Ahoy...

This is The Captain speaking. This blog will be recording the voyage of The Five Cats, a 36' Grand Banks Trawler that I, The Captain, will be taking from Tampa, Florida to Toronto Canada over the winter of 2006/07. I will try to keep you apprised of the doings on board, although, as the rum ad goes, "What happens below decks, stays below decks." This is, of course, meant to mostly keep embarrassing moments of bad sailoring from surfacing. Moments which I, the Captain, a neo-phyte boater would rather keep to myself. Ahhh, what the hell. I'll be forthcoming if you'll be kind.

Today is Thanksgiving, Canadian-style, and therefore I am, of course, drunk. I just want you to know that I will not be indulging that way while I am navigating the Intercostal Waterway. No, I will be stone-cold sober and on the look out for things of interest to bring to you the blog-readers.

There will be photos, hopefully, and comments from the various famous crew members who have been shanghied to help me on this strange adventure.

You, the bloggee, will be welcome to give comment or criticism as you see fit.

So, that is that. On Sunday, Oct. 29th, I fly to Tampa to begin the journey. If the wind is fair I should be enroute as of Monday, Oct. 30th. (Actually wind has little to do with it as the Five Cats is a powerboat, still fair is fair) First stop, in all probability, will be Sarasota.

Give me your best wishes as I will need them. You can send any advice or notes along and I will try to integrate them into my float plan. I will be posting information about myself, my crew, the boat and sundry other fascinating things up until departure.

More later me hearties...

The Captain