Once upon a time, two people met unexpectedly on a Cataract Canyon river trip. One married at the time, the other the guide and seasoned river runner. Carl, who had built a Dome home in Castle Valley, Utah, spent his time running the muddy Colorado River. Kate, a solo canoeist, kayaker, had come along with some friends to go with Carl down Cataract. The friends said Carl & Kate never stopped talking on that trip. & soon they were taking off on many a river adventure from the “Tat” in Alaska to the Klamath in California, to the Snake in Wyoming and every river in between. Kate & Carl decided to share their love of water, rivers and nature in its raw form. We married ourselves on the banks of the Colorado at the Loma boat ramp, honeymooned for 33 days on the Grand [just us – no one else] and feel most at home on the water.
Eventually they rafted from Orofino, Idaho to the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon. The Lewis and Clark trail of water was over 500 miles long, went through 8 locks, and took a month. At that point Kate did NOT want to get off the boat. She was very comfortable living on the water. On their trip they started meeting people [especially on the Multnomah Channel] who lived on their boats. Carl started thinking about getting a sail boat – unbeknownst to Kate.
Later that summer of 03’, Kate was away visiting her sister in Alaska when Carl told her he was thinking of buying a Catalina 22. We did and we fixed “Twisted” up and we’ve enjoyed many winter sailings on the Great Salt Lake. We towed “Twisted” to the San Juan Islands in the summer 05’ and stayed on her for a couple of months and loved it! SO the next summer we towed Twisted up to Everett, launched and lived aboard for 2 ˝ months. Our mission was to find as many “Brent Boats” as possible to talk to everyone who knew anything about them.
We found over 25 Brent Boats, sailed with Brent, met Carolynne & Winston Bushnell and by the end of the summer, had agreed to build our own 35’ Brent Boat with Evan Shaler of Nanaimo, Vancouver Is., BC.
Carl lived in a trailer on the Bushnell’s land outside of Cedar and Evan trudged out there everyday for nearly 10 months to build Moonflower of Moab.
We launched her August 3, 2007 from Newcastle Marina, Nanaimo and drove her [motor only – no sails as yet] to Lopez Island, San Juan Islands, Washington State, USA.
