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This was shot on November 5th 2006, the last sunset of our 20 day adventure from San Fransisco to Hilo, Hawaii

In the spring of the year 2003 Dena Hankins and James Lane moved aboard the Sailing Vessel Sapien as her third and, we thought at the time, her last crew. We set out to discover as much of this planet Earth as we could with this incredible vessel and indeed we did.

We discovered with this boat that the two of us could sail to pretty much any port on Earth given the steerage and the depth for it. For instance, in April of 2005 we sailed S/V Sapien to the California Delta, all the way up the Sacramento River to Decker Island, for one of the most perfect gunkholing experiences we'd had to date and, best of all, we only ran amuck three times during the entire adventure. From there we sailed back down that river and up the San Juaquin River to a fantastic Pirates' Lair deep within the delta. We then retreated back downriver to a summer full of cruising from marina to marina in the San Francisco Bay. In September of that same year, 2005, we sailed from Emeryville to Monterey and back, stopping along the way at the ports of Capitola, Santa Crus and Half Moon Bay before finally ending that leg of our adventure back in the Oakland Estuary. We logged over 1000 nautical miles in the Bay in '05 between April and September and I'd say we "discovered" the San Francisco Bay. We stayed in the Oakland Inner Harbor at the City of Oaklands Estuary Fleet Dock for the next year readying S/V Sapien for yet another great adventure in the lives of trans-Pacific sailors James Lane and Dena Hankins.

In 2006 the crew of S/V Sapien sailed across the Pacific Ocean on a 2040 nautical mile journey to the little town of Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawai'i in literally the middle of aforementioned Ocean. She (S/V Sapien) kept her crew in safe, sound and (best of all!) dry conditions throughout our incredible adventure. We lived on the hook in Radio Bay for four months while we explored the Big Island then sailed her around the Island to the south all the way to Kailua-Kona for a short spell. We then sailed her over to the Island of Oahu for more permanent moorage environs. S/V Sapien is an amazing sailing vessel that is a true pleasure to discover the world on.

In the fall of 2007 we decided to sell S/V Sapien so as to continue our journey unencumbered by debt culture and came back to the Bay Area.

We'd like to thank all the wonderful people in all the incredible places that we discovered aboard this fantastic sailing vessel. We've now passed this vessel on to a new owner that we hope will continue her journey of discovery around our beautiful Planet Earth...

Please spend some time on this (now) historical site discovering the way we saw and experienced our living water planet aboard this great ship...

With Respect,

James Lane and Dena Hankins
Berkeley, Calif. December 27th 2007


Tahiti tied with double hooks forword in Radio Bay, Hilo, Hawaii December 2006

Her previous crew...

 

Dena Hankins (L) and James Lane (R) in September of 2006 the day before they set sail for Hawaii fro Oakland, Calif.


In 1999, we (Dena Hankins and James Lane) sailed away from our home in Seattle, on a beautiful old wooden sailboat called S/V Sovereign Nation.


Click here for the whole story so far!!!

We were on a voyage of discovery searching for a global definition of the word civilization. Now, eight years later, with over five thousand nautical miles and a million stories under our belts we're feeling that the jury is still out on the civilization question but discovering our Earth by sail is the only way to go... S/V Sovereign Nation was passed on to another crew but we have continued our voyage...

Our method until December of 2007: S/V Sapien.

We're still searching, but two of the biggest discoveries that we've made in our journeys so far is that:
1) The word civilization is itself in need of re-evaluation and a post-millennial/postmodern re-definition.
2) The journey and not the ship is suposed to be the adventure!
And now that we have a sturdy, more reliable vessel, we can focus more on the search and less on the vehicle. Sapien is a good boat and will ably and comfortably take us around the world.

Click to enter our gallery page...

We have developed a few ways for you to get to know us.

  • Read up on our big plans to see where we're headed and find out about our missions of research and diplomacy throughout the world.
  • Judge us by our boat. You can get a detailed feeling for the S.V. Sapien by reading through our gear list.
  • What's truer than true? Get the very, very real (if not always historically accurate) story by reading our writings.
  • Know us already? Find out where we are and read up on what we're doing on the page for our extended crew - you know, the family.

Beyond that, send us emails and let us know what you think of all this. You can reach Dena and James both by adding their name to this web address. Enjoy!

(There is another story here! If your using explorer hover your arrow over each photo you'll get the inside story of that photo or maybe just an 'ol tyme yarn just for the sake of the muse. If each photo on this site is equal to the traditional 1000 words it is a massive work in progress that is a lot of fun to do.[If that is in fact what is being done here.] I'm sure it's just a setting that I'm not hip to but I can't seem to get the "alts" to work for Mozilla.)

Dena Hankins on the bow in Brentwood Bay, Vancouver, Island 3/16/2006

If you like our photography, thanks!
All photography on this site is done by James Lane, excepting the occasional click from Dena Hankins.You are more than welcome to use our photos for anything you want, excluding making money off of them. However, if you do feel that you could make some money with our images, step up and speak your mind, let us in on all the details and you know, cut us in on a pizza the action! We are reasonable people who wish to sail around the world in our sailboat; we want to pay for that trip any way we can.

***

I shot this while we were hauled out of the water in later September 2006, just before we took off for Hawaii...

... And what of civilization? Well, we'll see.