 | Marilu Morris |
We have launched this new website as a handy resource for aspiring and experienced sailing cruisers. Look here for tips on maintenance, plus links to Bill's published articles on alternative energy, and Marilu's pointers on galley survival, along with a selection of recipes. If you have ever wondered what it might be like to have your vessel boarded by Somali pirates, you will want to read the excerpt from Bill's new manuscript, Somali Pirates Aboard: The Sacking of the Yacht Saltaire, which is now pending publication. Enjoy!
Somali pirates attack Saltaire!
Everything was happening so fast, it couldn't really be happening. I felt like I was floating high above Saltaire, watching a suspense-filled Hollywood action movie unfold on the bouncing set beneath me. Standing in the cockpit, I faced the three intruders dressed in dirty, torn rags and made a fleeting attempt to defend my vessel. Their response landed me on the deck writhing in excruciating pain. Why had I been so desperate to leave Los Angeles, anyhow? I was looking for the authentic, rustic world with its swaying palm trees, ukulele music, and exotic umbrella drinks, not this. How did I ever manage to get myself into this mess?Read the full excerpt
In the Wake of the Clippers: Panama to San Diego
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| Saltaire sails out of Martinique near the end of her circumnavigation. |
Hungover from a farewell deck party on my 1966 Cal 30 Saltaire the previous night, my trembling hands cranked the windlass as I weighed anchor in the Flamenco anchorage in Panama City. Once safely out of the anchorage, I set the genoa for a brisk downwind sail to Punta Mala, roughly 100 miles to the southwest. I sipped a steaming cup of Café Durán in the cockpit, minding the windvane and occasionally trimming the helm. Panama is a fun place, but each day of delay in early April increased the probability of a messy beat to weather, worse yet when the notorious tides of the Bay of Panama would inevitably turn against me…
Read on
Bill and Marilu Morris
Bill sailed out of Los Angeles Harbor on his 1966 Cal 30 right after the millennium and sailed south to Panama, where his then-fiancee Marilu joined him for the trans-Pacific journey. Marilu had owned and operated a successful graphic design business in the L.A. area, but ultimately opted for the cruising life – that is, after some persuasion from El Capitan. They sailed the Milk Run all the way to the Queensland coast of Australia, stopping for nine months in American Samoa to work and add to their cruising kitty. In Mooloolaba Harbour, Bill wrote his first book, The Windvane Self-Steering Handbook, published in 2004 by International Marine/McGraw-Hill. Bill has published articles on sailing adventure, self-steering technology, and alternative energy for numerous nautical magazines and is a frequent contributor to Ocean Navigator.
| Marilu's Galley Tips | Bill's Corner |
