Good evening,
The excellent weather over the past few weeks has ensured that it has been busy for Gratitude Sailing NW. Here are some of the details:
On July 2nd 23 people participated on this second sailing for Harborview Mental Health. On July 8th the Jamie Hess sail for ill and depressed took place and had 16 people including crew. On July 15th this was followed with a cancer survivor sailing on Lake Washington organized by Jamie, the teacher of blind students at Hazelwood Elementary who recovered from cancer herself in 2017.
July 21st saw us taking the Dr. Coleman group out which included 24 people and crew. It was an 11-hour cruise/sailing on Puget Sound – Shilshole to Poulsbo, (2-hour stay there because of a king-low tide}, then to Bremerton, Port Orchard, the tip of Blake Island, then to Alki, Elliott Bay and back to Shilshole. On July 25th we had a sailing for various individuals suffering from a variety of issues. 20 people took part including Nate & Keith came aboard this trip as newest crew members plus Nate helped with a suicidal young lady as well.
On July 27th, Gratitude Sailing held its second summer fundraiser at the beautiful Howard/Mandville Gallery in Kirkland. The event was festive, well attended and highly enjoyable for all who attended. We raised significant funds to help us launch many new sailings and to provide for some much-needed repairs to Dirigo. We appreciate all the interest and donations made by our loyal patrons.
On August 12th & 13th we had back to back sailings from Shilshole: various people struggling with a variety of issues with 29 people on the 12th and 22 the 13th.
On August 18th through the 22nd there was a unique healing San Juan cruise for crew and key participants including Richard and Moe Glidden (Spinal disease and has MS), Jerry Lee, wife Donna, and niece Britney (Britney depression, Donna anxiety, depression, Jerry liver cancer). It was a magnificent trip for all, and the crew learned some valuable lessons. Ten people participated each day for the full five days. Stephen has written an extensive post about this trip which is viewable on our website at the following link
https://gratitudesailingnw.org/gratitude-sailing-san-juan-trip/
Saturday, August 26th saw two sailings off of Shilshole. First with Daniel’s family. He is suffering from stage 4 colon cancer. They enjoyed the outing. The second outing was mainly for the crew (Miranda, Jeff, Blake, Ray, Sach, Diane, Stephen). We were able to stay at Shilshole for the last month and a half thanks to the generosity of Bill & Carl Buchan, on Dock A at Shilshole.
While the Labor Day weekend has gone by (we trust you had a good one!) summer does not officially end for another couple of weeks yet. Gratitude Sailing NW is taking full advantage of the remaining weeks based in Poulsbo thanks to the generosity of Liberty Bay Marina for the moorage. We are planning on doing some five sailings with members of the local community.
That’s it for now, and we will send you an update in a few weeks time. Wishing you safe travels from all of us at Gratitude Sailing NW.
Best,
James