It is not like we just bought a sailboat and sailed out on the ocean. Sailing has been a step by step progression which started when we were very young and grew with one boat after another.

The first sailboat we owned was an 11 ft. moth class, which had been found in pieces on the shore of Lake Friant. It was taken home and rebuilt when we still lived in Atwater back in the early 60’s.

It was sailed on Lake Yosemite and sunk many times because it leaked badly and we had not acquired the knowledge of keeping a boat afloat. Come to think of it, we are still having trouble keeping some boats afloat because different boats have different problems.

Our next sailboat came along in the late 70’s and was a Snipe class sailboat of 16 feet. We raced it every Thursday night in the summer for 20 years. While it did not sink, it did turn over regularly when the winds got heavy and our sailing ability was not what it should be.

It was not until 1994 that we stepped up to the bigger boat class, when our brother was working in San Francisco and called to say he had found the perfect bay boat. It was a Buccaneer, built by Bayliner in the 70’s. Yes, Bayliner actually built sailboats for ten years but it failed to fine the market it was looking for and gave up the venture, sticking to the manufacture of power boats.

During it’s ten year history of sailboat building, Bayliner conducted a survey of sailors asking them what would they like to see in the perfect boat. The answers were combined in building the Buccaneer.

It had standing headroom, a galley, could sleep 6 in a pinch, had a porta-pottie and was very stable under sail. Plus it was trailerable and easy to launch in fairly shallow water.

The owner of this particular Buccaneer had owned it nineteen years and the only reason he was giving it up was because he had had a stroke and no longer could raise the sail. The purchase price was reasonable at $3,500 so we formed a partnership with our brother to purchase the boat as is, in its slip at Alameda Marina.

This was truly the start of our blue water sailing. It was a wonderful starter boat and the three of us, my brother, my wife and I, sailed all over the San Francisco Bay and then headed out of the bay to such places as Stockton.

The boat was not fast, but it made up for that with stability and low cost maintenance. During the next four years we made several upgrades to improve its sailing ability, like having the motor professionally repaired so it would always start in an emergency.

Those were wonderful years and took us closer to the day when we would sail out of San Francisco Bay and south to Mexico, however it would not be on the Buccaneer because even at 24 feet it was still not what would be called a “Blue Water Cruiser”.

The Blue Water Cruser was bought in 1998 when we found the Day Dreamer, built by Challenger in 1975, a 13,000 pound sailboat with off shore sailing capability and instruments like radar and navigation equipment.

Since we really didn’t need two sailboats in San Francisco Bay, we decided to trailer the Buccaneer down to Mexico. It was an excellent boat for the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of Mexico) and we had great times sailing and fishing from it.

The following year we decided to sail the Day Dreamer all the way from San Francisco to Bahia Conception Mexico a trip which took 32 days at sea with stops in La Paz and Cabo San Lucas.

For the next five years, The Day Dreamer was what we sailed in Mexico when we traveled south and the Buccaneer waited its turn “on the hard”.

There is nothing worse than a sailboat “on the hard” it is so forlorn. It looks like it wants to be on water but for some reason can not be.

Eventually the Buccaneer would have its day. After many years in Mexican waters, the Day Dreamer had deteriorated from the sun and water. It had been damaged by a hurricane which tore a hole in the keel and salt water had backed up the engine manifold, forcing an overhaul.

In 2004 we sailed the Day Dreamer back to San Francisco Bay and launched the Buccaneer once more in the Sea of Cortez, whoever to cut down on damage we pulled it out of the ocean during the summer hurricane season and only sailed it in the winter.

It sails again this winter having had its own series of events which were near disasters. One year it came close to sinking as the wind blew it onto a rocky shore. In storms it had broken loose of its mooring only to be chased down and salvaged before serious damage could be done.

It’s fiberglass has been patched more than once and rigging and sails repaired, but it sails on with the vigor of a old man with a new knee.

The old Buccaneer continues to serve us well in Mexican waters waiting to have its sails hoisted and head out to sea.