Lo all, I've been living aboard for about 9 years now. For the last seven of those years I have made the annual pilgrimage up and down the north left coast from the san juans north to BC or Alaska. My home base is Friday Harbor. Prior to making a living in information systems I was in the marine service, repair and salvage business for over 20 years. Due to his occupation I'm pretty familiar with what makes a boat work and what doesn't. My interest in this list involves the challenges of single handed passage making. While I don't have any need to see blue lagoons and palm trees I am interested in crossing the gulf of alaska from Icy Straits to Hinchinbrook, or to Seward, or to Kodiak. I'm hoping to fill in the substantial gaps in my knowledge around doing these trips as a single hander. Sea Otter is a Monk Sr. (design No. 2500) pilot house boat built by Skookum in Port Townsend, WA 1974. Sea Otter displaces 46,000 lbs., draws 5', is 15' wide and the keel is full of lead and concrete. Power is a Perkins 6-354 natural with dry stack and keel cooling. The great weak link on this boat, other than the operator, is a marginal fuel capacity of 500 gallons with no room for more. I bought this boat cause I got a deal (so I thought) on what was a hull deck superstructure that I could drive home. My time living aboard and rebuilding it has taught me about what a great boat I stumbled into. How many other boats this size have a real machine shop on board? I'm really looking forward to what this group has to offer in terms of hands on operational expertise particularly when your sleep deprived and conditions are deteriorating ...... Jim Slocomb M/V Sea Otter 40' Skookum San juan Islands --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.806 / Virus Database: 548 - Release Date: 12/5/2004

At 09:52 PM 12/14/04 -0800, you wrote: >hands on operational expertise particularly when your sleep deprived and >conditions are deteriorating ...... You are loosely referring to "pseudo sleep", I think. It is that which is substituted for the real thing and believed by it's practitioners to actually exist, but is no more real than the abominable snowman. When examined such individuals are certain that they have had real sleep and that they are fit for duty, when in fact they are not even awake in the classic sense. Sailors are most likely to engage in this. You can instantly identify the victims by giving them a gentle push, where they will fall over backwards, eyes wide open. Mike Capt. Mike Maurice Tualatin(Portland), Oregon

>Jim Slocomb wrote: >My interest in this list involves the challenges of single handed >passage making. While I don't have any need to see blue lagoons and palm >trees I am interested in crossing the gulf of alaska from Icy Straits to >Hinchinbrook, or to Seward, or to Kodiak. It's always great to meet someone who you immediately recognize as a kindred spirit. A dream of mine is to one day sail my own boat into Dutch Harbor and then explore the Aleutians. --Georgs Georgs Kolesnikovs Butch, a Michael Kasten custom 29-foot passagemaker in design stage http://www.kastenmarine.com/buster30.htm