8/3/2019 November 16, 2011 Kaleidescope:Kidding Around the Pacific

1/2

Fast forward to 2008, 10 years later, nowwith two children, Maya (8) and Kai (7) andfully enmeshed in our land life here in HoodRiver. Tim reminds me of our marital vow,our dream of living on the ocean, ourpromise that our children would experiencethe world and not just read about it inbooks. He reminds me of the family we had

met that had inspired our promise; they hadsailed from Washington to Pitcairn Islandand the three childrens strength, confi-dence and knowledge of the world im-pressed us so much that we wanted to do thesame.

We searched for a proper sailboat andfound a Stevens 50 that had just completed acircumnavigation. Most people take years toprepare their vessels for offshore sailing,but we didnt want to wait. Fortunately, thisboat was basically ready to sail. Within twomonths, we rented our home, stashed allour things, sold our cars and quit our jobs.

Our voyage began on Sept. 8, 2008, whenwe sailed Kamaya, named for our children,under the San Francisco Golden GateBridge and veered south down the coast ofCalifornia. We anticipated being gone forone year. Instead, we slipped away for threeyears, logged more than 15,000 miles, sailedto 17 different countries and crossed the en-tire Pacific Ocean, all the way to Australia.

The first year, we stuck close to land,weaving our way down the west coast ofMexico to the isthmus of Panama. Ourlearning curve was steep. We learned howto sail our boat in all conditions. We learnedhow to be together 24/7. We learned how towork as a team; an essential skill, especiallyat crucial moments like entering a channelscattered with coral reefs or flying a spin-naker (the colorful balloon-like sail) whenthe wind suddenly increases, requiring allhands on deck to douse the chute (colloquialfor spinnaker).

We met many other boat families from allover the world. Instead of using a cellphoneto contact friends, Maya and Kai calledtheir friends on our VHF radio and theydswim or kayak to each others boats. We

worked with marine biologist releasingbaby turtles back to the sea, saw humpbackwhales breach high into the air, and spokeSpanish.

Hurricane season dictated our schedule.In the Eastern Pacific, from mid-May untilthe beginning of November, boats need to beeither south of Costa Rica or North of Baja,Mexico. Although protected from hurri-canes, Panama still has lightning storms, sowe chose to hole up in Ecuador for the sea-

son.Thats the beauty of sailing. We can haul

up our anchor, sail to a different country,but still sleep in the same bed at night. Liv-ing on a boat is similar to running a smallcity, where we obtain electricity primarilyfrom our solar panels; convert salt waterinto fresh drinking water, fish for food, and

school our children. Similar to a city, a boatalso requires constant maintenance and re-pairs.

During the first year, we realized that liv-ing on the ocean was significantly less ex-pensive than living on land, and less thanhalf of what we had budgeted. We didnthave any of the usual land bills, like cellphones, electricity, car insurance and

garbage. Moreover, because we sailed every-where, our diesel bill and carbon footprintwas small. We were living with less lessspace, less electricity, less fresh water, lessclothes and less toys; but we were having somuch more more time together as a fami-ly, more experiences with nature, more free-

dom to come and go, and a more intense, yetsimpler life.

We were hooked, just like the giantWahoo that we caught along the way. Allfour of us were eager to continue and sailacross the Pacific Ocean. The decision tomake the Big Crossing meant that we wouldbe gone for at least one more year and prob-ably two.

Our friends and family encouraged us tocontinue. The economy is horrible, they

told us. Theres no reason to come back tothe states yet. My dad, who dreamed ofsailing across the ocean, but never did, con-curred. Keep going, he told me. We loveliving vicariously.

Tim and I had sailed to Tahiti before wehad kids and we knew the dangers and de-mands of long passages. Being far awayfrom land and far away from immediatehelp requires us to be extra prepared andself-sufficient. Our boat could handle theocean; we just needed to be prepared for ahuge ocean passage.

In January 2010, after living three monthsin mainland Ecuador, we returned to Pana-ma, to provision for months at sea as well asdo last-minute repairs. On our sail fromCosta Rica to Panama, lightning struck ourboat, ruining our radar and chart plotter, so

we needed to replace the instruments. Weinstalled new solar panels, fixed our dieseltank and chiseled away at the endless boatchores.

We left Panama in mid-February andsailed 953 miles to the Galapagos Islands.This was our longest passage thus far. Longpassages require that someone stands watchduring the day and night to trim sails andavoid collisions with tankers, fishing nets,reefs or any other obstacles in our path.Contrary to what some people think, its notpossible to anchor in the middle of theocean.

As Maya and Kai got older, they stoodwatch as well, relieving Tim and me fromour three-hours-on/three-hours-off routine

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 B1

Inside: B3, HappeningsI B5, YesteryearsI B6, NeighborsI B7, Maija Yasui, Parkdale ne

We anticipated being gone for one year.

slipped away for three years, logged mo

15,000 miles, sailed to 17 different co

crossed the entire Pacific Ocean, all t

Australia... living each day to its fulle

the freedom of hauling up anchor and ch

Kidding aroundStory and photos by

RUTH BERKOWITZFor the Hood River News

Kiddin

g around

On May 29, 1998, at our wedding, Tim and I promised each other

that when we had kids and they were old enough to swim well

and remember experiences, we would take them sailing on a boat

in the biggest ocean in the world, the Pacific Ocean. It wasnt

going to be a mere day sail in San Francisco Bay where I grew

up, but a huge adventure sailing to Mexico and beyond.

I

See more:Read the full month-by-month blog and see photos from across the Pacific

and aboard the Kamaya at ww.svkamaya.blogspot.com.

ADVENTURES ON THE BIG BLUE: Aboard the Kamaya (top), the Berkowitz family left their HoodRiver home and spent three years sailing around the Pacific. Above, Maya snorkels with manta rays inFrench Polynesia; and below, moments include the family spending quality time together with gianttortoises in the Galapagos; Tim and Maya kiteboard together in Tonga; Kai catches a flying fish; snor-keling in Tonga and Tim lands a tasty Wahoo.

Please see JOURNEY, Page B2

8/3/2019 November 16, 2011 Kaleidescope:Kidding Around the Pacific

2/2

through the night. Sailing atnight can be one of the mostpeaceful times, especiallywhen a full moon lights upthe ocean and dolphins joinus, spreading phosphores-cent fairy dust trails in thewater.

Sailing at night can alsobe one of the scariest times,like it was on the seventhand last day of our passageto the Galapagos. Lightningflashed in the distance, rainblinded the horizon and galeforce winds hissed away.

The day after we reachedSan Cristobal, in the Galapa-gos, our friends hailed usearly in the morning, Ka-maya, Kamaya theres atsunami. We need to leavethe anchorage immediately.I thought I was dreaming.The 8.8 magnitude Chileanearthquake had struckhours earlier, triggeringtsunami warnings in the Pa-

cific. We went back out tosea safe from the gigantictsunami waves; however,those on land had a surge ofwater rush out, but nothinghuge and devastating like itwas in Chile.

Being in the Galapagos forsix weeks was one of thehighlights of our journey. Atmy favorite anchorage, IslaIsabela, penguins, black-tipped reef sharks, sea lionsand marine iguanas swamaround and under our boat.Sometimes the sea lionseven jumped onto peoplesboats, especially catama-rans, which they could easi-ly access.

We studied Charles Dar-win and evolution, walkedin the wild with the gianttortoises and had time to ab-sorb the uniqueness of theGalapagos.

Our longest offshore pas-sage was 3,000 miles fromthe Galapagos Islands toFrench Polynesia. It took us16 days before we sited landin Fatu Hiva, the Marque-sas. Twicea day, weused ourSSB (singleside band)radio tocheck inwith the

25-plusboats sail-ing acrossat thesame time.We ob-tained oneanotherslatitudeand longi-tude posi-tions, dis-cussed wind and current in-formation and consultedabout boat repairs or anyother problems. Eventhough we didnt see any ofthe boats, just knowing thatwe werent alone on the bigocean gave us s ecurity.

The remote islands in theSouth Pacific host abundantsea life, the most spectacularbeing the South Pass ofFakarava in the Tuamotus.This was Mayas favoriteplace, not only because wehappened to share the an-chorage with 22 other boatkids, but also because theatoll is full of sharks, 5-footNapoleon fish and colorfulcoral reef fish. A burgeon-ing marine biologist, Mayacould identify most of thesea creatures and spenthours studying them in thewater.

We finished the secondyear in New Zealand, againneeding to be in a place safefrom hurricanes. We facedgale force winds during our1,050-mile sail from Tonga toNew Zealand, but by now wewere experienced oceansailors and didnt suffermuch damage; unlike a fewof the boats that sailed withus.

One 57-foot catamarancapsized when the windssuddenly increased. Anotherboat tragically lost a crewmember who fell overboardduring his night shift, neverto be found. Two other boatswe knew sank after hitting acoral reef.

In this third year, Mayaand Kai attended school inAuckland, New Zealand, forthree months. They learnedto speak like a Kiwi, usingwords like jandols, bach-

es and capsicum, hadmorning tea at school andeven ate a little marmite forbreakfast.

Realizing that good thingsmust end and recognizingthat our kids had becometrue boat kids, independent,creative and self sufficient,we decided it was time tosell Kamaya, go back towork and embrace whatland has to offer.

We put Kamaya up forsale in New Zealand, but be-cause the country has moresheep per capita than peo-ple, we werent successfuland decided to continue toAustralia, a country that has

avoided a recession becauseof its mineral wealth.In May 2011, we left Auck-

land, New Zealand, andsailed to Australia the longway via Fiji, Vanuatu andNew Caledonia. Fijis softcoral reefs with their bril-liant yellows and purplessurpassed expectations;however, seeing some of thereefs destroyed by both glob-

al warmingand the prolif-ic Crown ofThornsstarfish thateats the coralis a harsh re-minder of thefragility of ourocean.

Vanuatu isthe least-devel-oped countryweve everbeen to and ap-propriatelydubbed one ofthe happiestcountries inthe world. Itsactive volcano

on the island of Tannaspews hot lava into the air,putting on the most amazingfireworks display ever, butwhen the wind shifts to thewest black ash rains on theanchorage and all over theboat, signaling that it was

time to continue to NewCaledonia.

Sailing around the worldas a family was not our goal,but its on my bucket listonce our world is safer. Un-fortunately, right now itstoo dangerous to circumnav-igate via Egypts SuezCanal. This year, Somali pi-rates kidnapped one sailingfamily from Denmark andkept them hostage for sixmonths, before finally re-leasing them for a $3 millionransom. Also this year, pi-rates seized another sail-boat, Quest, killing the fourAmericans on board.

So for us, our journey is

sadly over and our maritalpromise fulfilled. Kamaya isnow for sale in Brisbane,Australia, awaiting anotherfamily to live their dream.We had an amazing threeyears kidding around thePacific, living each day to itsfullest, and enjoying thefreedom of hauling up ouranchor and changing coun-tries. We lived with Less, butwe had so much More.

To read more about the Ka-maya Voyage, see www.svkamaya.blogspot.com andstay tuned for a publicslideshow.

B2 Hood River News, Wednesday, November 16, 2011

JOURNEYContinued from Page B1

Photos from Ruth Berkowitz

UNFORGETTABLEmoments across the planets largest ocean include snorkeling with giantmanta rays, mingling with locals, a lot of time hanging around the ship; and, bottom, familytime in friendly foreign lands.