How We Got Here

[Originally posted 14 May 2023]

I’m not sure when we first started talking about sailing as a family.  Possibly it was in 2018, when Reggie went on a dude trip to get his ASA monohull sailing certification. It might have been before that; it might have been after that.  In any case, the original plan was as follows: have two kids and live a conventional, comfortable life while we went through diapers and learning to walk and talk.  And THEN, in 2025, once they were potty trained and walking and theoretically aged 3 and 5 (neither child was born yet), we would buy a boat and live the adventurous and unconventional life.

However, one thing led to another and after reading lots of sailing blogs and watching lots of sailing vlogs, March 2022 found me staying at my mother-in-law Melody’s house with eight-week-old Daisy and two-year-old Ruben while realtors showed our house and my husband and father-in-law Richard flew to Puerto Rico to look at a 44’ catamaran.  The boat checked all the boxes, and our house sold in less than two weeks. But the insurance gurus wouldn’t insure us in US waters due to limited sailing experience, and they wouldn’t insure any catamaran in Caribbean waters period, regardless of experience level.  Oh, have I mentioned that the collective recent sailing experience of the family at this point included one week of sailing classes for my husband in La Paz, BCS, Mexico, one week of sailing classes for my in-laws in the Puget Sound, WA, and three days of sailing a 26’ MacGregor on the Columbia River?

We went back to the drawing board, researched more, and pivoted towards looking for a trawler, as it is easier to purchase insurance on a non-sailing vessel when you have very little experience.  Apparently sails and masts in the hands of novices make insurance agents nervous. Early August 2022 we went up to the Seattle area to look at some trawlers and get a feel for them. Nothing looked too intriguing then, but it was nice to set foot on a couple boats and see what they were like. (We did the same with monohulls and catamarans January 2021 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.) Not too long after, Reggie received a call one day about a 1980 Ocean Alexander Mk1 that looked quite appealing. Unfortunately, by the time he called the broker back a couple days later, the sellers had already accepted a cash offer, sight unseen, from some Canadians.  Bummer.  Good thing we had an upcoming trip to Greece to look forward to in which we planned on sailing the Ionian Sea for two weeks.  So what if we couldn’t buy a sailboat at this point?  We were finally satisfying my desires for all six of us (plus my niece Abby for her twelfth-birthday trip!) to live on a boat at the same time for an extended period of time to see if we could cohabitate such a small space or not. And as a 44’ Dufour monohull, it WAS small for four adults, one tween, one toddler, and one baby.  Spoiler: we survived the small space and thoroughly enjoyed the trip.  

Then, plot twist, shortly before we were to leave on the Greece trip, our broker called back to say that the Canadians weren’t buying the boat after all.  Once import taxes were accounted for, the boat exceeded their budget.  The boat was going back on the market.  Were we interested?  Absolutely!  Reggie and Richard drove up to look at the boat, say yes, and complete initial paperwork.  Once we returned from Greece, the sale finalized. Reggie’s parents and we became the brand new co-owners of a 50’ trawler.  Trawler? Motor yacht? Cabin cruiser? I still haven’t landed on the best term to describe our boat to those not in the boating community.  Motor yacht sounds like something an oligarch would own.  Trawler sounds like we fish commercially in Alaska.  Cabin cruiser? What is that even? 

Since work needed to be done on the boat and we didn’t want to start cruising as liveaboards in the fall or winter anyway, we moved the boat to the marina in La Conner, WA, found a reputable mechanic to do the work, and then drove to Mexico for the winter.  (After selling our house in The Dalles, OR, in March 2022, we moved up to Reggie’s parents’ place in Goldendale, WA to live in their mother-in-law apartment.  Don’t ever be too proud to move back home with the ‘rents! Reggie continued working full-time as a nurse in The Dalles until he dropped to “casual” status in November.) Mexico was delightful: kiteboarding, mountain biking, beach volleyball, new friends, hosting visiting family, and chasing a baby and three-year-old around the beach.  We located ourselves in La Ventana, BCS — ten minutes walking from the beach — and loved it. But summer was coming, and we needed time to transition from one adventure to another. We left Mexico March 31 and arrived back in Goldendale April 7.  

And now, a little over a month later, we find ourselves doing laundry, packing, and double-checking lists.  (It also finds us questioning the viability of our long-term cruising plans.  Mounting unexpected repair costs—I’ll go over this in another post—are starting to get painful.  I suppose that’s why boat blogs write all the time about the true meaning of the word BOAT: Bust Out Another Thousand.  *sigh*)  The plan is to drive up to La Conner tomorrow (Monday, May 15) and move aboard the boat. Which, by the way, is named “Why Not.”  It will be myself, my husband Reggie, our two kids Ruben (3.5yo) and Daisy (15mo), and Richard, Reggie’s dad.  Melody, Reggie’s mom, will join us a week or so later.  I’ll work on provisioning and getting the boat settled while Reggie and Richard attend classes at the trawler show up in Anacortes on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then we set sail!  At some point.  I think.

The super loose plan for the summer cruising season includes the San Juan Islands, the eastern side of Vancouver Island, and mainland British Columbia.  The furthest north we’ve set our sights is Port Hardy, BC.  Originally it was Juneau, AK, but we reconsidered.  It’s our first season cruising, our first time living aboard for an extended period, and our first time sailing a trawler.  Seems reason enough to stay further south and not venture into the Alaskan wilds where we might be far away from knowledgeable help and available parts should something happen to break.  Then, if we enjoy this cruising life (and still have something more than pennies left in the banking account), we can plan to sail the entire Inside Passage all the way to Juneau next summer. Stay tuned.

Hope you can come along for the journey*!

*I hope I can be better at journaling and writing down the journey so you CAN join us.  Previous attempts at regular blogging do not bode well.  Exhibit A: Las Aventuras de una Chica I have done better with Instagram, which is where I’ll post most of my pictures of this current adventure. @ducks_to_water