Thank you for being such a gracious host and captain. Ive been following you since you towed that boat and got into trouble. I swear it's been like a soap opera. I just love good old boats, old school seamanship and rigging. I want to help encourage those who dont have $250k to buy a production boat to get into sailing with good ol' sweat, study and ingenuity. Your boat tours show lots of simple ways to do things without spending a lot of cash. 2 thumbs up for Drake, Mo and Paragon.
Perusing UA-cam is like panning for gold, and I felt like I found a huge nugget when I happened onto these videos. Orientation with maps, indispensable notations for us tyros, good video and audio quality, and the unfolding of an adventure. This is why I don't bother with cable TV. Thank you Drake, Mo, and Adam!
As a person sailing out of the Lewisporte Yacht Club in Newfoundland, and seeing that you are leaving southern waters and heading North in "March" is leaving me on the edge of my seat for what is to come, Gutsy I love it! We usually have to dodge ice burgs and growlers in Jun and July up this way. This March, 2014, is the most ice we have seen in years, I say its good you done it last year and not this. Hope there is more video on your refurbishing of Paragon.Your both living the dream.
Haven't seen that one. What a great feeling must be to throw the mooring lines and sail out for big adventures. And you have really created amazing adventures through the years guys! Well done!
Guys, fabulous video! As near the completion of the restoration of our Westsail 42 Ketch, Harmony, your insights, tours, and interviews have kept the fire burning. the product of both of your efforts is stellar and anxiously looked forward to. Fair winds and following seas!
that is a beautiful vessel - inspiring to see adventurers doing what they want. I hope to meet you out there someday. thank you for the videos. may you have a good wind and following seas
Drake thanks for the video, it's truly inspiring for me. I am in the process of renovating a Pearson 35 here in Dallas Texas on Lake Ray Hubbard. It's been a hard go this winter. The weather has been really bad, so I haven't been able to do much on "Vagabond". My plan is to get her hauled down to Freeport Texas this May 2014. I can only hope that my experience in Freeport is half as good as yours has been in Oriental. Then have her ready to sail along the Gulf Coast to Key West around November 2014, then on to Tortola and then to St. Marten. Wish me good luck and keep the videos coming, they keep my spirits up by seeing what you have done. Thanks Again!
This is a trip down memory lane for me. In January 2015 I went down to see a boat in Oriental that I ended up buying - a Cal 2-46 ketch. I was down in March as well (and it was still damned cold) to start working on the domestic systems and assess what I'd bought. I had a great survey done, but you never really know until you spend a few days aboard. I returned in May and sailed up the ICW, same route you took, then up the Chesapeake, C&D canal, Delaware bay, and up to NYC. I also anchored just North of the W79th boat basin mooring field, but then continued on up the Hudson, and through the Erie and Oswego canals to Kingston, where I'm living and prepping her for a circumnavigation. Sure is fun watching your videos!
+Gordon Lamb Wow, similar story to ours Gordon. I went to Oriental to see Paragon and ended up buying her, sailing to the Caribbean and back 2 times, and then settled in Oriental for 3 years doing a refit. Hope to see you in the same anchorage someday!
Nice to see so many people take part in your farewell. You picked a beautiful day to set off on your adventure. Looking forward to more, as always. ~Daniel
May the winds be with you, I can't tell you how much I love the videos of your great Adventures. I have dreamed of sailing and living on a sailboat for the best part of my life, from the time I was 12 years old. Thank you so much for these videos, and may God bless you on your Journeys. Freddy
Drake, I have been watching your videos for the past few months and I have been truly inspired. My wife and I sailed Lake Erie for years but had to give up sailing when we moved to Alabama in 2007. My career has recently brought me to Southport, NC and we are looking to get back to sailing. I plan to buy a new boat this summer and sail the east coast. I will be following your travels and maybe one day we can meet up back here in North Carolina if not somewhere else. Fair winds...
Another great one Drake! :-) When you pulled away from the dock I felt like I was right there with you. Great emotions! This _is_ the Real Cruising Life. Fair winds, always. Ciao, Marco
you nailed the feeling of leaving and the reason some people never get out of the harbor. it really is very hard to leave. but if you dreams are stronger than you ties to the place you are in you go off in to the unknown and make you own adventures. this is what makes people like you so much fun to watch. most people cant take that first step. i hope when the time comes i do. i thank it is so sad when people work so hard to get there boat ready and cant get off the dock so i am sure when the time comes i will go and make my own adventure. thanks for sharing and as all ways far winds and calm seas my friend...
Hi Lee, thank you. Whenever it's been impossible to leave I place, I always keep saying to myself "Hey, you can always just go back. You can always just go back." Just saying that over and over in my head helps me go through the motions of leaving. Then after we've been moving for a while I always realize that I was meant to keep voyaging...
and you are Drake that's one of the things that makes your videos so good. i thank some of what holds people back is the fear of the unknown and when you get on your way you learn that the unknown is now known and the fear is gone. and replaced with the love of seeing new places and things. this is what drives me to go cruising. and less not forget the love of sailing this helps a lot too.. .
Yay! Finally pushed off. Almost exactly a year ago now. I was in Oriental about a month after you guys left, on a delivery. Met a guy who said he sold you Paragon, he was hanging out at the consignment shop. Great town.
Awesome Drake, Mo & Adam, an old Navy term "Bravo Zulu" which means well done, so looking forward to sharing your journey. Even though we are 12 months behind it feels like I am on board with you, if you know what I mean... An excerpt from Longfellow's poem "The Secret of the Sea" “Wouldst thou,”-so the helmsman answered, “Learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!” In each sail that skims the horizon, In each landward-blowing breeze, I behold that stately galley, Hear those mournful melodies; Till my soul is full of longing For the secret of the sea, And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through me. Fair winds and following seas...
It is always sad leaving friends and great places, to keep going it is important to understand that new adventures and new friends are a head. Great video. I really like your videos. Greetings from Costa Rica , central america.
Thanks Adolfo, It's always great to hear that people are enjoying our story. Wise words! :) We've met some of the nicest people and made some great friends in all of the countries we have visited. Greetings from Paragon currently in the Faroe Islands. :)
Hi Jadah, Thank you. We have a 6 man Winslow liferaft packed in a valise which I have lashed down in the pilot berth. On my list of future projects is to transfer it to a pelican case and bolt it down on the aft deck. If we ever have to abandon ship then I'd rather not have to carry the valise from the main cabin up the companionway steps to the cockpit.
DrakeParagon's The Real Cruising Life Yeah that would be the best option in an emergency, but (knocking on wood) hopefully you'll NEVER need to use it. Thanks for another great video
Ah hellooooooo! Good to see you here! I needed to grab this link and though I would check out the latest comment as well. I also like to go back to the beginning at times. So much has happened since then, and it all started here. Brilliant! 🎄-Monique
Has me pineing for Prime Rib. Love to get to Coinjock, spent the summer in Brevard as child. You guys have Dorades enroute to Nova Scotia? Travelled with aim for Nova Scotia as kid, only made Quebec
I'm wanting to make a trip to oriental In a few weeks, actually aiming for 28 - 31 of august. And the whole point of the trip is to educate myself and talk with some sailors. Ultimately to become enlightened. Are you going to be there or can point me in some kind of direction, maybe people you know or things to go see, etc.
Come on no deck tour... :-( You are just holding on the the good stuff. I havent been teased like this since high school :-) Really sweet send off from your adopted Oriental family. Lets all sing "sailing..sailing into the deep blue sea.." (or at least the ICW for now) lol
Someday I'm going to do a proper tour of Paragon for you Kamau! It's just that it always seems that Paragon is in too much of a project and renovation mode for filming a tour, but you'll certainly get to see all of Paragon in our upcoming episodes. Thanks for sailing with us,
Great video. You are really becoming a maestro at the pacing, editing and production values. It's only playing at 480p for me. Is that because the robots at UA-cam have not completely uploaded it?
Hi Chris, Thanks. After only filming for 6 months, I'm so happy to finally be able to get to editing now. I'm not sure why this video is only getting up to to 480p.. I'm uploading at 1080.. Maybe UA-cam is making changes to how they process videos.
Sorry im new but im just wondering a couple things, do you pretty much live at sea and if you do how do you make money to sustain it? Im getting towards my late teens and ive wanted to live at sea for a while now
minnyjimmy11 We live on our sailboat, but most of our time is spent in harbors and not actually at sea. We have some videos in our DrakeParagon PRYC Presentation series playlist that talk about money and more of our story.
john stein Hi John, that's a very good question, but the answer is kind of complicated for me to try to answer. The cost of living aboard a boat varies as much the cost of living on land. It depends on a countless number of factors... our biggest expense has always been food, so a question to ask is if you only buy groceries and cook at home? or how often do you go out to a restaurant? do you fish or hunt for your own food? how often do you pay to keep the boat in marinas? or do you only go to places where you can stay at anchor or even dock for free? do you do all the work involved in the care of the boat and the voyaging yourself? or do you pay for others to help? do you heat the boat with propane, diesel, or electricity that you pay for? or do you gather wood on the beach and burn it in your wood stove? or do you only go to places where it's warm enough that you don't need heat? how often do you run the engine? our engine can use up to 2 gallons of diesel to cover say 5 nautical miles, but sometimes we can sail with just the wind for hundreds of miles offshore without ever turning the engine on. much depends on where you sail to... In Greenland we never paid for dockage because every harbor had a place where we could dock the boat for free.. but the groceries were quite expensive.. but the fishing was great... i guess it can cost as much or as little as you want to spend.. it all depends. You might find this video that we made on the subject interesting.. '8. Q&A: How do you afford the cruising lifestyle?' @ ua-cam.com/video/LEE_UfL8tJc/v-deo.html&feature=iv&src_vid=B7RCUEWd_gs&annotation_id=annotation_739003863 Fair winds, Drake
Drake, I think I have seen all your videos and I look forward to more. Have similar aspirations ( bet ya never heard that) and am always learning and seeking knowledge about all things sailing. I am fortunate to have an old ( but nice) cal 2-25 on lake norman not far from Charleston and the Carolina coast. I have sailed a little offshore coastal but with large crew on a racing j boat. I have tried to find you on Facebook but no luck.. Your welcome to friend me on my Facebook if you would like. I am Stormsailor on there. Good luck on your future adventures and if you would ever need crew I would be glad to discus. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Bullerias, Yes, as we motored through the fjords of Greenland I kept imagining what it would be like to climb those mountains. But instead I used our quadcopter named "Harry" to get aerial footage.
Thank you for being such a gracious host and captain. Ive been following
you since you towed that boat and got into trouble. I swear it's been like
a soap opera. I just love good old boats, old school seamanship and
rigging. I want to help encourage those who dont have $250k to buy a
production boat to get into sailing with good ol' sweat, study and
ingenuity. Your boat tours show lots of simple ways to do things without
spending a lot of cash. 2 thumbs up for Drake, Mo and Paragon.
Perusing UA-cam is like panning for gold, and I felt like I found a huge nugget when I happened onto these videos. Orientation with maps, indispensable notations for us tyros, good video and audio quality, and the unfolding of an adventure. This is why I don't bother with cable TV. Thank you Drake, Mo, and Adam!
Drake's the man. Great to see you underway!
As a person sailing out of the Lewisporte Yacht Club in Newfoundland, and seeing that you are leaving southern waters and heading North in "March" is leaving me on the edge of my seat for what is to come, Gutsy I love it! We usually have to dodge ice burgs and growlers in Jun and July up this way. This March, 2014, is the most ice we have seen in years, I say its good you done it last year and not this. Hope there is more video on your refurbishing of Paragon.Your both living the dream.
Haven't seen that one. What a great feeling must be to throw the mooring lines and sail out for big adventures. And you have really created amazing adventures through the years guys! Well done!
as much as you hate to leave, the pull of the ocean is inescapable..great video!
supurbian b
Guys, fabulous video! As near the completion of the restoration of our Westsail 42 Ketch, Harmony, your insights, tours, and interviews have kept the fire burning. the product of both of your efforts is stellar and anxiously looked forward to. Fair winds and following seas!
that is a beautiful vessel - inspiring to see adventurers doing what they want. I hope to meet you out there someday. thank you for the videos. may you have a good wind and following seas
Sure enjoy sailing along with you Drake. The things I have learned while watching help to make me a more confident sailor as I sail the PNW.
what a really nice job you have done ,all the hard work and love gone into your lovely sail boat
You always keep us wanting more!
Cheers,
Bugs
Drake thanks for the video, it's truly inspiring for me. I am in the process of renovating a Pearson 35 here in Dallas Texas on Lake Ray Hubbard. It's been a hard go this winter. The weather has been really bad, so I haven't been able to do much on "Vagabond". My plan is to get her hauled down to Freeport Texas this May 2014. I can only hope that my experience in Freeport is half as good as yours has been in Oriental. Then have her ready to sail along the Gulf Coast to Key West around November 2014, then on to Tortola and then to St. Marten. Wish me good luck and keep the videos coming, they keep my spirits up by seeing what you have done. Thanks Again!
finally..............wonderful...........
Thank you for waiting!
This is a trip down memory lane for me. In January 2015 I went down to see a boat in Oriental that I ended up buying - a Cal 2-46 ketch. I was down in March as well (and it was still damned cold) to start working on the domestic systems and assess what I'd bought. I had a great survey done, but you never really know until you spend a few days aboard.
I returned in May and sailed up the ICW, same route you took, then up the Chesapeake, C&D canal, Delaware bay, and up to NYC. I also anchored just North of the W79th boat basin mooring field, but then continued on up the Hudson, and through the Erie and Oswego canals to Kingston, where I'm living and prepping her for a circumnavigation.
Sure is fun watching your videos!
+Gordon Lamb Wow, similar story to ours Gordon. I went to Oriental to see Paragon and ended up buying her, sailing to the Caribbean and back 2 times, and then settled in Oriental for 3 years doing a refit. Hope to see you in the same anchorage someday!
+DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life Cruising is a small world.. good chance we'll cross paths at some point!
Nice to see so many people take part in your farewell. You picked a beautiful day to set off on your adventure.
Looking forward to more, as always.
~Daniel
Awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!
Safe journey lads. All the best, Mick
May the winds be with you,
I can't tell you how much I love the videos of your great Adventures. I have dreamed of sailing and living on a sailboat for the best part of my life, from the time I was 12 years old. Thank you so much for these videos, and may God bless you on your Journeys.
Freddy
Such a cool video. 3 cool people on a cool boat !
Drake, I have been watching your videos for the past few months and I have been truly inspired. My wife and I sailed Lake Erie for years but had to give up sailing when we moved to Alabama in 2007. My career has recently brought me to Southport, NC and we are looking to get back to sailing. I plan to buy a new boat this summer and sail the east coast. I will be following your travels and maybe one day we can meet up back here in North Carolina if not somewhere else. Fair winds...
Another great one Drake! :-) When you pulled away from the dock I felt like I was right there with you. Great emotions! This _is_ the Real Cruising Life. Fair winds, always. Ciao, Marco
you nailed the feeling of leaving and the reason some people never get out of the harbor. it really is very hard to leave. but if you dreams are stronger than you ties to the place you are in you go off in to the unknown and make you own adventures. this is what makes people like you so much fun to watch. most people cant take that first step. i hope when the time comes i do. i thank it is so sad when people work so hard to get there boat ready and cant get off the dock so i am sure when the time comes i will go and make my own adventure. thanks for sharing and as all ways far winds and calm seas my friend...
Hi Lee, thank you. Whenever it's been impossible to leave I place, I always keep saying to myself "Hey, you can always just go back. You can always just go back." Just saying that over and over in my head helps me go through the motions of leaving. Then after we've been moving for a while I always realize that I was meant to keep voyaging...
and you are Drake that's one of the things that makes your videos so good. i thank some of what holds people back is the fear of the unknown and when you get on your way you learn that the unknown is now known and the fear is gone. and replaced with the love of seeing new places and things. this is what drives me to go cruising. and less not forget the love of sailing this helps a lot too..
.
Great video!!! You all really inspire one to get out sailing more!!!! I can't wait to get a boat.....
Yay! Finally pushed off. Almost exactly a year ago now. I was in Oriental about a month after you guys left, on a delivery. Met a guy who said he sold you Paragon, he was hanging out at the consignment shop. Great town.
Awesome Drake, Mo & Adam, an old Navy term "Bravo Zulu" which means well done, so looking forward to sharing your journey. Even though we are 12 months behind it feels like I am on board with you, if you know what I mean...
An excerpt from Longfellow's poem "The Secret of the Sea"
“Wouldst thou,”-so the helmsman answered,
“Learn the secret of the sea?
Only those who brave its dangers
Comprehend its mystery!”
In each sail that skims the horizon,
In each landward-blowing breeze,
I behold that stately galley,
Hear those mournful melodies;
Till my soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me.
Fair winds and following seas...
Thank you Rob, a beautiful poem!
and thank you for sailing with us,
What a cool place to live!
Never goodbye Drake!! Just see you later !!!!!
Awesome Drake, looking forward to see Ep 9
It is always sad leaving friends and great places, to keep going it is important to understand that new adventures and new friends are a head. Great video. I really like your videos. Greetings from Costa Rica , central america.
Thanks Adolfo, It's always great to hear that people are enjoying our story. Wise words! :) We've met some of the nicest people and made some great friends in all of the countries we have visited. Greetings from Paragon currently in the Faroe Islands. :)
The beginning of our 6000 nautical mile voyage
Ep 8. Pushing off from Oriental, North Carolina - Paragon's Sailing Adventure
Glad to see you off, the boat is looking and sounding beautiful.
What if any kind of lifeboat/raft do you have aboard?
Hi Jadah, Thank you. We have a 6 man Winslow liferaft packed in a valise which I have lashed down in the pilot berth. On my list of future projects is to transfer it to a pelican case and bolt it down on the aft deck. If we ever have to abandon ship then I'd rather not have to carry the valise from the main cabin up the companionway steps to the cockpit.
DrakeParagon's The Real Cruising Life Yeah that would be the best option in an emergency, but (knocking on wood) hopefully you'll NEVER need to use it.
Thanks for another great video
Great video. Excellent editing technique
This was awesome!!
Thank you for sharing
i love going back to the begining.
Ah hellooooooo! Good to see you here! I needed to grab this link and though I would check out the latest comment as well. I also like to go back to the beginning at times. So much has happened since then, and it all started here. Brilliant! 🎄-Monique
Has me pineing for Prime Rib. Love to get to Coinjock, spent the summer in Brevard as child. You guys have Dorades enroute to Nova Scotia? Travelled with aim for Nova Scotia as kid, only made Quebec
OH! BEN ERIKSEN! Love drake and ben!
I'm wanting to make a trip to oriental In a few weeks, actually aiming for 28 - 31 of august. And the whole point of the trip is to educate myself and talk with some sailors. Ultimately to become enlightened. Are you going to be there or can point me in some kind of direction, maybe people you know or things to go see, etc.
Amigo Marinheiro
Here we go again.
Don't worry I will be good!
Álvaro José
Dee and her husband maybe my favorite Paragon and Friends.
Come on no deck tour... :-( You are just holding on the the good stuff. I havent been teased like this since high school :-) Really sweet send off from your adopted Oriental family. Lets all sing "sailing..sailing into the deep blue sea.." (or at least the ICW for now) lol
Someday I'm going to do a proper tour of Paragon for you Kamau! It's just that it always seems that Paragon is in too much of a project and renovation mode for filming a tour, but you'll certainly get to see all of Paragon in our upcoming episodes. Thanks for sailing with us,
Great video. You are really becoming a maestro at the pacing, editing and production values. It's only playing at 480p for me. Is that because the robots at UA-cam have not completely uploaded it?
Hi Chris, Thanks. After only filming for 6 months, I'm so happy to finally be able to get to editing now. I'm not sure why this video is only getting up to to 480p.. I'm uploading at 1080.. Maybe UA-cam is making changes to how they process videos.
I really like your videos. I have to ask.....how do you make your living while do all this sailing?
and so it begins! (for us)
@3:00 eye bolts at either end to set up a ????
Those eye bolts are for setting up a lee cloth. www.sailrite.com/How-to-Make-Lee-Cloths-Video
Sorry im new but im just wondering a couple things, do you pretty much live at sea and if you do how do you make money to sustain it? Im getting towards my late teens and ive wanted to live at sea for a while now
minnyjimmy11 We live on our sailboat, but most of our time is spent in harbors and not actually at sea. We have some videos in our DrakeParagon PRYC Presentation series playlist that talk about money and more of our story.
Very nice! Just an observation, I hope you invested in a windscreen for your camera mic.
how much would a trip like this cost ? if you already had a boat .
john stein Hi John, that's a very good question, but the answer is kind of complicated for me to try to answer. The cost of living aboard a boat varies as much the cost of living on land. It depends on a countless number of factors... our biggest expense has always been food, so a question to ask is if you only buy groceries and cook at home? or how often do you go out to a restaurant? do you fish or hunt for your own food? how often do you pay to keep the boat in marinas? or do you only go to places where you can stay at anchor or even dock for free? do you do all the work involved in the care of the boat and the voyaging yourself? or do you pay for others to help? do you heat the boat with propane, diesel, or electricity that you pay for? or do you gather wood on the beach and burn it in your wood stove? or do you only go to places where it's warm enough that you don't need heat? how often do you run the engine? our engine can use up to 2 gallons of diesel to cover say 5 nautical miles, but sometimes we can sail with just the wind for hundreds of miles offshore without ever turning the engine on. much depends on where you sail to... In Greenland we never paid for dockage because every harbor had a place where we could dock the boat for free.. but the groceries were quite expensive.. but the fishing was great... i guess it can cost as much or as little as you want to spend.. it all depends. You might find this video that we made on the subject interesting.. '8. Q&A: How do you afford the cruising lifestyle?' @ ua-cam.com/video/LEE_UfL8tJc/v-deo.html&feature=iv&src_vid=B7RCUEWd_gs&annotation_id=annotation_739003863 Fair winds, Drake
DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life thanks for a very in-depth answer , I have a lot to think about .,. Will check out the video.
Drake, I think I have seen all your videos and I look forward to more. Have similar aspirations ( bet ya never heard that) and am always learning and seeking knowledge about all things sailing. I am fortunate to have an old ( but nice) cal 2-25 on lake norman not far from Charleston and the Carolina coast. I have sailed a little offshore coastal but with large crew on a racing j boat. I have tried to find you on Facebook but no luck.. Your welcome to friend me on my Facebook if you would like. I am Stormsailor on there. Good luck on your future adventures and if you would ever need crew I would be glad to discus. Thanks for sharing.
Drake, did watch the video series called "Vertical Sailing Greenland" here on UA-cam? Very entertaining
Hi Bullerias, Yes, as we motored through the fjords of Greenland I kept imagining what it would be like to climb those mountains. But instead I used our quadcopter named "Harry" to get aerial footage.
Thanks to "Bo, the boatyard dog" Love that.
Oh, Bo was so awesome. Always there to hang out...and he knew the best way to deal with the boatyard blues was a well timed tummy rub!