S/V Northern Passage

by Jenny Chissus, Seldovia Gazette

I happened to be down at the docks when Jen Gordon and Bruce Rein, along with their two children, Richard and Carmen (and their cat, Tiger) were taking off for sunnier seas from our own Seldovia harbor!

They both have a real love for the water, Bruce was a merchant marine and Jen has been sailing since she was 7 years old! They met when they were both living aboard other boats in Jersey City, New Jersey.

They brought the boat, Gotta Go, a Columbia 36 to Seldovia from Seattle quite a few years ago, which is now owned by Mark Janes and Tracy Philpot, and still resides in our Seldovia harbor. Bruce and Jen have been spending their summers in Seldovia for quite some time, and enjoy a cozy cabin on Seldovia Bay. Three summers ago, they bought Northern Passage and brought her up from the Lower 48 to prepare her for this extended sailing trip with the family. This is a trip they have been planning together ever since they met! Jen said “The only reason we are able to do this is that we have been planning for 15 years and Bruce has been working like crazy to make it happen!”

On July 9, 2012, they took off towards Valdez, where they will go up on the grid to manage a few fixes and finishing touches for the grand trip! Their tentative plan is to go through the Panama Canal and sail the Caribbean – with plans to sail up the east coast to see Jen’s family in Massachusetts, by August 2013. But she was adamant that this is an adventure, and who knows, they might turn right, instead of left – they are open to inspiration as they go! They expect to be gone for at least a year – maybe two! When I visited with the kids a few minutes, they said that they are really looking forward to sailing – they just LOVE to sail! Both Carmen and Richard have all their school curriculum on board and will study as they go! I’m sure these next two years will be an education they will never forget – and it will have nothing to do with books or a classroom! What a fabulous experience!

When asking Jen what she is most excited about, her response was “I’m really looking forward to having Bruce around, having the four of us together every single day. We really enjoy that, when we are all together in the cabin, we have a lot of fun together!”

If you would like to follow them on this great adventure, folks can connect with Jen and Bruce by going to their website: www.SailNorthernPassage.com, and Jennifer Gordon is also on Facebook. Obviously, they won’t have access to internet services at all times, so they will do their best to upload information as it becomes available!

UPDATE: I wasn’t able to get this up right away, since I was in Homer for a few days. The family has already had an incident as their engine gave out somewhere south of Seldovia, and they had to sail all night back to Homer for repairs. Jen said it was a beautiful sail back and a gorgeous sunset and sunrise! We ran into them in Homer and transported a load of laundry back to their boat, as they were all on bikes! The good news, was that they were able to make the repair quickly and are now back on the move towards Valdez, with a good engine and clean laundry! Ah, the simple things!