Introductions / How did you find sailFar.net?

[MikeTurner]

Ahoy, all!

I'm Mike, currently sailing out of Fairhope, Alabama, on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay.  I've been sailing over 35 years, from my first boat (a Sunfish) up through an O'Day Daysailor, Catalina 25, Catalina 30 and our current boat, a Rob Roy 23 yawl.  Sailing venues have included inland lakes in Michigan and North Carolina; Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego, California; and now Mobile Bay and environs.

My wife and I have progressed from daysailing, to cruises to Marina del Rey and Catalina Island in California, and several 3-4 day cruises in Alabama and Mississippi.

We're in the process of selling the Rob Roy to move up to a larger boat, in the 32-36' range, for more extensive cruising in the Gulf, Florida Keys, Bahamas and up the East Coast ICW.  The Rob Roy has been a terrific little boat - our original plan was to trailer her around the US - but we've changed our cruise plans.  Anyone who might be interested in the Rob Roy, drop me a line or take a look at sailingtexas.com (or a variety of other sites I've posted it on around the web).

Looking forward to learning a lot from this site (which I learned of from an offhanded reference over on the TrailerSailor site - trailersailor.com), and maybe sharing a bit of our adventures - the most recent of which was losing our rudder 37 miles from home, out in Mississippi Sound, and how we sailed home without it. 

Fair winds!

[CharlieJ]

Hi Mike.Welcome aboard. You'll enjoy the people here. Sorry we missed you when we were in the Mobile Bay area, but you just can't make it everywhere.

Maybe on our way home.

Good Luck on the boat search

oh, and Tehani is at anchor at Bradenton Beach. We'll mos likely move on down to Sarasota later today for one night, then on southward.

[wolfshead13]

Hi all:
I found this site through a google search and have lurked for awhile. Finally had something to contribute in a topic and signed up. I have sailed since I was 9 and owned  sailboats since my early twenties
I sail a Hughes 25 in Ontarios cottage country

[bbqjerry]

Hi all,

I became a sailor quite by accident about six years ago. I bought an old Y-flyer for my photography studio background for high school seniors. The next year I was at a small lake outside of St. Louis, MO and saw several Y-flyers sailing around. I stood on the dock watching when someone yelled "get in, I need crew". Well, needless to say, I was hooked.  ;D

Three years ago I sold the Y-flyer and bought my current boat, a San Juan 21. I have sailed several lakes in the midwest and the Mississippi River. In October of this year I trailered Captain Morgan, named for my daugther, and favorite drink, to my home town of Brunswick, GA. A friend and I sailed that little boat from sun up till sun set for six days on the ICW and St. Simon Sound.

I left Captain Morgan at my mother's house in Brunswick where I plan on making monthly trips to go sailing through the winter. If everything works out, my wife will retire in May and we plan to move somewhere around the area by June. If you are going down or up the ICW, stop by Two Way Fish Camp and eat at Mud Cat Charlies on the South Altamaha River. Lat/lon:31 19.239N/081 26.168W. Great food and friendly people.

I plan on keeping my little San Juan, and when I get moved by the ocean, I plan on getting an old Triton or Bristol 27 and fixing it up to go to the Bahamas and the Keys. Oh, by the way, I found this site on two different forums...trailer sailor and sailnet.  ::)

Jerry

[AdriftAtSea]

Welcome aboard Jerry.

[Tim]

Welcome Jerry, you'll fit right in here.

[bbqjerry]

Thanks Adrift and Tim. I really like this site and am still reading the different treads.

[s/v Faith]

Hi all,

I became a sailor quite by accident ...

... If you are going down or up the ICW, stop by Two Way Fish Camp and eat at Mud Cat Charlies on the South Altamaha River. Lat/lon:31 19.239N/081 26.168W. Great food and friendly people.....

Welcome aboard

  You just got your first grog Jerry,  all directions ought to include coordinates.   ;)

 

[bbqjerry]

Thanks Chief Bosun. 8) I agree and I will post more good food stops with the lat/lon.

Jerry

[CapnK]

Welcome aboard, y'all! Glad to have you here. :)

[atomvoyager]

Hi Jerry

We live between Brunswick and Darien off HWY 17. Stop by and see us sometime when you're in town. At the moment we have a friend's Triton being worked on in our backyard that might be interesting for you to see.
You can contact us through the site below.

James Baldwin
www.atomvoyages.com

[bbqjerry]

Hi James,

Thanks for the invite. I'll be in Brunswick the 27th of November. I will give you a call before I show up. I hope to get one sail in also before leaving for home Saturday. My 10 year old great nephew is coming down to Brunswick from of all places, Chesapeake, VA. He has never been sailing so I hope to take him and his dad out for a couple of hours. He is really excited...I sent him some info to read, so he can get familiar with a sailboat. I also have a couple of books I will give him.

Who knows...maybe a new circumnavigator in a few years! I think it's great that a young man whats to learn to sail instead of sitting around playing computer games.

A happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and everyone on sailfar.net. I am off in six hours for FL to spend time with my daughter. :)

Jerry

[Red Planet]

Just bought a 2005 Com-Pac Eclipse, the Luna-Sea, from her previous owner in Harlingen, Texas, and corresponded briefly with Rich Hutchins at the factory. Rich answered my questions and referred me to the Com-Pac Yacht Owners Association Web forum, which I am still reading. Lots of good info there and an active group.

I noticed that CaptK, the administrator of the Com-Pac forum, included a link to SailFar.Net in his signature, so I followed it. It's like Yogi Berra said, "when you come to a fork in the road, take it."

[nowell]

Welcome Aboard! Just be careful for that Captain K character, hes usually in lockup more than being productive! Picture a modern day Jack Sparrow!

[AdriftAtSea]

Welcome aboard... I'd agree with nowell, and and CapnK has dogs instead of Kiera Knightly and isn't quite as photogenic as Johnny Depp..

Welcome Aboard! Just be careful for that Captain K character, hes usually in lockup more than being productive! Picture a modern day Jack Sparrow!

[Tim]

Hmmm, I am not so sure





;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Captain Smollett]

LOL, Tim, Grog for that one.

One point though: I took that picture, and I DO NOT remember Kiera Knightly there....he must have stowed her away and I was TOO TIRED to notice.

He is, after all, a slippery, sneaky {dude}.

;D

[SV Wind Dancer]

There isn't enough meat on Kiera Knightley's bones for even a desperate dog (apologies to KK if she's on the board, but for pity's sake! Send some home cookin' on a one way trip down that hole under your nose...TYVM)

[Marc]

I'm back!!!  It is so nice to see all the old names from before.  Found out that the site was back up from a freind here in Iowa.  Old times are back.

[River Wytch]

hello . . .
first off,i found sailFar while asking the googler to find things about "single handed sailing" and "solar battery charging" for me . . .
you never know what kind of people you'll attract by posting something on the net . . .

anyways . . .
i'm very happy to find a group of people who not only love old sailboats but will actually take them out and use them as the builders were hoping we would . . .

my boat is a 1967 Karlskrona-Viggen and i'll post more about her in the forums . . .
i'm based out of catskill point on the hudson river and have so far, covered the river from van wie's point to sandy hook . . .
i've fallen in love with my river and i'll be posting about that too but for now you should be making plans to sail the section between peekskill and newburgh at least once in you life . . .

as far as myself goes,i'll call myself a "newbie" . . .
due to the nature of my work,i had to go without a sailboat from the ages of twenty to fifty-four . . .
after my wife passed away from cancer,i went through the "there must be more to life" thing and thought an old swedish sailboat i found in craigslist might be the answer . . .
first,i had to re-learn sailing and my only experience was really just sailing nothing bigger than a sunfish on barnegat bay in jersey back when i was a kid and now i think i'm going to master a twenty-four foot sloop with a one meter draught,on a river no less . . .
i forgot to mention that i've been an over the road trucker for thirty-five years and we're not really known to  be too terribly brilliant . . .

anyways . . .
up here where i live, isn't exactly "sailing central",so at first i had to teach myself by reading "sailing for dummies"(how apt !) , "sailing fundamentals" and whatever i could find asking "the googler" during the winter months and hoped that would be enough to keep me out of trouble . . .
it wasn't . . .
i was doing "alright",i was able to move the boat around under sail and all but i wanted to start taking her out on trips right from day one out on the river and headed south to kingston,twenty miles south,because i didn't know anybody to tell me that i shouldn't do that yet . . .
there are five other sailboats that use the (free) town mooring field here and they're all a great bunch of guys,one of them,lyle ecker,decided that i was too painful to watch any further and started giving me the "tip of the day" whenever he felt i was worth teaching something to . . .
i like lyle alot . . .
he's been sailing on the river from the day he fell out of a crib and landed on his head  . . .
and he's an old truck driver too and sails a chrysler and i think i've seen at least two other chrysler sailors in here,i sent him the link to this forum and i hope he can handle being told his that his password doesn't have enough caps and numbers in it twelve times to join us. . .

lyle's been a fantastic teacher/role model out there and has a way of pointing out to me as to why i'm an idiot without making me feel that the entire enterprise is hopeless and keeps me honest by giving me this look like he's caught me masturbating or something whenever he see me running with my engine on,or even in the down position . . .
after about a month,i was finally  "getting it",somewhat . . .
river sailing is very different from what most of you have done and you will not find much,if anything written in books about it,the only two books that i've found that were any help were "the sloops of the hudson" ,written by captains william e, verplanck and moses w. collyer back in 1908 and mark twain's "life on the mississippi",the former will teach a sailor how to work with the tides and sailing techniques and the latter has plenty of information on how to read the surface of the water . . .
anything else you'd like to know,just ask me and i'll be more than happy to tell you what happend to me when i tried that and i'll try to find lyle and ask him what we're really supposed to do . . .

that's about it for now . . .
i hope to learn many things from you all in the future . . .

Dennis Willard