Yesterday was tough for Rhode Island independent gubernatorial candidate Joseph Trillo. To me it already seemed like a poor idea to use his 65-foot yacht to campaign along the state’s summer beaches, especially with the huge banners and his “very, very big sound equipment” playing patriotic music and asking for votes. But then came the navigation issues.

This U.S. Coast Guard Northeast Facebook entry seems to report the grounding incident clearly, and let’s note that they politely named the yacht, Lady M, but not the owner. Many of the commenters — some of whom were trying ...

Anchors– Anchor designs have evolved greatly over the centuries. The Danforth anchor was a breakthrough design in the early years of world war II: a lightweight anchor with superb holding capabilities. After the war, it became the standard anchor for small craft. Its one weakness is that the flukes may get jammed with a stone, stick, or quahog and it will not reset if a wind or current reversal pops the anchor out. The various plow and claw style anchors were developed to address that possible weakness. However, their ultimate holding power did not measure up to the light weight ...

Welcome, newcomers to Sailing Totem! For our family’s backstory to a decade of sailing around the world, see Who and Why.  For hopeful cruisers, articles addressing the most common questions found in Start Here. Can we help you? Learn about our lifestyle coaching or get in touch.

This week our family has the incredible opportunity to share our story to a wide audience thanks an interview with Megyn Kelly on TODAY. Hopefully the morning interlude offered these newcomers inspiration and a few minutes to contemplate a different way of life.

We can’t know what will happen ...

Beluga’s! There were several dozen all around the boat. James got this from the drone.

“Man we’ve seen EVERYTHING today! Walrus, polar bears, the Virgohamna site. All we need now is a whale.”

Not 30 seconds after Brady said that in the cockpit as he drove Isbjorn north along the coast and towards our current anchorage at Holmiabukta, we spotted a spout off to starboard. Then another. And another. 

“I thought it was ice on the water at first,” Brady said. “Then I saw the spouts and saw it was swimming, and just shouted BELUGA!”

We’d sailed right into an ...

July 6, 2018

Day 188/18

Noon Position: 39 51N 129 16W

Course/Speed: SE3

Wind: WxN4 -6

Bar: 1026, up sharply

Sea: W4

Sky: Heavy overcast in morning, clear and sunny now

Cabin Temperature: 70

Water Temperature: 61

Sail: Spinnaker and Main, rund dead downwind

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good: 113

Miles this leg: 2,452

Avg. Miles this leg: 136

Dawn delivered a heavy, hurricane sky from the west.

I ran the twins polled out overnight and Mo made 4 and 5 knots in a decent breeze aft. Stars for a time. Scorpio. The Dipper. I almost grabbed the sextant. But the ...

July 5, 2018

Day 187/17

Noon Position: 40 31N 131 34W

Course/Speed: ESE4-5

Wind: W6-12

Bar: 1017, rising

Sea: W4

Sky: CLEAR

Cabin Temperature: 68

Water Temperature: 62

Sail: Twins poled out

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good: 150

Miles this leg: 2,339

Avg. Miles this leg: 138

Miles to San Francisco: 445

The low gave us a good push overnight. And with just the working jib to pull us along, it was a gentle ride. The gray sky and a boulder-ridden sea crashing a kind of ice blue reminded of the Southern Ocean in a tempest-in-a-teapot sort of way. It was ...

July 4, 2018

Day 186/16

Noon Position: 42 15N 133 57S

Course/Speed: SE7+

Wind: NxE18-20, by 1300, NxE25-32)

Bar: 1011, steady

Sea: NE8

Sky: Low, gray, rain

Cabin Temperature: 67

Water Temperature: 59

Sail: After 1300, main, three reefs; working headsail, two; broad reach on port

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good: 138

Miles this leg: 2189

Avg. Miles this leg: 137

I thought we’d skirted the core of it or that the forecast was just wrong, but a building wind this afternoon went from high teens to low thirties in an instant, and suddenly the low was upon us.

A second ...

The 3 Isbjorns! – The boat in the background, with mama bear and baby bear dining on old whale blubber. We were in the dinghy, shooting with long lenses.

Mia had been very excited to get to Virgohamna. “Just getting to Svalbard felt like something that would never actually happen,” she confided in me. “And now, getting here, this far north (at 79º 38’ north), to this place I’ve read so much about, and with so much connection to Sweden, it’s just surreal.”

Her, James and I hiked up the steep slope overlooking the site for a birds-eye view of ...

July 3, 2018

Day 185/15

Noon Position: 43 48N 136 58W

Course/Speed: ESE7+

Wind: WSW17-20

Bar: 1025, falling rapidly

Sea: SW5

Sky: Rain most of day, sometimes heavy

Cabin Temperature: 63

Water Temperature: 57

Sail: #2 poled to starboard, main to port, broad reach on starboard

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good: 137

Miles this leg: 2,051

Avg. Miles this leg: 137

Miles to San Francisco: 680

I can’t fathom today’s weather. You are thinking hot dogs, cold beer, and fireworks on a warm summer’s evening. A mere 700 miles NW of San Francisco, I’m plowing through low cloud and freezing rain. ...

Ruins of petrol tanks from the Wellman expeditions.

The harbor is named after the ship ‘Virgo,’ which anchored off the desolate stony beach in the late 1800’s with supplies for the Swedish explorer Andree’s planned ballon expedition to the North Pole. We dropped anchor surely closer to shore than ‘Virgo’ did back then, anchoring in about 30-feet of water a few hundred feet off the beach. The scenery here is different than the west coast – small, but tall, islands, littered with black volcanic scree on they’re steep slopes. It’s rugged terrain, mostly black, yet surprisingly green in places where ...