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Cap’n Fatty Goodlander



The Life and Times


of A Modern Sea Gypsy



Ganesh anchored in Moorea, French Polynesia



Cap'n Fatty and Carolyn on Wild Card



Welcome to our world of boats, books, and voyages


The amazing thing about us is that there isn't anything amazing about us. We're just two people who love each other. We like to laugh. We don't care much about money or material things. Instead, we focus on living every day to its fullest. We enjoy ourselves, this planet, sailing and each other. It is that simple.

HERE'S THE FAT STORY

We need money. But we like to sail. And we know that working can interfere with sailing if you're not careful...so we're very careful.


This means a job-job is out. (Frankly, I've never had a job that didn't look good in my rear view mirror.) Plus, we prefer to shun the shore... too many dirt-dwellers, shore-huggers and dock-queens for our tastes. So instead we live by our wits. At sea. On landless atolls. Anchored off primitive islands. Far up uncharted rivers. In deserted safe harbors.


For many years we have been just beyond the jagged rim of civilization-- aboard the 52-foot schooner Elizabeth (built 1924), the 22-foot double-ender (1932) Corina, our home-built 36-foot Endurance ketch Carlotta (1974), our $3,000 hurricane-salvaged S&S-designed 38-foot sloop Wild Card (1989), and our current 42-foot ketch Ganesh that we resurrected from 4 years of being abandoned in a boatyard.


We chase the horizon...eternally. The question is, can this website help us continue to do so in grand style? If so, it will grow. If not... Well....

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Cruising Boat Basics



Hints, Tips, and Tricks for a Fabulous Life Afloat





This book contains 58 years of seamanship and ship’s husbandry distilled into more than 350 readable pages.


It is chock-full of technical information gathered during three circumnavigations and a lifetime of living aboard in foreign ports.



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Chasing The Horizon



The Life And Times Of A Modern Sea Gypsy





Chasing the Horizon is a delightfully demented Celebration of A Way of Life.


It is an outrageously funny, often touching, and continuously shocking tale of a modern sea gypsy.

Cap'n Fatty's story is too bizarre to be fiction.​





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Buy, Outfit, and Sail



How to Inexpensively and Safely
Buy, Outfit, and Sail a Small Vessel
Around the World





This book aims to assist the frugal, safety-conscious sailor in the purchase and repair of a modest sailboat capable of circumnavigating.

​

The core premise: There is little correlation between dollars spent and pleasure received when it comes to cruising offshore. Cheaper boats can be far more seaworthy than their expensive counterparts if the skipper’s money is spent wisely.


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Storm Proofing your Boat, Gear, and Crew



Surviving a Large Storm Aboard a Small Boat on a Big Ocean



Heavy weather management is simple—there are only two basic rules.

The prudent mariner must control his vessel’s speed and its angle to the wind and seas.


That’s it. There’s nothing complicated about these concepts.

However, storm management can—and does—get complicated fast.​

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Creative Anchoring



Everything About Anchors and Anchoring





This practical, down-to-earth, step-by-step instruction manual isn’t merely about the basic mechanics of how to anchor—but how to anchor safely, while enjoying your boat more comfortably, in a far greater number of exposed anchorages.







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Somali Pirates and Cruising Sailors



A Compilation & Rumination of Recent Events in the Indian Ocean that Impact on Cruising Yachtsmen






​In 2010 there were around 2,000 Somali pirates actively engaged in stealing, kidnapping, extorting, enslaving, imprisoning, torturing, terrorizing, and killing innocent sailors in the Indian Ocean.


These pirates attacked small yachts as well as large ships. This book chronicles each of these terrifying “pleasure boat” attacks.


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Red Sea Run



Two Sailors in a Sea of Trouble






Cap'n Fatty and Carolyn, aboard their modest 38-foot sloop Wild Card, sail from Thailand to Turkey through pirate infested waters.


They must sail past the dreaded Somali Pirates before dealing with the Land Pirates of the Suez Canal before finally escaping to Israel.







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Cruising World Yarns






​"Is there a secret to writing well? Yes. It is the truth. Whenever a paragraph sags, I simply ask myself, 'What is the truth here, Fatty? What are you really trying to say?' What I want to do is to write another good sentence."


Cruising World Yarns has 3 dozen of Cap'n Fatty's best sailing and cruising stories from the pages of Cruising World magazine.






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All At Sea Yarns





Funny and outrageous


Fatty sea stories from the pages of All At Sea Caribbean magazine culled from two decades of comic labor.


If you like silly and irreverent, this is for you!












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Collected Fat



Vintage Cap'n Fatty





Dozens of sea stories from the most outrageous marine journalist in the Caribbean.


"Somehow in the sweet innocence of my youth, I always thought that being a professional writer would be, well, sort of refined and dignified. The savage reality, at least for me, has been anything but that."







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St. John People



Stories about St. John residents by St. John residents





The 25th Anniversary edition of St. John People is as diverse and interesting as the rainbow-hued Virgin Island residents that populate it’s 290 pages


A ‘must-read’ for local folks, long term residents, and short-term visitors alike.






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Fatty's Fav Story





Fat Bio





Fat Boats





Fat Family





Fat Videos