“Hey, are you guys really from Portland? I’m from Port Townsend!”
That’s how we first met Erik, just a quick conversation as he whizzed by on his wingfoil board in a breezy Bahamas anchorage. As it turns out, Erik and his wife Alyce, together with second mate Bird, run Geronimo, a beautiful 70′ Ted Hood sloop that was designed for and is operated by the St. Georges School as a teaching vessel for some of their lucky students.
At a subsequent anchorage, Erik and Alyce came aboard Oso for a tour and conversation, and then we were subsequently invited aboard Geronimo for an opportunity to see the boat (which is impressively large) and meet the six students onboard (who are impressively mature).
The current crew of students are about halfway through a six-week cruise through the Bahamas. They learn to sail the boat, to operate as a coherent crew, and to live aboard in a small space (even a 70 footer is small when there are 9 folks onboard), all while keeping up with the same coursework as their shore bound classmates. Geronimo is currently on its way back to the US after a couple of years of school cruises in Greece, Italy, France and Spain in the western Mediterranean.
Summer break is approaching, so Erik and Alyce will return to the beautiful surroundings of Port Townsend, WA, for their second job – Left Coast Charters, a business running daysails on a gaff-rigged catboat. They’re real sailors, and it’s a pleasure to meet folks so dedicated to sailing.
