Hi everyone, I am going to sail my M17, Griselda, around the Great Loop in 2012! I've already started preliminary planning. I want to make my trip an educational experience for school children; the idea is that they could track my progress and write reports on the things I document along the way. My goal is to cultivate in children a sense of adventure, a love of reading and writing, and to have the kids actually want to publish their writing. I've got a LOT of ideas floating around in my head right now. I'm actually going to try to get grants and sponsorships from several different sources related to the educational field, etc, along with practical grants regarding supplies (I removed company names because I'm not soliciting here, just letting everyone know my plans). I have a friend who is wanting to expand her education business into the language arts, so I'm going to look into being a part of that as well...though I am thinking I'd rather my thing to be a non-profit. On top of all that, I am so excited to finally be planning a long sailing trip! I think it will be good for me to get a lot of good, challenging sailing experience without striking out into the middle of an ocean. If I have a problem, I'll be able to just pull into land relatively quickly. If it's in my budget, I'll try to make it to the Lake Havasu convention before my trip. I know many folks were interested in seeing Griselda's fixed keel and testing her against the normal swing keel design. I think it'd be a good way to give the trailer sailor community some info about my plans for the trip and the education program. By then it should be fully developed and funded (even if only with my own money, haha!). Of course I am more than happy to hear advice for the trip, like what kind of food is best for long trips, how best to store water, fuel, etc; if you want to talk to me about the non-sailing part of my trip I guess it should be via private email, not posted on the board--and to reiterate I am not trying to solicit anything here, except sailing/cruising tips and good places to visit. :)