We have been fixing stuff left and right. I should be saying port and starboard, but I guess that doesn’t sound quite the same. What is this fixing all about? Well, since this is a new boat that was purchased in Spain we actually had a very experienced captain sailed the boat from Spain to Newport. As expected during the first voyage of any sailboat, things break and this is why it is often called the shakedown voyage. We are now about 85% done fixing things and what remains will be addressed before we depart.

The captain and crew of O’Comillas for the shakedown voyage, three in total, were all from Spain. This shakedown voyage was indeed a shakedown. O’Comillas went through very rough seas and over 50 knots of winds and handled very safely. The boat reached just over 20 knots surfing down the waves. This is very fast indeed for a cruising boat and the crew was very happy with her performance.

A more typical performance is about 9 knots which we have done consistently in the past two days of sailing here in Newport with winds around 18 knots. O’Comillas is indeed a very fun sailboat to sail.

Today was foggy and misty, lets hope for a nicer afternoon tomorrow

More on what this shakedown voyage was all about when we get to Newport.

It is not that the plans are so unique or daring that seem to intrigue people. After all, we are not climbing K2 where one in four people die in the attempt. Perhaps what intrigues most people is what is motivating my father and me to do something that involves the combination of uncertainty, isolation, and self-reliance.

Our current answers do not seem to satisfy anyone, partly because we are not sure we really fully understand ourselves. In fact, we often feel like responding with “Why not?” since after all that would probably get the same reaction.

The journey is in itself a discovery process — discovery process for my father and me. It is not just about getting to the other side of the ocean. If that were the case, we would just fly on an airplane. It is about the journey itself. We cannot yet truly explain to you why, other than never in our lives have we felt so compelled to do something together as we feel about this. So this blog is our attempt to answer many questions for ourselves, our families and our friends.

We thought about doing this just on email, but then the geek in me surfaced. Why not publish it on the web? In preparing for the journey I came across web sites that discussed equipment for ocean journeys, interesting captain’s logs from similar voyages, and books about ocean cruising. All of these things were both very interesting and useful to read so one definite goal behind our writing and publishing online is to help people who are contemplating similar adventures.

But what if we took the concept of writing about this journey a step further? What if we do it live as the trip unfolds, without the benefit of hindsight or clever editing after the fact? What if my father and I were to write independently, him in Spanish and me in English? What if we could allow people to check out where we are and what the weather is like?

Well, of course, we need a blog!

If this blog helps our family and closest friends participate in the journey and on top of that it helps one single person contemplating a dream to move forward and act on it, then we would have achieved the main purpose behind publishing this.

So keep coming back to visit and discover with us.

Once the voyage starts, you will be able to track our weather, location, see photos, read our journals and hopefully participate with us in this experience.

Until then, happy voyages !