Wednesday - a great day at the Island

Wednesday is always a treat for me at FI. It is the long-standing night when folks from Tiki Central come by, so I get to see lots of friends. I very frequently get to meet other interesting people too, and such was the case this past Wednesday. It was a fairly quiet start to the evening, and everything was humming along as per usual, when a couple strolls into the bar. As they are sipping their Painkillers, I overhear them mention something about a sailing expedition from here in the Bay Area all the way to Australia, via Hawai'i and the Polynesian Islands... my curiosity was piqued, as I once had a very similar opportunity myself (although it didn't come to fruition). We started talking, and as it turns out, this couple, Steven and Kristin Osborne, originally from Alaska, but now living in Marin County, were gearing up for their last two weeks in California before heading out on this amazing journey. They had been hired to sail a vessel that someone from Long Beach is selling to a buyer in Sydney (the coincidence in this is almost uncanny to the offer I had, just about 2 years ago, that sailboat also having been in Long Beach, and going to Sydney... but in my case the deal fell through. I believe someone else in California ended up buying it).

Steven, Kristin and myself got into a wonderful conversation about all of this. Their plan is to sail to Hawai'i, then down to Fiji and through many of the Polynesian Islands before making it to Sydney. The entire journey will take several months. The idea of the chance to sail the South Pacific is something that has always been attractive to me personally, and I think an opportunity such as this only comes around once in a lifetime. Oh, the amazing things one would see! It can only be described as life changing. After that, I run out of words.

Steven and Kristin Osborne

Steven and Kristin went on to tell me about the name of this expedition, and the name of the new vessel they will build when they return to the Bay Area afterward - Merlin's Revenge. Their wonderful dog, Merlin, who was deaf and was trained using 100% hand signals, recently passed away. They had planned to take him all around the world with them - so this expedition is in his honor and memory.


Kristin's tattoo of Merlin

Check out the progress of Merlin's Revenge as they journey the south seas by following their blog, http://merlins-revenge.org.

I'll see YOU at the Island!

--Suzanne