Admiral’s Martini Musings

Fulfilling an Offshore Dream

Today was the day we fulfilled a dream we've been working toward for a few years and I've got to say, it's a little surreal.

Bryan and I made a decision in 2021 to completely change our life and take a chance at living OUR dream since we had already achieved the typical American dream. With the support of our families and our amazing friends we're beginning to think we can do this for real.

We just did our first offshore experience in our sailboat. Brief as it was to head around the tip of Vancouver Island (counter-clockwise) doesn't mean it didn't come with some excitement. We took off from Bull Harbour on Hope Island with our buddy boat S/V Endless at 5 AM to cross the dreaded Nahwitti Bar. The sun was just bringing first light to the day and the first thing that happened was our port side running light (the red one) went out.  Well, it went out after I smacked it trying to get the connection to work.  No such luck.  Next up was pulling out the main sail in preparation for stabilizing the boat through the predicted swell.  Nope!  Some warn parts and a missing continuous loop made that difficult but not impossible.  Frustrating but handled. 

The bar came up on us fast with a mellow swell as soon as we turned the corner out of Bull Harbour.  In very short order we were bucking 10 foot breaking waves at 3 second intervals.  GULP!  I am so thankful for Bryan's skill and calm under pressure.  We both started to think this was more than we had envisioned and contemplated turning back when our buddy boat just ahead showed us their port light as they performed a turn in steep chop.  Before I could even think about how to make a turn in those conditions safely, Bryan had us turned around and headed back to Bull Harbour to regroup.

Remember the mainsail?  Yup, that was still out.  Reefed, but out.  Bryan gave me a crash course in manning the helm in what was now following seas and began to make the mainsail disappear.  I still don't know how he managed it so quickly!  With only a few "Woah!" moments and helpful tips, we made it back to the harbour unscathed and so did our buddy boat.

After a couple repairs and a quick cross-deck planning discussion, our next attempt would be at slack at 8 AM.  We would go low, and our buddy boat would hit it head on as before.  It turns out, that worked!  We had some fun rocky rollies that Xena was less than thrilled with, but she was fine after a bit more CBD oil. 

The rest of the transit proved to be full of whales, sea otters, a shark, and lots of hairy jellies.  We had time to really let it sink in that we were doing what we planned and it was in fact working.  I may take a little while longer, but our plans to head south are becoming more real to us by the hour.

We have so many people to thank for helping us get here.  You know who you are.  Family.  Old friends.  Sailing friends.  New friends.  We are thinking of you every leg of this journey and knowing how lucky we are to have you in our lives.  Thank you.