Backpacking Sailing-Ray

So here we are.  Let me introduce myself.  My name is Ray Ebert and I live in San Diego, California.

Originally this site was going to be my backpacking blog.  While I still enjoy backpacking, in fact I'm taking my son out this summer for his first time, I've found another passion to drive my family nuts with.  Sailing...

How did this start you ask?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  Last summer my father-in-law was preparing for a trans-pacific race from San Francisco bay to Oahu, Hawaii called the Pacific Cup.  I got interested in the race and the concept of sailing across the ocean.  I have sailed across a few oceans and seas in my life but I did that on a big gray ship so it was a different experience than what interests me now.  

I followed the Pacific Cup race updates and waited with anticipation as the boat positions came in every four hours via satelite tracking.  I poured through the bio's of the sailors, many of whom have their own websites and blogs.  As I can do on occasion I sorta went nuts on the internet, geeked out at home driving my wife slightly more nuts - after marrying me she's obviously at least somewhat nuts already - subscribed to every sailing magazine out there and hit the bookstore every time I got a Borders Books coupon in my email.

I now have far more sailing books then i've ever had backpaking books. 

Initially my interest was two-fold.  First, I was interested in sailing to Hawaii.  Second, for some reason I was interested in going through the Panama Canal.  The Sailing To Hawaii research left me a little disappointed.  For a number of reasons Hawaii isn't exactly a prime location for cruising.  The Sailing Through the Panama Canal research led me down a completely different path that I am still following.

For now I'll just say that I have a 50" wide map of the world in my living room that is full of colored push pins... 

Capt. Ray