Grateful for Sunsets, Sailor Friends, and Little Brothers
Our Sunday sail this weekend rocked on a few different levels and requires multiple posts to really do it justice. Given the holiday this week, I thought I'd begin with an act of gratitude. Dominic and I have received an incredible amount of support from our family and friends as we've been planning our adventure, without which we probably wouldn't be going anywhere soon. We are also fortunate to have a number of people in our lives who are wild adventurers themselves. Two such adventurers are directly responsible for our current journey, and they are Krister and Amanda Bowman of s/v Britannia.
When Dominic was an undergraduate, he interned for a biomedical company in Berkeley. Krister was his boss and buddy. Amanda is from Minnesota, and met Krister while traveling in Costa Rica. Their 2006 wedding was one of our early dates, and we've been awesome couple friends ever since. One fateful day Krister joined us sailing with my parents; then he went sailing with another buddy; six months later they bought a boat; 18 months later he and Amanda sailed to Mexico and across the Pacific.
At which point Dominic and I had our own fateful moment, figuring if they can do it, we can do it.
After returning to the US in 2013, Krister and Amanda continue to cruise through life with their sails full: they built a cabin in Alaska last summer, and are expecting their first child in just a few weeks (and he had his first sail aboard Helios! yahoo!). They plan to move to Alaska full time in March, refill their sailing kitty, and contemplate things like which boat to purchase next and when to retire to Nicaragua.
Needless to say, the Bowmans have been a very inspirational duo and spent much of Sunday bestowing their cruising wisdom upon us and answering all our questions. Krister even came back Monday to be hoisted up the mast, replace the tricolor lens, and discuss the intricacies of our running rigging. So, so, so grateful to have Krister and Amanda onboard.
Similarly, Dominic and I share the belief that the more Dolcis we have onboard, the better—so you can imagine how thankful we were to also have Quintin, Dominic's younger brother, with us. This was a particular treat because Quintin lives an hour east of LA in the Antelope Valley, so we don't get to see him as often as we'd like. He drove all the way up to Alameda for the day, and it was great to hear about all of the developments in his life, including a promotion and an upcoming move to San Diego. He also maintained excellent spirits while being subjected to a lot of sailing talk over the course of our lovely day, and lovelier evening. This is likely one of our last day sails before we depart, so it was really meaningful that Quintin was able to join.
Thank you all, dear readers, for humoring me as I spend this entire post sharing my feelings of awe and gratitude for a life so close to the people I love and so close to the sea. The next post will focus entirely on nautical details, I promise!