A few more pictures of "Libby"

The first picture is of the interior looking aft. As you come below the galley is immediately to port (left) and a sit down nav station is facing aft on the starboard side.

Forward of the nav station, just behind the seat, is a roomy wet locker that drains directly into the bilge - for foul weather gear.

Aft of the galley on the starboard side is a dinette with a beautifully varnished teak table. The dinette does not make into a double berth. The only flaw I've found in Libby's design is the total absence of a sea berth when she's on a starboard tack.

This is the engine room. Notice anything missing?

A boat named Liberty

For almost three years I've lived on a military base in Iraq named "Camp Liberty". Is it ironic that my next home would also be named Liberty? Maybe God leaves breadcrumbs for us to follow. Maybe not, but it feels good to think of it as an omen of approval. And maybe this time my home will be appropriately named.

The boat is a Kendall 32, cutter rigged - that means she has one mast and two fore sails. At ten tons she's a heavy boat and capable of crossing any ocean. Her antecedents in design have been made famous by a couple of their owners - Vito Dumas who, in 1942, circled the globe via the southern oceans, past the Horn and Cape Hope, and Robin Knox-Johnston who left England in 1969 to win the Golden Globe and the honor of being the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone and without stopping. Nine boats competed but his 32' Ketch, "Suhaili", was the only one to cross the finish line. Both of these boats were, you might say, Liberty's grandmothers, being identical in hull design and displacement.

Her granddaughters - with hulls laid in the same mold - are the Westsail 32's, iconic blue water boats, one of which, Satori, survived the "perfect storm" - albeit without her captain. Ray Leonard was ordered by the Coast Guard to abandon Satori, leaving her to fend for herself. And she survived the storm alone. Leonard found her washed up on a beach in Maryland and re-floated her. She was undamaged. Tough boats, these Archer-Atkins double enders.