In 1922, Muriel Wylie Blanchet untied her boat's fore and aft lines, pushed her ship's throttle into gear, and began the first of many summer voyages into the waters of British Columbia. With her five children aboard a 25-foot-boat, Blanchet explored and wrote about the inlets, wildlife, and isolated communities of Canada's inside passage. Blanchet was a widow and female captain, and many of her contemporaries thought her family cruises to be outlandish, unsafe, and unladylike. Confident in her abilities, Blanchet brushed them off and became a travel writer to support her family and their trips. She would later go on to publish the acclaimed book The Curve of Time detailing her summer voyages into British Columbia’s wild waters.
Outside of niche Pacific Northwest boating communities, few people have been exposed to Blanchet's compelling story. However, over the past year or so, The Curve of Time deeply affected four friends and inspired them to take up Blanchet’s trailblazing spirit and recreate her summer voyages. Nearly a century after Blanchet's inaugural trip, Annie Means (21), Erin Beaudoin (23), Uhane Johnson (22), and Emery Hansell (23) will pack their sunhats and fishing rods and step onto a 28-foot trawler to follow in Blanchet’s wake. While visiting iconic locations in the book, from the Gulf Islands to Jervis Inlet to Princess Louisa Sound, the team of women will film a documentary that pays homage to this remarkable captain and the ways that she continues to inspire women generations after her.
The onus for the trip initially stemmed from Annie who first encountered The Curve of Time at age 14. Her parents, boaters themselves, gifted her the book and with each reading, she grew more determined to follow Blanchet up the coast. After meeting Erin, Emery, and Uhane in college, the four girls meshed and quickly began to entertain the idea of a two month boat trip based on Blanchet’s writing. Last June, Annie mailed each of them a copy of The Curve of Time and invited them to join her as she, after years of planning and dreaming, finally set out toward Vancouver Island and Canada’s Sunshine Coast. The crew hopes that while onboard they can document how British Columbia’s landscape and communities have changed since Blanchet’s visits. Equally important to the girls is their urge to inspire others – especially women in underrepresented fields – to create their own adventures.
WithitGirl’s podcast host Lena D’Amico spoke with the four regarding the inspiration for their trip, the planning and training involved in the journey, and their personal motivations and passions.
If you want to follow along with their trip, launching from Friday Harbor this June, check out the Instagram handles @capimovie and @em.hnsl
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Additional Information
"The Curve of Time," A Mother's Account of Cruising the Coast of British Columbia with her Children, by Murat Oztaskin New Yorker
The Curve of Time is available on the Post Hypnotic Press website.
You can also find it on Audible.com.
You can hear a sample on the book's trailer on Heather Ann Henderson's YouTube channel.
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