Archives for category: - Ships / Boats

Spotted: Cruising Boat, Aloha 32

May 20, 2013 //

We’ve been looking for a boat for our Pacific Northwest trip and spotted this one for ourselves. We put in an offer on it last week. Traveling up to the Pacific NW four times since last fall, looking for a boat to call our own was getting expensive. We saw this boat online and made an offer. We haven’t even seen it in person.

It’s an Aloha 32, a Mark Ellis design that’s similar to the Niagara 35, a capable boat that was, alas, out of our budget. Both are well-built, spacious, and do away with the ubiquitous v-berth to make room for more galley and salon space. (The berths in these boats are aft.) From what we hear, the boat does have some delamination issues in the deck. Whether they are major or minor issues, the survey will reveal.

We’re leaving to head up north in about a week, boat or no boat. I hope this one passes it’s survey. If not, at least we’ll be up there to continue our search. Good luck, Carmana!

Tags adventure, Aloha 32, Pacific NW, sailboat, WCXC

Categories - Canada, - Pictures, - Ships / Boats, - Spotted:, - Trip: Sailing the Pacific Northwest, - United States, — British Columbia, — Washington, FEATURES, MEDIA, North America, PLACES, VEHICLES

America’s Cup Sailing Catamaran: Oracle Team USA

May 19, 2013 //

Sailing catamarans have come a long way since the Hobie Cats of the 1960s. Today’s America’s Cup cats literally fly over the water on hydrofoil daggerboards and rudders, reaching speeds over 40 knots. That’s an absolutely incredible speed for a sailboat.

I used to sail my old Prindle 18 across SF Bay and we did maybe 15—18 knots and that was thrilling. We’re also hanging off the side!

The video above features the massive AC72, Oracle’s 72′ boat. The one below features the smaller AC45.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags America's Cup, boat, catamaran, flying hull, Oracle, sailing, video, WCXC

Categories - Ships / Boats, - United States, - Videos, — California, —- San Francisco, FEATURES, MEDIA, North America, PLACES, VEHICLES

Crossing the Atlantic Aboard an Ocean Liner

May 19, 2013 //

Ocean liners are the largest vehicles ever used for public travel. For example, The Michelangelo, the sistership of the one in the video, was as long as three football fields and weighed as about as much as 262 Jumbo Jets (747s). That many jets could carry could carry about 109,000 passengers, while the ship could carry only 1775. That left a lot of extra space for restaurants, casinos, and mechanical-horse exercise equipment (as you’ll see).

Of course, liners couldn’t compete with jets. This film was made in 1967 as the ocean liner era was coming to an end. It looks like it was an amazing way to travel.

Actually, you still can still travel that way, if you’d like. The QE2 makes the trip from New York to Southampton in seven days. Fares start at about $1,000/person for an inside stateroom.

Tags crossing the Atlantic by ship, life, ocean liner, sea, video, vintage, WCXC

Categories - Armchair Travel, - Ships / Boats, - United States, - Videos, Atlantic, — New York, — Vintage, FEATURES, MEDIA, North America, PLACES, VEHICLES

Boat Shopping

April 23, 2013 //

We were up in Seattle searching for a boat a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been seriously looking since fall of last year for our upcoming Pacific Northwest trip this summer and fall. We saw several from Tacoma, Washington all the way up to Campbell River, BC. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags adventure, boats, WCXC

Categories - Canada, - Pictures, - Ships / Boats, - Trip: Sailing the Pacific Northwest, - United States, — British Columbia, — Washington, —- Seattle, FEATURES, MEDIA, North America, PLACES, VEHICLES

Trying Our Hands at a Life at Sea

April 7, 2013 //


A Pearson 32 for sale in Port Townsend, WA

First off, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, my apologies for the lack of posts in the past month. We’ve been making some life-changing plans here at WCXC and they’ve been taking some time. What sorts of plans, you ask? Well, my girlfriend and I moved in together, and we’re heading up to the Pacific Northwest for a few months and buying a sailboat.

The first seeds of this plan were sown a few years ago while some friends of mine and I were in northwestern Washington, chartering a boat in the San Juan Islands. Our first night out of Friday Harbor we anchored a few miles north in a cove at Jones Island. Early the next morning, as a thin mist hung over the cove under an orange and purple sky, I saw that we had a new neighbor. A beautiful, old, wooden sloop, lying still at anchor with smoke drifting out horizontally from its chimney lay off our beam. The owner and his black lab, appeared in the cockpit, got into their dinghy and headed for the shore. Wow, what a life, I thought.

That’s the life we’re aiming for, at least on an experimental basis. We’re going find out if it’s possible to cruise the amazingly beautiful waters of the Salish Sea, east of Vancouver Island, while working remotely from the boat and earning a living. In my day job, I’m an illustrator. With a laptop and a cell antenna on the mast, it seems feasible.

Of course, I’ll still post about off-road and overland topics, and we’ll still take trips with the truck. We’ll just be adding a seafaring component to the blog.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Read the rest of this entry »