<John wrote in part: Heck, I'm betting they make up less than 2% of power boats.> A bit of a long ramble so hit the delete key anytime. I think you are being way too generous John. In our recent 8000nm trip from Venezuela to Hawaii we ran into one boat that fit your criteria and that was David on his N46. We ran into many "coastal huggers" but none that have had taken a 360 degree turn and looked at nothing but sea for 1000, 500 or even your 200 miles offshore criteria. I would wager the percentage is in the .xx something! Here in Hawaii unless a boat was freighted over we could say that any here do meet this criteria. We have seen several Nordhavns, Phil on Flat Earth was heading east as we were heading west. I haven't made a hard count but there are perhaps 25 of all makes that I have seen. Another Roughwater 58 is here down at Ko Olina. Interesting, out a production run of 14 ending in 1980, that 2 of them are here....15% of the run 25 years later! I only know of 8 of them left so we might say that 25% are here ;-) Back on track......most of the Nordhavn's, KK's and other "passagemaker" capable boats we often run into are sitting at docks...they may be at docks in out of the way places but never anchored out except for David in his N46 and a custom 80' run by a cruising couple with 1 very large dog and 2 cats. OTOH, we are usually the only boat in an anchorage. Sometimes another sailboat or two but never another powerboat even let alone trawler. We either anchor in very iffy places or they are just way too few folks out cruising/passagemaking. Swan Song is set up as we used to do for sailing Cat 0 ocean races. No chance of outside assistance....period. Our recent trip from Mexico to Hawaii was a good example. we provisioned for Gourmet eating for 4 weeks or survival portions for 2 years. Fortunately it worked out favoring the gourmet side of the equation. I just ate the last of our Mexican ice crhme last week.....more than 90 days after we provisioned and I have ice cream everyday of my life ;-) The rest of the boat was prepared along the same lines. Overkill? Perhaps but there is no other way from my experience. You can't pick up the phone and order that life raft, EPRIB, drogue, fuel, window shutters, spare pumps, etc etc. You need them all aboard and hope that you'll never need them. A large expense and it all takes tons of space. Then we have the mechanical/electrical/electronic knowledge required for remote cruising/passagemaking. Swan Song hasn't seen any outside labor or technicians on board now in over 5 years. Easy for some to acquire this knowledge and a real deal breaker for others. I don't think many folks are into the adventure of ocean sailing once all the lists are laid out. We have found thru years of sailing and our more recent trawler/passagemaking with Swan Song that a few days on the open sea is worth years on the dirt. Our spirits are never higher than when we are a day or days from land. A couple of weeks without seeing another human can add years to your life ;-) We have found from our most recent 8000nm trip that Swan Song is a more comfortable passagemaker than either of the two prior ones we enjoyed. A CT54 and an Alden 54 both sailboats. The Alden was faster than Swan Song on a long passage but more tiring and required a larger crew to keep her moving well...3 as a minimum and 4 were better. I had contemplated single-handing Swan Song to Hawaii as Nancy needs a TKR and a fall would have not been cool but she reminded me that I wasn't 40 any more and that wasn't a good idea for an older man...at least in her eyes. So I did have 1 crew on board. He never did manage to catch a fish so I'm not sure of his value :-)....Actually it was good to have someone to listen to the stories of this and that! I've heard them all before :-) Swan Song was built in 1974 so why haven't more of those "early passagemakers" made those passages before? I guess it wasn't that we have been waiting for the boats as they obviously have been there. Perhaps it's much the crew that makes it possible to make these passages. Perhaps a few folks need to get the word out that you could do this. Perhaps we needed more people with an urge of adventure to set sail...I mean power...to distant horizons. So we needed multiple things to come together to make these closet passagemakers and the newer breeds to show what they could do under the command of crews that had the desire and means to do so. Rail down with green water on the decks at 10-12 kts is fun but I for one prefer the level 6-7 kts 24/7 performance of Swan Song. Only go on deck if you want to, cool/warm and dry as you choose...yup give me the well found power passagemaker :-) Cheers Dave & Nancy Swan Song Roughwater 58 Limin in Honolulu