Calgary Club Night– Port Townsend to New Zealand– Small boat, big seas

by Bluewater Cruising Association on 27 Jan 2017 Would you go down the west coast and across the South Pacific in a 24 foot boat? In July 2011, Jim Heumann and Karen Sullivan left Port Townsend aboard Sockdolager, a Pacific Seacraft Dana 24, for an open ended cruise, knowing only that they wanted to go south and west, and wanted to cross an ocean. Within two weeks of leaving home they found themselves hove-to 100 miles off the coast of Oregon, in the biggest storm they would encounter on the whole trip.

They continued down the coast, making a number of stops, before arriving in Mexico for the winter. In March of 2012 they departed Baja Mexico for the Marquesas in French Polynesia. Thirty-seven days later, they made landfall. For the next six months they island-hopped across the South Pacific, finally making landfall in New Zealand in early December 2012. This talk will explore some of the lessons they learned about long-term small-boat cruising, handling a small boat in big seas, and they’ll share insights about themselves, including, among other things, how to get home.

07 Feb 2017 1900h - 2200hrs
HMCS Tecumseh
1898 24th St. S.W.
Calgary, Alberta
Canada

Biographies:
Jim learned to sail in 2005 at the age of 53. That was the same year he purchased Sockdolager and moved from Colorado to Puget Sound. Still working, he spent all his spare time sailing (mostly single handing) and improving the boat. In 2008 he quit his job, moved on to the boat full time, and moved himself and the boat to Port Townsend. Boat improvements continued with the goal of an offshore passage.

Having met Karen, they started sailing together to further destinations like Desolation Sound, the west coast of Vancouver Island, and Haida Gwaii. Finding that they could get along pretty well in such a small boat (most of the time) they started talking about a bigger trip. Boat improvements continued at a faster pace, and in the summer of 2011, they cast off the dock lines.

Karen started sailing on a folkboat in New England in 1973. After taking a year off from teaching biology and earth science to cross the Caribbean on a 78’ ketch, she returned to New England to get her USCG 100-ton license, and in 1980 found a job at the helm of an engineless, 66’ bugeye schooner on Long Island Sound. She moved on to sail a 55’ schooner from New England to the Caribbean, chartering to guests from 1982-1989, and to a 100’ Rhodes ketch, but went back to her small-boat roots after a decade-long hurricane-induced hiatus.

She bought Minstrel, a Pacific Seacraft Dana 24 in Seattle in 2001, sailed it up to Prince William Sound, and explored Alaska for 5 years. Retiring from federal government service in 2006, she sailed back to Puget Sound. In 2007 she met Jim: two geezers, two Dana 24s, one dream.

This article has been provided courtesy of the Bluewater Cruising Association.