A tad over two years in gestation, but it looks to us like she is worth every moment of the wait. Less than a week ago, FPB 70-1 finally splashed! It seems like forever ago that the pic above of Stan was taken with our skeletal calf. I know many of you have been waiting, […]
Read More Introducing Buffalo Nickel the YoungerI’m so excited about our new favorite summer cocktail, it wouldn’t do to just snap a pic and post it on social media with a “Yum!” comment and a fun emoji. I have to actually make a blog post about it, because you need the recipe. You should get out there while there are good […]
Read More The Red and The BlackBuffalo Nickel is an FPB 64, the seventh of an innovative range of power boats designed to make both long distance passages and leisurely intervals at anchor in safety and comfort. There are only eleven of them on the water. Since her initial splash in 2013, she has taken us from New Zealand to Thailand, […]
Read More Buffalo Nickel on the MarketIt’s not new-news, because it’s a choice we made last spring, while we were aboard our boat in Thailand. But the decision did cause us to jettison our plan of making our way to Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, via Japan’s inland sea followed by a passage to the Aleutians. Instead, we turned about, scooted […]
Read More Our Big NewsWe’ve had quite a few requests over these several years, both public and private, to talk about power management aboard Buffalo Nickel. Every boat has its own inherent logic in this area. Between the goals of its systems designers and the capacities and limitations of the component hardware, there emerges a pathway where, if we […]
Read More Power ManagementSome of the rally sailboats opted out of the passage north across the Banda Sea to the Spice Islands, a cluster of about half a dozen small islands in eastern Indonesia. This was primarily because it would necessitate beating back south later, with no help from the tradewinds blowing from the southeast. We didn’t have […]
Read More The Spice Islands! And Buffalo Soldier Goes AWOL.That’s what we heard shouted in our direction, in every town and village, in every anchorage in Indonesia. By grinning kids canoeing up to Buffalo Nickel in their outriggers, by adults walking, or zipping by on motorbikes in the busy market streets. Once in awhile someone with better English would wave and say “Hello Missus” to […]
Read More Hello Mister!The 1,300-mile passage from Vanuatu to Cairns, Australia took us nearly six days, but was one of our most comfortable and uneventful crossings to date. Seas were 2.5 meters for the first couple of days, but all well aft of our beam, making for decent surfing conditions. We hit 15 knots with regularity, and had […]
Read More Australia – The Short VersionOur first week was spent in Port Vila, making reconnaissance and loading up. The three of us (Brian and Sue of British sailboat Darramy, Brian and Sandie of American sailboat Persephone, and ourselves) were impatient to get out to the islands, but the groundwork was important. We met with what seemed like everybody: World Health Organization (WHO,) […]
Read More Buffalo Nickel in VanuatuIn this second of three posts about our time spent helping with cyclone relief efforts in the Shepherd Islands of Vanuatu, I’m going to get on a bit of a soapbox about offering assistance in the event of a large-scale disaster: specifically, things one can do to be most, and least, helpful to a disaster […]
Read More On Giving Well
