THE CAPTAIN’S GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE ENERGY AFLOAT: Marine Electrical Systems, Water Generators, Solar Power, Wind Turbines, Marine Batteries

Circumnavigator-author Bill Morris, a native of Los Angeles, received his first inspiration to sail the world’s oceans at the age of twelve when his father offhandedly suggested selling the house and circling the globe aboard a large yacht.

Though the proposal was soon abandoned, the idea was permanently engraved in Bill’s imagination. Serving as a radio repairman and later as an outboard motor mechanic in the U.S. Army while stationed in the Panama Canal Zone during the mid-1970s, he picked up valuable skills that would help him later in life as a cruising sailor.

He went on to receive a Ph.D. in Administrative and Policy Studies in Education from UCLA, amassing nearly 30 years’ experience in teaching writing at the secondary and college levels in Southern California, South Florida, and American Samoa. Bill and his wife Marilu eventually crossed the Pacific from Panama to Mooloolaba Harbour, Queensland, Australia, and then to Darwin, Northern Territory, aboard their 1966 Cal 30 Saltaire.

After Marilu left Saltaire to give birth to their daughter, Yasmin, Bill continued west back to Los Angeles by way of the two canals, surviving a Somali pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden. Bill is the author of The Windvane Self-Steering Handbook (International Marine, 2004), and he has written many articles on both cruising adventure and alternative energy for offshore vessels in Afloat, Blue Water Sailing, Latitude 38, Ocean Navigator, and Ocean Voyager magazines.