Octavia -- The Ranger 26
From 2000-2006 I was almost always on a sailboat. Living aboard, day sailing, sailing vacations. At the same I was living aboard the 40' ketch Torrens, I owned Octavia --a Ranger 26 designed as a day sailor for the breezy conditions of San Francisco Bay. She was berthed in San Francisco Yacht Harbor right below Giants stadium. Linda and I learned to be skippers on Octavia, meaning there was no one else with more sailing experience on board. The first time you take the boat out on your own is exhilarating and a little scary. Given this passion for sailing, I sometimes think back to my mother trying to get me to learn to join the sailing club on the Charles river in Boston. I was eight or nine. i wouldn't do it. So ornery.
