[kimberlite]

Stormer,
i hope i didn''t totally burst your bubble. Last night before reading you question i read of a mans brother who went over the side on saturday and drowned while still snapped in. This was on the ARC atlantic rally which is a milk run at this time of year. If the drowned sailor just had current approved gear ( a teather with quick dis-connect at the chest) he would be alive. Incidentally the seas were in such a state that he could not be brought on board and had to be cut away. This leaves his brother alone with 2000 miles to sail, for the lack of a snap shackle.

i GUESS I AM A LITTLE PARANOID when it comes to equipping a boat for offshore. If you look at the equipment list on my old boat
http://kimberlite1.homestead.com
you will see what i feel is necessary for a offshore passage. The safety equipment is not listed.

Sailing in 6-8 foot seas with 30 knots is no big deal but add 20 degrees farenheit and the fact that you have no way to get warm for at least 4 days leads to hypothermia and death.

I would wait till late april and head south to the caribbean.
of corse you then have to contend with hurricane season and putting up your boat from june-july to the end of october.
it is kind of a conundrum, since you are out of phase with most cruisers.
the time to have headed south last month.

if you would like to talk about the trip south please e-mail me back channel Kimberlt@optonline.net . I have made a number of round trips to the caribbean from long island and will be going transatlantic
canaries-caribbean in january.
fair winds,
eric