Welcome to the New Blog

In this world there are two kinds of people: those who do well on tests and those who don't. Typically, I would be categorized with the latter group, so I am very pleased to announce I passed all four sections of the masters captains license test and am only a whole lot of paperwork and bureaucracy away from being an official captain.

For those of you wishing to follow in my footsteps in getting a captains license I would recommend quitting your job and social life and preparing yourself for weeks and months of study without letup. Now understand, I'm not complaining as much as trying to give you a picture as to how it really goes. There are four parts that you are tested on when you get your captains license: navigation, nav. general, rules of the road and deck general. Having sailed my entire life, most of this was long known info with the exception being the rules of the road.

The rules wouldn't be so bad except they are written in such a dry and uninteresting way that they are almost impossible to learn. For example, you must memorize dozens of light sequences in which you see red, green, yellow and white dots against a black background and know exactly what type of vessel that is, their size, and what they are doing.

I just told myself while memorizing all this stuff that it will help me immensely when I'm out there on the deep blue dodging ships. In the end I was convinced that I would not do well on the rules test, but must have known them better than I thought because by some bizarre twist of fate I managed to get 100%. Quite a pleasant surprise to say the least.

I have received an abundance of delightful emails explaining in vivid detail what my past blog was lacking, so you may be glad to know that establishing this blog is step one of moving to the new website/blog setup.

For those of you who have just started following my progress I will give you the cold hard facts. I am 17 years old and have dreamt of sailing solo around the world since I was six. The past three years have been spent preparing mentally, physically and financially (cough) for the ultimate expedition of circumnavigating nonstop against the prevailing winds and currents.

I live in Port Angeles, Washington and if all goes well plan on departing for the circumnavigation some time this summer from Port Townsend. My entire life has been spent sailing in the often challenging waters of the pacific northwest, and my offshore experience includes sailing both ways between California and Hawaii with the first person to circumnavigate under 21, Brian Caldwell. Of course, I am also getting my captains license and am training every day for the rigors of the voyage, and will sail thousands of solo miles before departure.

Sailing east to west nonstop around the globe is a much more challenging undertaking than the usual route because it means fighting for every mile against not only the most formidable body of water on the planet, the southern ocean, but the spin of the globe itself. It will be less pleasant because sailing to windward is harder on the boat and sailor. The route will also mean sailing a greater distance because you must tack back and forth when sailing upwind, thus often requiring 15 miles of sailing for every 10 miles made good. It is considered the most challenging solo voyage one can undertake and to date only five people have successfully completed the accomplishment. I can hardly wait.

Now if you will excuse me, there is sailing to be done.