Sparrow on the horizon

Suzi Wallace — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:33:08 +0000

It’s OFFICIAL! Transfer of ownership of SPARROW, a classic Marshall 22′ catboat for picnic charters on the Swansboro waterfront 2013.

In 1997, 15 years ago I began a journey with a vessel along the Carolina coast with my two children. We intended to give other sailing kids a sense of their seafaring heritage. That journey turned into flotillas, camp workshops, teacher staff development, national conference speaker invitations and cross country presentations about the maritime arts.

But all that came to a halt this past year when my Mom’s condition worsened and my Father was holding on~
After the worst emotional storm of my life, my Mom passed on June 15th…..

She had been lost for some time suffering from alzheimers. It took me a couple months to mourn her passing and not sailing before her spirit awakened in me a new vision.

Upon one of our last conversations, I asked her, “if you could go anywhere and do anything right now, what would you do?” and she said, “go sailing“.

Mom on deck

Although her mind was lost to the disease, the mere fact that she could muster up a reply such as this was remarkable when most of her hours were spent either in bed or sitting out in the garden watching the sparrows for hours while Dad tended to the gardening. She found some solace in watching those sparrows…..so in her final days, Dad placed her hospital bed up close to the window so she could see out and continue to watch the sparrows feeding from the garden gazebo.

You see, sailors have an old saying, that when a sailor is lost at sea, sparrows will come and carry their soul to heaven……..and that’s exactly what they did~

So that bright fall day as I had my early morning walk in the woods I felt her spirit come over me and stir my soul…..we were going sailing, still.

We (Kelly Belle & I) decided to take a road trip that morning up to Oriental, the sailing capital of North Carolina to rejuvenate our passion.

Kerry Belle sailing

Thought we might find a sailor or two and a few boats to look at, we even stopped by the local brokers yard to look at an interesting old boat, and then moved on. We decided to stop down by the ramp access and to our surprise there were two interesting catboats at the dock and a curious man climbing under a fence to access one of them. We followed his lead and caught his attention on the dock…..I called out, “so how do you like your catboat?”

An hour later, after making introductions and talking furiously about catboats and what makes them so special, I admitted to him that I was on a somewhat of a search for a catboat. He instantly told me of one that he had seen in an ad that was lying up in little Washington….he said if he weren’t so busy that day, he would go check her out himself.

So I took the universe for what it was playing out in front of me and headed to little Washington, specifically, McCotters Marina, a place that was on my list of stops when out on Sunday drives looking at boats.

I pulled into McCotters and there she was…….I felt a strong urgency to climb right aboard, finding a rickety old ladder and tying Kelly Belle to the hull stands. Could it be true, was this providence happening….had Mom led me to this rare find!?!?!

I called the broker on the card to inquire and the mystery boat search had begun! She was listed as a ’73 custom cat, but little did I know, with a little research, I was to find that this little sweetheart was a rare classic find from the New England coast…..a Marshall 22.

Weeks later, after a wonderful sea trial held up only by a hurricane, she and I had bonded and several other folks made our acquaintance congratulating us on our contract. Catboat lovers came out of the woodwork (universe) telling us wonderful stories of their love of catboats and why they were so special. Once I released the plan to use her for a picnic charter service in Swansboro, it has been a magical line of folks appearing in all forms of circumstances and encouraging our new venture. WoW.

So today, SPARROW was officially commissioned into the Wallace Charter Service and activity surrounds her like a Belle going to the Ball. She sorely needed someone to come along and give her ‘tender loving care’ and I, I knew my Mom had led me here and we were going to bring the joy of sailing to even more folks for years to come.

Mom always said that one day, if she ever won the lottery (although she never bought a ticket), she would buy me a dreamboat….and sure enough….she did……her lottery was won in heaven and I found my dreamboat.

Thanks Mom.

This article was published on December 12, 2012 in Suzi Wallace’s blog.

About Suzi Wallace

I grew up sailing the Great Lakes, cruising, racing, restoring and eventually began a free-lance career of giving back to the marine industry as a seafaring artisan/designer/illustrator and educator.

I lived aboard and cruised on a 41’ trimaran raising two beautiful ‘sweet pea’ swabs and continue to race beach cats and classic wooden skiffs but will always love the intimacy and adventure of a small boat set out to sea.

Suz writes about those sweet sails and much more on her blog.

The Captain’s Father

Suzi Wallace — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:28:00 +0000

I have learned from many sailors over the years, but none so much as the years I spent in the cockpit of my father’s ‘old classic woodies’ on the Great Lakes.

Being the youngest of 5 and having lost my mother to her nursing career, I tagged along behind the Captain (my father) and learned by doing; whether we were trading in old nautical antiques in the flats, scraping and re-packing the seams in the dead of winter or heading off on long legs to Canadian islands.

From an early age, I was expected to take my turn at the helm, climb out on the 8′ bowsprit to un-hank the yankee in a pitching sea, roll down the mains’l jiffy-reefing, climb the mast to reconfigure some tangled halyard and name the constellations on a star-lit night.

I never knew if he appreciated that tiny toe-headed, tom-boy that loved the sea as much as he, for he spent a life time mentoring and coaching as a profession and avocation…even receiving a 50 year honor from the Red Cross Sailing program for his services in Cleveland (as well as 37 years teaching/coaching in the public schools).

I knew how deeply imbedded his lessons were upon instructing my own sailing students from Camp LeJeune Marine Base in tying the four basic sailing knots and fully expecting them to tie them down under 5 seconds (been there when those seconds counted).

They enjoyed my stories of being set at the helm at 8 years old and being expected to hold my course while he went down for a nap, only to hear him bellow from below if my heading was off 5 degrees on either side.

But it was after we rebuilt that small salvaged cat-rigged wooden skiff, that I set out alone.

With his words in my ears, the wind in my face and the waves rolling underneath…. I became a sailor that day…..my hand squarely on the tiller…the strong easterly winds pulling hard…the direction my own….a skipper in my own right.

He gave me that little old boat as a sweet sixteen gift with a little card, “I hope you enjoy sailing as much as I have” love, Dad.

And for me, that was the BEST a girl could receive!!

Been salvaging boats ever since, restoring their dignity as beautiful swimmers and have encouraged, taught and mentored as many folks to take the helm and seek the wind as one possibly can.

Capt. Suz
The Captain’s Daughter
Bogue Inlet, the Carolina Coast

“A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind”~ W. Chiles

About Capt. Suzi Wallace

I grew up sailing the Great Lakes, cruising, racing, restoring and eventually began a free-lance career of giving back to the marine industry as a seafaring artisan/designer/illustrator and educator.

Suz writes about those sweet sails and much more on her blog.

More info

Capt. Suz Wallace’s blog

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