Steinbeck was a Nobel Prize-winning author famous for epic Americana including The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, and Cannery Row. The latter brought worldwide fame to the Monterey Bay, where Steinbeck spent his formative years.
I’ve had a love of the sea for as long as I can remember. I did not have a boat growing up, but I had enough friends and extended family with boats that I spent time on the water every year as a kid, even if it was just a rowboat.
We overheard a conversation from a mom of twin toddlers discussing life aboard. Our first reaction was, “wow, that must be hard” but she sounded like she was having fun and life was grand.
Back before the gray beard and “bald by choice” hairdo, when a tan was a permanent accessory and shoes were saved for special occasions, I had the distinction of answering that useless, I mean “timeless” question, “what do you do?” with a smile.
Daylight waned on Clarence Strait north of Ketchikan on Alaska’s Inside Passage. A building gale opposing the ebbing tide generated steep waves about thirty feet apart, the length of my self-constructed wooden cutter, Avalon.
Raja Ampat. The place of our childhood dreams. The “Last Paradise.” One of the most protected marine parks in the world.
In the middle of the year 2000, we made a pivotal decision that would set the course for a new chapter in our lives: we decided to sell our coastal sailboat and embark on the search for a blue water cruising sailboat.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the bustling capital of Spain’s Canary Islands, is more than just a picturesque city off the northwest coast of Africa—it’s the ideal destination for sailors preparing for an Atlantic crossing.
A north wind in the Caribbean Sea is as rare as a seagull landing on a stern rail empty of fish bate. It is even more rare under an almost full moon.
“You can do that?” My wife, Dannalie, and I looked at each other with eyes wide, mouths open, and heads filled with so many questions. As soul-mates, we knew exactly what each other was thinking. Must. Learn. More.
