April 10/20: This comes courtesy of my man Phil Gutowski, of BoatRx, who tipped me off recently as to the exploits of two buddies of his, Byron and Dan, currently circling the planet on their 1985 Beneteau First 42 Speck. While the rest of us have been “locked down” it seems Byron and Dan and their current crewmember Josh have been sailing across the western Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea. I leave it to you to decide whether this is riskier than appearing in public in these Days of the Virus.
Before deciding, you should check out the Speck crew’s most recent blog post, describing, among other things, their mid-ocean encounter with a fast-closing skiff they assumed was full of pirates. But instead, it was…
Well, you should read the post to find out.
And as long as you’re there, I urge to surf around their website a bit. In case, you’re wondering how to have a low-budget bluewater sailing adventure of your own.
Byron and Dan found Speck on Craigslist, for sale in Chaumont, NY, for $4K, moldering under shrink wrap
Her keel was not attached to her hull at the time. Definitely a fixer-upper
The bits were shipped to Boston, where Byron and Dan quickly assembled them into a functional bluewater cruiser, with some help, I assume, from Phil. Their timeline is impressive! Bought the hulk in July 2016, took her for her first sail in September 2018, were aboard cruising the Bahamas by January 2019.
And the rest is history!
Speck’s current crew (from left to right): Dan, Josh, Byron
Aerial view, taken during a running backstay repair made at sea
For sure I’ll be keeping an eye on these guys.
That’s an eruasian hoopoe, which seems to be pretty common in those parts. It’s amusing at the level of symbolism, seen as a guide along the path in the Muslim world. And they went trough without anymore hassle.
In case my comment seems random they were asking what kind of bird it is, yet offer no means to comment there.