On June 3, 2010 I posted to the blog about a little car I kept seeing around town.  It turns out that I knew the owner and what I could see on the exterior reflected beautifully on the interior… of the driver that is:)

I was trying to think of something clever to say but really there is nothing. I love this car. A smile evokes from my head to my feet each time it would pass. Art demonstrated from the purest place of inspiration. And to think I know who is brave enough to color on something so permanent and obvious. The real story is not this little beaming yellow sensation but where the people who drive it have gone.

They sailed away…It’s like they are characters in a story driving around in their personalities until one day they hopped on a boat and went off into the sunset. But that is what they did! A friend called it the Arc. Bought for less than ten dollars and pieced back together with tar and cotton. These characters have left on their maiden voyage, sailing across the Atlantic to Ireland. They will be gone for two years and I cannot even imagine the trip they will have. I can only cross my fingers that I will be apart of their journey if only by writing about it here. And I wish them the best of luck and wind!

Kourtney’s story had such an effect on me that I had to include their boat Norna in my painting for The BeachHouse Beanery.

And now they are home and she has written a book about her adventure…the Accidental Sailor Girl.

A story about a young girl named Kourtney and her journey from starting out with only her car and a surfboard to sailing across the Atlantic on a Gaff Rigged Cutter with a Square Sail named Norna. The story moves from her hardships of living on the beach to buying her first sailboat, a 27 foot Hunter she named “Happy.” Her attitude toward learning how to sail and how to fix up her boat led her to meet Pete Grundvig, a local carpenter and shipwright, the owner of Norna. Their relationship with surfing, sailing, and music, moved them to the tune of a two year Atlantic Circumnavigation. Kourtney soon realizes she is not the same person she was when she left home two years before.

Kourtney’s book is now on sale here: www.http://papersailor.com/Accidental_Sailor_Girl_2.php and she also has a YouTube channel in which you can almost taste and smell her experiences first hand…Very Fun~

So if you are in the mood for real life adventure with two very cool down to earth people… then give em some love and support and maybe even tell them Flagler Surf sent ya! Cheers!