| As you might guess from the title of this web and the picture below, sailing
is what this web is about. Sailing has been my primary interest since I
was a teenager, working summers at a camp just off Lake Michigan north of
Muskegon. When I moved to the Washington DC area in 1971, I took advantage
of my proximity to the Chesapeake Bay to purchase my first sailboat. |
 This first boat was a
1968 Hinterhoeller HR 25, which
is a 25' fiberglass sloop. In 1976 I sold the HR 25 and bought a new
Columbia
8.7. The Columbia 8.7 is a 29' fiberglass sloop, which I named
Vela Llena
(Spanish for "Full Sail"). For a long time Vela Llena was the perfect boat
for me, large enough to take on extended cruises along the US East Coast, but small
enough to keep maintenance work and costs within
reason. I sailed Vela Llena for nearly a quarter century before selling
her in the spring of 2001. The previous year I purchased a 1978 Pearson
424 , which is a 42' fiberglass ketch. The Pearson , which I
named Sarah, is the boat I intend to use for extended off shore trips for the
next 5 - 6 years, or possibly longer. As a shake
down off shore cruise I and five friends sailed Sarah to
Bermuda and back in the
summer of 2001. In June, 2007 I completed an
Atlantic Circle
cruise (transatlantic to the Azores, Portugal, Spain and the Mediterranean and
then transatlantic again back to the USA) on Sarah. When Sarah is underway you can also check my current location via
Winlink
Position Reporting or click on the SV Sarah link at the top of this page
then select Sarah's Location from the menu for that section of this website. |
| The initial step on the Atlantic Circle was accomplished in the fall of 2004 when
I moved Sarah from the Chesapeake Bay to Fort Pierce, FL via the Intracoastal
Waterway (ICW) and an off shore
sail. Mike Repass and I departed on the transatlantic leg of the cruise
in May, 2005. We stopped in the
Bahamas,
Bermuda and the
Azores before making landfall near Lisbon,
Portugal.
I spent the winter of 2005-2006 on Sarah at the marina in Cascais, Portugal.
During the spring and summer of 2006 I cruised Sarah from Cascais to the
Balearic Islands of Spain. Sarah spent the winter of 2006/2007 in Lagos,
PT. In May, 2007 Bob Calt and I sailed Sarah back to the USA by way of
Madeira and
Bermuda.
|
| After repowering Sarah over the
winter of 2007/8 I departed the Chesapeake in October and spent the
following winter in the Bahamas. |
| Currently (January, 2010) Sarah is berthed at the BridgePointe Marina in New
Bern, NC. |
