This is Wondertime.

She is a good little ship, and always tugging at her docklines.

One day, a man had a dream of building a small stout boat that had a nook for everything and neat tidy bunks. She would have a ketch rig that was easy to sail and a center cockpit that was cozy and dry. His little ship would be simple and true.

So, Meridian Passage was born one Spring day in 1978 on Bainbridge Island, Washington and was carried over land to her new home in sunny Southern California.

Over the next years, she would be fitted out with a galley for cooking and a dinette for gathering and eating aft, a sea berth, a double berth and a head amidships, and two little bunks in the bow (perfect for — unknownst to him — the two little girls who would one day sleep there).

Two stout masts were added and sails and an engine for when the wind wasn’t blowing and one fine day she was launched into the sea.

Meridian Passage enjoyed many years of sailing in the sunshine to the California islands then destiny took her to the Columbia River where she explored fresh water nooks.

One day a small new family happened upon her and knew she was the ship they’d been searching for: not too big and not too small, not too simple and not too complex, not too old and not too new. This lovely ship sparkling in her slip was just right for the little girls who would soon dance on her decks and their parents who would sail them near, and someday, far.

So Meridian Passage was sailed northward up the sea to the sound where she was born and nestled into her slip in the crook of the sound.

The family took to her and loved her right away and knew that she was their true home. Her little girls loved her too, and were filled with wonder every time they visited.

And that is how Wondertime found her new home.