<Ken wrote:....It would be interesting to know the stats, but my guess is that there are perhaps fifteen hundred passages of over 1,000 miles made each year by boats under one hundred feet.> I think it would be interesting to actually get this number and break it down. I suspect it is much greater than 1500 boats. The annual migration on the US East Coast between the Caribbean and the US is well over 500 between new boats headed to charter fleets, existing crewed charter boats and the annual snowbird boats. A similar number and perhaps larger transit from Europe and return each year. We then have the South African boats that come up on there own bottom to the Caribbean and States. This leaves the West Coast, South Pacific, and Asian folks to add to the total. I know nothing of these areas so can't add to the total. Canal transits are still in the 2-3 per day and most of those folks would qualify by your terms. However the point of the number of trawlers is well taken. We are looked at like we just arrived on something very unusual in the cruising community even in the Caribbean. We have not encountered a trawler that has made the westbound crossing of the Atlantic this year out of several hundred sailboats. 300 in the ARC alone. We ourselves haven't done a 1000 mile non-stop in Swan Song, though we have done many in other boats, so couldn't qualify at this point. We certainly can but don't have a plan to do so at this time. We'll see how the future unfolds. Our plans include retiring in Hawaii eventually so I guess if we execute on them then well have met your 1000 mile passage requirement. We don't know if we'll be approaching from the west, south or east though ;-) We have a lot of cruising this side left yet and then the East Coast to before the Canal and then some time down the West Coast of SA a season or two in Ecuador and who knows what else. We like warm water :-) Nordhavn has done a great job, IMHO, to promote the adventure of long distance cruising. It's not necessary to cross and ocean to benefit from a well built and well founded passagemaker. The ocean can stir up just as mean and crazy within site of land as it can 1000 miles offshore. In fact more boats are lost around the edges of the pond that in the middle every year. The big difference is that it takes long legs and lots of weight carrying capacity and robust construction to travel to remote areas vs. coastal cruising in developed areas. As the old sailboat racing called it Category O. No outside help expected so you were expected to be on your own. As always YMMV...just one persons opinion ;-) Cheers Dave & Nancy Swan Song Roughwater 58 Caribbean Cruise '07