Sail Far Live Free

I've always said that my favorite boat is whichever one I currently own. Being able to call it "mine" makes it my favorite by default. My first boat was a $400 derelict that I loved (still love) deeply. And she loved me back. However, that doesn't mean there aren't other boats I love that I'd like to call "mine" someday. The following is my personal ranking of my favorite affordable (available for ~$50k) sailboats. I've rather arbitrarily set the price limit around $50k and called it "affordable" in hopes that one day one of these boats might fit my budget and help my family and I to sail far and live free. Also note that other than the top 3, these rankings change in my head almost daily and I really struggled to narrow the list down to just 10.   As you peruse my list, you'll notice that they're all bluewater cruisers . You won't find any modern designs, fin keels, spade rudders, sugar scoop transoms, carbo...

Gonna put the world away for a minute Pretend I don't live in it... Wishing I was knee deep in the water somewhere Got the blue sky breeze and it don't seem fair Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair Sunrise there's a fire in the sky Never been so happy Never felt so high And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise Mind on a permanent vacation The ocean is my only medication Wishing my condition ain't ever gonna go away (From Knee Deep by Zac Brown Band) I have a daily ritual at our dinner table of asking my kids to tell me one thing they learned and one thing they enjoyed at school. I joke with them that I'll be asking the school for a refund if they can't come up with something they learned each day. But more times than not, they not only tell me what they learned but they also teach me something I never knew or something I long since forgot. It's great! I get to feel like I'm back...

"Our ship was now all cased with ice, -hull, spars, and standing rigging; -and the running rigging so stiff that we could hardly bend it so as to belay it, or, still worse, take a knot with it; and the sails nearly as stiff as sheet iron."   ( Richard Henry Dana from Two Years Before the Mast , 1840) I feel cold just reading that quote. Luckily, I'm quickly warmed looking out the window here in early March and seeing budding trees and an absence of snow. Even after one of the mildest winters I can recall, it's still incredibly energizing to get the first taste of spring. 'Tis the season for maintenance lists to take shape and local chandleries and yards to start crawling with shoppers and workers. If the weather wasn't enough to remind me, the giant catalogs from West Marine and Defender that arrived in the mail would do the trick. I'll be trying to stick with the two-blog-posts-per-week rhythm as sailing season quickly approaches. Here's what you...

The following is a reprint of an article I authored for SAIL Magazine's March, 2012 issue.  The pictures in the blog post are my own and differ from those that appeared in the magazine.  You can read our logs from this cruise by clicking here . Favorite Weekend Cruise: Beaver Island - An old Mormon kingdom off the coast of Michigan We left the hustle and bustle of Charlevoix, Michigan just in time to make the second drawbridge opening of the morning as we pointed the bow towards Beaver Island, an isolated destination about 32 miles offshore in the middle of northern Lake Michigan. There was a thick fog on the inland seas as a light drizzle fell from the gloomy sky. Thanks to our chartplotter, I knew our position and the proper heading to make landfall on the island, but I was weary of the fog without radar.  I also knew we were following the approximate route of the Beaver Island passenger ferry, so I raised the ferry captain on the VHF.  He confirmed he had us ...

When I first started sailing, I was easily seduced by the technology temptress.  If my budget would've allowed, my boat would have had a touch screen display for radar, gps, and satellite weather.  That screen would be flanked by some really cool individual speed, depth, and wind displays.  Most likely, these would be the  solar powered and wireless displays from TackTick .  But my dinghy-size budget said "No!" to TackTick and so instead I opted for the handheld WindMate 200 wind meter from SpeedTech. The WindMate 200 features a large digital display and sturdy construction.  It's pocket-sized with a cover plate that easily swings to the side when in use.  Obviously the unit will display windspeed, but it will also give you air temperature, wind chill, and digital compass readouts.  In addition to realtime/current windspeed, you'll also have the option of seeing the average over 10 seconds as well as the maximum speed.  All windspeed reado...

I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus over the last week.  But I promise I have a legitimate reason.  The crew of s/v Island Bound just increased by one member (5lbs 15oz to be exact!).  Our third beautiful daughter was born on March 1st and will step in as "deckhand in training" this coming sailing season. Unlike many sailboats, she didn't come with a name so we gave her one: Soleil Saylor Walters.  With a middle name of Saylor, little Soleil (pronounced "so-lay") should fit right in.   Looks like we're gonna need one of these:  I think this poem by our oldest daughter Hannah (first mate aboard s/v Island Bound ) makes the perfect conclusion for this "New Crew" post. Soleil, by Hannah Walters Soleil small, cute eating, sleeping, cooing Soleil is my new cute baby sister crying, rolling, gazing gentle, soft Baby

Let's say winter's chill was something you could no longer take as a Great Lakes sailor. Or perhaps you just want to extend your sailing season beyond the boundaries of summer. What options do you have?  You could just opt for a bareboat charter somewhere in the Caribbean and consider the itch scratched. But then you'd miss out on all the adventure of moving a boat between the Great Lakes and the Caribbean. And you wouldn't be sailing  your  boat. I'm here to convince you that the best option is to sail your own boat south. What follows is an overview of the route you could take to get you and your boat to warmer water and weather from the Great Lakes. Route 1: St. Lawrence Seaway (including Lake Champlain shortcut) You're adventurous if you choose this route. From most starting locations in the Great Lakes, you'll also be seeing the most scenery and passing the ...

Looking out at Penobscot Bay from Camden, Maine (by K. Walters) I've read a lot of great books.  Almost all of my favorites are non-fiction works that either tell the story of someone's journey, document an adventure, describe the science behind a natural phenomenon, or give a look into a historical event.   Time of Wonder  by Robert McCloskey is a fiction book that does none of the above.  In fact, it's a children's book.  But it also happens to be my very favorite children's book.  I've read it with my daughters on many occasions and it still makes our senses and our minds come alive.   McCloskey weaves a tale of a summer spent at the family cottage on an island in Maine's incredibly beautiful Penobscot Bay.  You follow the siblings in the story like their shadow as they listen to a rain approaching the shore, as they spend a foggy morning on the edge of nowhere, and as they sail near "porpoises puffing".  The idyllic summer beg...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video (with pictures embedded!) must be worth at least a million.  Now that all the excitement from the  trailer to our latest movie  has built, we present to you the full feature film... Journey to the North Channel .  (You did watch the trailer, right!?) Grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show in full HD! (Click the full-screen icon in the lower right corner of the video player for a bigger picture.)

Sailing vessel Guppy  has made landfall (in case you haven't already heard)!  And her captain, Laura Dekker, is now the youngest person to have circumnavigated the Earth single-handed.  Laura completed her circumnavigation on January 21, 2012 in Simpson Bay on Sint Maarten.  I've written before  about sailing records and my mixed emotions when it comes to young sailors (Laura set out when she was just 15 years old!) and these mind-blowing attempts.  The bottom line is that I couldn't possibly support such an attempt by one of my own daughters.  But if I'm completely honest, there's also a part of me that is majorly impressed with Laura's accomplishment. Here's a bit from Laura's blog about the end of her amazing journey: "The dark and starry night sky slowly vanishes its floating lights sprinkling to dust as small islands appear on the horizon. I can see Sint Maarten very far in the distance. St. Eustatius is behind me, Saba is abeam and St. Ba...