GL: 1963 Columbia Defender and Offshore Cruising

[Pam Pettyjohn]

We haven't posted in some time and when we did, we owned a 1964 Columbia
Challenger ("Serenity") which we had great fun daysailing around the Strait of
Juan de Fuca and the Sound. We have since sold the old girl and purchased a
1963 Columbia Defender ("Don't Panic") which we are thrilled with. It is
completely restored and we are contemplating the rather ambitious endeavor of
sailing from Port Angeles, WA to New Zealand (my husband's home). We've read
Two on a big Ocean and several other books about offshore sailing in a smaller
boat but we can find nothing at all about such a long voyage in a Defender
other than the account of Mike Keers' trip from San Carlos to Hilo, Hawaii in
the Latitude 38 letters.

We've asked several people and for every boating question we ask, we get a
half dozen or more different answers. To the question of whether the Defender
is seaworthy enough to make this trip we got everything from, "Have you lost
your mind" to "The Defender is a rugged little thing that will go anywhere you
want given the proper experience and a good watch on the weather" to "If the
Defender can handle the Strait of Juan de Fuca on a bad day, it can handle
anything."

So, Great Loop Folks, we would like to know from folks who own and actually
sail smaller boats on a regular basis and specifically from any Defender
owners out there, is the Defender, properly equipped and sailed by experienced
sailors, with an eye for keeping in decent weather, able to make this trip
(and we mean built to handle this kind of sailing)?

It's just the two of us going and the only thing that I (as the cook) find
inconvenient is that there is no oven on our boat, just the two burner propane
stove top. If we go in this boat, I would like an oven as well although I
supposed a toaster oven would do. We don't have a refrigerator on board and I
would like to know about the availability of ice to keep the icebox cold on
our way.  Our route is probably going to be the same route Hal and Margaret
Roth took in Two on a Big Ocean only at Samoa, we will head southwest to Fiji
then south to Auckland, NZ.

Your opinions are obviously of great value to us. Please feel free to voice
them without holding back.

Thanks
Pamela and Daniel Williamson

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a
pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly
used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow - what a ride!"