I came to San Francisco from the countryside north of Chicago in 1970, so The Bay Area has been home for the majority of my life. Even though Lake Michigan was very near by, I didn’t really sail until about 12 when I spent a number of summers on Cape Cod with family friends. That was on very tiny boats – nothing to compare with the mighty Matthew Turner! This Brigantine Tall Ship became such a passion of mine in 2013, when I was entering the Sausalito Art Festival, I looked over at a magnificent white tent. My curiosity got the better of me, so instead of going on into the art festival, I went over to the tent to investigate. Inside was a wonderland of sawdust, towering stacks of huge Doug Fir planks, tools and machinery and this gargantuan skeleton of wooden ribs.

A tall distinguished man was there as well – I learned it was Alan Olson – and I asked him all about what was going on. After he told me the mission and the enterprise, I facetiously said “OH, I’d LOVE to work on this!” Thinking that of course that would be impossible – I’d never even built a birdhouse out of popsicle sticks! The next thing Alan said was “come on down! we need volunteers.” The rest is history. I showed up the next Thursday and was there every week for seven years, unless I was traveling.

Because of my pure enjoyment with, and commitment to, the whole Call of The Sea purpose, I’ve kept up with my volunteer efforts, even after building Matthew Turner was completed. If there is a call for help at 60C to decorate for the Christmas party, help man the food booth at the Sausalito Jazz and Blues evening, make table decorations for the annual Gala, give Sylvia a hand at the Galilee Harbor Maritime Day booth or step in as a docent for Matthew Turner tours – or just bring Porcupine Balls (chocolate treats) to the builders on Wednesdays – it’s my pleasure and honor.

I would enthusiastically say that the greatest thing I learned from building the Matthew Turner was continuing to believe in the power of the can-do spirit. The daunting yet spectacular idea of building that tall ship from scratch, with nearly all volunteers, might have seemed nearly impossible, but (and here I quote someone wiser than I) “The dream we dream alone is just a dream, but the dream we dream together is reality.” Marcy Taylor Pattinson