CLARK BEEK / NOTES FROM A LIFE AT SEA
A boat, a world, and a few stories to tell.
Essays, photographs, and the adventures of Condesa — collected along the way.
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THE LATEST ENTRY
October 6, 2026
From Clark's desk2026 UPDATE I originally published this article on Sailfeed in 2012. Sailfeed has since disappeared. The central issue discussed here has changed remarkably little. The Coast Guard still has exceptionally broad authority to stop and board vessels without a warrant or probable cause. The statute I cited as 14 U.S.C. § 89 was renumbered 14…
Read the essay ↗THE CONSTANT COMPANION
SALAR 40 / KETCH / BUILT 1967
Condesa is a forty-foot Salar 40 ketch, designed by Laurent Giles and completed by Essex Yacht Builders in November 1967. With her sturdy fiberglass hull, two masts, and protective wheelhouse, she was built for safe, comfortable passages across oceans.
Her center cockpit separates the forward and aft cabins, giving life aboard a little room and privacy. The wheelhouse shelters the helm from tropical sun and Patagonian sleet alike. This is a boat made for living in, as much as sailing.
“If some sailboats are rocket ships, some are sports cars, and some are luxury sedans, Condesa is a tank.”
In his original account, Clark describes knowing her so intimately that a rattling block or a single cotter pin hitting the deck could wake him from a dead sleep. After years spent rebuilding and tending her systems, she had become an extension of his own body.
Read Clark’s full boat story ↗
A PAGE FROM THE ARCHIVE
One night off the Brazilian coast, an ordinary passage became an extraordinary fight for survival.
The Run Over By a Container Ship Story ↗More stories. More shorelines.
Meet Clark ↗Look through the photographs ↗