Sail Far Live Free

"Needles and pins, needles and pins, Sew me a sail to catch me the wind. Sew me a sail strong as the gale, Carpenter, bring out your hammers and nails. Hammers and nails, hammers and nails, Build me a boat to go chasing the whales. Chasing the whales, sailing the blue, Find me a captain and sign me a crew. Captain and crew, captain and crew, Take me, oh take me anywhere new." Pirate Dreams by Shel Silverstein Remember about a year or so ago when the video of the whale breaching right on top of a sailboat went viral? Or maybe you read the story I relayed from s/v Wondertime about the whale that wreaked havoc on a cruising boat in Niue . Those poor sailors might have been some of the inspiration for the Whale Alert mobile phone app that was recently released by EarthNC. The Whale Alert app is designed as a ship-strike reduction effort to benefit right whale conservation, but you can use it too! The app uses data from NOAA's passive acoustic  buo

Got a whale of a tale to tell ya, lads A whale of a tale or two 'Bout the flappin' fish and the girls I've loved On nights like this with the moon above A whale of a tale and it's all true I swear by my tattoo -Lyrics from the Disney movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Have you ever wondered what it's really like being 'out there'?  What it's like to cruise long distances to far away places? Can it really be that different than the daysailing and local cruising we do near our home ports? You need only ask for a few salty stories from veteran bluewater cruisers to get the answers. The following story is one I recently first read on one of my favorite blogs, Sailing Wondertime . The crew of s/v Wondertime (Michael, Sara and their two young daughters) started their adventure across the Pacific in Seattle and are currently enroute from the tiny island nation of Niue to Tonga and eventually New Zealand. I've greatly enjoyed following their journey and b