Mosaic Family Voyage: Goodbye Portland, Hello Nomadic Living

Nearly five whole years into our crazy plan to sell our house and almost all of our belongings, and buy and move onto a sailboat with our kids, we were finally ready to become true Pacific Northwest sailing nomads. It had taken everything we had, but there we were, looking forward into the future, ready to leave our home slip in our wake and cruise down the mighty Columbia River toward Astoria.

We spent that last morning in our Portland slip running last minute errands, washing the boat, and visiting with friends and loved ones on the dock as they gathered to see us off. Because you can’t plan too far in advance as a sailor, due to a critical need for patience and careful weather planning, we didn’t yet know exactly what our full itinerary would look like. But we did know that sometime in the coming weeks we would be casting off our docklines for the very last time on the Columbia River, aiming the boat west, and crossing the treacherous Columbia River Bar to head north up the rugged Washington coastline.

But first we had to get the boat to Astoria, a journey of 90 miles by river. It was, by far, the longest trip we’d ever taken aboard our boat, and we were doing it all on our own. It was scary and exciting all at the same time. A true adventure for the kiddos: the beginning of the grand adventure that we’d spent years preparing for.

We’d decided to take a whole week just getting the boat to Astoria. We wanted to really enjoy the trip down the river, relax a bit with the kids and have some fun. The months leading up to our departure were so jampacked with project after project that we’d had a really hard time keeping the fun in the lifestyle. We were all craving a bit of a break, adults just as much as the kids.

So on Saturday May 4, 2019 just after noon and mostly on schedule, we hugged our family and friends one last time, untied the boat, and headed out of the marina.

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