No Goal is Too High if We Climb with Care and Confidence

Those were the words on a popular dorm room poster when I was in college in the mid-seventies. It showed a lone climber on an extremely exposed face. I guess I took it to heart. I spent five months preparing Alannastar, and five years reading everything I could find about sailing. There were people who tried to discourage us from heading out into the ocean, and probably a lot more who just shook their head and thought we were crazy. But we prepared as well as we could, made conservative decisions, and succeeded. Like a lot of things, ocean sailing is 90% preparation and 10% luck. I'd say we had both.