I planned for 4 days. I stayed for 11. My first solo trip on Gypsy Wind taught me that the river has other ideas and that showing up scared is the whole point.

Failure used to terrify me. Then I bought a boat and failure became my most consistent teacher. Curled halyards, cut wires, and missed moorings. This is what I learned.

This is me, I'm smiling for the camera but in reality that's not how I actually felt.

I braced for chaos. Instead? Sun, thunder, rain, then sun again — and nothing went seriously wrong. My first shakedown cruise was uneventful. And that was everything.

I had the boat. I had the river. I had the wind. What I didn't have was a halyard that could actually raise a sail. Two halyards, zero sails, and the friends who saved my season.