Belly of the Whale

"A Normal Sailing Adventure or a Great Story about a Toothbrush"

Another initiation.
This one perhaps more important than its predecessors. On Sunday, I was preparing for a daysail, as was everyone. It was a beautiful day. Several friends were taking their boats out. I recruited a couple of friends to come out with me. We even picked up a few more in another harbor on the way. We were six and a dog.

We were having such a good time one of the girls said, “We should just keep on going until we reach the San Juans.’
I could tell she was mostly kidding, but also partly serious. I thought about it: Why not? I’ve been itching to go for months and months. So I pushed it. “Let’s go.”
She was serious. So were a couple of other guys. A couple of folks had to work on Monday. In the end, three were in, three couldn’t make it, though were bummed not to be able to. What we did was come along side another boat we had been shadowing and playing with, and said we had some crew that needed to jump ship. We depowered our sails until we could cruise at the same speed. I pulled alongside and everyone jumped over—except the dog. He was handed across. It was a fun stunt!

We were off. My crew were two guys, Dustin and Kenny. I had never met either one of them before Saturday night: we all went out together. Neither even lives in town. Both were visiting old friends here. They were only packing daysail stuff—essentially a warm coat. All the same, we were off to the San Juan Islands.

Our “daysail” turned into a four day cruise through the islands. We had some great winds, some long lulls, a long night, an early morning, a open-mic night on Orcas Island, a couple great galley cooked meals (courtesy of Dustin), some “wing-on-wing” downwind sailing, and lots of jokes, good times, and epic beauty. If I manage a story out of it, it will be a quote from Kenny, who was infinitely quotable: “A Normal Sailing Adventure or a Great Toothbrush Story.” Indeed, it is a great story about a toothbrush, rare have I heard a better.