–by Caitlin
In May, Jason and I loaded our Subaru with tools and gear, perched our dog Moby on top of a sail bag in the back seat, and set out from the Bay Area to drive across the country. This trip was a long time in the making.
More than a decade ago, as we were first preparing for our Pacific circumnavigation on DEBONAIR, my father realized that his voyaging years were coming to an end. My parents had sailed their boat ANASAZI for two decades, visiting ports as far flung as the Faroe Islands, the Gambia, and Labrador. This was the boat whose design and construction had been their passion, and which is the subject of my father’s book, The Architect’s Apprentice. ANASAZI was in Newfoundland. Did we want to take her on?
While Jason and I knew we didn’t want to let ANASAZI go, we were already overwhelmed outfitting our own boat, DEBONAIR. Eventually we settled on a less than perfect way forward: we hired friends to sail ANASAZI to Maine, then trucked her inland and had her covered. We didn’t know how a wooden boat left in a field would fare, but it would have to do. We crossed our fingers and returned to California, leaving the boat propped in a field like a fish on stilts. .
Many of you followed our Pacific voyage which we completed in 2021. Since then, we spent portions of each summer sailing in the Pacific Northwest. But we knew our time with DEBONAIR was coming to an end.
After several years on the market, and many tears shed on her decks, DEBONAIR sold in March.
It was just a couple months later that Jason and Moby and I drove from California to Minnesota, where we visited Alma, who was finishing her sophomore year at Carleton College, then on to New York for Arlo’s graduation from Vassar. Somehow we fit Arlo and most of his stuff into the car, and we headed north to Maine.
ANASAZI as we found her in June
Yep, that’s our boat driving down the road.
And here she is being backed into the boat shop operated by Fitzgerald Marine Architecture. Mark Fitzgerald did a lot of the original design work on ANASAZI. We are lucky to reconnect with him now.
We’ve begun the work of refitting this new boat. We’ve removed the engine, reamed out the seams in the deck, stripped the old varnish off the mast and boom, and dismantled interior accommodations, among many, many other projects. Taking things apart has an emotional component–the boat was put together by my parents–but it also feels good to be taking care of her. And making her ours.
One of the first jobs we did when we got here was removing the name ANASAZI from the transom. We’re renaming the boat, and over the course of the next year, she’ll become ANCESTRAL.
Thank you all for following our adventures on DEBONAIR–and for your ongoing support as we move onto the next adventure. Special thanks to all our friends in Port Townsend, Washington who hosted us and helped us and kept us company over the last few years. We miss you! And many thanks to all the new friends we’ve already met on this next adventure.
