Lowtide


Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival


destinations and hull material until a phone call pulled me away. As we all left the boat, they'd made some decisions. I said my goodbyes and dashed off knowing that the 30 minutes we'd just shared would now be stirred into the plan unfolding in their young lives. Meanwhile, another thousand


people and stories were making their way to Main Gate for what would become another record attendance Friday and Saturday. Forecasts for record hot temperatures and a string of (finally) summer days had people from north and east filling both Whidbey Island ferries, those from south and west packing the roadways and buses as they drove in and from sea, including Windjammer from Australia, anchoring off the waterfront - all in numbers approaching our transport capacity. Exact numbers in town are impossible to calculate, but our bike racks hold at least 400 bikes and were loaded, we ran out of wristbands and beer cups and the bus parking lot filled by 10:30 Friday spilling over into Port's Boat Haven shipyard Friday by noon and was still loaded with cars when I took Pax back to her permanent slip Sunday at 3:00. Highlights this year ranged from


I found the family of five nesting


aboard Pax, my 28' Spidsgatter - two girls in the forepeak, dad and son to starboard talking, mom on the port settee staring blissfully through the sunny center hatch. As I poked my head down the companionway, they said, “We love your boat.” “Me too!” I said. “Thank the great Danes who built her, the Port Townsend talent that helped me get her this far and some devoted former owners,” I said as I swung in and sat on the teak engine box that served as both landing and seat.


48° NORTH, OCTOBER 2011 PAGE 14


For the next 30 minutes their dreams as a family to live aboard a boat and travel the world's oceans filled the main cabin. He was a carpenter, she a mystic and the seven-year-old son had it all figured out. As he pointed out specifics of what their boat would have, how they'd stand watch, who would do which task, how he'd finish school, the parents nodded and his sisters agreed. This was a family I knew might really do it, might really have the courage and communication to cruise. We talked double-enders, size,


iPads at the Main Gate (ticket purchasing “fun” by most accounts) to Lin Pardey's first “literary” book reading (after a dozen sailing narratives, she and Larry are still exploring new places) to sold out crowds for the west coast premier of the documentary CHARLOTTE, a wooden boat story to the miraculous restoration of the festival's oldest boat, Tug Elmore, (1890) after serious damage in a storm last winter to 69 first-time boats and literally overflowing crowds at more than 125 presentations described as the “best ever, bar none” roster of presenters, topics and tent layout.


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