SAIL.SailMagazine

“Wake up! Wake up! I think we’re dragging anchor!”

Peg’s words pierced my sleep like a needle popping a balloon. In an instant I was standing in the cockpit, face to face with the bowsprit of a large Island Packet that had been anchored three football fields away the night before.

Most sailors I know—and there are many sailors where I live in coastal Massachusetts—are unmitigated do-it-yourselfers who like to do their own trip planning, boat prepping, provisioning, cooking and cleaning. 

I’ve sailed past Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay many times, first as a deckhand on various ore boats making their way between Minnesota and Indiana Harbor, Indiana, then during the course of a number of Chicago-Mackinac races.

Thoughts of Homer’s walled cities, epic battles and tragic heroes filled our minds as we prepared for our weeklong charter in Turkey. True, our charter base in Marmaris was over 300 miles south of Troy, but that didn’t keep us from dreaming of ruins and lost civilizations.

Two hundred and fifty miles north of Seattle and 3,400 miles from home, our crew of six was more than a little slaphappy after a long day of travel. As we drove toward Comox, British Columbia, we decided to create a wish list for the charter trip ahead.