A SORCERER'S APPRENTICE — ALL PHOTOS FERNANDO ROSERO
I
was not born into the sailing world, unlike many of the people I know, respect, and sail with. Sailing weaved its web around me when I was not really looking. Bill Lee and the legend of Merlin, a Bill Lee Custom 68, circulate in the Santa Cruz air still to this day. You don't have to look hard to find people who know and have sailed with Bill Lee. Some even raced on Merlin in '77 when she shattered the Transpac Race record, which she then held for 20 years. The "Fast is Fun" motto for all Bill Lee Santa Cruz boats is known worldwide. Around 2017, Bill brought Merlin back from the Great Lakes and outfitted her for another Transpac race. I got to see her in the harbor several times and often wondered what it would be like to be at the helm. I could close my eyes and see myself surfing down the waves on Merlin, flying along with California behind me, heading toward the setting sun. By this time, I was hooked on sailing and had bought and sold a Catalina 27 in San Mateo, and was sailing a 1990 Ericson 32. My Santa Cruz 52 dreams would have to wait for a winning lottery ticket, but I vowed one day I would ring that bell. Sailing on San Francisco Bay in the summer was not like my classes in Santa Cruz. Over the course of a few years sailing with friends, I learned the finer points of Bay sailing and racing. Actively participating on as many boats as I could, I felt my skills were finally becoming more honed. My confidence grew as I learned that I was capable of sailing in some of the most difficult conditions. Each time out on the water, I would test myself and the boat, and catalog the experience to draw upon in the future. Dana Foley at the helm for the sunset watch.
My desire to dig deeper into this vein of sailing blood that I had tapped into was starting to burn like a fire. In the Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge was like a line in the sand. On the other side was the open ocean. Outside the Gate there was the Great Pacific. I wondered what one might find out there. When all that matters is the wind and your course, is the world a simpler place? Apparently, the cure for sailing is more sailing. I surmised that if I wanted to do bigger and badder sailing things, I needed to get more involved at my local yacht clubs and get onto boats. I wanted offshore, I wanted Transpac. I wanted Pac Cup. The more time you spend sailing, the more sailing people you meet. The more you drop your name into the hat for crewing for a team, the greater the chances you will improve your skills and become good crew. After getting on several racing boats inshore and offshore, I somehow decided that, in addition to racing on S.F. Bay, maybe I could squeeze in a couple more days of racing by hitting the Santa Cruz Yacht Club beer can races. Made a few calls, sent a few emails, and boom, I was on a J/105 in Santa Cruz, teamed with a guy I'd met on a Shearwater Sailing charter. The internet is awesome. A bit more reviewing online, and I came across something that made my heart skip a beat. "Need capable crew for Transpac delivery. Bringing back Merlin from Honolulu to San Pedro." As my heart rebooted, I went through a quick calculation of what that would require. Considerations including house, kids, bills, car, job, other extenuating circumstances. I did see some challenges ahead, but maybe the time was ripe to push that button. The more I thought about it, the clearer it became. I contacted the delivery skipper. The text message read, "I'm not green but I'm not a professional." I sure could have done a better job about sounding more appealing, but I was just riding this wave the universe sent my way. We had a phone conversation and discussed the basics, general plan and timeline. We agreed to move to the next level. Time to see if this could be real. Some emails and phone calls revealed green light after green light. More calls and conversations, and that was that. The planets aligned, and with the support of family, friends, bosses and neighbors, this was about to happen. I was going to Hawaii with five other people to bring back one of the most iconic
sailboats in the history of all sailboats. Captain Don Ratcliffe, our fearless skipper, a veteran of circumnavigating the world and with tens of thousands of sea miles, sent out the official briefing: Fly out Wednesday from San Jose to Honolulu, fix, fuel and provision the boat for the return trip, and leave Friday. We had six crew members. We would work in teams of two; watch schedule would be on a rotating three hours on, six off. The skipper's best friend, Edwin Mabie, was our first mate and his right-hand man — together, they have sailed more miles than most yacht club members' mileage combined. The rest of the crew was made up of two female sailors, Dana Foley and Lydia Tuuletar, Mike Tocalino, an active coastal racer from SCYC, and me. The lady sailors were veterans themselves with tens of thousands of passage miles. Dana, while still in college, has more miles than one could dream for her age and demonstrates a level of seamanship that would make sailing parents proud. Lydia is a sailing junkie who would sail a carbon fiber bathtub using a Kevlar patio umbrella if it would go fast enough. Mike, our coastal racer, was like me, an unknown. With airline tickets purchased and a firm plan, it was time to put the adventure into gear. Pack, check, repack, recheck. Do not need this, need this, don't need that. Wait, how does this all fit? Time to go. Don, Ed, Mike and I met at the airport. Dana was already in Honolulu, and Lydia was flying out separately from the East Coast. We all made our paths to Merlin in the Ala Wai Harbor, and by Wednesday night, all except Lydia were having dinner at the Hawaii Yacht Club. Some flight issues were slowing her down, but not for long. By the time Lydia arrived, we had already received a briefing from the race team on the status of all systems. There was a list of repairs, there were tasks to be completed, there were parts needed, not to mention provisions. Our little team was forming, and we were all trying to figure out what everyone's strengths and weaknesses were so we could attack our issues with great effectiveness. The skipper called us together, and lined out the action items, the teams, and the plan, and with that, the Merlin Transpac delivery crew for 2023 was born. There was a lot of work to do and not a lot of time. Inverter issues were making Starlink an issue. Some concerns with battery-charging as well as