we're happy to report they are achieving both their goals. Most importantly, they have a lovely daughter, Emma, who we're told loves the boat and sailing, and who has already mapped out their cruising destinations. Secondarily, they bought a used Featherlite 43 catamaran. "Teal proceeded to strip the cat to bare hulls and has been rebuilding her himself," says Linh. "He loves doing it. He has been working on the cockpit and galley, and this past summer he finished adding sugar scoops. He's gotten particularly good at adding curves to the boat, telling me that every man appreciates curves. We saw the article on Profligate's refit in Mexico, and we're using lots of the same honeycomb panels. After Teal finishes the refit — he's about 70% done — we're going to play in the Pacific Northwest for a few years before heading south and doing another Ha-Ha. We can't wait to return to the cruising life!" "There are at least 20-30% more cruising boats in the South Pacific this year," reports John Neal of the Victoria, B.C.-based Hallberg-Rassy 48 Mahina Tiare III, "so we've been having some great potlucks and beach BBQs along
LINH GOBEN
CHANGES
Teal, Linh and Emma bought a used Featherlite 43 cat, but by the time they go cruising, it will be a custom Featherlite 46 or so. Nice.
the way. This year's 9,000-mile expedition, a circle of the southwestern Pacific starting and ending in New Zealand, has featured lots of wind so far. We're excited about returning to Savu Savu, Fiji, where
Amanda's parents are waiting for us. They, 71 and 66 respectively, report they had a pretty good passage up from New Zealand. This will be the second year that we've gotten to cruise together." Just over a year ago, Max Young of the Antioch-based Reflections was singlehanding up the coast of Baja at the end of an 11-year circumnavigation, when his Perry 47/52 was hit by a whale. He didn't think much of the initial impact, but it wasn't that many hours later that he had to be rescued from the sinking ketch he'd owned since new. Young always carried two anti-whale devices. One was a large pipe filled with stainless bearings that he'd drag off the side of his boat when he was sailing to alert whales of his presence. The other was a cassette tape of killer whale noises, the theory being they would scare other whales away. Alas, the cassette was no good because his new stereo doesn't work with cassettes, and the pipe with bearings wasn't employed because he was motoring at two knots. Why so slow? To avoid entering an unfamiliar harbor at night, something he'd only done twice
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Latitude 38
• September, 2013