JOE MAY
Bahia de Caráquez, Ecuador, 20 June 2007
During all my searching and travelling, I have been carrying on a lively exchange with Joe May by email. He once years ago came across “Vilisar” on the internet and sent me a nice message. I tried repeatedly to return an email but found it always coming back to me as “undeliverable”. This time my efforts worked. Unfortunately, all the many questions I had for him were on the laptop that was stolen in Venezuela.
Joe and his wife Sandra bought the Vilisar from Bill Taylor of Duncan, B.C., back in the early 1980s who in turn had bought it from George Friend, the builder in Sidney, B.C. After a life in BC waters, Vilisar moved her address to Juneau, AK. But, after building the new mast and installing traditional galvanised iron rope rigging while in Port Townsend, WA, the Mays trucked the boat over to Lake Michigan and eventually motored down the Mississippi to Mobile, AL. The whole trip took them along the Gulf Coast to Florida and the Keys, up the east coast to the Chesapeake and eventually to the Erie Canal and back into the Great Lakes. I am not sure how long the whole voyage lasted.
I hope to get more info from Joe on his history with Vilisar. I like to know the “personal history” of the boat, the people who sailed her and lived aboard her and worked on her.
Now, of course, Joe and Sandra live north of Willow, Alaska. Joe was always interested in dog sledding and became a musher, winning indeed the Iditarod in the 1980’s. While we were still in Victoria, we heard Joe interviewed as an Iditarod judge on a CBC sports broadcast. I am not sure how much racing he does any more, but he likes to travel in the Arctic.
Joe sent me the picture above of a recent trip into the wilderness of Alaska. Looks spectacular!
Bahia de Caráquez, Ecuador, 20 June 2007
During all my searching and travelling, I have been carrying on a lively exchange with Joe May by email. He once years ago came across “Vilisar” on the internet and sent me a nice message. I tried repeatedly to return an email but found it always coming back to me as “undeliverable”. This time my efforts worked. Unfortunately, all the many questions I had for him were on the laptop that was stolen in Venezuela.
Joe and his wife Sandra bought the Vilisar from Bill Taylor of Duncan, B.C., back in the early 1980s who in turn had bought it from George Friend, the builder in Sidney, B.C. After a life in BC waters, Vilisar moved her address to Juneau, AK. But, after building the new mast and installing traditional galvanised iron rope rigging while in Port Townsend, WA, the Mays trucked the boat over to Lake Michigan and eventually motored down the Mississippi to Mobile, AL. The whole trip took them along the Gulf Coast to Florida and the Keys, up the east coast to the Chesapeake and eventually to the Erie Canal and back into the Great Lakes. I am not sure how long the whole voyage lasted.
I hope to get more info from Joe on his history with Vilisar. I like to know the “personal history” of the boat, the people who sailed her and lived aboard her and worked on her.
Now, of course, Joe and Sandra live north of Willow, Alaska. Joe was always interested in dog sledding and became a musher, winning indeed the Iditarod in the 1980’s. While we were still in Victoria, we heard Joe interviewed as an Iditarod judge on a CBC sports broadcast. I am not sure how much racing he does any more, but he likes to travel in the Arctic.
Joe sent me the picture above of a recent trip into the wilderness of Alaska. Looks spectacular!
posted by rjb @ Wednesday, June 20, 2007
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