Sailing With Wildfire
Cruising from Houston to Baltimore and back
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Welcome to Sailing With Wildfire!
Wildfire is a 1990 38′ Irwin MKII sailboat. She is journeying from League City, Texas, to the Chesapeake Bay and back, leaving in March 2011, and reaching Baltimore in mid-June. She will spend hurricane season in the Chesapeake, and in October, her skipper will return to bring her home. She should be home no later than December 1, 2011.
Wildfire has one skipper, one boat dog, and about 20 different crew, most of whom will stay two or three weeks each. Four of the crew are “first mates”, each of whom will be onboard for about six weeks. This blog will carry accounts of the adventures of Wildfire and her crew, photos, and anything else we think our readers would enjoy.
Wildfire‘s skipper is Janet Lachman, a soon-to-be retired university professor and lawyer who discovered sailing about 20 years ago. In 1991, she convinced four women friends to join her and “Learn to Sail in a Weekend” aboard the Shearwater, a 36′ Pearson captained by Stu Bell. About 10 feet off the dock, she wondered why she hadn’t ever sailed before, and decided to make up the lost time. Subsequently, she crewed for Stu for two years, then bought her own boat, joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and obtained her United States Coast Guard captain’s license. She now holds a 100-ton Coastal Master’s license and a so-called “six-pack” license, and has sailed thousands of miles in many different conditions. More about Captain Janet can be found on the “Captain and Crew” page.
The boat dog is Munchkin, a young chihuahua. More about Munchkin can also be found on the “Captain and Crew” page.
The “Captain and Crew” page also introduces the rest of the crew. The “Onboard Now” page showcases the crew that are traveling with Wildfire at any given time. Stories and photos about the adventures of the boat and crew appear in the Posts and Photos pages, respectively.
Great looking blog. Any chance of a font increase so I can read without a magnifying glass? I know I’m the only one who has eyes that are getting old but . . .
I can probably fill in if you lose crew sometime during the trip – especially in the D.C. area. /Stu
To make the font bigger, I have to know the htm code to do it, as the theme does not appear to permit font size changes. Dana can probably help me out there.
Stu, to increase the font size while you are on the blog page, hold down the “Ctrl” key and roll the scroll wheel on your mouse away from you. //Bruce (one of Janet’s Auxiliary friends)
Your browser settings should allow you to increase or decrease the font size for any page you are viewing on the web. If you don’t see the font tool at the top of your browser window, you should be able to put it there by ‘customizing’ your tool bar.
The site looks great, can’t wait to see all of the other crew and their stories.
Thanks for giving me the link. Blog looks great….can’t wait to follow. I’m so jealous
I wish I could join you! I’ll be sending lots of good vibes your way.
Don
Way to go Cap’n Janet……looks like a great trip. I will look forward hearing about your journey.
Trevor
Nice blog. Best wishes on your trip. We are traveling from the Chesapeake Bay to Florida (and Bahamas) and back during the time, so we’ll look for you. We’ll be in the Baltimore Inner Harbor mid-June. Yours sounds like a great adventure.
- Dennis & Julia
“Delta Blues”
Island Packet 380
We’ll be on the lookout for you, too. Looks as if we’ll be in Baltimore at the same time.
Hello,
Sorry to break in here. Interested to buy the digital radar cable you have (if u still have it)
pls contact me lj1@algonet.se (address in 20854 Md)
You might have the wrong person — I don’t have such a cable.
Looks like a great blog. Having a blog will make the voyage even more fun, and you’ll have a historical record for years to come.
Janet – hope you have a marvelous trip. I’m sure there will be lots of stories to share when you get back. Over some wine of course……..
How exciting! You are a gutsy woman. Jen Sudduth’s mom
My flight leaves tomorrow for Houston. I am very excited about this trip. I have sailed the Gulf before but not this area. Am looking forward to meeting Janet and the others that are going with.
Ahoy Everyone! Haven’t heard anything yet and I was wondering where you are and how everything is going??? I’ll be leaving for SC tomorrow – warmer weather here I come………. Hoping the weather is warm and sunny where you are……….
Hope to hear from you soon.
Crew Connie
Hey crew hope all is well,lets here from yall.Fare winds and calm seas!
God bless have a safe and enjoyable journey Janet. Must have been esp that I contacted you this morning, hope you can turn that young sea dog into an ole sea dog (“)
Thanks for the up date…..I think about the trip often, jealous and wishing you well. Keep writting…
We left Houma this morning and had a flawless day. We are anchored in Bayou Perot, just near Lake Salvador. We have a number of challenges tomorrow: two locks, several bridges, and a 5-mile trip down the Mississippi River with a 4+ KT current washing us toward the Gulf of Mexico. This current is the result of flooding in the Ohio River, coming down the Mississippi. We will have about 20 minutes to work our way across the river from the west to the east bank to exit to the east; miss it and we’re screwed. We can get out again at the Industrial Lock, but that means getting back across the river, and of course, if we miss that we are really out of luck. It’s down the river and out into the Gulf.
We have some repair work to do in NOLA, so may stay there as much as 3 days. My internet service is hideously slow, which is why I haven’t been keeping up with the blog, but we are at a marina in NOLA that hopefully will have WiFi.
Cheers, and keep following!
Janet
See you in about 10 days.
Cap’n Gnarly and the crew of S/V Raven.
FYI The next time you are in the Gulfport area Gulfport Yacht Club is very friendly to cruising boats especially if you belong to any kind of boating club. GYA clubs members (Gulf Yachtng Association) members and others are always treated well. This club and just a few others in the area have transient space access to showers , power, and other club facilities. I think you report on Long Beach was great and look forward to trying that out as well. Larry Bowers S/V Break Away
Janet, I don’t think I’ve seen an update in over a month. Where are you and how’s everything?
Don
Updates are on the “Posts” page — most recent was less than a week ago, and there will be another today. I’m having trouble uploading photos. though — I may do a lot of them when I get home for the summer. Right now we’re in St. Augustine, leaving for Jacksonville tomorrow.
Hi Janet and Tre….
Hope your trip, so far, has been smooth and uneventful. I look forward to following you on your blog and wish calm seas for you through the trip..
yep all is well on wildfire,so far so good!