Thursday, September 20, 2007

Sailing

There is a sense of adventure in everyday life aboard a sailboat. The sun rises and sunsets are magnificent, the storms more exhilarating, the calm is more peaceful, the marine life is more fascinating, the stars are brighter and cleaner and the continual movement and change is most soothing.
To share the wonders of cruising life with loved ones and dear friends is the most rewarding of experiences one can imagine. The challenges of navigation, seamanship, maintenance, weather predictions and the most challenging: interpersonal relationships in a confined space, taxes all the skills required to face nature and the environment one one’s own. One is free to go in any direction, yet is restricted by the speed of the wind, the elements - mostly weather and ocean conditions. If something breaks, you must fix it, or go without. The people one can meet and enjoy “their” life style is unlimited.

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About Me

1291 Sanderling Island, Pt. Richmond, CA 94801, United States
Dan and Carol Seifers

Crazy

Crazy Caprice, or what

Like is so good to us. At 65, after 15 years of retirement, my wife, Carol and I have everything one could want Good health (for old folks), loving children ( one son and his wife Jenny is marvelous), wonderful grandchildren (one age 6 and one age 4, who have a remarkable ability to totally exhaust us in about 4 - 6 hours), a good home. Wonderful friends. What more could one want?

Then we were casually cruising in the Delta ( area between Sacramento and San Francisco) last summer with the Richmond Yacht Club Cruising Group. Life was serene, life was comfortable, and then it happened - WHAM - we saw a cruising catamaran tied up at the Rio Vista marina with a sign in the window which listed its adventures. Starting in Australia, across to New Zealand, up to Tahiti, over to Hawaii and on the the West Coast. What an adventure!!! That’s when Carol started thinking about the possibility of buying a new boat (we already had a Gemini 34’ cruising catamaran - life was good). Then sailing in Sydney basin for a few months, then either shipping it to California or sailing it across the South Pacific to California. Is she CRAZY?

That started our CRAZY file.

Over the next few months, she started feeding me articles about Australia, New Zealand, and multihulls. She even subscribed to Multihull magazine and would place various articles about sailing in the South Pacific under my nose while I was reading the morning paper.
She became obcessed. A devil (Tasmanian?) had her. Then around Christmas time, the bug really bit me. We were perfectly happy with our boat, but the idea of getting a new one (with all the new toys) and visiting “down under” seemed very appealling. A friend loaned me all his books on New Zealand and Australia, and the more read, the more I becaume enthralled with the idea