Manna Crew

Natana Left, Julie Right

We are the crew of Manna.  Curtis, Julie, Natana, & Bryce, in order of age, not importance!  We have been boating in the Salish Sea (Northwest Washington, Canada, and Alaska) for over 25 years.  Our home port is Ketchikan, AK.

Bryce

Curtis or just Captain DD

Julie and I started out with a 20' power boat, cruising and diving the waters around the Northwest many years ago B.C. (before children).  We learned to sail together, and after kids came along, decided to trade our powerboat in for our first sailboat Makai, a 1988 Hunter 28.  The kids loved the water as much as we did and we spent every summer unplugged cruising around the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands.

Our beloved Makai



Not sure that is they way life jackets go on...

Not fair ramming to win!

As the kids grew to about 10 years old we realized they could not share the "v-berth" (a cushion in the bow of the main cabin) much longer.  We also wanted to venture further north into Canada for extended cruises.  So we sold our much loved Makai and found Consort.

Consort took us many new places

Consort, a 1984 Beneteau First 35, was a great performance cruiser.  Although designed for racing in 1984 it would be considered too heavy for today's racing standards.  For us it was perfect and forgiving as it taught us new aspects of rough weather sailing out of sight of land.  We extended our summer cruising north into Canada visiting amazing places in Desolation Sound and Princess Louisa Inlet.

Although driven in by a storm, Loved Princess Louisa Inlet

Consort also gave us lots of experience in upgrading, maintenance, and repairs!  With lots of sweat and visits to marine stores we turned an old club racer into a very comfortable 2 week+ cruiser rarely needing to visit a dock for the occasional fuel and water fill up.






Now the "kids" are graduated in college or nearing graduation and planning for college.  So Julie and I resurrected our dream of living on a sailboat and pursuing offshore cruising and hope the kids will join us as much as possible.  Oddly the banks would not give us money to buy an offshore live aboard boat when we were first married... go figure!  Although it was not for lack of trying!



Chatterbox Falls

If you made it this far in reading you have journeyed with us for 25 years... considering 25 years that was not too hard to read, was it?  Over the last 2 years, while looking for our floating get away, we sold Consort first, for about half what we had in her, but that is boating!  Sold the house next, which the bankers were happy to loan us money for 20+ years ago and we are thankful for now! 

After 3 years of serious looking we decided on Manna and purchased her in September 2016.  Manna was the first boat we named.  It worked out great since there was no name on the stern.  We chose the name since it represents God's daily providing for the Israelites for 40 years wandering in the wilderness.  Like the Israelites we will look to God for providence daily wherever we wander!








We are taking it day by day as we go through the process of upgrading and replacing maintenance items on Manna while we enjoy the occasional overnight winter sail.  Our hope is to head south for the winter later this year and spend some time around Southern California in the fall of 2017 and into winter of 2018.  But... If there is one thing we have learned from sailing it is a sailors' plans are written in the sand!

      - January 2017



Sucia Island anchorage