The Pia Connection

   Pia is a sailboat. Read about her story (and her amazing owner) here. We met both of them one night in Port Townsend, or I should say, we met both of them one windy night in Port Townsend.
   Earlier that day my friends and I left Lake Washington in Seattle aboard a 26' Thunderbird sailboat. We were crew on the sailboat, delivering and racing her over Labor Day weekend in Port Townsend. The day started out like this - 

   The winds were steady and, although they were against us, didn't seem to slow us down that much...at first. As we headed north in the Admiralty Inlet we started to notice that we weren't making that good of time as the waves picked up a bit.

   As we got closer and closer to our destination, it became apparent that we probably wouldn't make it by night fall. We could see the town in the distance but had to battle the wind and wave after wave on our bow, our little outboard doing the best she could.

   Luckily we were on the south side of the town, 'protected' in Port Townsend Bay. Imagine what was going on in the Strait (of Juan de Fuca) just around the corner! The picture and video above is the last footage I took before we eventually made it safely into the marina, where we still had to battle the wind to dock our little T-bird.
   That night we awoke to the sounds of the lift - we had heard that some folks had rescued a sailboat that had sent a mayday call earlier in the evening, around the time we were coming over. It turns out the boat had been punctured on a nearby island and was taking on major water. The word was they were trying to reach Port Townsend from the other side, they had engine trouble, couldn't sail, and got blown up against some rocks. The Coast Guard had also been called in to rescue some boaters in a different boat (a powerboat) who had capsized in the very same waters.
   We eventually went back to sleep and awoke the next morning to lighter winds and a busy marina as the T-birds & crew prepared for a day of racing.

   The sailboat that had gotten rescued was Pia. We walked over to the yard to find Pia and see the damage.

   We said hi to the owner, who introduced himself as 'Mench'. He told us the story, how he was a boat builder and had brought Pia back to life. He thought he had lost her last night. He vowed to bring her back to life yet again (read about that amazing story here). It's an amazing little tale of dedication and perseverance, we were equally sorry it had happened and blessed that we could be connected in a little way to such a story. Good luck Aho'i!
   ~Paul, Josh   ETC