What happened in Australia besides the propane incident.

What does your brother do now?

the boat has a full galley w/ small stove/oven & fridge/freezer. there were times when we might go 2 days w/o catching anything, but when we did the fish would often provide 10 -20lbs (or more) meat. we always kept the freezer completely full & gave away lots of fish when we arrived in port.

a lot - it is a whole chapter of its own. i will try to write it up some time.

he is in ethiopia volunteering at an orphanage or school or something, i think.

de captain,

this thread is awesome and i really hope you go back and fill in all the stories you alluded to. thanks for a good read.

de captain

Thanks for the great read. I'm about 20 months from starting on a similar trip, with similar sailing experience as you started with. Few questions...

1. Is a 35' Island Packet large enough for extended cruising? Although my wife will be along, most likely I will be single handed since she has a disability. (I'm thinking idiot proof/unsinkable...budget not too important)

2. sea anchor? y/n?

3.Should I learn to use a sextant, or just ensure I bring instructions?

4. Radar with alarm and sleep while on passage or too risky?

5. How do cats do on sailboat? Stick w parrot?lol

6.What replacement/spare parts most important to bring?

7.Should I add airconditioning?

8.Am not intending to bring a weapon, but was thinking to hide a couple k USD somewhere on board to possibly buy myself out of trouble?


I have a million more but thanks in advance if you speak your mind on these.

1. 35' certainly is big enough - i would recommend 40'. a 40' boat is just so much more comfortabale &has more stowage. if cost is not the main consideration for a 35' boat i would definitely go for 40'. a 40' boat is no harder to handle than a 35' boat. island packet is a well known brand, they are well built, solid & certainly capable of this type of trip.

2. yes- even though you will likely never use it. consider a small cone type for ease of deployment & recovery. sailrite sells these.

3. no. have it onboard just in case. more importantly take multiple gps & spare batteries for the handhelds. we kept 1 handheld w/ spare batteries in a pelican case & when we would get into a thunderstorm we put it in the microwave as an added precaution. yes, we were struck by lightning once at sea

4. if you are singlehanded you pretty much have to go this route. if there are 2 people onboard, always have someone on watch. you can go weeks w/o seeing anything, but we did have a couple near collisions.

5. cats seem to do fine (what little i know about it). 1 thing to keep in mind is that having a pet onboard can make arrival in some countris extremely difficult.

6. this list is way to long to go into here. feel free to pm me if you want & i will be more than glad to answer any questions & help out as much as possible via email, etc..

basically if you have it on board you need spare parts for it & an idea of how to fix it, or be able to go w/o it. if it is onboard it will break at some point.

7. no

8. definitely good to have some cash hidden, but it is unlikely you would buy your way out. most likely they would take the cash & then continue robbing you. the cash would be good for after they have taken everything & you need to be able to buy stuff right away.

good luck. you will have a great adventure. like i said feel free to pm me, i will help out any way i can.

Awesome thread.

I have nothing to contribute except the fact that the odds that a healthy 30 year old will die in a year have to be much less than 5%... otherwise people wouldn't be living to 70+ very often (assuming probability you die goes up with age past like 25 or so).

Thanks for reply...I'll take you up on pm offer once I compile my list haha...will take a few days

btw how much damage did the lightening strike do? I've heard of hulls delaminating due to this.

So, how did you like sailing around the world?

glad to help.

no real damage . it was sheet lightning very close overhead. it messed up a bunch of the electronics temporarily, but after we shut every thing down a couple of times we got everything working again.

i think your odds of dying would actually go down from the age of 25 to somewhere in your late 30's? 15-25 yr olds do a lot of dumb stuff.

any way i guess my risk assessment was off. maybe a couple of other 2p2'ers can sail around the world & give theire input.

Best thread since Adsman's rafting journies.

Awesome stuff Capt, thanks a ton, and if I ever make it to Vegas while you're there or the islands, the beer's on me!

This is going to be a thread that everyone talks about for years. I'm guessing it will change the life path of a few of us, similar to the thailand/argentina/adsman threads.

de captain, you win at life.

what did you do in the storm, hove to, run ahull, hang a drogue, or run with it.
its all scary.

did you see the green flash?

In case others were wondering, here's a green flash:

i want to see these adsman rafting things

anyone link? 2p2 search is so tilting

Searched it up.You're in for a treat:
http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/show...fpart=all&vc=1

Also a meditation thread:
http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/show...fpart=all&vc=1

And life lessons learned:
http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/show...fpart=all&vc=1

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=787

Comes in a series of posts throughout the thread..worth reading 'cover to cover' obv just like this one.


Konig-Links to Argentina/Thailand threads please?

No you can't It could be flat and you just sailed around a big circle.

we stayed on course, until we could no longer take it & then ran off down sea. we were in the aghulas current about 100 nm offshore during the worst of it. the aghulas current runs south at 5 -10 kts & when storms come off the coast of africa pushing against it giant standing waves form. these are not your typical ocean swell large seas, but waves that are 25' -30' high, straight up & down & 1 right after another. our #1 goal was to close w/ the coast & get up on the continental shelf where the current doesn't run & the waves are not nearly as intense.

the boat would literally run up a wave, fall off the back side & land like you had dropped it on the pavement. at 1 point, about 3 am, i was on watch, my brother was trying in vain to sleep (you have to rest no matter what, so that you can handle your shift)& i was sitting on the cabin sole in full foulies. we went up a wave, fell off the back & i look up to see a river of water running through the cabin. we had fallen off of a wave so hard that it blew out a forward port light.

if you have seen any photos of large freighters broken in two by large waves, this is most likely where it happened.

i have seen the green flash.

i sailed into the setting sun everyday for 205 days & arrived back where i started. so what you saying is the sun spins overhead, doesn't orbit the earth & everything we have learned over the past couple hundred years is wrong.

good to know, thank you.

i have never spoken to or met adsman, but i have read quite a bit of his stuff & something tells me we would probably enjoy having a beer together.

adsman, if you ever make to the islands, let me know - the 1st case is on me, although i will convert you to rum long before we can drink a case of beer.

Thailand: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=344
Argentina: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=724

I almost didn't click on this link as I was already not getting work done by reading about the sailing.
adsmans' thread is amazing. Highly recommended.

de captain, thanks for the read and your brother's pictures.
The best vacations I've ever had were a few weeks sailing the BVI. Which resembles your trip only by the fact I was on a boat and drinking Mount Gay. Lots of Mount Gay.

Didn't click this until they mentioned it on the pokercast, awesome thread.