By Becky Coffield

I was once asked what was the happiest time of my life. I was shocked when the memory of my six years traveling aboard my Cal 2-34 immediately launched into my head. I’ve always been a generally happy person - mostly happy, in fact, but the six years aboard my boat remain priceless and irreplaceable. Despite the fear, terror, and sea-sickness I often experienced during those six years, life aboard my sloop named Cabaret was unparalleled.

Indeed, to this day I refuse to sell my sailboat. Oh, sadly Cabaret was sold upon our return from a South Pacific adventure. Twenty-five years later I still regret that decision. I tried powerboating, and even though I loved the amenities like ICE, there was just something about the salt smells, seaweed aromas and the sound of the ocean hissing along the side of the hull that held me captive to the sailing life. Now I own another sailboat, a 42′ gaff-rigged schooner named Treasure Island. I have tenaciously held onto this boat, even when I knew it was not my husband’s desire to go sailing again. I just could not let go.

For ten years Treasure Island sat by my barn in the high desert of Central Oregon. Then, when it was finally launched, it sat for another few years at the dock in Newport, Oregon, and I would go over as often as I could justify to sit aboard my boat, intoxicated by the smells of wood and diesel, sleeping in my little berth, eating simple meals, typing up suspense novels and magazine articles as fast as my fingers could type. Out of my obsession my first two books were born and over thirty magazine articles were written (and sold!). Life Was A Cabaret: a Tale of Two Fools, A Boat, and a Big-Ass Ocean is the humorously written, true account of those six years of bliss aboard Cabaret. Northern Escape, my first award-winning suspense novel, written aboard Treasure Island, is set in the archipelago of S.E. Alaska, a most fabulous destination where my husband and I spent two of our six years.

Last summer the magic happened again, and my husband and I sailed Treasure Island back to the Inside Passage waters. We spent six intoxicating weeks bobbing at anchor and sailing from tiny cove to cove. My passion was stoked once more. Another book popped out, along with six magazine articles.

My latest book, You Can Conquer TMJ: Ideas and Recipes, will be out this spring (2007). The idea came to me as I was struggling with TMJ and in incredible pain. I don’t think my cure, or my ideas for curing myself, would ever have come about had I not been on the boat.

Even though I live most of the year in Arizona, I’ll be on my boat for a week in February. I’ll be signing my books at the Seattle Boat Show in Seattle on February 1st in the Captain’s Nautical Supply Booth. Come on by and visit. Come Sail with Me!

Becky

Becky Coffield is the author of three books: Life Was A Cabaret: A Tale of Two Fools, A Boat, and a Big-Ass Ocean; the award-winning suspense novel, Northern Escape, set in the stormy waters of S.E. Alaska, and the forthcoming You Can Conquer TMJ: Ideas and Recipes. Visit the author at her website - http://www.rlcoffield.com

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