Meet Wind Walker

Last weekend, I made a dash down to San Diego to see the boat for the first time.  Here she is:

She's pretty in person: lots of teak throughout, nice lines.  Wind Walker is a cutter-rigged Ingrid 38 from the 1970s.  Unfortunately, she's still very much under construction so we didn't go out on the water.  The outside looks pretty good, but below is more disassembled than assembled right now.  All for a good cause though; brand new engines, redone electrical and water systems, and many more improvements that will serve us well during long stretches of bluewater sailing.

Matthew does seem to have some things dialed in though, such as the supplies in the locker that serves as our pantry.

The main purpose of the trip was for me to actually see the space I'd signed up to live and work in for the first time. There was a tour, I practiced the terminology I'm picking up from the sailing book I'm reading, and I made at least a few puns bad enough to get Matthew to roll his eyes.  Skipper-antagonization aside, I was able to lend a hand for a little while (just a short preview of the work to be done in April). I got the very exciting job of cleaning fiberglass dust from all surfaces in the head. Partway through, I confirmed a hunch with Matthew -- "So, sailing is mostly just janitorial work in a more hazardous environment, right?"

Yep.

Dates & Itinerary

There's a lot of demand for details about where we'll be and when.  Unfortunately, things are still very much in the air.  Matthew is putting in an incredible amount of hours tearing down and rebuilding the boat, so he hasn't had free energy to dedicate to trip planning.  At this point, the plan is still for me to join him in San Diego in early April.  For the rest of the month we'll be focusing all of our efforts on getting Wind Walker seaworthy, but the reality of the situation is we may have more improvements planned than time.

The weather window to make a south Pacific crossing is variable, but tends to last until late May.  The basic idea is to get out of Mexican waters before the hurricanes come a-calling. Matthew and I agree that we think there's a 50/50 chance on making the May weather window; we've agreed to bust ass through April and make a go/no-go decision on the first of May.

If we don't make the spring window then November would be the next time we'd want to start the crossing.  If we're around for the summer there's a few contingency plans floating around: backpack through Asia together, sail the west coast (possibly up to Puget Sound and back), try to get some work to supplement/extend our funds (software contracts for me, boat deliveries -- of boats, not by boats -- for Matthew and possibly me), etc.  We'll try not to put much thought into it until we have to.

tl;dr;

Boat is still being refitted majorly, 50/50 chance of leaving before November, go/no-go on May 1st, contingency plans TBD. I'm on a boat!

Matthew said he wanted a figurehead.