Some Background

Man, I can't wait until it gets a bit warmer and I can break out the flip flops and mainsail and shove off.

Just to give you, the reader, a bit of background on me and my sailing experience, I thought I'd give you my nautical resume:

I've been sailing since I was 10 (so for almost 14 years now), I was on my high school's sailing team for three years as crew although I am a pretty decent skipper, I taught for a summer at Annapolis Sailing School's Kidships, was a lifeguard and first aid certified for four years (I should really recert; I think I will this spring), worked at the Annapolis Harbor Master's office driving boats for two seasons, raced Wednesday nights for 2009 season, raced Annapolis Race Week 2009 and I have my openwater diving certification (which I'd really like to take further but time, money, blah, blah, blah..., we'll see. I'm working on it).

So all in all, I've been around the water and I like being on boats but I'm really lacking any serious offshore sailing experience which bothers me. I've done some overnights and sailed through a few storms but no real night sailing and frankly, being confined to the Chesapeake is just not for me. I mean I've been on a boat that was sailing off the coast of Australia but most of the time it was motoring because of the storm and I didn't even really get to do anything, although storm riding was a lot of fun. The boat was rocking like crazy and I was the only one out of 25 of us who was having anything close to a good time. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

BTW: Quick note for those of you looking to sail down under, their nautical system is legitimately backwards. Its not "Red Right Returning"; its the opposite. I'm not kidding. Confused the hell out of me at first and I swore we were going to run aground.

  So moving on; lately I've been looking into some books about circumnavigation and storm tactics. I know there is a lot to prepare for when planning a circumnavigation but the only two things I really feel deficient on is my storm sailing abilities and my navigation skills. I can navigate, don't get me wrong, just not as good as I would like to be able to. The plan is to finish my book, A Voyage for Madmen, and then work my way through the navigation book my dad got me a little bit ago, The Weekend Navigator. There were a bunch of other books that caught my eye while surfing on Amazon but I have to try and make sure to buy them slowly instead of all at once otherwise I'd just leave tomorrow and my dad would be wondering what the hell happened to his boat. Don't worry though, I'll try to keep you posted when that happens.


PS: Does anyone know how the labels thing works before I go searching to try and find out?