Our Story
How it All Started
Our first sail together was in Portland with our friend Lucas on July 9, 2016.
Soon after, we found out about YouTube channels of people who live on sailboats full-time and travel around the world, documenting their journeys as they go.
We started watching SV Delos every Friday. Little did we know it would have SUCH an impact on our future.
Soon after, another friend of ours, Craig, got a sailboat. He named her ‘Honey Badger’ and often invited us to go sailing on the Columbia River.
We were able to ‘jump in’ and ’learn the ropes’ before actually owning a boat ourselves.
There’s a saying: “It’s nice to own a boat, but it’s better if you have a friend that owns a boat.” Haha, SO TRUE!
Craig was so open to letting us skipper the boat, and we took every opportunity we could.
In 2018 we decided we wanted some ‘formal training’ so we signed up for ASA (American Sailing Association) 101 with Craig’s wife, Lindsey.
We passed ASA 101!!!
And in the fall of 2018 we ended up buying Honey Badger from Craig and Lindsey.
She was the PERFECT boat for us to continue to learn with.
We loved that little boat!!
Our First Sailboat: Honey Badger
A little, yellow, 1978 Tanzer 22’
She was small; but a bad ass, with a fitting name.
Eventually, we decided we wanted to learn about sailing bigger boats.
In August 2019, we took our second sailing class, ASA 103 and 104.
Our class involved spending a week on a sail boat in the San Juan Islands, with two other randomly selected students and a captain.
We learned so much, and most important, it taught us that we HAD TO find a way to make our dream to live on a boat, come to life. The fire inside grew even more!
In May 2020, we went to Seattle to look at boats (to live on).
Only a handful of boats met our basic parameters of what we wanted, including a monohull, a length between 40-45 feet, within our budget, and less than 20 years old (for insurance purposes).
On July 3, 2020 we spent our first night on our new… HOME. Boat-home!!!!
We spent July 4th weekend moving the boat from Lake Union in Seattle to the Port of Olympia, Washington.
Olympia, Washington is our ‘home port.’ We immediately put our names on our marina’s ’liveaboard list’ and were told it would be approximately 1-2 years before the marina would get to our names.
On October 16, the marina called to let us know our names were at the top of the list! 1-2 years turned into just a few months (insert jaw drop).
We grabbed the opportunity, but we weren’t quite ready to move aboard yet… We were in the middle of a house remodel that we needed to finish.
On June 14, 2023, we FINALLY and OFFICIALLY became liveaboards. It took us 7 years.
Saying we were excited can’t quite cover the range of emotions we were going through.
Follow our adventure on Instagram: @SailwithRachelandBrian
