Ready For Smooth Sailing With Disaster Behind Them, Couple Set For Trip Around The World

“Hold it! HOLD IT! HOLD IT!,” Dan Elkins bellowed at the crane operator.

The sailboat that was being lifted Thursday was Elkins’ most valuable possession and unrelenting obsession. A looped cable dangling from its bottom had caught on a fence railing, a disaster in the making.

The crane finally stopped. The cable was freed.

“That’s really a bad omen, of course,” said the relieved sailor.

Elkins and his wife, Sandy, are due for some good omens. Their Arahina sank last January in Lake Coeur d’Alene, dousing their dreams of going around the world. The working couple from Coeur d’Alene sold their home to buy the boat and prepare it for the adventure.

Good luck prevailed on Thursday. The restored 42-foot Swedish yacht was safely nestled onto the truck trailer that is carrying it to Anacortes, Wash.

The Elkinses will sail the Arahina to San Francisco this fall. They plan to head out into the Pacific from there next April or May, starting the first leg of their trip.

Many American sailors go to Mexico for the winter and wait for favorable spring weather to head west. Some chicken out after months of looking at the vast expanse of ocean.

“When we leave, we’ll go out under the Golden Gate,” said Elkins. “There will be no thinking about it.”

His spirit of determination was tested last winter when power went off at the dock of the Arrow Point Marina. A pipe on the engine froze and pulled away from a rubber connecting hose.

Elkins had not taken the precaution of closing the valve on the through-hull that carries cooling water to the engine compartment. When the pipe broke, lake water poured in.

The Arahina - whose Maori name means “Guidance from Above” - sank in 14 feet of water.

Its owners were heartsick.

The insurance company came through with $77,000 to replace the ruined engine, pumps and other electrical equipment, including two stereos.

“All the equipment was OK before, but now it’s all brand new,” Elkins said.

The fiberglass, teak-decked boat wasn’t damaged. Its wooden interior looks as elegant as ever.

Elkins has tackled repairs with gusto, leaving his job at Idaho Forest Industries each day to labor on the boat.

“The last three months it’s been every night, working until 10 o’clock,” he said.

“The only time I came close to giving up was when I put that new engine in, and it didn’t fit.”