Ya gads, West Africa! What boat are you on? Feel free to tell me more (if you have the time).

PS- Its midnight in texas, sorry going to bed, so it will take a while to reply.

Sure if I can help, I will. With me I don't often know what day it is. I am working in west Africa, and I live in Alaska, so I am 9 hours later when I am in Africa, plus I have the Midnight to Noon watch, so my system gets kind of mixed up. I have to look at my watch to know what day / date it is.

Thanks, its great to hear from you.
I copied that avatar from the internet and I'm waiting for the owner (if there is one) to come and say "hey thats mine, thief!"
I like your posts, you seem to have a lot of experience. I hope I can draw from your knowledge.
Have a great day? night?
Erika

Hi There, thanks for inviting me. I like your avatar, very Tao. I like your boat.

I love hearing about other peoples plans so talk away! I've heard of Monk, I'll have to do a search and see. Congrats on your new boat she is definitely something to be proud of. What a great idea to be able to cruise and work at the same time. I'm a nurse so haven't figured out how to fit that in my cruising boat, but I do plan on medical missionary work wherever I go

Great talking with ya,
Erika

Thank you, I have some more photos of the vessel on my laptop, but my hard drive died just before I came back to work so I wasn't able to upload anymore. I don't know who carved the figurehead, they did a credible job. The Skookum, 47 and 53 are designed by Ed Monk Sr. They were built in Port Townsend, WA. They are heavy built hulls and are great sea boats. I have sailed a 47' all over the pacific and was just recently able to obtain this 53' . The configuration I liked is with a 15,000 lb freezer hold, and she is set up for commercial fishing. My logic being, I would like to be able to make a living whilst sailing, so that I don't have to go ashore to try to earn a living there. So once I finish the refit, I'll fish salmon in Alaska in the summer and albacore off the west coast in the fall, and spend the winters in the south pacific. Sorry, long winded, I just get excited about my plans.

Beautiful boat especially the figurehead! not familar with Skookum, who is the designer?