The forthcoming heatwave prompted a festive invite from a local sailor.
“Hereby offering some just-for-fun sailing,” Jonathan Cruse wrote in an email to competitive sailors in the area for the Fourth of July.
Cruse saddled up his 1978 Freya 39 sailboat, named Freeflyte, in the morning. Two sailors, Michelle Mathison and Julia Bos bit the bait, saying “aye-aye” to meet Cruse at Shilshole Bay Marina.
Cruse fired the generator to steer the crew out of the marina. The wind gently connected with the sail as they distanced themselves from dry land.
Cruse cruised along through the bay, gliding past Shoreline and up to Edmonds.
The three met through the Corinthian Yacht Club Crewfinder on Google Groups. Cruse found Mathison when she asked to join a racing boat in 2013. Bos joined the Freeflyte party in 2016 after racing with Cruse in Antigua Sailing Week in the Caribbean.
“That was a fun trip,” Bos said.
Since then, they’ve stayed connected through the club, raced through Puget Sound waters, and routinely participate in Lake Union’s Duck Dodge every summer on Cruse’s racing boat.
Along the journey, the three recounted times ashore when racing and how their love for sailing evolved.
For Cruse, it was after finishing his undergrad at the University of Washington when a couple of his buddies went out on the water. Growing up in Huron, Ohio, Cruse had Lake Erie nearby, but wasn’t surrounded by the vast inlets, straits and seas of Washington. He couldn’t shake the sailing spirit after joining friends on a few races in 2005.
Since then, Cruse has done several expenditures afloat. From Vancouver Island, the British Columbia waters, three trips to Hawaii and more, Cruse looks many opportunities to flex the sailor muscle in his free time.
Bos spends her weekdays on water, as well. She works as a field scientist, collecting water samples and monitoring waters for the King County Department of Natural Resources. Growing up near Bozeman, Montana, Bos always appreciated the mountains, but noted her envy for those that got to experience sailing from a young age.
Mathison found sailing when admiring the Shilshole Bay Marina from above, on the hilltop of Sunset Hill Park.
“I used to look down at the sailboats and think that’s something for other people to do,” she said.
Newfound motivation from a divorce inspired Mathison to search for Puget Sound Sailing Group on Meetup.com, she said. After mastering the basics, she reached out to the CWC group to see if she could get some racing experience. It was Cruse who bit the bait back in 2013 and showed Mathison the ropes of racing.
11 years of friendship later, Cruse has been a big part in Mathison’s learning curve on the water. Racing intensifies the sailing experience, forcing participants to be adaptable, more quick-witted with the challenges of changing winds and become stronger teammates.
“You build history with people,” Mathison said. “You have each other's backs, and you know you can trust each other. That’s a lifetime bond.”
Mathison is adapting to another challenge in her personal life, recovering from Lyme disease, which has kept her off the racing waters. The “just-for-fun” trips on Freeflyte are really meaningful, she said.
The three laughed at inside jokes and recounted memories from many years across many bodies of water.
“I’m glad we did this,” Mathison said.
Cruse recited a poetic testimonial he created for his love of sailing.
“The water is my canvas, and the sails are a paintbrush on which I paint my future,” he said.
The love for the art of sailing was overshadowed by their competitiveness at times.
“We just dusted that Beneteau,” Cruse said as they streamlined past a much newer sailboat on the water.
“It’s a lot different, racing versus sailing,” Mathison said. “It warps your brain on how to do everything.”
Not only observing the slower sailboats of the water, the three watched the bustling coastal cities on the holiday from afar.
“You have a unique view of your city,” Bos said. “Once you leave shore, you’re here. And everything’s that’s happening back there, it doesn’t matter.”
Sailing allows Cruse to step back from the “corporate world,” and enjoy the hot summer days, noting that it’s best with companionship, he said.
“It’s not as much fun to do it by yourself,” Cruse said. He’s happy “when there’s breeze and the boats sailing and good friends on board.”
