InHERitance: You remind me of....

Today I presented a talk to residents of an energetic and intellectually active retirement village near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. One of the top ten most influential teachers in my life, Peggy Givens, lives there now and invited me. Mrs. Givens was my eighth grade English teacher and when she moved on to be the junior/senior high school Librarian, I worked for her as a student helper. 

Between 30 and 40 people, both men and women, gathered to hear the talk as part of their weekly Coffee Klatch series. Graciously welcoming as I arrived, a dozen came to tell me they knew my grandfather, my grandma, my dad or my mom.... usually starting the conversation with "You remind me of ___".

During the hour long presentation, the audience's mention of these ancestors who had such profound impact on my life somehow brought their presence into the room.  It was as if those long dead, my grandparents and dad, were in the room, a life force still living. Through stories, phrases, specific words and certainly as evidence in my adventurous life like theirs, they live on. It's an inheritance more powerful than DNA. It's inheritance, or in my case, inHERitance.  

The group listened, fully engaged, laughing when I hoped they would and asking excellent questions until we ended punctually at 10.  Nearly a third of the group came up to thank me, to take pictures together, to inquire about the book or to tell me they connected with some of the stories. Their hugs and smiles conjured memories back fifty years.

Saturated with gratitude, every sense pulsed with the beat of my heart. Past was fully present. While the talk inspired them to reconnect to memories of their lives, travel and family it was clear that our shared memory made today... also connected us to each other. 

These profound connections and the sober awareness while it's happening is just like the owners I've met through my search for PAX truth.  Today, Finding PAX was a presentation. By the end of the year, it will be a book. 

OffCenterHarbor.com sets sail: Kaci one of 20 bloggers

When you get an invitation to be part of a brand new venture on the opposite side of the country, like Maine, you pause. When that invitation is from Benjamin Mendolwitz and includes Maynard Bray, plus three other guys with excellent and complimentary areas of expertise synergizing in Brooklin, Maine  (Steve Stone, Bill Maher and Eric Blake) you leap, not pausing for a second.  Because in that second, you might think, "Who, me?" and totally miss the chance to work with some of this nation's most prolific and beautiful creators of wooden boat books, calendars and now, video!  

This new venture is not just to focus attention to the latest greatest new genre (video) and does NOT sell ads. Instead, it's a call to sanity, a throw back or a throw forward, depending on where you stand, to authentic people presenting authentic "know-how" to boaters world-wide and online.  Sure, they use video, but they also love books, magazines and writing. And yes, there's a subscription fee ($29/year for unlimited access to tons of info!) but the mission is simple: inspiring the use of well-designed boats to connect with friends, family and the natural world. 

In addition to gorgeous, informative video about specific boats, boatbuilders and activities for families, there are topics on gear, maritime art, and blog topics written by 20 "expert" Guides.  I am honored to be included. As their token Okie (by birth) and one of the few who didn't grow up on the water and in boats, my perspective supports their mission by proving you don't have to be blueblood, or a New Englander, or fed sawdust since birth (no really, shipwrights are raised on it, LOL) to love, love, love wooden boats and get to write and talk about it. 

The focus of their website is about accessibility, about self-reliance, about beauty and the powerfully positive experience it is to be in a well-designed boat on the waters of the world.  Take a look!

Kaci nominated for PT Business Leader of the Year

First, I want to say a huge thanks to Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce for the honor! Second, huge congratulations to all the other nominees, as some of them clearly kick my butt with their business accomplishments.  Kris Nelson, especially stands out as a Thirty-Something generation home town gal who not only does "big" business in town, but serves on City Council.  A heroine for our times and despite all the things all the rest of us have done, and my sincere congratulations to the winner, Linda Lakush, Kris would have gotten my vote for the top honor this year. That's probably ageist, but so be it. At 50, I want to balance my cheers for my elders with the cheers to those coming along behind us.

Regarding my nomination, I am giddy with gratitude for the attention it brings to DECADES of work by Port Townsend marine trades and gigantically generous people who volunteer and businesses, Port leaders and Chamber volunteers who have always been vital to it's success.  Here's what I wrote to Fred Obee at the Port Townsend Leader when he emailed me with the news of my nomination.  I regret I couldn't be there in person to say it at the banquet, but I'd already booked a flight out before knowing anything at all about the banquet. 

 "The WBF Founders, the early Directors, Festival Coordinators and Volunteers are who should get this honor.  Their incredible vision, the generosity of Port Townsend people of all political persuasions, the skill contributed and committed to for decades in our marine trades, the cooperation and support of the Port of Port Townsend and the partnership with the City, the Leader, accommodations owners, neighbor businesses, PTPD, transportation, heck...even Goodman Sanitation! are why I fell in love with the Festival personally and why it was such an honor, such a dream job for ten years.  Certainly my international experience and passion for making the event richer in every way possible for people attending, my deep respect for the traditions of those who'd created before me and for the visitors was where my previous experience contributed most, but without the wooden boat owners year round contributions and without the local marine trades and Port keeping our town "authentic" we could never have accomplished the reputation in the world we have.  Through the festival a wooden boat found me and now, without the full-time job as director, I'm writing my first book called Finding PAX.  Pax is the 1936 Danish spidsgatter that came into my life on a windy day at Cupola House and I will be aboard her the entire Festival this year with owners from near 8 decades of her life.   Forever a fan of wooden boats, my passion and support continue for the Festival, Port Townsend's Port and marine trades and the impact this makes on people worldwide. Thank you so much for the honor.   Kaci Cronkhite"

Lost @ Long Beach: article for Wood Hull Yacht Club

Seeking Owners & Info about Danish Spidsgatter FIRECREST 1960-1974  (aka Pax since 1976)
by Kaci Cronkhite for Wood Hull Yacht Club newsletter, Los Angeles, California January/February 2012

How the heck this all started
I sailed around the world on a plastic double-ender, finishing that six year westabout circumnavigation in Port Townsend, Washington, August 2001. A month later, I hopped a ferry from Friday Harbor to attend the Wooden Boat Festival and the morning of my return trip, planes hit the World Trade Center towers.  The culture shock of returning to America from a world voyage was compounded that morning exponentially.  Staring at the television coverage, hugging strangers, talking to family daily for the first time in nearly a decade, life changed. Love of the ocean married my former love of wilderness and together, that ultimately led me to wooden boats.

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Capes of Hope (originally published @ 48 North)

Capes are the poetic points of continents—landmarks of legends. The focus of fears and goals to reach. Capes are the summits of our sailing souls.  Kaci Cronkhite

 by Kaci Cronkhite (Published 2003, 48 North Magazine)

 When I doubled The Cape, Africa's southern most point, with Nancy Erley and her Port Townsend built Orca 38, Tethys, I could breathe like I was on my way down from 18,000 feet. Every fiber in my body was happy. I could taste relief and it was sweet. At 1120 (local time) on April 10, 2000, we watched the GPS course count down to zero miles to go, then project a northbound heading for our first time since crossing the equator in the Maldives, halfway behind us in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Nancy's hair stopped turning gray. Tethys kicked up her 19-ton heels. We laughed louder than the wind for the first time in months and slapped hands and pounded the cockpit teak. Our gale force headwind moved abeam and Cape Seals leapt through our wake chasing us toward Cape Town, 125 miles north.

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