Two days ago, we traded a money order for a bill of a sale – and a 27-foot sailboat called Tomahawk!
It all started on New Year’s Eve of 2011. As the year turned, we were staying at the Rum Runner’s Roost, a bed and breakfast in Twillingate, Newfoundland. We had the place entirely to ourselves. The dead of winter is not a great time to travel and we battled sideways snow and biting temperatures on the drive there and back. In fact, the owners even offered to let us stay a second night for free, because they were afraid we would go off the road in the blizzard.
These same owners were the people who inspired our dream of living on a sailboat. They had done it for ten years, exploring the Great Lakes and beyond. While they made us breakfast, the wind blustering around the house-cum-B&B, they regaled us with tales of near-death experiences and calm passages on pristine waters.
We decided to follow in their footsteps… or wake.
A mid-70s Catalina 27 like ours!
It’s taken us this long to take the first major step (although moving to Vancouver was a piece in the puzzle). In the past few months, we took a few informal sailing lessons from a guy with a 16-footer, but the wind was uncooperative. We didn’t end up doing much actual sailing, although we did learn about rigging the boat, right of way on the water, and docking.
Other than Jason’s brief teenage experience with sailing at camp, we are utter newbies at this point. It might be good to actually learn how to control the boat, starting with how to put up the sails, right?
Luckily, the guy who sold us the boat is super nice. He’s been living on it for a year and a half and has it all set up for liveaboard, except for the missing head holding tank (that’s septic tank, for you landlubbers). He’s also way more practically skilled than us and he’s agreed to teach us everything from reading navigational charts and fixing the motor to hooking up a solar panel and anchoring properly.
The rainy season is going to be hitting us soon, so we’ll have to do our best to take advantage of the short time we have to start figuring out which way is up… or aft.
