Ever since I was 14 I had wanted to buy a boat and sail to the South Pacific. Right after Kitty and I were married in 1969, I gave her a copy of Eric Hisscock’s book, “Around the World in Wanderer III” about Eric and Susan Hisscock’s circumnavigation in their 30 foot sailboat. They were ordinary 40ish Brits, not the Sir Edmond Hilary or Thor Hierdol types. And I convinced Kitty if they could do it so could we. A year later we bought a 30 Foot Allied Seawind Ketch for $10,000 and spent another $5,000 fixing her up with a new diesel engine, new sails, new water tanks, all the paper charts from New York to Australia and a new spray dodger. The next summer, 1971, we did a shakedown cruise to Maine and back and determined that she was ready to take to sea.