In 2012, a year into marriage, we quit our jobs, sold our cars, packed up the cat, and took off from Oregon on our 30′ sailboat. We’d been getting to know this boat since 2008, but we’d only taken her on the ocean once before. We had a number of dreams we wanted to explore, and the boat was our chosen vehicle of discovery. Between 2012 and 2015, we wandered the west coast of North and Central America, traveling as slowly as we dared and looking out for what there was to see.
We met great people almost exclusively. We went in search of a kind world, and we were lucky enough to find it. A lot of stuff broke down, but somehow we got by. We weathered all kinds of weather. We were more free, more vulnerable, and more privileged than we knew.
While we were traveling, we kept this account for ourselves and for those who wanted to follow along. Now that the trip is over and this is all past, the purpose of this blog is less clear. Maybe we leave it up so future sailors can reference country entry procedures or see how to dismantle an autopilot. Maybe its value is as a transect of ocean life. Maybe we just like to revisit these memories on our lunch break.
If you’re here, welcome!
“Trips to fairly unknown regions should be made twice; once to make mistakes and once to correct them.”
-John Steinbeck, “The Log from the Sea of Cortez”