Creative Cruising Concepts

A British sailing woman stranded in a storm off the Turkish coast abandoned ship and swam 75 metres to the shore carrying a milk crate containing her nine puppies on her head.

Yikes.. stuck in 15 foot seas, engine dead from a prop wrap, no sails, drifting around.. what would you do?

We'll they did it!!  They had a couple of harrowing nights battling the strong south set ting current that runs down the California coast and almost missed San Fransisco!! At 8:30 am yesterday morning they crossed under the Golden Gate bridge on their 190th day at sea.

They ran out of food 100 miles off the coast and had to accept assistance when a helicopter dropped them food.

During the trip, they took turns rowing at night and neither has slept more than two hours straight in over six months ..

Can you say get me a beer, shower and bed.. in that order!

More news here (view our original story)

Congrats guys.. enjoy land!!

Check out what these kayakers can do, it's called playboating .

Maybe we should create a new sport playdinghying (is dinghying even a word?).

We had a lot of fun in a couple of backwards dinghy races while in Majuro (see interactive map), we also toasted our engine (not fun).

Contributed by: SV Billabong

What kinds of crazy things have you done in a dinghy/kayak?

Just how advanced are these new Americas cup monsters? Check out this video for some details of BMW and sailing action.. it's awesome. Not exactly double handed cruising material but I would LOVE to experience the power. Looks like shipping it will be quite the pain, especially with the new wing sail.. yikes.

Here's some footage of the new wing sail, my big question is how it will handle the various wind conditions that it is likely to encounter in the Mediterranean in February.. how do you take it down quickly?

The Wing Sail gets installed

Wing Sail Day two of testing

Freya is on the final stretch of her round Australia kayak bid. Most people don't realize just how big Australia is, we didn't until we had to sail from Brisbane to Darwin. We took the shorter route of only 2500 miles. The total distance to circumnavigate Australia is 9,000 miles, about the same distance we covered from Ventura to New Zealand during our first cruising season.

Freya has a MUCH lighter boat than the ocean rowers but she still only averages 25-30 miles a day (a full day of hard work). Now for those of you who think that sleeping ashore is safer than at sea, Australia is home to the 10 most venomous snakes, Crocodiles and killer spiders.

Submitted by: SV Billabong

We met Janna and Graeme during our first year of cruising.. we only spent a couple of weeks together but had a GREAT time. We actually shot the cover photo of Dragonfly on the way to Bora Bora, while I was recovering from a kidney stone (ah paradise).

MOTO at Amazon

It's a great read for both Sailors and non-sailors, Janna will make you laugh. I still miss our happy/comedy hour radio chats. Graeme got me into fishing while we were at Suwarrow in the Cook Islands.

Fun times, fond memories.. great read!!

Contributed by: SV Billabong

Update: Janna even has a video for Book Clubs.. Contact her at on her site byjanna.com for Book Club info

Yesterday we highlighted an awesome yacht that averaged 29 mph for 24 hours, so lets talk in down a notch and talk about the opposite spectrum, averaging 27 miles a day (total)!! Yes these guys have been at sea for 185 days (6 months), rowing from Japan to San Fransisco across the north pacific (not exactly a calm ocean). They are 4950 miles into their trip with only 133 miles to go. Hat's off to you guys.. that is quite the adventure.

I was a rower in college (50 lbs and way too long ago) so I have an obvious love for the sport. But this is different; instead of eight guys rowing a sleek ultra narrow boat 1.25 miles in mostly calm water, ocean rowing requires lugging everything with you. All the support gear, food, water etc in addition to a cabin for sleeping etc. I think the trip is taking longer than expected they had to have food delivered for their final couple of days. I have also followed a couple of other ocean rowers recently, and unlike sailors they stop (or go backwards) when they sleep.

Roz Savage completed her second leg of a three stage series across the Pacific (CA to Australia). It took her 104 days to row from Hawaii to Tarawa Kiribati (3160 miles: about 30 miles a day). YouTube videos:

Leg 2 Summary:

Roz Summary:

Virgin Global Row was an attempt to row around Antarctica. It was scheduled to be 18,000 miles and take 18-24 months with only a single stop. Unfortunately the boat was so heavy, Olly was only able to cover 1800 miles in three months.. he abandoned the attempt in New Zealand.

Here is a preview of his movie, Tenacity on the Tasman
It's amazing to think that Groupama covers in a hour what these guys and gals work their @$# off to cover in 24 hours.. but then again a jet could cover Groupama's 24 hour distance in an hour.

Contributed by: SV Billabong