ADVENTURE
Sailing Around the World in Other People’s Boats

Renae Lindsay

Copyright © 2018 Renae Lindsay All rights reserved First Edition

Adventure Publishing. 
Los Angeles, California

 

 

First originally published by Adventure Publishing. 2018

 

 ISBN 10  1987461681  
 ISBN 13  9781987461688
 
Cover design by Anela Yuen. Images by Renae Lindsay 
 
Printed in the United States of America

To my daughter Lindsay, who taught me more than any mother could ever learn.

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1…………………………………………………………..9

Chapter 2…………………………………………………………33

Chapter 3…………………………………………………………91

Chapter 4………………………………………………………..109

Chapter 5………………………………………………………..123

Chapter 6………………………………………………………..131

Chapter 7………………………………………………………..197

Chapter 8………………………………………………………..221

Chapter 9………………………………………………………..235

Chapter 10……………………………………………………....247

Chapter 11……………………………………………………....271

Chapter 12……………………………………………………....281

Introduction

	It was one of those dreams every young person has. I’ve repeated it all my life: someday I would love to sail around the world. I’ve had a yearning for travel since I was born. I owe much of it to my parents, who are also wanderers. My great-grandmother traveled around the world alone. One day, at 105 years old, she took an unexpected trip to her birthplace in Costa Rica, then died a few days later. Travel is in my blood, my heart, it fills my thoughts day and night and every so often I must get away or I become restless and nervous.
	I’ve traveled by every means possible on this planet, alone and with companions. During every trip, I always want to see more, discover every corner, eat at every restaurant, savor the local life and even live there a few weeks. I’ve wanted to return to each and every one of those places but, when I realize how many destinations I haven’t seen, I put off returning. Someday…
	The first week in October every year, at Two Harbor’s Marina on Catalina Island, there’s a party for boat owners and everyone else who can make it. Young and old dress up as pirates and wenches, and ride around in dinghies begging for rum and food. A friend invited me out on her boat. We sailed from Marina Del Rey, 33 miles across the channel to anchor our boat and party for four days.
	It’s a weekend of debauchery and drinking binges while pretending to be swashbucklers and sluts just arriving at the port and in need of some fun. Hundreds of boats and dinghies from Southern California come to celebrate, drink and play pirate games. Potatoes are used as ammunition, fired from the bow accompanied by the sounds of horny sailors, while girls swirl around in their dinghies, exposing their breasts in exchange for rum. They are invited aboard for concoctions of alcohol and other spirits, with rum prevailing. After all, time flies when you are having rum!
	My boat crew members lost all sense of self and became real wenches and pirates. In one of our dinghy expeditions to beg for rum, I overheard a conversation between two sailors. The older sailor said to the younger man: 
	“Hey! I need crew to sail to South America for my life dream. I’m taking three months off and taking my boat south.” 
	My ears perked up. I volunteered immediately. It was the rum talking.
	The younger sailor smiled. “Take Renae” he said grabbing a bottle of beer. “She’s a travel writer and loves the ocean. She’ll be a great crew.” He’d known me just a few minutes at the bar of another boat. 
	That’s how things go in this kind of party. Conversations come and go in a minute and before you know it, couples are hooking up and business deals are being made. I would get an opportunity to do what I’ve been dreaming since I was a child. 
	I never did sail with the older man, who had other things in mind, besides wanting crew. One of his crew members objected me joining them, “Why bring sand to the beach?” They were bent on going partying in Mexico where the girls are cheap, and the booze runs almost free.
	“There must be other sailors out there who want free crew members to help sail,” I told myself. I know how to cook, I can clean and look after the boat. I just wanted the opportunity to see if I could do it. After much research, I found a skipper in Kona, Hawaii, who was sailing solo around the world. My desire of doing this kind of sailing and especially anchoring in isolated islands surrounded by fish, sun, stars, wind, and water was just a six-hour flight away. On December 31, I flew to Kona to sail with my first skipper through the islands, our long-term plans included sailing the Pacific to the Marquesas and French Polynesia. At the time, I thought it would be easy, my lifelong dream finally coming true.