Andrew Boddy, Parksville, BC CAN asks:
Hi Mary & Scott: Great work on keeping the adventure front page. My small question concerns Flotsam & Jetsam . In BC at certain times of year and tides, you have to be so careful of what you can come into contact with out there. Have you had any close calls. Is it one of your bad dreams . Does the night watch give you greater worries about this ?. Do you stay out as far as you can coastal cruising to reduce this risk? Have you found some areas of the world better than others? Congratulations again on your adventures. You show how we need to appreciate what special unique things we can find if we go looking (and can still be safe doing it, through proper planning).

Scott Flanders from Egret responds:
Andrew, in terms of natural flotsam BC is as bad as it gets with the logs and so forth. That is why few recreational cruisers travel at night in BC. Traveling at night what we are reduced to is watching radar. We take our chances as do virtually all long distance cruisers., power or sail. During the day we keep watch but quite honestly it is perhaps 50/50 just a radar watch unless we have seen debris n the water. The Nordhavn entry (bow) is quite narrow and will shed most anything. Also, in worst case, if you do hit something you are well protected. Nordhavn hulls are built in two piece molds. When the two halves are married the overlapping glass and resin is very, very thick making every Nordhavn centerline and bottom of the keel extremely durable and able to withstand impact. In all of Egret's miles we have never hit anything however we have seen things we would rather not hit.

In Egret's cruising we have had just a few areas of obstacles. One, off the US mid-Atlantic coast there were long line buoys at night. On the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally, Autumn Wind (62 Nord) picked up a large wad of fisherman's cast off ropes and netting. They ran under wing until morning when enough of the debris was cut away to proceed. The Med we found debris free. The Atlantic crossing to Brazil and further south was without a single piece of debris (that we saw) other than giant wads of kelp.

Bottom line. Once you are cruising all of the 'what ifs' go away. You fall into your routine and your lookout for debris and so forth become natural and not an issue. Sea miles are the answer. You'll see.