Ian Steele, Steele, Steelidan

Hello followers my name is Ian Steele and on the date of this post I am 23 years old. I am a recent graduate of the University of Oregon, Go Duck, in the field of Environmental Science. I was born and raised in the mountain town of Park City, Utah. Both of my parents were drawn to Utah because it is a winter sport meca. My mom was a competitive downhill ski racer in much of her young life which took here from the windy plains of Laramie Wyoming to Vermont and eventually to Utah where she raced for the University of Utah, Lets go Utes. She went on later to study nursing at the UofU and is currently a recovery nurse at the LDS surgical center in Salt Lake City. My father grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts where my grandmother Nancy still resides. My father worked at a small ski resort in town called Basques, which is still in business today. One winter his boss returned from a ski trip out west to Utah and told my father that he must go there if he wanted to experience great skiing. Once he made the trip west he never looked back. He worked for Atomic for a number of years and has held a ski pass at Snowbird longer that I am old. He now lives in Salt Lake City and works for NVT, a company based out of Menlo Park, California. I have two older siblings whom are my half brother and sister but i have never seen it that way. My sister, Taylor, rode horses competitively for most of her life. After moving to Arizona to go to school she discovered yoga and has since become a yoga instructor and calls Phoenix her home. My brother, Devin, has always been a very artistic person from a very young age. After graduating high school he moved to southern and then northern California to study graphic design. After living in San Francisco for a good amount of time him and his recently married wife moved back to Salt Lake City in search of a different life style. Now that you know a little bit about the people close to me let me tell you a little bit about myself.

From a very young age I have always been fascinated with taking things apart, trying to understand how they work, and then trying to put them back together. This obsession with tinkering on all things mechanical has translated into my love of cars and my slight unhealthy obsession with my own car. I have spent a great number of hours wrenching on her all because I can and I thoroughly enjoy it. Besides being under a car I love being outside enjoying the world and what it has to offer. Growing up in Park City was amazing because of the easy access to so many different activities. From my backyard alone I could golf, mountain bike, fish, take a short drive to a camp site, snowshoe, cross country ski, play soccer, hike, and if we had the gate code into Moose Hollow, do a little down hill skiing through some untracked snow. It is truly a wonderful place to call home. Time spent there showed that my two biggest loves, besides cars, are downhill skiing and soccer (football). I love skiing because it is just you, some planks, the snow beneath your feet and gravity, its just that simple. Football, because who doesn't like smashing in a goal and feeling like a top flight footballer for a moment in time. I am a laid back, easy going person that likes to get things done when I have to. My family and friends are the most important things in my life and would not trade them for a thing. So you might be wondering what a  mountain boy from Park City, Utah is doing on a sailboat heading to the South Pacific, well it all started when….

After graduating high school I was kind of lost on what to do next. I knew that I wanted to get out and explore a bit and go to school. A few of my close friends were all planning on going to school up in Oregon and encouraged me to take a look at the school and think about joining them. After traveling up there I knew that was a place for me. I spent three years at the junior college up there and finished my last two years of my degree at the UofO. During my time living there I meet a gentleman by the name of Keaton Edlund whom I became good friends with. One day he said to me, “Hey Steele, I’m going to Bremerton this spring break to see my brother and his new sailboat you care to join?” Being that my original plans fell through I jumped at the opportunity and traveled north with him and his father. Upon arriving I was introduced to Koebley and Tom. After shooting the shit for a while over a cold one we packed up some things and traveled down to the marina to see their new boat. Walking down the dock Koelby pointed out the boat and that was the first time I saw Trade Winds. I turned to him and said, “Dame Koelby that is one big SOB.” In my mind 53ft was not as big as she appeared in the water. During one of the cruses around the Sound Koelby told me of their trip that they were planning to the South Pacific at the end of the summer and extended an offer that if it was something that I would like to join on there were open bunks on the boat. After returning back to Eugene I told my parents of the offer that was put before me and they told me if it was something that I really wanted to consider that they would support me. During my final quarter of school I thought long and hard about it and came up with the decision that this was an adventure that I could not miss out on. After graduation I moved home to save money and gather some supplies for the trip. Three months passed and it was soon time for me to  head to San Francisco so that I could meet up with the crew. My parents, who wanted to see me off, and I flew out there to spend a few days together before I boarded the boat. Koebley and I had been in contact for a few days but it had been awhile since I had heard from him and I was getting worried, so when my phone showed him calling I was relieved, but once I heard what he had to say I was now concerned for different reasons. Some 30 or so miles from Eureka Oregon they were making a gybe and the boom on the boat broke. They were going to motor the rest of the way down to San Francisco. Once we meet up with them a few days later I fully got an understanding the severity of our problem. After a few phone calls we found someone down in Moss Landing that could build us a new one. Now that I had some free time I made some phone calls to friends that lived in and around the Bay area. The first weekend I was there I was able to meet up with my friends Alex Campo and Van Stoner. The took me out to a few bars in the Mission District part of San Fran. We soon figured out that we were going to be in the Bay area for some time so we decided to move over to the Berkeley marina because the cost to moor up the boat is much cheaper than what we were paying over at Pier 39. Once in Berkeley I had the opportunity to walk around the UCLA campus. From the parts that I saw its a beautiful place to go to school. The city of Berkeley is a bit dirty but I still think it could be a fun place to go to school.

With another weekend approaching I made plans to ride the BART over into San Fran and meet up with some people. Friday I meet up with a long lost friend Lani, whom I had not seen in a very long time. It was great having a few drinks with here and catching up on what we had all been doing for the last few years. Saturday started off with meeting Craig Hawker at a bar at 09:00 to watch the Gunners. I have to say that was the earliest I have ever been in a bar. They won the game and we left in good spirits. Earlier in the week the crew and I had meet Montgomery George who worked on one of the Adventure Cats at the end of our dock at Pier 39. He had extended an invitation to me to come take a ride with them when ever I would like, so at the end of the day I walked down there and went out on the sunset cruise. I was great to actually be out on the water sailing around. The next morning I got a call from my long time friends Casey and Lily inviting me to come out to Lilly’s family house in Sonoma. A chance to go to wine country with two good friends, I did not even need to think twice about that. The drive up there through the hills and mountains of northern California was beautiful but that was just a taste for what was to come. Pulling up to the house I start to fully understand what kind of night I was in for. Stepping out of the car I see David’s ride of choice, a SL65 AMG Black. For those in the know that is one rare and pissed off car. Behind it was a beautiful little house perched on a small hill at the front of the property. Walking through the house out on to the back deck one can see the rest of the property which included a pool, guest cottage, barn with guest rooms and entertainment space, and grape vines in every direction. This place was truly a slice of heaven. After meeting the family we all sat down to a home cooked meal and drank wine that was produced a few years earlier on the property. It was one of the best meals I had had in some time. My mini vacation was over and was now time for me to go back to the boat and meet up with the crew.

Another week went by and it was time again to figure out something to do for the weekend, but before I could make any plans I received a phone call from one of my friends Elisabeth, who was in the city for the weekend who needed my help. Once I had meet up with her I helped her out of her situation and showed her around the city for a little while before dropped her off at her friends house and went to go meet up with Lani. We had made plans to walk over to the Strictly Bluegrass festival that was going on in Golden Gate Park but after walking the wrong direction for a long distance and ending up at the wrong end of the park we decided to sit down in front of the science building in the park. In search of a bathroom I walked into the de Young art museum and was shocked to find that a drag queen pageant was going on, gotta love San Fran. We decided to stay and it turned out to be a real good time. The contestants put on one hell of a show and one of them was crowned at the end of the night. Following morning made my way to Van’s house to watch football and have a little housewarming party. The highlight of the party was when we walked to the top of a hill behind his house to gaze across the city. It was a beautiful site from up there and we were even treated to some fireworks on the far end of the city. This was my last mini vacation in the big city.

On Sunday evening we cast off for Santa Cruz which marked my first trip on the boat since flying out to San Fran. During our first ever watch Matt and I were treated to a beautiful sunset, the first of the many I will see. The trip to Santa Cruz went very well. There were a few things that I will have to adjust to like sleeping and preparing food while under sail power but I will get use to them. Being that we anchored off the coast in Santa Cruz we blew up the Zodiac so that we could go to and from the boat. The first trip in it did not go too well but after noticing that there is a gas on or off switch the next trips went well. We took that Zodiac right up to the beach for the first time so that we could go throw the Frisbee and kick the soccer ball around. Landing the boat on the beach went well, but taking off from the beach was a different story. We kind of took on some water from breaking waves and figured out that two people will have to get soaked in order to push the boat through the break water. We then traveled a little bit further south to Moss Landing to pick up our new boom. We rigged it up and figured out that the slides in the main sail would not fit into the track on our new boom so we reefed that mainsail and used the Genoa and Stacel to sail down to Los Angeles.

We had some productive days sailing covering 90, 110, and 130 or so miles under sail power but as soon as we got to the channel island the wind totally died and we were stuck some 70 miles from LA. The first day we swam around the boat and sun bathed during the day and picked up a little wind at the end of the day. In total we covered some 30 miles in a 24 hr period. The next day we built a rope swing off the bow of the boat that will be put into good use as soon as we get into warmer waters further south. That evening we made it to LA and the following morning we pulled our boat into Marina Del Rey. Now in some of the past marinas we had one of the nicest boats in the whole place but that is definitely not that case here, holy hell that place has some very nice boats. The following morning we folded up the mainsail to give to the guy who was going to pick it up to fasten new slides on it to fit our new boom. While doing this I found out that Matt was no longer going to be joining us for the rest of the trip. Its too bad because he was a great guy but he was just not that into it and its hard to be excited about sailing when your sick for most of the time. Later that day his mother came to come pick him up and we joined them for lunch so say our goodbyes and on the way over there Koelby and I passed some guys in full Portland Blazers gear and asked them if there was a game going on tonight. Sure enough there was, they were playing the Clippers. We both looked at each other and thought out loud when is the next time we are going to be in LA to watch the Blazers play at the Staple Center. So we bought tickets and went to the game that night. It was a preseason game but still it was fun to go to that venue and see a bit of downtown LA. Let me just say that Chris Paul fellow is one hell of a player to see play live. The next morning I was picked up by one of my mom’s friends to be taken south to Temecula so that i could visit with my mom for a few days before leaving for Mexico next week. So that is where I am currently located wail the crew sails to San Diego where I will drive out and meet them. I'm sorry for taking so long to post this and there will not be such a long period between my first post.

Monday October 21, 2013

GBGD