Category: Mike

Exploring Yosemite.

We were in Sausalito for over 5 weeks but it went by really fast. We were in Michigan and Maine for 10 days of it, backpacking in Yosemite for another 5 days and visiting friends in Sacramento and East Bay for other overnight trips. In the city we visited The Academy of Sciences, Exploratorium, 6-Flags, Bay Model, The Marine Mammal Center, rode the Trolley, participated with local girl scout troop events, walked the Golden Gate Bridge, entertained long time friends, rode some single track and played at the beach. Mike worked in the city some days and the kids did a great first month of 1st and 4th grade. The kids have created a video of their favorite parts; two backpacking trips in Yosemite National Park where we camped above 9,000 feet in perfect weather at alpine lakes accessed from Tuolumne Meadows. Ok, their favorite was probably Great Wolf Lodge (we went twice because I needed to dry out our camping gear somewhere), but they are nice enough to tell me it was Yosemite.

Orcas Island to San Francisco.

The kids interviewed the 4 crew that joined Mike for the trip from orcas island, WA to San Francisco. We (mom and kids) drove the car south for that part so we could have a car for the month in California and so the boat could give useful crew a dedicated berth. The delivery crew saw some great wildlife and had a mix of motoring and spicy sailing…and they didn’t even have to eat any vegetables! They did compose a custom song for the trip and all 20 bags of chips were gone upon arrival though 😂. Enjoy!

Introductions!

If you have met me for even a few minutes, you’re probably aware that I am slightly obsessed with planning and spreadsheets and wringing every single drop of life out of every second we have on this planet. Sympathy (or pity?) may be one of the first emotions that you feel towards the 4 kids that have transpired from the 10 years of marriage that mike and I have shared. I feel incredibly lucky that all 4 of them have good attitudes *most* of the time and are generally eager to participate in whatever shenanigans we have planned.

I’m trying to savor the moments of this adventure, remaining focused on observing the present. Yes we take videos and photos often and I’m looking at my phone more than I care to admit. But I’m not reaching for the selfie stick or setting up the camera for every experience we have. These videos are essentially research project presentations created by 6 and 9 year olds. You’ll see interviews of visiting crew and friends, demonstrations of our safety gear, explanations of how we produce electricity, lessons on how to wing foil, what we eat, what boat-school is like and if you’re lucky, the names of the 10,000 stuffed animals that occupy most of the volume of the boat.

Enjoy these short glimpses into our life and come along on this adventure with us!

Sv Lyrae Part 1: Introductions!

Wonderment, Accomplishment, Relief.

Those are the words that have settled to describe how I feel as a dad, skipper and family after completing the first of hopefully many blue water passages on our own boat, Lyrae. At this age it’s rare to do things that are truly new, scary, exhilarating and original. I’ll never do this for the first time again in my life! Seeing dolphins play off the bow wave and under the boat, swimming in the middle of the North Pacific while becalmed, listening to the humpbacks breech all around — these are all firsts for me. They draw me out of my usual thoughts and into the very real, very different world at sea. They make me feel alive in a way that’s hard to feel if you’re no longer a kid.

And I feel like we did something hard. LJ and I have poured our time and energy into transforming Lyrae into a home for our family and learning her ins and outs. Now to finally have her out in the open water where she could stretch her legs and manifest her name (Outremer — over seas) was amazing. She charges ahead effortlessly, often making double digit speeds while deeply reefed. There’s a lot I have yet to learn about how she performs and how to get the most out of her while maintaining comfort for the crew, but we are finally onto a new phase.

And relieved. I’m relieved the boat and crew are safe. I’m relieved to be reunited with LJ and the kids. Im relieved to have such good friends that were more than eager to crew with an inexperienced skipper like me. I’m relieved that I don’t want to quit this adventure as it just begins.