My kiddos are now ages 3 and 1. During this kid-centric season of life, I find special value in the seemingly-rare opportunities to top up my boat-love tanks. A month ago, I got to do that with a week of summertime cruising in the islands leading the 48° North Cruising Rally. This month, it was all about fabulously fun events: first the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival and then the Boats Afloat Show on Lake Union. There’s even a little cherry on top of those… for that, you’ll have to read on. All of this reinforced my good fortune to be raising children in the community of Pacific Northwest boat folk.

In our increasingly digital world, tangible, interactive, analog gatherings provide something precious. The chance to stand aboard a vessel—whether a new build or a historic schooner—gives us so much more than an article, photo, or video could. It’s like turning a camera’s aperture ring to infinity and seeing the adventurous possibilities near and far emerge from blurry bokeh into tack-sharp focus. You may think you’re developing daydreams from the comfort of an armchair, but you really haven’t known dreams until you’re on the boat you think may take you away. Nonetheless, the community that assembles is what takes these boaty get-togethers from useful to uncommon.

The Wooden Boat Festival was smashing, as ever. History and tradition are parts of the draw that keeps it North America’s largest of its kind, but year-over-year consistency is punctuated by plenty of fresh new (often old) boats to ogle, inspiring stories to digest, and clever techniques to learn. The grandeur of the large vessels that have 100th birthdays in their wakes, the polished sheen of the smaller labor-of-love home builds or resurrections, the stout ocean-goers that remind middle-aged me that many fellow boaters knew a time when wood was the only viable material from which to build boats for even the most epic voyages—it all makes Festival one of a kind. These boats endure, and so does the knowledge to build and maintain them, as well as the endless horizons one can chase on a wooden boat. Still, each Festival’s primary gift is the gathering of such remarkable people—the celebration of this community’s shared love for these vessels and its collective commitment to craft animating the celebration of the boats themselves.

The atmosphere at Boats Afloat was quite different, but no less igniting. 48° North’s place in the midst of ports and chandleries, broker/dealers and boat yards, industry services and ownership alternatives threw logs on the fire of admiration for all that makes our regional boating scene so vibrant. This industry hootenanny highlighted the path ahead for an audience of boat show attendees I’d characterize in broad strokes as ‘not yet core-audience.’ That was the most exciting thing about Boats Afloat—a perfectly balanced experience of familiar faces and old friends on the exhibitor side, in harmonious counterpoint with the eager group of showgoers that was anything but the same-old crowd. It was another version of the boating community, and every bit as enthralling.

All of this tank-topping stoke, though, led to this month’s pinnacle of maritime community appreciation. Shortly after these events, I attended a media day hosted by Washington State Ferries to observe their immersive Classroom on the Water educational partnership with Maritime High School students (page 10). The vibes were off the charts, and not just for the kids. Ferry workers at every level of responsibility were clearly floored to be working with this group of students. To watch today’s professional mariners communing with tomorrow’s was inspiring enough to soften any salt-hardened sailor.

This trio of community experiences will fuel me into the coming seasons of rain and cold. However, with boating being the year-round activity that it is in our region, I’ll surely have new chances to fill the tanks again sooner than later.

Editor's letter Joe Cline