Greetings all!
It has been months since I have sent out an update on Sans Souci. I have been posting blog entries almost daily, but haven’t been sending them out. My rule is to only send out my blog updates to my full mailing list when Roberta and I are actually on the boat.
Many of you have written to ask what has happened with my boat, and if it is still in Costa Rica….
This will be old news to those of you that have been going to my website regularly, but I am very happy to report that Sans Souci has arrived in Seattle! We had originally planned to ship the boat via Yachtpath, but they weren’t able to move the boat. After six months of trying, we gave up and hired a delivery crew to run the boat north on its own bottom. The 4,000 nm run north was quite eventful. Sans Souci was chased up the coast of Central America and Mexico by two different hurricanes, and the western coast of the US was not much better.
Roberta and I are now deep into planning our next big adventure. We’ll be kicking off our circumnavigation May 1st 2009, with a 5,000 nm run to Japan, via Alaska, the Aleutians, the Bering Sea, and Siberia.
We won’t be travelling alone. We’ve formed a semi-rally of four boats, which we’ve jokingly nicknamed the “Great Siberian Sushi Run,” and we’re calling ourselves “The Wrong Way Gang,” as we’ll be fighting head seas and currents for many thousands of miles.
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In addition to our Nordhavn 68, we’ll be traveling with two Nordhavn 62s, and a Northern Marine 75.
For route details, click here.
It will be a challenging, and uncomfortable run, but has a lot to recommend it. This is a once in a lifetime chance to go places few boats have ever gone before, and it gives us a way to cross the Pacific with no major passages. Although we’ll travel nearly 6,000 miles overall, our longest passage will only be three days, and the longest run without fuel is only 1,000 miles. Amazingly, even though we’ll cross the Pacific, we’ll never be more than 300 miles from land!
Of course, those of you who have seen the program “The Deadliest Catch”, or who are familiar with the Bering Sea know that it isn’t always the friendliest place to be. No worries though (I hope!). We’re allowing plenty of time in our schedule to sit at anchor any time that our weather router thinks we should. When the seas are calm we’ll move, and when they aren’t we’ll wait it out.
If you have missed receiving my blog these past few months, you do have the option to go back and read through all the postings (at http://www.kensblog.com ). Some are quite boring, some are very interesting, and some are quite educational. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is which.
Over the coming months, while preparing the boat for the next trip, I will be posting blog entries regularly. If you would like them by email then you need to register for my mailing list. I keep two completely different mailing lists: the BIG LIST for when Roberta and I are on the boat. This list goes to just about every boater who doesn’t have good enough spam protection to shut it out. If you are reading this email, you are on my BIG LIST. I also have a SMALL LIST, which is for the people who want to track what we’re up to as we get the boat ready. My emails when we’re not on the boat tend to be more technical, and less travelogue-ish. When next May arrives I’ll merge the two lists, and there will only be the BIG LIST. Between now and then, if you want emailed my blog, then just add yourself to my SMALL LIST. To do so, 1) go to my blog website and click on any of the blog entries. 2) Look for the words “Register for Blog Updates” at the bottom of any of the entries. 3) That’s it!
Thank you,
Ken Williams
www.kensblog.com
www.kensbook.com
www.kensboat.com
Sans Souci, Nordhavn 68