2027 Looms!

29 October, 2026

Greetings Family, Friends, and travel enthusiasts.  Where to start?  Perhaps an apology is in order for my not posting during our visit to Scotland and Ireland last June … and participation in the wedding of a lifetime between our son Robin and Sophie Barrowman … at Boturich Castle at the south end of Loch Lomond.  These shots present the tone of a most magical week in which two families have come together.

2027 approaches and, with it, another Very Big Voyage aboard SY Encore between April and September.

Inspired by fellow sailing friends, including Amy Cartwright and Matthew Humphries and their 1985 Oyster Heritage 37’ sloop Florence (see Sailing Yacht Florence on YouTube to vicariously sail the world), has come the late-in-life urge (in me) to experience trade-wind and at least one more long-haul passage.

I plan to depart Seattle in mid-April with three additional crew members including a to-be-named Hydrovane auto-pilot, arrive in Hilo roughly three weeks later, likely via Pillar Point south of San Francisco, sail northwest through the Hawaiian Islands to Hanalei Bay on Kauai with Jane, other family and friends in May-June, execute a second passage to Sitka (or wherever winds take us in Southeast Alaska) with a different crew between late June and the end of July, and finally, joined again by Jane, sail back to Bainbridge Island in August.  (We know how to do that!)

Preparations for SE Alaska in 2024 pale in comparison with those necessary for safe and comfortable passage sailing.  They also constantly test my apparently waning short-term memory. Hence many pages of lists.

The study of high seas meteorology and ones use of a barometer has captivated me for the past several months as has the number of different ways one can skin a cat when it comes to the simple art of sailing.  A meteorological side note, two weeks ago in Boston I observed a “Mackerel sky” followed by a very wet next day, blustery winds the following day, and finally clear skies and cold weather. Absolute text book!  To the likes of Captain James Cook aboard HMS Resolution, Frank Worsley, Shackleton’s Captain aboard the Endurance, and others I bow down.

More will follow upon completion of a yard period just started at CSR Marine (below) and Sea Trial #1 (of hopefully 3) in early December.

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