Hello cruisers

[NavPak ECS]

This is a great forum, loaded with a lot of valuable information for cruisers and racers too. I've been too busy over the last 20 years to see what's out here in cyberspace, but I was pleasently surprised to find the good solid content of this site. I'm a cruiser with a 24' gaff rigged sloop. Actually it is a Hemaphrodite sloop, meaning that it carries a yardarm. We can have a drink when the sun goes over the yardarm, and it is also useful for incredibly fast passages, especially in the trade winds.

I started building the boat as a high school woodworking project, then took it home and finished it. Since then I cruised it around the North Pacific, then it took me on a circumnavigation, mostly single-handed. People frequently ask me what single-handers do at sea. I can't speak for the others, but I fix snacks, read novels and write navigation software. Now I'm a commercial guy that writes a group of ECS programs for PC and Pocket PC computers.
Pelican Pete

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Pelican Pete,
Welcome aboard!! Good to have you here. Great to see a small boat sailor who has done it all.
In San Diego it would the California Brown Pelican, right?
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[NavPak ECS]

Thank you Skipr for the greeting. Can't claim to have done it all. One circumnavigation only makes me realize how much I missed. Yes, that is the Brown Pelican. They look a little ungainly on land but they are very agile in a gale at sea, so that inspired me to name my boat after this critter.
Pelican Pete

[CaptainK]

Welcome aboard cruisersforum, Pelican Pete.