[Finback]

Greetings from 19 deg north. This is my first post...brand new to SailNet. "My" name, Finback, is also the name of my boat. She's a Lyman-Morse (Maine) built 51-foot Ted Hood "whale-bottom" centerboarder with about 65,000 on the clock. Big and heavy, she still has dozens of 200-plus-mile days in her log...she rarely exceeds 9.5 but seldom drops below 7 in tradewind conditions. I'm fairly experienced, though the more I do the more I want to know, and there is an inexhaustible supply of adventure out there. Sailors are my favorite people, and I look forward to discussing lots of good sailorly stuff with this salty bunch. Happy New Year...may '09 bring us all closer to, as Nat Philbrick says, "The Heart of the Sea"