DreamKeeper Completes Her Lap

Sausalito sailors Gar Duke and Nicole Friend of the Pacific Seacraft 40 DreamKeeper had cause for celebration last week, as they crossed their outbound track in Banderas Bay, thus completing a four-year circumnavigation. "We don’t have that hanging over our heads anymore!" says Gar. They will soon start the long trek north to their old home at Sausalito’s Pelican Harbor, but don’t expect them before mid-summer.

When the couple headed west from Puerto Vallarta in the spring of ’07 on the 3,000-mile passage to French Polynesia, then both in their early 30s, they were some of the youngest Pacific Puddle Jumpers we’d ever reported on. Before they set sail, we interviewed them in Mexico and Nicole explained, "We believe in living life now and making the big adventures happen while we still have our health, drive and wonder.”

After completing the crossing they wrote, "We appreciated being on the ocean, witness to the power and beauty of the mighty Pacific and her changing faces. . .  Like many people, we had ups and downs throughout the passage. Some days we were in love with sailing and the thought of being out there for weeks. Other days we dreaded getting up for our morning watch, having had a sleepless, uncomfortable, sweaty night. Our emotions ranged from being elated and inspired to being melancholy and exhausted. Looking back on it now, we would both do it again.”

We wouldn’t be surprised if similar emotions were repeated again and again during their four-year cruise. Gar and Nicole’s ’10 feature article on Pirate Alley gave us first-hand insights into the prickly process of bringing a boat through the Gulf of Aden these days (See the June, 2010 edition of Latitude 38.) We look forward to hearing about more of their adventures — and sharing them with you, of course.