June 11, 2003
RUNNING THE "TRAP LINE"

Many years ago we sailed into Salt Spring Island, near Vancouver, Canada, to visit our friends Charlie and Ruth. We were exchanging sea stories over cocktails when some of their neighbors dropped in. Over introductions we explained we had met Charlie and Ruth aboard their yacht ASTROCYTE when we were all in Durban, South Africa, in 1968, and we had kept in touch through the intervening years. In fact, we were pressing on the next day to Friday Harbor to see good friends, and then to Port Townsend, Poulsbo, Bremerton, and Seattle where we also had long term cruising friends. "Oh," said the neighbor, "I get it--sortta like running a trap line!"

Well, that concept has stuck with us. Over the past few months we have been traveling away from SUNFLOWER, and "running our trap line" of family and friends. It had been 4 years since we had seen our family in the States. Our brothers and sisters are quite scattered across the United States, and we realized we could also see some long time friends during our lengthy visit in the States. So we bought a used car to make the circuit.

One of our planned stops was the Annual Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) Party. I was asked to participate as a panelist in the Women's Forum. One of my topics was "Making and Keeping Long Term Friends." I failed to see this as an issue, because when you are cruising, making friends is super easy. Cruisers will always tell you that it is the people they meet along the way--both afloat and ashore--that are the real treasures of this lifestyle. But you have to put a lot of effort into keeping those friends. Communication is the key here. Over the years I spent many hours writing letters, sending news, mailing cards, letters and photos at Christmas. Now, with E-mail, contacts are far easier and far more consistent for keeping up with everybody. The result is that we had a wonderful "trap line" of friends all around the United States, (and elsewhere) many of whom we hadn't seen in years. AND YEARS!!

Even a few from the time before we even went sailing on our first boat BACCHUS. Like:

Bruce and Cecilia--who was our school nurse when I first started teaching. I was in their wedding in 1966! Hadn't seen them in 20 years.

Mark and Celia--another teacher from the same school, same era. Two years ago we had our first reunion in 30 years when they visited Malaysia and we got together. We visited others we had met during our early cruising years aboard BACCHUS.

Frank and Margaret--Americans who were living in Rio De Janiero. Margaret sends us a hand made Christmas ornament each season; I call them my "Merry Margarets".

Jim and Janet--met them when we had just finished our circumnavigation and they picked our brain for "how to's" as they were just about to set off on their first cruise.

And plenty of people we have met all around the world while cruising in SUNFLOWER:

Frank and Barbara, Sam and Lucy--from Indonesia circa 1979, then Florida in the early 80's, and hadn't seen them in 13 years.

Carl and Jeanne, and Sue--all circumnavigators living in Florida now, but buddies since we were all together in Papua New Guinea, in 1978.

Jerry and Wendy--who almost bought BACCHUS before we met them in Florida in 1984!

Jay and Miri, Jeanne K, Rick and Shelia--we crossed the Atlantic and cruised in the Mediterranean together.

Steve and Linda, their daughters Sarah and Elyse, met in the Solomons when the girls were 6 and 8--now all grown up with family and careers of their own!

Well, I could go on, but you get the idea. The fact of the matter being that none of our reunions would have happened if we had not been keeping in touch with these people over the years, and they in turn with us. Communication of this sort has to work both ways. We still get a thrill to see their letters arrive in the post, or their names on the list in the Email InBox. And when they sign off with "Love," we know they really mean it.

Now we are back aboard SUNFLOWER and in Malaysia again. We are meeting and greeting our cruising friends who also hang around this neck of the woods. We are getting to know a new set of cruisers too--those who just arrived this season and will be around us during the year. We know that many of them will be (or already are) candidates for the extension of our "Trap Line."