Obvious comment about 2020 being a crazy shit show.

There, now that I have gotten that out of the way I can tell you about how we got Runaway.

Well, I belong to a gazillion sailing focused groups on Facebook. I mean, if you are reading this, it is likely that you too are part of some number of those groups. And when your other is also part of those groups, you might share interesting boats for sale even though you’re “not really shopping” for a boat right now. We mostly just watch to ogle the fancy boats and keep an eye on prices for boats we like.

Provincetown Bay, visiting Runaway, 8/28/20

But sometimes you might find one that, at the time, seems like a good idea.

Runaway is a 1988 Pearson 36-2. And we got her for a song, which really just means she needs some work. Well. That’s our style. Its easier for me to put in the time and put in money “little bits” at a time than come up with 40k.

So in July of 2020 or so, we saw the ad for Runaway. I called the guy; he was cool, and we had a nice chat about the boat and why he was selling and what it needed and stuff. We decided to go look at the boat. It was on a mooring in Provincetown on Cape Cod. We are in Northern New York, so its 6 hours or something like that.

Provincetown Bay, visiting Runaway for the first time, 8/28/20

In August, the seller met us there and we stayed the weekend aboard, looked at absolutely every square inch of the boat and went for a sail. In the end, the price tag and the adventure of it was too much to pass up. So we went for it.

In September, we went down to Cape Cod again, this time bringing our good friend Travis, intent on crossing Cape Code bay, navigating the Long Island Sound, looping around Manhattan, going up the Hudson river to the Champlain Canal and eventually Lake Champlain, all the way up to the tippy top where Rouses Point sits on the US/Canada border. Its a 550nm journey.

Have I mentioned we are beginners? Now, I have sailed little boats. And been on larger boats as they have been sailed by others. But I have never been responsible for a vessel and crew for such a trip.

But it went great! We were safe, had a great time, and experienced only minor mechanical issues along the way. We didn’t hurt ourselves, nor the boat, nor any other boat, or anything else.

In the next episode, we will tell the story and show some pictures. It was a lot of fun.