Here you will find tales of voyages past and present on our trusty Pacific Seacraft Dana 24, "Sockdolager," and our Bigfoot29 powerboat, "Raven," from Port Townsend, Washington, USA. In 2009 we sailed north from Puget Sound up the west coast of Vancouver Island to the Queen Charlotte Islands (now called Haida Gwaii.) In 2010 we went back to the west coast of Vancouver Island. In July 2011 we left the Northwest, sailed to Mexico, and in March 2012 we crossed the Pacific to French Polynesia, then on to the Cooks, Niue and Tonga. We spent several months in New Zealand, and in May 2013 loaded Sockdolager (and ourselves) on a container ship for San Francisco. In June and July 2013 we sailed north along the California, Oregon and Washington coasts, and in August we arrived home. In October 2016, Sockdolager found new owners, and we began cruising on Raven, a unique wooden 29' powerboat. In 2018 we cruised up to Glacier Bay, Alaska, and back. But in 2024 we had the chance to buy Sockdolager back (we missed her), so we sold Raven. We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures as much as we enjoy having them. (And there will be more.)



Saturday, March 28, 2009

Bright Spots in the Sky and on the Sea...


It's another soggy day up here in the Pacific Northwest, but we managed to find the only spot of sun yesterday, and we used every scrap of it. Good Old Boat magazine's Karen Larson and Jerry Powlas drove up from where they were staying on the Kitsap Peninsula (at GOB writer Richard Smith's house) and we set off: Karen, Jerry and Jim in Sockdolager, and me aboard Minstrel. It was a glorious sail and lots of good photos were taken. Sockdolager had to put the pedal to the metal as the chase boat under power in order to keep up with Minstrel under sail. From shore it probably looked like a Keystone Kops chase scene. Karen and Jerry, who had cooked us a STEAK DINNER the night before we sailed, are flat-out fun to be around, and I look forward to enjoying their friendship and writing for their magazine for many years to come.

This photo is not from yesterday, but it shows you what Minstrel under sail looks like.

By now you may have guessed that we'll be taking Jim's boat to the Queen Charlottes this summer. Minstrel will stay behind, and I am renting out my house for the summer to a colleague/friend from the Fish and Wildlife Service, who is moving to Port Townsend from Portland, OR. I'll be reachable by email or via Jim's cellphone. We'll email that number separately.

We're assembling cruise materials (thanks to friend/sailor/musician Bertram Levy for the loan of many Canadian charts) and are route-planning now. The route will include some offshore passages, the first of many, we hope. Life is good, in spite of the economy. It is, frankly, as good a time as any to take off and go sailing. You can live pretty cheaply on a boat if you're careful. And in the wilderness of islands and remote peninsulas we plan to visit, the absence of traffic and TV and shopping malls will be a sound that rings as clear as echoes off a mountain fjord. Okay, so we don't own a TV, Port Townsend has no shopping malls, and the traffic is minimal here. But we still won't miss those things.

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