The best way to learn advanced coastal cruising skills is to sail the coasts of the lovely Caribbean Islands. And, if you are going to sail the Caribbean, then Wild Rumpus is the boat to do it on under the gentle tutelage of yours truly!
Continue reading “Learn Advanced Coastal Cruising on Wild Rumpus!”
Our departure from St Helena marked several transitions. We left behind a crew member, the remaining crew was far more familiar and comfortable with Wild Rumpus, and the temperature gradually transitioned from chilly to biting-into-a-freshly-microwaved-hot-pocket, noon-on-a-sunny-day-inside-a-roadside-porta-potty HOT.
Oh, and one of the crew decided we had too many damned stanchions.
Continue reading “Stanchions? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Stanchions”
Wild Rumpus is Grenada undergoing some repairs under the supervision of its skilled and dedicated crew. I am in California and about to start teaching sailing. So what is next? That’s what family, friends, and I keep asking myself, and now I think I have some answers. Oh, and some more videos and pictures of sailing across the Atlantic from Africa.
Continue reading “What’s Next”
We did it. Wild Rumpus and her crew sailed from Cape Town to Grenada with stops in St Helena and Fernando de Noronha. We survived without physical injury, some bruises to our ego, some broken boat parts, one stabbed dinghy, and an excess of Ostrich sausage that nobody could bring themselves to eat, and we all remained friends (or the crew was about to mutiny and we landed just in time for my safety). This is the super brief recap.
Continue reading “4 Months, 5800+ Miles, 2 Remote Islands, 2 Beers, Some Tattoos, and Lots of Memories”
Wild Rumpus is officially a boat! Just pics and some vids. Enjoy.
Continue reading “Splash Down!!”
We visit the birthplace of Wild Rumpus, get a tour, and unsurprisingly I’m a jackass . . . . per usual.
A mix of good news and less than great news this week, but since embodying the honey badger, attitudes are good, and progress is being made. (Yes, I remain hung up on the honey badger.). We will spend some extra time in Cape Town taking in the sites, playing tourist, and sampling S. African whiskey. Oh, and I have some more post-safari pics from Skukuza Africa.
Continue reading “From Inside The Briar Patch”
My last food-related entry focused on the how-to of planning for an offshore passage. According to one reader, all I did was recommend an app. She found that unsatisfying and, although she would say she is not bossy, she demanded a more detailed look at meals. Since I am here to fulfill the needs of the readers (and she scares me a bit), this blog entry will focus more on the ingredients and meals themselves.
Continue reading “Eating Simply Does Not Mean Eating Badly”
Ideally, while on passage we will all eat together and not resort to eating each other. Planning the menu and supplies was driving me a bit nuts until I happened on a method that did not involve learning how to use spreadsheets. Now, it is a simple, if somewhat tedious task in which I have confidence.
And we all know that sometimes life moves too fast. The answer to an overly fast-paced life is often slowing down and appreciating the little things. But, what happens when a sailboat is moving too fast? Well, you put on the brakes –sort of.
Continue reading “Eating Is Fundamental and Slowing Our Roll”
There are boat shows and then there is the Annapolis Sailboat Show. For the uninitiated, the prior sentence is like saying “there is a little league baseball diamond and then there is Fenway Park.” Although we already have a boat, our passage crew had never stepped foot on an Xquisite X5, and we still had some big-ticket items to buy for the passage.
Continue reading “Annapolis Boat Show”