Тема: ГОСТИНАЯ ЛИН И ЛАРРИ ПАРДИ
Dear readers, Sailors of Russia:
In 1974, when Larry and I were cruising the waters of the northern Baltic on board 7.4 meter long Seraffyn, we tried to get permission to sail into the waters of the land that was, at that time, called The Soviet Union. I had a special reason to visit your land. My father’s parents had been born in the Ukraine. When I'd been very young, my Grandmother had lived with us in southern California and every Saturday morning she received a copy of the Russian language newspaper. I learned a few words of the Russian language from her. I still remember some. Unfortunately, the Soviet officials did not grant us permission to visit, so the closest we ever came to your land was during our passage south from Finland, just offshore from Latvia and Lithuania. So close, but so far away. (This voyage is described in our book, Seraffyn's European adventure.)
Voyaging under sail has opened a wondrous world to us. Using just wind power, we have been able to explore all the oceans of the world, to visit more than 77 countries and to make friends where ever we have stopped. But it isn't just reaching distant shores that mattered to us, it was the wonder of sailing itself. We have delivered many large boats across oceans for people who had more money than time. We have raced on many elegant twenty meter yachts. But for cruising we are really glad we choose small boats, ones we could truly afford. By having boats under 10 meters we were able to set sail at a young age and keep cruising by working a few months a year in different countries. Even as we grew older and were able to afford a slightly larger boat, we are delighted we built 9 meter long Taleisin which carried us for more than 95,000 miles including contrary to the wind past all the great southern Capes. That is why, when we began writing about sailing, Larry coined the phrase that summed up our philosophy - Go small, go simple, go now!
Fair Winds,
Lin and Larry Pardey