40+ year-long professional career, dutifully fulfilled, is sunsetting. But I’m turning the page altogether now, and the Sun also rises onto our 40+ foot sailboat. It was a jolly good run. Kelly made her leave five years ago - just waiting for me to trade one passion for another. So, we segue away from a …
Cozumel
Up at 0300 for an early flight, we arrived at noon. (While Fayaway is resting, we can get to the islands much quicker than sailing.) Wow, how I love this Caribbean climate. After meeting up with friends, we hopped on a shuttle to find our way to the hotel, checked into our room and enjoyed …
Vinny (Da Vane) II
Vinny started out in a box. Actually four boxes. Cardboard too, but built to take the punishment that UPS dishes out for being shipped from the UK to Hampton, Virginia. Vinny arrives at the dock (almost) ready for crew service! Vinny is also known as a wind-actuated auto-steering rudder pilot mechanism. “Huh? Ok, so now …
Aqua Alta
Sitting in the Fayaway’s cockpit facing aft, toward the southwest. Taking in all there is in this relatively busy mid-coast Maine town. I hear squawking ospreys, speaking to each other as they circle and perch atop nearby mastheads. I hear a slow rumbling murmur of the Vinalhaven ferry moving its passengers to a nearby island. …
Velocity Made Good
A sailor knows that a boat can’t be sailed directly into the wind, even if that’s where she wants to go. Aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, design and skill determine how a boat will sail, and how close into (toward) the wind a sailboat can go. Velocity Made Good, or VMG, is a sailing term referring to the …