In May, as reported in the Queen Anne/Magnolia News, the Conger family, Dean, Karen, Jaime, Mera and Aeron, set out from Elliott Bay Marina and headed north to Vancouver Island. The second leg of the months-long trip will take them to the bottom of Mexico and quite possibly beyond. Below is Co-Captain Karen Conger's most recent log.
The wind was blowing 25 knots from the southwest as we sailed up Haro Strait, crossing the border from Canada to the United States on the final leg of our three month circumnavigation of Vancouver Island. Dean had all the canvass out, the wind bellowing the sails and pushing us along at almost nine knots toward Roche Harbor through a drizzle and two-foot chop.
The girls had schoolbooks spread on every surface of the salon and were slogging their way through two days of work to make up for a free day in Victoria.
As I sat in the cockpit sewing the hem on new winch covers, it struck me how far we've come. Not in terms of distance -- the trip total is only roughly 550 nautical miles. However, our family is not the same. I could remember a similar moment on our way north in May. Same wind, same chop, same booming wave slaps on the bridge deck, different crew.
Then, the girls huddled with blankies and stuffed animals fighting mal de mer, staring at the horizon and listening to an audio podcast of Harry Potter. Dean struggled to stow the spinnaker. I sat at the helm, grimly fighting waves, weather, and my fear of the whistling sounds in the rigging. We were uncomfortable, unhappy, worried about our safety and the boat.
Now we know that our 38' Lagoon catamaran loves to sail. Don Quixote is a very happy boat in 25 knots of wind. She likes white caps and Pacific waves. She is a surfer. Her favorite conditions are 18 blowing on her backside, her spinnaker flying white and red and a two-meter swell with foamy, bumpy seas to slide and play in.
The girls still get uncomfortable in really confused seas, but when I asked them how they felt on this recent leg, Jaime was dismissive. "Mom," she said with that tone 12 year olds use when their parents are demonstrating complete idiocy, "this is nothing." Aeron shrugged. Mera didn't even look up from her concentrated reading.
We've accomplished our objective. We know how to live on our boat, sail Pacific swell, and survive without grocery store, fuel stop or water for four weeks. Our ratio of broken to fixed is, unfortunately, not one to one. We limp into Seattle with a broken alternator, a gimpy autopilot , and an SSB that we never were able to make functional. The boat is so dirty I'm surprised Victoria dock visitors didn't script "Wash Me" into the grime on the deck. We haven't done laundry in two months since the Canadian washing machines suck loonies like a vacuum. And I really need a haircut.
Yet, we feel prepared for the next phase of our journey. Two weeks of refitting, cleaning, and relaxation on a Seattle dock, then we turn our bows south toward Mexico. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was summer circumnavigating Vancouver Island." Time to warm up.[[In-content Ad]]
