Review of a New Sailing Blog!

photo most egregiously swiped without permission from Pandabonium!

Jumping in on one of Tillerman's Group Writing Assignments!

OK, very busy at work so I have to keep it short & sweet almost to the point of cheating. Actually I wasn't planning on posting until tonight if at all, but Tillerman's review of a kayak excursion in Maine oops make that Massachusetts inspired me.

So here's my short & sweet review!

I can't remember how I first found his blog, but I've been reading Pandabonium's Pacific Islander for a long time. He's from Hawaii, he now lives in Japan, and his blog is primarily a thoroughly enjoyable series of photos & writing of the adventures he, his lovely wife "K", and Momo the Wonder Dog share in those islands. There are occasional snippets of Hawaii, either from the days when Pandabonium lived there, or of his family (kids & grandkids) who are still there.

His blog has been in the non-boat-blog section of my pathetically neglected blogroll for ages.

Then one day, I went to his blog to see what interesting bit of life in Japan he or Momo (yes, the dog occasionally posts too) had chosen to share and read the following:

K and I have decided to sail an open 14 foot sailboat across the Pacific Ocean from California to Japan!

I just about fell off my chair.

But within a few more sentences, things were cleared up:

Besides, our boat will be sitting on a trailer and tucked away on a very large ship for the whole voyage. We'll not have to leave home until it arrives.

This was the first of a few posts in which Pandabonium shared the story of how he & K came to buy a boat.

It was a long time from the time when the order was placed to the time that sailing was even imminent, but finally it was time to find a club and start sailing (yay!).

And so in June, it came to pass that Pandabonium started a new blog, Sweet Bluesette, named after their new blue Lido 14, which was in turn named after the song.

I've been thoroughly enjoying following that new blog as he chronicles the fun he & K (no Momo on this one, I did mention in a comment at some point that she'd look adorable in a puppy pfd but I'd missed the bit where Pandabonium mentioned that the wonder dog is a wonder land dog, not a wonder seadog) are having with their sweet little dinghy!

Which, btw, is very much like the picture of the sailboat I'd love to get if I had money & time for it - Sunfish and Lasers and Force 5's & the like are all tons of fun but if I were to get a sailboat, I guess I'd really like one that I could singlehand if I wanted to, but was a little more comfortable for taking friends along.