Where WhimSea Takes Us

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Having sailed the big water for a season Troy and I discovered the wonders of big water sailing and the drawbacks of driving four hours with a trailer sailor to enjoy the water. Though we loved our boat, Bucephalus, we were finding that long cruises were difficult in her. We came to the conclusion that we needed a bigger boat.

In 2002, we began a fervent search for a newer, bigger, boat. We made a few excursions to look at various boats including a CT in Chicago, IL, a Bayfield in Clearwater, MI, and a Cabo Rico 38 in Superior, WI. In 2003, we made the long trek to Michigan to look at two 40' O'Days. One in Muskegan, MI and the other in Charlevoix, MI. This trip would result in a circumnavigation of Lake Michigan and would be a 28 hour round trip trek.

We loaded up the jeep and headed on our way. The boats were relatively similar, having been built only a year apart. In order to make it easier to distinguish between the boats, we began to refer to them as the red boat and the blue boat, as their dodger and sail covers were red and blue. The day was beautiful and sunny, the traffic good and the trip went quickly. We fell in love with the first boat (the red one), but wanting to keep an open mind, looked at the blue one as well. After seeing the blue boat we knew we were right to fall in love with the red boat, and it was love at first sight. Though she was on the hard, covered with snow and cold, we knew we were a perfect fit for each other. We were so excited about the boat that we decided against stopping and getting a hotel for the evening and continued our circumnavigation through the night, not stopping until we reached home.

After some negotiation and agreement was reached, our Bucephalus cleaned up and delivered to the new owners, and a search began for a marina to hold our new ship, scheduled to arrive in April. We talked to a number of the Minnesota marina's in the Duluth area before settling on the Spirit Lake Marina. Under the new management of Jim and Judy King, the Spirit Lake Marina is a thriving boating community located on the St. Louis River.

While we awaited the arrival of our new boat, we searched for the perfect name. We finally settled on Whim Sea. To us, it fit our style of approaching things. Much of what we do is done on a whim, including our first trip to Lake Superior. Coupling the Whim with Sea connected the whim with our love of the big blue water of Lake Superior.

In April of 2003, the Whim Sea arrived at the marina. We drove up to see her immediately. Since it was close to the start of the season, the marina had left her in the travel lift slings. We climbed aboard her, opened cupboards, opened doors, laid on her berths, bounced on the salon, and generally wished that she had been splashed down and the mast was up.