in John's Pass where the sailboat capsized. In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, the couple said they got confused while sailing at night, when the "red and green buoys seemed out of place, they said, and the shoal wasn't where their 2016-17 navigational charts said it should be."

The boat sank in about nine feet of water and is still in the channel. The Coast Guard has informed the couple they must pay to remove and store the boat, a process that could cost up to $10,000.

"I'm not going to give up now," Broadwell told the Tampa Bay Times. "I'm going to get another boat down the road."

via SFGate

Skiffs in Sydney



Had a nice sail on Saturday with a trip to the city and some 18-20 knot winds.  Boat is almost ready to leave the yard and come home.

Friday, February 09, 2018








Took the boat up to the yard on 12-19 to add some cruising gear and make improvements.  Finally getting her back this weekend.  Solar panels and AIS were the last items.  Winds are forecast for 15-25 on Saturday and away we go!

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Crush of the Week - Tina Louise as Ginger

Way back in the mid 60's, Gilligan's Island premiered on TV.  Seven castaways stranded on a remote island in the Pacific.  I was about 7 at the time and I experienced my first TV crush: Ginger.  She played a Marilyn Monroe/Jane Mansfield role and stole the show.  She actually thought the show was about her as she had been promised a starring role.  Well as a young lad, I was smitten.  She seemed very tall to me, she was curvy and so so sexy.  The show ran from 64 to 67 and I think I saw every one of those shows.  Tina claimed that the show ruined her acting career because she was typecasted into that character.  Did you have a crush on Ginger or was it Mary Ann?

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Brilliant

Here is a trick from the old school.  Imagine you are in an anchorage and the wind and swell are coming from different directions.   A boat will naturally point into the wind and make sleep very comfortable...as long as the swell is from the same direction.   If the boat is pointing into the wind but the swell is more than 45 degrees different,  the swell will rock you out of bed!  Here is a great solution to this issue so you won't lose any sleep.


More here: https://www.jmpeltier.com/2015/05/19/sleep-tight-swell-bridle/

Not many folks know about this little trick so next time you are out there and can't sleep due to a rocking boat, whip this one out!

Puerto Vallarta Stopover

We will be in Puerto Vallarta from January 16-23, 2019 for any family and friends who want to join us for sails and visiting the hot spots on the bay. If we get a big response we can extend for another week.
Playa Caballo

Monday, February 05, 2018

Making your sailing dreams come true!

I written many times how my dream was to sail across the Pacific.  Yes that dream is hold until I retire, but the good news is that dream sprang to life 31 years ago.  It will one day come true.  Currently, we are set to depart in September for a 7 month adventure to Mexico and back.  The bottom line is that we are moving forward with the dream! 

I followed a couple online that was sailing the world on a beautiful boat, some may remember Alex and Taru.  She was stunning and he was a kite surfer.  I was looking for their blog and found that it seems she and he have split and she is now with a small child living a simple life.  She had some cool things to say about achieving your dreams:

What if life was just a dream. There's nothing that can prove that it is not. So potentially, this all may be a very advanced, very realistic and extraordinarily vivid dream that we live within. A lucid dream in which you are awake and conscious. Where you have been given the magic wand to create all the worlds and wishes of your desire. It's just that you have forgotten your power. Forgotten that you are the God and the creator of your life.

Whatever life is, what is stopping you, right now, from doing what you really want? Living the life you dream of?

Are you blocking the perfect flow of life energy with limiting beliefs about yourself? Is there a twisted side to yourself thinking that you are not worth happiness? Or do you let other people or rules of society write the story of your life?

And how do you even come to an understanding of what you really want in life? When there are so many options. When life pulls you this way and that. And aren't there so many things we should do, in order to be respected/loved/acknowledged. And what about fitting in? Moving too wildly outside of the frames that your peers move within just seems way too risky. Or?

If you take a quiet moment to yourself and reflect upon it, you do know that none of that is really important. You do know in your heart that you are here for a purpose, just like everyone else. Looking at the lives of other people, it may seem that everyone's got it all worked out. That they all seem to have found their path to happiness.

Read more here.

Taru on a sailing/beach adventure!

History Lesson: Slocum

Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 - November 14, 1909) was the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wrote a book about his journey Sailing Alone Around the World, which became an international best-seller. He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat, the Spray.
Any sailor worth his salt knows the story of how Slocum spread thumb tacks on his decks at night to keep the bad guys away from his boat. What a great way to keep them at bay!

Back in Action...


Muscle-Up from Robert McIntosh on Vimeo.

Back east last week as my Dad passed away on Friday with his family by his bedside.  He was almost 93 and had a great life.  We will miss him and cherish him always.  He is now riding the big bike in the sky.  Love You, Dad!