It happened sooner than I expected, but during December I bought a sailboat. Currently still named Eleven until I decide on a new name, she’s a 2008 Catalina 42 mkII in stunning condition.
I bought a sailboat
Sailing
Video: Sea of Cortez sailing trip
Here it is, finally! This past weekend I took the time to sit down, figure out Adobe Premiere, and compile the video footage I took during my sailing trip in January into a video. This also marks the first upload to my new Wing on Wing YouTube channel. All of this was filmed on a GoPro Hero 4 Silver that I bought before the trip.
I learned quite a bit while making this, both about video editing and about how I can take better (and more usable) footage in the future. Thoughts and observations below the fold.
Sailing the Sea of Cortez, January 9th-12th
Back in November, Davina (one of my closest friends) told me she had a companion fare on Alaska Airlines that she needed to use before it expired. “We should go to the tropics somewhere!” Between looking at airline prices and considering our activity options, one thing turned into another and within a few days we were inviting friends along and talking to charter companies about our bareboat options.
After a few false starts and some last-minute “oh crap, we can’t actually go on this” cancellations, we firmed up our crew list (me, Davina, Emily, Ben, Diana, and Shawna) and found a boat at a cheap price: a 41′ Morgan “Out Island” ketch. It was an older boat, mid-70s (1976 I think), but the price was right and the charter company was happy to help us with transportation to and from the airport. Within a few more days we’d all purchased our tickets to San Jose del Cabo and arranged our ride from the SJD airport up to La Paz, a beautiful coastal city where the sailboat resided in one of La Paz’ marinas.
s/v SeaScape overview
Following are my thoughts on s/v SeaScape as of January 2016.
Sailing in the San Juan Islands: Labor Day Weekend, 2015
As discussed in previous posts (primarily the route plan), this past weekend I took nine of my friends with me on a sailing charter trip in the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle. I’d lived on Orcas Island from 1990-1992 as a child while my dad was the pastor of Orcas Island Community Church, and hadn’t been back since. But let’s back up a bit to the beginning of the trip and talk about the yacht.
s/v Christelle
The yacht we’d chartered was the s/v Christelle, a 2001 Beneteau Oceanis 50 (yes, a 50 footer!) out of Anacortes, WA. She was clean and fairly well equipped, with four cabins (two doubles and two twins) as well as a two-bunk crew cabin in the bow (with the windlass controls inside). While not a very good layout for a live-aboard cruiser (too many cabins, too little non-cabin space), she was ideal for a short charter, and was very easy to sail and motor around the islands.