Kagán (pronounced ka-gone) means light in the Tlingit language, and this magic carpet that sails me around the Salish Sea has been a source of light in my life for twenty summers. She has made dreams come true, mine, for sure. But first, she was the culmination of a...
“Am I done yet?” is a question any sailor might ask about her boat on any given day. Kagán has undergone hundreds of projects, large and small, during our decades together. From my first summer as first mate when we hardly left the dock while reconfiguring her...
“The cure for anything is saltwater: sweat, tears or the sea.” —Isak Dinesen I take nourishment, my vitamin sea, on Kagán each summer. Leaving the high desert in spring, means the winds go from an assault of airborne grit to a means of locomotion on my fair little...
In my last post, I chose to reframe “stuck” to “paused” and that was a helpful shift. But I have been paws-ed in another way since April, when I met a tiny puppy the day after she opened her eyes. The grandniece of our beloved Capi, this tiny Coton de Tulear puppy...
I had started a piece titled Stuck, but have decided to shift that sentiment. And so, I’ll say I’m Paused. Given the privileges I enjoy in life, I can hardly call myself stuck. That doesn’t mean that hurdles don’t appear in the path I’d like to travel. Some of those...
I am months away from leaving New Mexico for parts north, and the sailing season on Kagán. Despite that, and because of a colder-than-normal cold snap in the San Juan Islands, I’m thinking about the preventive maintenance measures I took before I zipped the boat cover...
It was 2:52 a.m. and I was lying awake, orchestrating the next three days and seven hours (roughly the time between then and when we would pull into the ferry line). I was planning, hour by hour, the time I had to finish getting my sailboat, Kagán, put to bed for her...
It seems that each summer, one creature or another comes to us in a way that defines the sailing season. That the wind and weather, the landscapes and seascapes, and their inhabitants distinguish one day from another aboard delights me. I remember—2007 was the summer...
I love when a fellow sailor pauses on the dock to tell me what a beautiful boat we have. Kagán, however, is not only beautiful, she is also a great sailing, and liveaboard, vessel. But that doesn’t happen without a lot of work behind the scenes. The last few weeks...
Visiting with a New Mexico friend before leaving the Land of Enchantment for parts north, and the sailing season on Kagán, she asked me how we decide where to go. The answer is that sometimes there are places we need to be on particular dates, and sometimes we have a...
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