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What drove us to do something as crazy as making a sailing DVD? Here’s the backstory.

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In late 2004, we returned to Santa Cruz, California after a six-year voyage that took our family through the Panama Canal, across the Atlantic, around the Mediterranean, and home again. Once returned, Monica, a physical therapist by profession, found work, renewed friendships, and returned to her old patterns with little difficulty. I, on the other hand, found my instructional design consulting business in shambles. I pounded the electronic pavement, contacting previous clients, colleagues, and friends, but the world I had left behind back in 1998 had changed dramatically. So had I. It seems that the journey I had embarked on years earlier was not over yet.

After a year the futility of my struggle to re-establish my life ashore became excruciatingly unpleasant. I had to find something to do that would exercise my instructional designer muscles and re-assert my sense of mission.

First I decided to take advantage my six years of cruising by getting a Masters license. That was fun.

Next, I started teaching ASA courses, part-time on the Monterey Bay. That was fun too.

Then I decided to try a season of cruising out among the Santa Barbara Channel Islands and take a shot at doing private cruising classes and charters, so I invited Doug Kincaid, a local sailing friend to crew with me on sail to Southern California. He agreed, saying, “Why the hell not? Life’s to short to pass up some time at sea.”

Doug and I had a typical late winter trip down the coast of California. He proved a worthy companion during our 36 hours of cold and foggy passage making. Doug passed away unexpectedly just one week after completing our voyage.

With the advent of spring Monica and I began re-exploring the islands we had come to love in years past. To our delight, the islands were as exciting and pristine as we remembered. The islands are challenging. Sailing among them requires real seamanship. But the effort expended produces world-class rewards. Night after night we rode to our anchor in places like Pelican’s Forney’s, Cuyler’s, Johnson’s Lee, and Willows, and reveled in the realization that after 40,000 miles of world cruising, these idyllic anchorages were as good as any we had ever experienced.

At that point I got it into my head to produce a DVD designed to convey the feelings of joy and satisfaction that come from cruising. I had done quite a few video productions back in the 80’s and with all the new digital stuff, how hard could it be?

I figured that the product would need to provide enough information so that voyages would not be attempted without proper preparation, but my principal aim would be to share a sense of cruising’s rewards. If I could just get audiences to say to themselves, “I want to do that! I can do that!” I would be on the right track.

I put an ad on Craig’s List inviting people to contact us regarding a “creative project” involving boating in the area of the Channel Islands but received surprisingly few responses. I suppose people were suspicious. They probably read the ad and thought, “Okay, what’s the catch?” There’s always a catch, right?

I did get a few responses though, and one paid off in a strange way. A documentary filmmaker named Michael Colin replied. We met and decided to sail to the islands to survey the possibilities.

He and I spent about five days cruising the island. He impressed me as the real thing. His documentary feature, “Lost in the Shadows” was well executed and filled with artistic angst. During our voyage, we discussed ideas and logistics for the project. It wasn’t until the final day that I realized that Michael was not only technically competent but he had what is sometimes referred to as an artist’s temperament.

In the weeks that followed, Michael and I exchanged copious notes by email. In one, he outlined his requirements for the project. His long list included things like “total artistic control” and “no shipboard duties” Oh, oh, I thought, this could get difficult. After a few more exchanges, we agreed to bring our nascent collaboration to an end. In “The Business” I think they call it “artistic differences”. Disappointed, the project went onto to the back burner while I occupied myself with charters and classes at the islands. (Michael came to play an important role much later in the project, when he provided both technical assisatance and enouragement during the long process of post-production.)

In early October I got a call from Santa Cruz Harbor telling me my slip leave was up and that I needed to be back by mid-November. Time was running out. I figured that it was either now or never for the DVD project. I called a couple of our sailing friends, Howard Wright and Joseph Rodgers, and roughed out an idea with them. We would shove off in two weeks, circumnavigate the island, make video, and hope for the best.

Monica agreed to join so that made four but I still felt that we needed somebody younger aboard. That’s when I met an enthusiastic young neophyte, Grace Usui—a magical spirit in her own right. Right before our departure everyone asked what should be done for the video. We answered, “Prepare the boat. Sail the boat. Circumnavigate the islands. And have fun!”

And that’s how I came to make our first sailing DVD.

Was the product worth the effort? Everyone who takes the time to watch it seems to to think so. It tells a story. It shows off the island. It makes you want to go there and gives you useful information, but not so much so that you feel as though you’ve “been there—done that”.  It’s a pleasure to watch and an invitation to sail.

Financially it’s doubtful that the project will ever pay for itself, but when it comes to sailing it’s unwise to think in terms of conventional accounting. Some things must be measured by a different standard.

I  hope you’ll agree.

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