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”
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!!”
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”
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”
Boy, do I crack myself up. This is not a full blog post, just a quick post to show some pictures of the Wild Rumpus build status.
Continue reading “That Time of the Month!”
This is a short entry about safety. I just finished watching a fantastic production about safety on a YouTube channel that I want to share with you sailors. Ryan and Sophie‘s videos were produced in conjunction with Andy Schell of 59 North– an offshore sailing instructor. I defer to their video to explain the swiss cheese mentioned above. Trust me, these are great videos and well worth watching. Even day-sailors will benefit from this discussion.
Here is video #1. Video #2 should be public soon. It is currently available on The Quarterdeck, a pretty cool sailors social media platform.
Quarantine got you down? Social distancing a drag? Family togetherness a bit too together? Why not mentally check out, and plan that 2022 voyage from the South Africa to Grenada with me? Well, that, or you can have another deep and meaningful chat about feelings, express your gratitude for quarantine togetherness through improvisational dance, or your love of life by learning the oboe.
Me, I’ll plan that passage (ocean crossing).
Continue reading “Premature Passage Planning”