It was 8 years ago this week that this sailing bug really hit me. Before that sailing was a thing that I had done on rare occasion with friends on their little sailboats on little lakes in the mountains. I do (barely) remember sailing on my grandfathers boat on Lake Superior, but I was so young im not sure it counts.
This week I’ve been reminded by my photo archive, that 8 years ago, I got a call from my friend Nate. This was the true beginning. The call was simple, He lived on his 33 foot Newport on the Willamette River in Portland for the last few years, but he had just gotten a job in Vancouver BC. He needed crew to help him sail the boat up there. I think it was only a few days later that Jeff (you remember him from our Harvest Moon Race) and I were on a plane to meet him.
It was a simple plan, overnight sail up the coast, enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca, spend the night in Victoria, then island hop in the San Juans for a few days. It’s never that simple. It started off ok, we provisioned the boat and sailed to a small coastal town of Ilwaco just inside the Columbia River bar. Just as we arrive at the marina there, the engine started to make a terrible rattling sound.
Turns out a recent repair that Nate had made to the alternator mounts had failed. the meant the alternator was barely being held on by the tension in the belt and surprisingly let us dock before completely failing. It was late already, so we planned to head into town the next day and get some parts to fix it. Well, the morning came, and since this was mid May, it wasn’t really peak season up there. Most of the town of Ilwaco was closed. The next little town was 2 miles down the road. We didn’t have a car, and this was before the time of Uber. Luckily (or not depending) I had been heavy in training for running Ultramarathons, so I thought no problem, I’ll just run to the store, get the parts, and run back. Well, no real fix is ever done without multiple trips to the store. Somewhere on my 2nd trip, I think we decided this wasn’t worth it, and they found a number for a taxi. They picked me up at the auto parts store, and we headed back to try again to fix the problem.
The problem was a bolt that had broken off in the block, no matter what we tried we could not get this thing removed. We ended up with a major MacGyver repair using glued in wood bungs and some wedges. Im almost certain this repair is still functioning on that boat today.
Only a day behind schedule we head out off the coast. Within an hour, all three of us are seasick. Both Nate and Jeff, the only ones with real sailing experience are debilitated throwing up over the side. I was still quite ill, but not as bad, so I was in control. I had no idea what I was doing, but somehow we kept going. After a few hours, Jeff and Nate were starting to come out of the worst of the seasickness and start taking some time on watch. We settled in for our overnight sail. I had requested the late night shift so I went to try to get some sleep. Somewhere around 2 AM, I started my watch.
If there was a single moment where my dream of sailing really solidified, this was it. We were headed north, the wind was gone so we were motoring in the 1m swell, and the start were as bright as i had ever seen them. Then something hit me, I was all alone, just me and the boat and the sea, and I was navigating by pointing at the North Star. I felt so in-tune with the moment that I just kept going. I let the others sleep and I sat alone until the sun rose.
The rest of the trip was eventful as well, we had run out of fuel and found our way into the town where the Twilight books are set, unbelievably amazing luck getting a slip in downtown Victoria on Vancouver Island, a night at a sleepy fishing town, perfect island trail runs, and seaplanes landing next to us to pick-up kids for school from their island homes. 4 full, fun days of cruising through the San Juan Islands, we arrived in Vancouver for yet another sign of things to come.
At this point Shannon and I had been dating for just over a year. She wasn’t really interested in 5 days of close quarters with us smelly dudes on a sailboat (wow, has her opinion on that changed) so we arranged that she would meet us in Vancouver for the weekend before we head home. This was before internet was a given on phones, especially internationally, so we had no real way of communicating. We had just told her a day, and a name of a marina before we left. Amazingly after 7 days of no communication, Shannon was walking down the pier as we arrived. There was no way of her knowing exactly when, or really where as the name of the marina we gave her was wrong as well. But there she was, walking down the exact pier we are about to pull into. She had just landed, checked into the hotel, and decided to try and find the marina. She picked correctly, and the timing was perfect. We even have a picture that we both took at the same time.
Shannon on the Pier 
Us as we arrive
8 years later, here we are, living out our boat, getting ready for our next adventures.
