In the beginning: I believe He said something like: “You need to get your own boat.” What? Me, buy a boat. Why? Was it because when rowing with him in his beloved Alden rowing shell, I was prone to suddenly stop rowing and gawk at the scenery or the man muscles of the person rowing in front of me? Or, maybe I was looking for wind. But, I get ahead of myself. The wind part came later.

So, after the shock wore off I started thinking about what kind of boat I would want, IF I wanted one. A rowing shell? I really liked the feeling of rowing, but all that rowing forward and looking back gave me a stiff neck just thinking about it. So, maybe a kayak. But then again my arms and neck were already used up doing my housekeeping work.

Then I heard about pedal-drive kayaks. Pedaling, not paddling? Where do I try one out? I tried one and liked it. But how did it fare as a partner boat to a rowing shell? We tried out both the 18 ft. Alden with a 16 ft. Hobie Adventure. I could not really quite keep up. That was disappointing.

However, this model also could come with a sailing rig set up. Hmmmmm. Wind power? Why hadn’t someone thought of this before? Oh.

The next Saturday the kayak shop had a class in learning to sail these amazing creatures. Out into the Multnomah channel of the Columbia River we pedaled. The teacher in his boat zipping around us four student boats giving instructions like: “Now unfurl your sail.”

I timidly unrolled my sail a wee bit. A bit more. Oh my gosh, I’m sailing! I am pretty sure rowing shells don’t go this fast, even with manly muscles at the ready. Ok. I’ll take one!

Lexi Z

“Sailing Alone”

We steered into Gig harbor in Debra's 30 ft. Newport and selected a spot to drop anchor. We were heartened by successfully anchoring in Wollochet Bay the evening before, another first for us in this boat named Liberte. I lowered the anchor and Debra motored the boat back to set the anchor. Afterwards we were standing on deck discussing whether we were far enough away from the nearest boat. As it turned out her skipper was about to haul anchor and move anyway. He saw us on deck and asked if we were alone. I looked at Debra, standing two feet away and quickly quipped, "No, there are two of us."

This August was my second weeklong cruise in the South Puget Sound on Liberte. Last year we sailed for six days in October, meeting up with the South Sound Women's sailing group in Jarrell Cove State Park. How sweet to stand at the dock as boats full of women came sailing in. Sunday morning three or four sailing dinghies were assembled and playing about in the sunlight bay.

Here in Gig harbor we were three days into our cruise and looking to procure some fresh water and ice. Oh, and perhaps a nice bottle of white wine. Debra rowed the dinghy to the public dock, showing the benefits of having grown up with summer camp. It took us a while to find what we needed and by the time we did the roar of trucks and cars combined with the hustle and bustle of the trendy shopping area had us both saying. get me out of here!

We settled back into the boat to rest for a while, but a brisk wind had built up and we soon found ourselves pulling anchor and sailing out to our next bay. It was brilliantly sunny, as the whole week turned out to be. That brisk wind turned out to be quite so, as it came shooting down the next passage at 18 knots. We had put the big Genny on the roller-furler before we left the home marina and now it seemed just a bit too big. It did not want to roll up into a smaller configuration despite my firm coaxing. So we sailed on to the end of the passage where the wind dropped to nothing. We rolled up the sail and motored around the end of Vashon Island where once again the wind picked up, this time to 22 knots.

So…now our next chore was to try to empty the water that had accumulated in the towed dinghy, while still towing it in choppy conditions. Previously on our trip it had filled and I had perfected a technique of throwing a five gallon bucket on a line into the dinghy hard enough for it to end up in a position where it would fill, then I would pull it out and up to the stern where I emptied it. I was quite eager to teach this technique to Debra so I could give her a break from standing at the wheel, steering the boat. She soon decided that perhaps we could motor on with some water in it.

Someone recently told me that sailing was a much too sedentary. Clearly we had not gotten to that part yet.

Lexi Z