https://sailingmagazine.net/articles.sec-112-1-notes-from-a-sailing-life.html Thu, 25 Apr 24 00:00:00 -0400 en hourly 1 https://sailingmagazine.net/article-779-come-hell-or-high-water-neptunes-always-in-charge-at-sea.html Even with the best of intentions I am not the most prolific blogger on the ocean. Somehow several months and nearly 5,000 miles of pretty amazing sailing have slipped by with nary a blog entry. Sorry about that, lets catch up, at least a little bit.I last left you blathering on about waypoints while Quetzal was lying to a mooring in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Now I am back in Fort Lauderdale. Since t...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-832-theres-more-art-than-science-when-testing-boats.html Today I am writing a new boat review. I have written a lot of these over the years, more than 100 I think. And although at times I struggle to find the right tone, the right adjectives, I always take the task seriously. You can't hastily knock off a review, you have to get it right, you owe that to the folks in the sailing business and you especially owe it to the readers. Laugh, or don't, you nee...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-782-waypoints-part-2-ogden-nash-meets-hurricane-bill.html Okay, I know, I didn't keep up my part of the blogging bargain, as many of you have so kindly reminded me. I am sorry, really. But you should know that I started to blog, or started the blog, verb, noun, whatever, I swear I did. But then another stinking tropical storm spun to life, and then I had another passage to plan, and two articles were overdue, and then dolphins abducted me in the Cabot St...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-752-part-one-waypoints-where-is-bill.html I am sitting below, wishing for the 1,000th time, that I had not pitched the table when I replaced the mast last year. It seemed like a good idea at the time, especially because I had trimmed the table with the delicacy of a Russian midwife, with a Sawzall no less, while frantically stepping the mast after the Italian tornado disaster. You see, I had to hire a crane, a monster of a crane, the kin...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-644-the-fountain-of-youth.html The search for the Fountain of Youth was not going well. The sailing, however, was about as good as it gets aboard Quetzal. We were flying, blasting before the stirred-up trade winds on a deep reach. The GPS routinely flashed 10, 11 even 12 knots. The main was double reefed, to steady the boat, while a poled-out genoa provided all the horsepower we needed. It was a rollicking ride, and that was th...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-679-lauderdale-a-canal-level-view.html I have done a lot of sailing in the past 12 months. I've logged more than 9,000 miles aboard my Kaufman 47 cutter Quetzal. I've sailed from Turkey to Gibraltar, zigzagging my way around the Mediterranean. I've crossed the Atlantic, completing an easy 18-day passage from the Canary Islands to Antigua. I've had some terrific north and south reaching in the Caribbean, calling at nearly every island b...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-617-back-from-the-tornado.html Somewhere near the middle of the Atlantic I realized my world was right again. Quetzal was slaloming before a feisty trade wind, skidding down rolling seas like a Gold-medal skier who's had a bit too much to drink, in control but making it exciting all the same. She was flirting with double-digit speeds as she chased flying fish aglow with phosphorescence. Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper framed Pol...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-618-back-from-the-tornado.html Somewhere near the middle of the Atlantic I realized my world was right again. Quetzal was slaloming before a feisty trade wind, skidding down rolling seas like a Gold-medal skier who's had a bit too much to drink, in control but making it exciting all the same. She was flirting with double-digit speeds as she chased flying fish aglow with phosphorescence. Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper framed Pol...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-457-never-lost-just-hard-to-find.html #1 Hers, Mine, Ours, All Aboard!It was late afternoon when Quetzal sluiced between the massive breakwaters of Puerto Sherry, a huge marina complex just across the bay from Cadiz. We were finally on the other side of the Atlantic. My sixteenth crossing had been challenging as we coped with calms, gales and breakdowns. Now another challenged loomed, and I wasn't sure if I was ready for it. I hea...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-3-lorem-impsum.html Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut tristique dapibus leo. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Suspendisse est libero, porttitor a, dapibus et, venenatis ut, metus. Sed pede leo, feugiat ac, pretium quis, tempor at, erat. Pellentesque ipsum dolor, semper sed, iaculis pulvinar, aliquet ut, lectus. Sed non lectus quis nisi semper porttitor. Ut ut nisi vitae purus iaculis sce...]]>