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What’s Here?

Sailing Stories
Entertaining and informative sailing stories & articles. At last count, over 95,000 words and 380 quality images.



Cool Wallpapers
Is your desktop wallpaper boring windows-default green? Try one of our wallpaper & backgrounds.



Tips & Other
This is all the stuff that doesn’t fit into one of the other categories. Try one of our of Photoshop tutorials.



Photography
Some nice landscape photography, two Surround Videos and a good old fashioned B&W double exposure of JFK.





  Book Review of the Month
      Click here for previous book reviews

The Last Run is a story about the 77-foot fishing boat La Conte which gets lost in a fierce storm in the ironically named Fairweather Grounds in Alaska. In the first half of the book you get a good feel for the rough and tumble characters that make up the crew of the La Conte. Jail time, divorce and alcoholism abound.
In the second half of the book you are introduced to the brave Coastguardsmen who end up rescuing the crew. The rescue scenes are incredibly vivid. You can almost hear the tortured howl of the Sikorsky Jayhawk helicopters as the Coast Guard crews attempt to locate and rescue the crew of La Conte. If you ever had any doubt about the effectiveness of 406-megahertz EPIRBs, survival suits, or the Coast Guard's Search & Rescue organization, your doubts will likely be erased after reading this story.

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Most other books of this genre take place farther west—near Kodiak, the Aleutians or the Bering Sea. This rescue takes place farther east, just off Glacier Bay National Park. Both La Conte and the rescuers are based out of Sitka and much of the story takes place there. Places like Hoonah, Elfin Cove, Pelican and Coronation Island are frequently mentioned locations. Definitely a fun read if you've sailed to these places in SE Alaska. Highly recommended!

  News & Updates

January 2003
Presentations at Seattle Boat Show
Happy New Year! This year I am honored to be doing a photography presentation at the Seattle Boat Show. The presentation will be a multimedia slide show and will feature 100+ images from Washington to Alaska. Please come down and check it out [Green Stage]! I will be presenting at three different times:

  • Tuesday, January 21st @ 5PM
  • Friday, January 24th @ 1PM
  • Sunday, January 26th @ 3PM

November 2002
 Exploring Alaska’s Coastline
Remember when Uncle Ron would come over & give a boring slide show of his summer vacation? Exploring Alaska’s Coastline takes the concept of a slide show to the next level! Requires Macromedia Flash Player version 5/6 and is 1.3 megs big (15-second download w/broadband, 5–10 minutes with dialup).

October 2002
What a time to be into sailing!
I have to admit updates to tgw.net are getting delayed due to the excellent sailing events taking place. Around Alone (formerly the BOC Challenge) is a single handed around the world race. The Louis Vuitton Cup is the "prelim" to the America's cup which takes place in February 2003. You can catch superb coverage of Louis Vuitton Cup action on OLN (Outdoor Life Network) around 6 - 9 PM Pacific time. My personal favorites: Bruce Schwab & Ocean Planet for Around Alone (tough leg one) and One World Challenge (hailing from the Seattle Yacht Club no less) for the Louis Vuitton Cup.

September 2002
 Three new sailing wallpapers
I was getting tired of the background on my PC, so I decided to create a few more sailing wallpapers. Olsen 30 Nationals, Sunset at Fisherman's Bay, and Stars & Stripes. Enjoy!

June 2002
 Navigation Software & Electronic Charting
A general introduction to the world of navigation software and electronic charts. This article originally appeared in the 04/2002 edition of 48º Degrees North and includes five short chapters.

May 2002
Photography Featured in Good Old Boat
Pickup the current edition of Good Old Boat magazine and you will find the s/v Patience on the cover and a images taken by Tim Whelan on the inside. Many thanks to Karen Larson and her crew who create this wonderful magazine!

April 2002
 Visual Navigation Suite After 4000 Miles
In this article you find some of my specific thoughts on Nobeltec's Visual Navigation Suite (VNS) after logging 4000 miles using the program. This article is complimentary to the article published in 48º North.

April 2002
Article Published in 48º North
This month you will find an article by Tim Whelan titled Navigation Software & Electronic Charting in 48º North. 48º North is a fine magazine devoted to northwest sailing. For out-of-area readers I will post the same article on tgw.net in 2-months.


TGW.NET is property of Tim Whelan. All pictures and text ©Tim Whelan 1980–2002, all rights reserved. Only permitted images and material may be downloaded from this web site. For usage, please see my copyright notice.