Cue Credits

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau

This is the last entry of the Mistral blog, officially closing out the experiment known as the Mistral Experience Project.

Here are a few things I learned:

• A big wooden boat is a lot of work. Wait, I knew that even before I spent that first weekend two years ago sanding down old varnish and fingertips.
• A big boat channels wind and parts water. The right big boat will channel people to work and hang out together and occasionally get out in the fresh air.
• A big, well maintained boat, smartly designed and sturdily built, will leap to life like a genie from a lamp well into its later years.
• The right boat is a maker and keeper of stories – from epic races in the Strait of Juan de Fuca to sterling summer weekends running down Puget Sound under a blue-and-white spinnaker. Few things will unite the past, the present and one's place so beautifully.
  

Mistral was all that.

The following people had hands big and small in the making of the Mistral Experience Project.

Ben Seaborn, the Blanchard Boat Co., Bill Baillargeon, Dick Wagner, Betsy Davis, Jake Beattie, Heron Scott, Edel O’Connor, Greg Reed, Vern Velez, Patrick Gould, Beth DeWeese, Kemp Jones, Brooke Marjamaa, Michael Warner, Erik Nielsen, Eric Nissen, Dave Derse, Martin Feldman, Aaron Barnett, the Pirate crew, Brian Bennett, Alexandra Kruse, Forest Payne, Passion Julinsey, Andy Brown, Dave Erskine, Suzy Brunzell, Paula Weir, Sam Johnson, Bill Van Vlack, Steve Kinnaman, Matt Murphy, Tom Jackson, Sandi Fleming, Scott Moore, Susanna Williams, Harley Soltes, the Duck Dodge Committee, Seaview East, Archie McPhee’s, KEXP, Pat’s Marine Engine, CSR Marine, Sterling, the other Beth, Bridget, Jeremy and Lily, the dog.

Thanks to you all!

Eric