This is a story all about how, my life got flipped, turned upside down….No, no wait. It’s not, this post has nothing to do with that. This post is about me, crewing on a 37 foot sailboat from San Franciso to Seattle.
Actually, that is not going to turn out to be the case either. I did crew on a sailboat from San Francisco back up here to Seattle, and could write about that. But we all know how that post would go.
I’d start with something about my flight down, and some boring stuff about meeting up with some friends in SF. (Friends I love, who did not bore me at all and always buy me delicious burritos when I visit). Or about meeting the boat and crew, and us doing some touristy stuff in town while we waited for a good weather in which to head north in.
I’m sure I would include some stuff about how cool it was sailng under the Golden Gate Bridge (it was), and getting a little queasy as soon as the swell of the Pacific hit us. Probably a quick blurb about some sort of hangover too.
I’d try to convey the feeling and power of sailing on a small boat in a huge ocean. I’d fail…..miserably. Same goes for trying to describe sailing at night, alone in the cockpit. Actually steering by a star, feeling the huge unseen swells lift the boat up and set it back down as it rolls by underneath. Seeing blue streaks approaching the boat on a pitch black night, and freaking out trying to figure out what they were, until I realized it’s dolphins swimming along side the boat and leaving bio-luminescence trails behind them as they swam.
I’m not gonna do that. I’m gonna tell you the story of how/why I came to be on that boat in the first place. It’s gonna be one of those “It’s a small world” kinda stories.
Like most some sailors, I want to sail on the open ocean. And, plan to do so on my own boat one of these days, but really wanted to do it on someone else’s boat first. So, one rainy day back in March I decided that instead of taking our usual summer vacation to the San Juan Islands, I would see if I could find a boat to crew on going down the coast from Seattle to somewhere south, San Francisco or further.
I started looking in all the usual places you look to do this sort of thing. What and where those “usual places” are, I honestly could not tell you. Because literally, the first web forum I went to that day (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f30/) I found a listing for crew entitled “Crew Wanted – La Paz Mexico to Seattle – Early April 2012”.
I was like “What. the. WHUT”? I immediately responded to the post and sent the guy an email. He writes back a couple days later. After a few emails back and forth, we decide to meet for a few beers and a burger at a bar up the hill from my office.
Quick Flash back
Over Thanksgiving 2011, Me and Tawn flew down to La Paz, Mexico (Do you see where this is going?) to visit/hangout with our friends Dawn and Pea on their boat Deep Playa. One night hanging out Dawn and Pea, and some other friends Aaron & Nicole on Bella Star, we were introduced to the owners, Craig & Cindy, of a boat named Cool Breez’n, and had a few cocktails with them on their boat.(Now you REALLY have to know where this is going!).
Flash forward five months. I’ve sorta forgotten about that particular night in La Paz, and getting ready to head up the hill to the bar to meet the Owners/Skipper of the boat I’m asking to crew on. And at this point, I am still under the impression this is just some random, internet guy.
The morning before I’m to meet this guy, I decide to do a quick internet search on the boat name Cool Breez’n. A few googles later and I’m checking out Cool Breez’n’s website and reading a story about them in La Paz, Mexico with some of their friends Aaron and Nicole.
And once again I’m all, “What. THE. WHUT. It’s a small fuckin’ world”