By Peder —

We took the ferry from Friday Harbor to Anacortes, and at 11:00am we met up with longboat Captain Michael and Mate Chrissy from the Northwest Maritime Center and saw a longboat for the first time. The first thing I thought was, “I am not going to survive!” The boat seemed really small for 12 people.

Photo by Chrissy McLean

We quickly got busy with setting up the boat, getting our stuff in dry bags, making dinner, setting up navigation charts, and arranging sleeping quarters.

We learned a lot about boat orientation. We learned what port and starboard are. Starboard is the right side and port is the left. We learned about the masts. There is the mizzen mast, the main mast and the foremast.

We rowed around the harbor to and from the marina boat house. We made dinner. We had pasta with an artesian sauce. We then had a meeting about shore calls and how the sleeping would he arranged. We unpacked the boat in about an hour and had it set up for sleep in about 45mins—yes, we slept in the boat. Before sleeping, Michael the captain told us a story about the tides. We then fell asleep as the boat rocked gently against the lapping waves.

Photo by Chrissy McLean