Mosaic Family Voyage: The Encounter of a Lifetime
Tonight, my husband and I sat in the cockpit of our 40-foot sailboat, Mosaic, musing about our spring and early summer spent cruising in the San Juan Islands, and wondering what the future has in store for us. Since my father-in-law’s weekend visit, we’ve actually had a few more special visitors come and stay aboard with us.
Our two friends, Rachel and Brian, are new Pacific Northwest live-aboards with a boat of their own and dreams to cast off cruising in a few years’ time. When we approached them to ask if they’d be interested in crewing with us on our way down the west coast, they jumped at the chance for experience and the adventure. We’re so thankful knowing that we’ll have four adults aboard for our passage south to California. Four people means a bit of a buffer for standing watch and getting enough rest during the nonstop journey from Port Angeles, Washington to Crescent City, California.
So Rachel and Brian came and spent a weekend with us aboard Mosaic. While they know how to sail, we wanted to let them have a chance to get to know our boat, how she handles, and how all our specific systems work. We had a blast and got a nice sail in during their stay: mission accomplished.
After dropping them back off to head home, we switched gears and dropped our anchor for a week’s stay in Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island where my mother-in-law, Tamara, rented a room for the week to visit during her vacation.
The kids had an amazing time spending the whole week with her, swimming in the resort’s pool, and getting some quality Oma time. Each afternoon when work was done, my husband and I would take the quick dinghy ride into the marina to go hang out. And, for the final three days of her vacation, we left her car behind and brought her aboard for her own chance to experience boat life.
Once again we visited Sucia Island, hiked some of the wonderful trails and shared the stunning scenery with her, and we even ran into some friends there from our old marina in Portland. Rich and Theresa had just sailed their own boat up the Washington coast to move up to the Puget Sound. It was a wonderful visit to one of our favorite cruising destinations. Little did we know, though, that we were about to experience a once-in-a-lifetime event that will be remembered forever.
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Check out this video footage of the Messerschmidt family’s amazing encounter!
