Skookum Traveler: Santa Barbara (CA)

Tiare.

On May 4^th, I was meeting Warner in Santa Barbara for a tour of Tiare o te Moana, the last boat my dad built. The name means Flower of the Sea in Tahitian. I left the Atascadero Motel 6 early to allow time for a quick hike up one of the gorgeous green hills around San Luis Obispo, or SLO. I met a fellow hiker on the summit, who informed me that SLO had been determined to be the happiest place in America, a quasi-scientific finding that Oprah Winfrey apparently had something to do with. Well, it was indeed a fabulous morning, the views were stupendous, and he was happy and I was happy, so who could argue? I scurried back down, hit the 101 and arrived at the Santa Barbara Harbor right on time. I quickly found Warner, a large and cheerful man in a Hawaiian shirt, and he led me straight to the ketch.

I had first seen Tiare in July 2009 during a visit to coastal California while searching for Destiner. A friend of my dad and fellow boat builder, Dean Stephens, lived near Santa Barbara and his old boat, Charity, was moored there, painstakingly cared for by the current owners, Armand and Kym. Armand showed me where Tiare was docked and I enjoyed the first glimpse ever of one of my dad’s boats. I’d never been aboard, however, so I was totally jazzed that Warner had offered to show me the boat.

Sadly, she was in worse shaped than I’d remembered, with even the sail covers rotting from years of bird shit and neglect. The deck was otherwise neat and orderly. He opened the hatches and we descended into the cabins, where my dad’s stunning woodwork was still largely intact, despite substantial rot in all the wet places. I wondered how deep the decay was and what it might take to restore the boat. Oddly, Warner seemed not to recognize how severe the damage was and kept referring to a need for a little cosmetic work here and there. He said he was going to be getting the work done “soon.” Let’s hope so. I did appreciate his stories of the places Tiare sailed, Tahiti for one, and it was clear he was still fully enamored with the boat, though his own aging frame made it difficult to do all the physical work I think he sincerely wanted to do. All was not hopeless, and he started the engine to show me how she still purred. Somehow, someday, maybe we can take her sailing.

I stopped by Charity on the off chance that Armand might be around. Amazingly, I found him on deck getting the boat ready for another sail to the Channel Islands. I wished I could stay a few days and join him, but I’d burned up my vacation time and had a flight to catch the next day. We chatted awhile and lamented the condition of Tiare, before I headed back north. I stopped again at SLO to hike up Bishop Peak, which the young man that morning had assured me was the best summit hike around. With only a couple hours of good light left, I had to hustle. But it made a splendid finish to a most memorable three days.