Letters Thanks for your story. It’s certainly admirable to hear


how you turned your near-tragic experience in motivation and innovation. We, along with most everyone, personally don’t know enough about these alternative systems yet to endorse particular products, but we certainly encourage people to educate themselves and explore the options that are becoming more and more available in fuels and propulsion systems. Google Hydra Cat Performance System for more information.


From Annapolis to Florida October 29,


Hello shipmates: When does an adventure begin? With its earliest wisps of a wandering conversation – like the headwaters of a river? Or when an idle thought ignites into interest? Or is it when interest turns to commitment? Or when you buy the airline ticket? Or when you arrive at your starting point? Thus, I find myself this evening at the home of Jim Philpott, in Annapolis, MD, where we have spent the day provisioning for a sailing voyage from Annapolis, MD to Key West Florida, and then up the Gulf Coast to Dunedin (Tampa area).


Letters I can’t label the air travel to here from Seattle as the trip


from Hell, but I did get a glimpse of the first ring of Dante’s inferno. Not real fire... just an experience of the insanity of homeland security mixed with a 24 hour weather delay in Minneapolis. I no longer have the slightest upset when an airline announces a weather delay and sends me packing to a cheap motel for a short night. After all they are just doing in the air what we will be doing at sea – being prudent and holding up for a weather window. But in summary, you have to really want to sail in order to get on an airplane to do it!!


I’ve done a bunch of East Coast yacht deliveries on various boats and never have I felt so confident in a successful voyage. Jim has owned Little Star, a Bristol 38’ sloop, for seven years, and each year he has meticulously maintained and upgraded her. She is, in fact, in “Bristol condition,” an old sea term with its origin from Bristol, England, renounded for their “shipshape” ships. When I tell landlubber friends about this voyage they usually respond with “be careful.” My favorite way to respond to them is, “YOU be careful. You’re the one who has to drive home on the freeway. Now that’s dangerous.” I guess we accept the risks of what’s familiar.


48° NORTH, DECEMBERR 2010 PAGE 11


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