Charles Cohen

If you want to join us after the fetival let me know...perhaps that could be arranged.

Wow Charles you have had some wonderful sailing experiences it sounds. I will attempt to answer most of your questions. First of all, I will not be the captain on this cruise...the owner Larry Macurda will be our skipper and he has lots more experience than me. He has sailed from San Diego to Hawaii and back twice, ...once in a race and once with a couple friends on a 28 ft sailboat. He has spent most of his life on the Pacific coast, has owned several different sailboats and keeps this 41 ketch in Tacoma. We now deffinitely have three people on board. Larry, myself and a 35 yr old from Tenn. (Patrick) who has minimal experience but wants to take his family on a circumnavigation eventually. ( Doesn't everyone!) But he want to get more experience which he would definitely need.

Larry and I met one Saturday a couple weeks ago and reviewed the three very good guide books he has of the area plus the many charts he purchased for this trip. We will go up the inside passage and might consider returning outside if the weather looks good. We will be day sailing and anchoring at night in safe harbors we have identified already along the way. The boat is well equiped. Larry is installing a new windless today and has purchased a new plow that we can use for a stern anchor if needed.

The boat has a center cockpit with radar, gps, chartplotter and depth finder. The nav station also has radio and ham plus we have a handheld VHF radio. We will also have some fairly decent creature comforts like ducted heating and airconditioning. Since Larry's background is in the medical field ( last retired as a hospital administrator and was previously retired Navy medic (corpsman) we do have the safety items in place. I plan to purchase a new EPRB once I get to Seattle. If we carefully watch the tides and currents and stay away from the kelp beds and floating debris (logs,etc) we should not have much trouble. We have extra sails and should not be more than a day from land at any point. We are hoping this will be a comfortable, interesting, sightseeing cruise. It will be an adventure for me as I have been never to that area before. I am preparing myself for the cold weather and should be fine. Here is my cell phone number if you think you would like to catch up with up for some part of the trip. 636-234-4610 and there is a land line on the boat righ now if you want to talk to Larry ..that number is 253-301-2011. One more thing I should mention is that this will definitely be a non-smoking crew. Our goal to to enjoy this cruise the best we can!

Charles, do you own a boat? Would be nice to see photos you can share.