Dante clearly didnt know all there was to know about Hell, because if he did, he would know that there are in fact several circles beyond the 9th.

The 10th circle of Hell starts in the Virgin Islands during the hottest time of the year, late August and September, which just so happens to be hurricane season. During this time of year the sun is approximately 6 inches above your head. If that sounds a tad warm, try going even further south, to Cartegena, Colombia where not only is the sun positioned directly above your already sizzling brain, but the equator is about 3 feet to your left. It's like living in Satan's armpit while he takes a steambath. Should you ever find yourself in these conditions, bring a knife, you can use it to cut the air.

Into this inferno five Seattle guys naively strolled with the intention of cruising a 45-foot power catamaran yacht from the British Virgin Islands back to Seattle in just one month via the Panama Canal (a trip of over 5,000 miles). Anyone who has experience with ocean going boats and the area of the planet that we were navigating through is probably choking back laughter or smiling like the Cheshire Cat about this point in the story, because they know just how wildly optimistic and naive this notion was. Jimi Hendrix once asked the musical question "Are You Experienced?" Nope, but in a few more weeks we would be.

The funniest and cruelest part of this joke is that when considering this trip, at first glance it really does sound like one long, lovely vacation cruise. The ports that we planned to visit along the way are in all the slickest vacation brochures. We all had visions dancing in our heads of sport fishing, snorkelling, fresh fish and lobster everyday, and tropical cocktails with umbrellas in them. The reality is that a 45-foot boat is quite small with 5 guys aboard when out on the open ocean in 6 to 7 foot swells. Now, throw in constant mechanical problems and the type of heat that we came to refer to as "Africa hot" and you've got a lot more misery than any of us bargined for.

Clearly God and Satan were making bets again, as in the Biblical story of Job. It seems painfully obvious to me now that the Biblical account of Job left out one important fact ... Job must have been a boat owner. These's a special kind of pain in this world that only boat owners and Job know about. Fortunately I wasn't the boat owner for this adventure, but because my father has owned boats for most of my life, I am all too familiar with one of the truest sayings in recorded human history ...

"The two best days of your life are the day you buy your boat and the day you sell it."