![Anchored in Blue Lagoon, Tonga [photo by Karin Venator from the top of s/v Aht’s 70-foot mast]](https://www.shanachie.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BlueLagoon-400x11401.jpg)
It was a notoriously stormy season during which El Niño wreaked havoc on the California coast. One of the last boats to escape out the harbor mouth over the annual sandbar that blocked the entrance in the days before dredging operations at the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor, Shanachie snuck out on a rare, still, glassy day December 26th, 1982 and set sail for the southern seas. Little did we know then that it would be nearly 17 years before Shanachie returned through the harbor entrance at Santa Cruz.
The rest of the story can be found in this website (see Building 1: 1979-1981 and Building 2: 1998-00).
In short, we sold Shanachie after nearly ten years of cruising, then bought her back six years later, and then pretty much did it all over again!
The following links are also accessible from the dropdown menu, above.
- Sailing 1: 1981-1992 tells the story of our first voyage sailing throughout the South Pacific.
- Sailing 2: 2004-05 tells the story of doing it again with our teenaged daughter.
- Sailing 3: Current is where and what Shanachie is doing now.