In September 2007, I bought the ultimate blue water cruising vessel – to begin My Grand Plan (well, Grand Plan No. 12) – to sail to the South Pacific. “Charisma” is a 1988 Tayana 37 Mark II – a cutter with tanbark sails. Just enough teak for beauty without the whole deck madness and no oddly placed portholes in the bow. Of course, she came equipped with a fishing rod holder and 6 crystal decanters (in a custom teak rack). What can I say — one Sweeet Ride !
9/2010 A quick edit: moving closer to the plan with a trip planned for October to Baja. Step one in “leaving”. Taking two months off to test the reality of cruising.
8/2011-Update: The Baja trip was great and Ann and I are now taking off for extended cruising as of October, 2011. We’re going to take a couple weeks to get to San Diego, then do the Ha Ha again (it’s really fun!) and then in March 2012 do the puddle jump across to French Polynesia and beyond.
12/2012 Update: we’re in New Zealnd having crossed the Pacific Ocean and visiting some fantastic places between April, 2012 and December 2012.
2/2014 Update: We’re in New Zealand where we’ll be getting ready to go back to Fiji for a second season from May through November. For now (February), we’re on a road trip of the south island, then boat work begins in Mid March followed by (hopefully) some coastal cruising in April/May before heading north.
Bob,
I am a long term friend of your mom and dads from the Berkeley Lions Club and they are also great customers. I am an old SF Bay sailor, we sailed the bay for 23 years on our Cal 2/29 out of the Berkeley Marina. We gave it up when the kids lost interest and we got involved in motorcycling (Harleys). But we do sail our little Laser now and again. I was up at your folks house last week and your mom was bragging about you and turned me on to your blog. So…if you don’t mind I will follow your adventure with a bit of envy as I continue to work toward retirement! Have a great trip. Be safe.
Steve
Bob, I had the great pleasure of playing golf with your father the past couple of days and learned of your great adventure. I have enjoyed checking out the web site and will continue to do so. Love to see you living the dream with a great sounding partner. We still have fond memories of a sailing outing with you and Sue when our kids were little. I think that may have been what sparked us to get our Ericson and sail it back and forth from San Diego. We will pray that your adventure continues joyfully and safely.
Fair Winds, and Flat Seas,
Merle
Hi Bob,
I am a member of the Berkeley Breakfast Club, and retired from Berkeley PD, where I worked for your Father for many year. He was always a great guy to work for.
I enjoyed your talk this morning, and last year at this time, about your adventures with Ann on Charisma. I noted that you area very safety conscious, unlike the fisherman that fell overboard at 0330 hrs. into the Atlantic, with no PFD, while his two boat mates slept below and their boat on autopilot motored off into the night. There was an article in last Sunday’s NY Times magazine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a-speck-in-the-sea.html?_r=0
Thanks for a very interesting talk about the culture and traditions of the people of Fiji that invited you into their homes and their lives. I look forward to hearing your talk next year at this time.
Best regards,
Bruce Agnew
Hey Bob. I thought to track you down. Looks like that all depends of the direction of the wind. After an ad career and 20 years in Asia, we’re coming home and settling in the Berkeley/Oakland area. Who knew it would be back near the Mandabach & Sims post. Nice to see you’ve nicely moved on and enjoying life’s adventure. We too are, now building our own small global brand.
Great blog! Good to see a Tayana really out there! Chuck, Ivy, Carla and Charlie. T37 Palau