“Gunkholing is a boating term referring to a type of cruising in shallow or shoal water, meandering from place to place, spending the nights in coves…. gunkholers typically seek out the serenity of isolated anchorages over the crowds of marinas and popular bays.” – Wikipedia
Most sailing blogs and Youtube channels chronicle people who give up the landlubbing life to live full-time on a sailboat. And I will gladly admit that most of the channels I follow fit into that category; I too have the dream of a life aboard a bluewater sailboat. Alas, this is not likely for me, at least not yet, and frankly I’m not sure I would really want to do that at this stage in my life. For one, I have a family and, let’s just say, they are not nearly as into sailing as I am. Also, I have a job, and enjoy having things like money and health insurance.
But who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Why not do both? This website chronicles a different kind of sailor. More of a weekend warrior. It collects my experiences learning to sail a small, trailerable sailboat, mostly in a lake near my home, but also in other fairly protected waters. You won’t see epic voyages across oceans on this site, but adventure is were you find. And there are some very adventuresome things you can do with a small sailboat.
I suspect there are others who dream of a life at sea following the wind, but are not ready or willing to give up their “regular” life. If this site helps you strike a compromise then it’s served its purpose.
How to Find Stuff on gunkholesailing.com
There are at least 3 ways to find stuff on this site. First, the navigation bar at the top organized information by categories.
Outlier - Contains information about my sailboat.
Gunkhole Seamanship - Contains information about skills needed for sailing and maintaining a small (under 25’), shoal draft sailboat.
Gunktube - While videos are linked throughout the website, this tab houses links to all of them in chronological order along with descriptions of their content.
Bluewater Dreaming - Contains information about the various boats I dream of owning one day. My “ideal” dream boat changes often.
Second, the Captain’s Log on the left of the home page contains a chronological list, with links to other content on the website. While the other tabs are organized conceptually, this tab is there if people are interested in how my journey has progressed over time.
Finally, in the top right of the navigation bar is a magnifying glass that most will recognize as a link to a search bar that can be used to search for content with search terms.