Hopefully you guys have been keeping up with the recent happenings in the sailing community. But if you havent let me fill you in on what you have been missing. Just recently Abby Sunderland has been attempting to sail solo around the world in her yacht. Many know Abby as Zach Sunderlands little sister. Zach completed his voyage around the globe already and was the youngest teen sailor to circumnaviagate the globe. Now Abby is gunning to take her brothers title. But she had run into some trouble around the Horn of Africa. Currently it is winter in this section of the world. That means huge rolling waves, icebergs and much more. Abby had lost communication with her family and the press. Many were worried even more when two of her beacons went off. This triggered a massive search for the girl. Finally she was able to make contact with her family and they discovered that he mast had snapped in half, triggering her EPIRB beacon. She was rescued within 72 hours and is currently doing good. Jessica Watson of Austrillia is now currently holding the title for youngest solo circumnavigater, but she has company, 14 year old Laura Dekker is gunning to be the next youngest sailor to solo circumnavigate.

Laura Dekker is a 14 year old Dutch girl who's dream had been tied up in the Dutch family courts for almost a year. The courts concern was that the girl was not skilled enough to be able to handle the open sea by herself. The courts and her mother were concerned about her welfare and have had it tied up in court. Her father is supportive of her (parents are divorced). This young girl has quit the background with sailing and I feel that she will be able to handle herself and the boat through the course of her journey. This just goes to show you that no matter how young you are you can still accomplish great things.

With all these kids attempting this great feat, it makes you wonder how the rest of the world views these kinds of things. Alot of people think that these kids are just doing this as a press stunt, but what I think is that they are looking to fill their lives with acheivements and stories that they can be proud to share with the world.

Solo circumnavigation is not an easy thing to pull off either. These kids are at sea alone for the entire duration of their trip and have to sleep in intervals. While they have auto pilots so they do not have to stay at the helm all the time, they do have to check it quit frequently. On top of that, they have to make all meals from free dried food that has to last the entire length of the trip. For alot of teens this would be a great challenge because many simply cannot cook well. Zach Sunderland was one of these kids. He was a poor cook and he admitted to this in one of his videos from the boat. In short this is no easy task what these kids are doing and I applaud them for their efforts!

So who will be next to attempt to break the record? With laura setting sail the age bar is set pretty low. If you are attempting this please contact me. I would love to interview and feature you on the site. Well until next time safe voyages!

    Well back in November we had a nice warm day out. So I decided to test out my brand new 1960 5.5 horse Evinrude Fisherman motor on my boat. Yes thats right me with a motor, shocking! Well with the temperature in the high 60's and the sun shining it looked like a promising test run.
     I launched the boat as usual and fired up the bilge pump to start spitting the water out of my livewell. Then I fired the motor and was on my merry way. Well to my surprise I had started taking on massive amounts of 49 degree water after I was already a good 300 yards out. So i turned around and cracked the motor wide open. Now any one of you could have probably told me this wasn't a bright idea but of coure you do dumb things when you panic. 
     At about 250 yards away I watched the transom slowly get lower in the water, so I did the smart thing and killed the motor. As I yelled for help I had shifted to the front of the boat in a sad attempt to balance it out. Boy another idea that wasn't so good! 
     As people watched from the docks my boat began to take on ALOT more water and then it did what I feared, began to go bow up. I jumped straight in to the freezing water with my life jacket clutched in my hands. Putting it on wasnt a problem but starting to swim was. I could hardly breath because the cold water had put me straight into shock. I swam 200 yards for the pier and made it. By this time the ambulance was on its way. Some people helped me on the pier and waited with me. Most of what happened that day after this pont is still foggy but I was told that because of my training and abilty to survive I had saved my own life along with my life jacket. So remember always have a life jacket for everyone in the boat! What happened to the boat you ask? A nice man had towed it for me to the shore and my motor was not harmed.
     The cause of all the problems though was a hole that was in the livewell and a new one had formed in the cockpit. My bilge had failed and would not spit the water out which weighed down the back end. I am redoing and repairing the boat and we will be back in action soon!