I have set up an RSS Feed for this website so that viewers can identify significant updates in which they are interested, without having to check the Website Update Log.  This is still an ongoing experiment.  Clicking on the RSS icon on the left should allow you to set up a subscription for general updates to this web site.  The update notifications can be received either by a link on your web browser or via an email.  Receiving the update notifications through your browser may require an Add-On or Plug-In.  With Firefox I did not need to add anything, but my IE does require an Add-On, which I have not installed.  The email notification does not appear to require any additional software on your system.
I have also set up a separate RSS feed for the Excel VBA programs I have developed and distribute from another page.  The notification of program changes will not be received from the RSS feed on this page.
Overview of This Website
As you might guess from the title of this web and the picture below, sailing is what this web is about.  Sailing has been my primary interest since I was a teenager in the 1950s, working summers at a camp just off Lake Michigan north of Muskegon.  When I moved to the Washington DC area in 1971, I took advantage of my proximity to the Chesapeake Bay to purchase my first sailboat.

Sailing Vela Lleña on the Patuxent River, February, 1996
Photo by Unisys Corporation		 This first boat was a 1968 Hinterhoeller HR 25, which is a 25' fiberglass sloop.   In 1976 I sold the HR 25 and bought a new Columbia 8.7.  The Columbia 8.7 is a 29' fiberglass sloop, which I named Vela Lleña (Spanish for "Full Sail").  For a long time Vela Lleña was the perfect boat for me, large enough to take on extended cruises along the US East Coast, but small enough to keep maintenance work and costs within reason.  I sailed Vela Lleña for nearly a quarter century before selling her in the spring of 2001.  The previous year I purchased a 1978 Pearson 424 , which is a 42' fiberglass ketch.  The Pearson , which I named Sarah, was the boat I intended to use for extended off shore trips for the next 5 - 6 years, or possibly longer.  Due to deteriorating health I had to sell Sarah in 2021 and move ahsore after living on board for over 17 years.

As a shake down off shore cruise I and five friends sailed Sarah to Bermuda and back in the summer of 2001.  In June, 2007 I completed an Atlantic Circle cruise (transatlantic to the Azores, Portugal, Spain and the Mediterranean and then transatlantic again back to the USA) on Sarah.  When Sarah is underway you can also check my current location via Winlink Position Reporting or click on the SV Sarah link at the top of this page then select Sarah's Location from the menu for that section of this website.
The initial step on the Atlantic Circle was accomplished in the fall of 2004 when I moved Sarah from the Chesapeake Bay to Fort Pierce, FL via the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and an off shore sail.  Mike Repass and I departed on the transatlantic leg of the cruise in May, 2005.  We stopped in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Azores before making landfall near Lisbon, Portugal.  I spent the winter of 2005-2006 on Sarah at the marina in Cascais, Portugal.  During the spring and summer of 2006 I cruised Sarah from Cascais to the Balearic Islands of Spain.  Sarah spent the winter of 2006/2007 in Lagos, PT.  In May, 2007 Bob Calt and I sailed Sarah back to the USA by way of Madeira and Bermuda. 
After repowering Sarah over the winter of 2007/8 I departed the Chesapeake in October and spent the following winter in the Bahamas.  I returned to the USA in 2009 and spent a year in New Bern, NC.  In 2010 I briefly returned to the Chesapeake Bay then headed south again in fall.  I spent the winters of 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 and the summer of 2013 in Jacksonville, FL.  In between those stays in Jacksonville, Sarah was in the Chesapeake Bay or the Bahamas.  Since the summer of 2014 Sarah was been berthed in Jacksonville as I tried to recover from health issues. 
By 2021 my health had deteriorated so much that could no longer live on the boat much less cruise her.  So as of Auguat, 2021 Sarah has a new owner and I am adjusting to life on shore and old age.
I plan on keepting this site active for the near future, but the conrtents of the Sarah section will not be updated.
The contents of the website sections are described below.  To navigate within the site click on one of the section titles at the top of the page and then use the menus on the left to view pages on the various topics in those sections.
 

You are currently in the Home section of the site.  Here you will find an overview of the site and information on its history.  Each section of the site has its own menu on the left side of the screen.  This can be used to navigate to the various pages and topics in a section.

Within the Home section the pages and topics are:

Overview:  This page.
 
About This Site:  This is a description of how this site came about and why it looks the way it does.
 
Website Update Log:  This is a history of the significant changes to the content and format of the site.  This page is no longer being maintained.  If have swithed to an RSS Feed to document website changes.  This page provides some history of the updates that took place several years agao.
 
Links:  This page is a list of links to other sites that are either referenced in one or more of the pages in the site, of related subject matter to the pages on this site, or just another web site that I enjoy.  Like the update page I am no longer maintaining this page (some of the links may no longer be valid).  The Google search engine has pretty much made publishing of links a waste of time.
 
The contents of the other sections are described below.
 
SV Sarah:  Sarah is the name of my previously owned 42' ketch sailboat and this section provides pictures and descriptions of this vessel.  Sarah has a new owner since Auguat, 2021, and this section reflects the status of the boat at the time it was sold.
SV Whoosh:  Whoosh is the name of another Pearson 424 Ketch previously owned by Jack and Patricia Tyler.  This section of the website contains articles written by Jack & Patricia on cruising under sail.  Many of the articles are specific to cruising in Europe and the South Pacific.
 
Sailing:  This section of the website documents my nearly life-long interest and participation in sailing.  Included in this section are pictures and descriptions of many of the cruises and off-shore races I have participated in.
 
Non-Sailing:  This section covers that small part of my life that was not directly related to sailing.