We’re finally underway!
We won’t see the wilderness wedding we set out for that never materialized. We won’t see Dave forget the durn camera at home and row back a mile for it. We won’t see the whale that almost T-boned us. Those are tales for another time.
We will see our first big wind. Our first narrows to negotiate. A spooky and exhausting coastal passage with no safe anchorage in the exposed surf, breakers, rocks, and foul bottom. And our first glimpse of the outer coast.
Through all our years of venturing, we’ve been sailing “inside” waters—sounds that are occasionally open to the Pacific. Things can and do get rough at times, and there’s plenty of opportunity for trouble. But there’s always a fallbacks to more sheltered waters.
We are sailing a new vessel, untried in every direction. This stretch stretches us!
As always, a great video! Your adventures are so inspiring. I actually find myself chomping at the bit each week, anticipating the next video in the series.
I’m really glad to see that your design is holding up so well to those blustery conditions, but I think what I enjoy the most are your continuous upgrades and little projects en-route! I did very much the same as I sailed around Florida’s 10,000 Islands in my old Watkins 27. Although the 3′ draft kept me out away from the potential and plentiful shallow water gunkholing anchorages. It did however give me the opportunity to put my 11′ 6″ kayak to good use. And since it was the Tropics, just walking off the boat into bathtub hot water wasn’t exactly unpleasant. But still, I wanted to be able to sail right up onto a nice little hidden beach, between the ultra shallow sandbars. And then push off again to get to the next one.
Your lives are the stuff of dreams!
Hi Will,
Your life sounds like a sweet dream, too… I mean, bathtub hot water? Mmmm.
The kayak tender and similar, in our opinion, really helps to extend the experience. The bigger boat, no matter the draft, will never be as nimble as a small tender, which offers easy access to almost any shoreline. There’s a small cost in drag while towing, but we think it more than pays for itself in casual explorations.
But yeah… those hidden beaches with ultra-shoal approaches… if you can do that in the main vessel, it’s magic!
Dave Z
It is magical! LOL. I have just been blessed (or cursed, not sure yet) with a free 26′ Balboa on a trailer. It’s the hull that I have been looking for for a huge-long time. Swing keel, it only drafts about 2′. I’m about to dismantle it and re-floor-plan it for more advantageous coastal cruising, gunkholing and camper-cruising. So I can sail it right up in the same hole that I’m fishing in.
Did you ever get to see your doppelganger in that movie “Moonrise Kingdom”?
Hi Will,
I had to cheat and checked him out on the Youtube trailer. The geeky boy reminds me more of me, but the movie looks like fun, and I’ll check it out when I can!
Dave Z
What a fabulous series of videos! The story is great, and the quality of the videos is really good. I first became aware of one of Dave and Anke’s previous boats, the Bolger sharpie Luna, many years ago, and I have always wondered about that boat. I would love to see some videos about Luna, as a future project!
Hi Daniel,
Alas, LUNA is no more. You can read the story here.
and check out a video look at her copper plate bottom.
I’m afraid that we have no video of LUNA when we lived aboard her, and not many photos. This has all been pretty new to us with MUSTELID!
Dave Z
PS. We designed LUNA from scratch, closely following Phil Bolger’s AS concept. She was closest to the AS-29, but stretched and widened to ply dimensions (vs trailering reqs). Her deck layout was inspired by British cutters, junk cat-schooner rig. Interior inspired by George Beuhler’s simple layouts. Standing on the shoulders of giants!