Our Boat

When we first saw our Golden Gate 30 sloop tied up at the dock at the Fort Rachel Marina in Mystic, Connecticut, she reminded us of the Joad family’s truck on the road to California in the Grapes of Wrath.

A life raft was secured in front of the mast.  A half dozen diesel cans were secured at various points around the deck, and a Monitor self-steering hung from her stern.  Her teak had gone white .  It was clear this was a serious sea boat, despite her modest size.

Below decks, she was a home.  There was the warmth of wood and of book lined shelves on both sides of the cabin.  Music poured forth from the stereo. 

Her owner had sailed her around the world from her birthplace on San Francisco Bay to Mystic, by way of Australia, mostly single-handed.

It was love at first sight.  She was everything we wanted – a boat we could sail and cruise on for several years, then do some serious long-distance voyaging in the future.  After a short period for negotiating, test sailing and a survey, she was ours.

We changed her name from World Citizen to Fiontar, the Irish word for adventure, and she became just that – a constant adventure, sometimes incredibly wonderful, sometimes incredibly awful.

We sailed to Bermuda with Jack, her previous owner, the next summer and then spent the next 25 years cruising the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Virginia.  We based ourselves in Long Island Sound, the Chesapeake, Cape May and Salem, Massachusetts before settling in Hampton Virginia in 2008. 

Fiontar, to us, had become what Paris was to Papa Hemingway – a moveable feast.