{"id":61680,"date":"2025-12-22T15:32:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=61680"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:32:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:32:05","slug":"underway-between-salt-and-solace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/people\/underway-between-salt-and-solace\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Salt and Solace: A Fisherman&#8217;s Sailboat Saga"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_6063-1024x682.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"cod hauls in the Bering Sea\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_6063-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_6063-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_6063-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_6063-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_6063.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Between 20-hour cod hauls in the Bering Sea and long refit days in Mexico, Dan Lambert is turning commercial grit into cruising dreams.<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Courtesy Dan Lambert<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<iframe id=\"gkstfcayky\" src=\"https:\/\/cruisingworld.dragonforms.com\/gkstfcayky\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:165px;border:none;overflow:hidden;\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>The wind screamed against the steel hull, sending icy mist sideways across the deck. It was the kind of cold that clawed into bone, the kind of wet that no amount of gear could keep out. Thirty-foot swells rolled like sleeping giants beneath the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dan Lambert, on hour 20 of a Bering Sea shift, gripped the rail with callused hands. Somewhere between sleep deprivation and survival mode, a thought drifted through his salt-slicked mind: I wonder how warm it is in Mexico right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is Lambert\u2019s reality\u2014one foot in the violent rhythm of the North Pacific, the other in the slow-burn dream of a sailboat still on the hard. It\u2019s a dream that, like most good ones, started with a friend and a little peer pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lambert grew up in Kodiak, Alaska. It\u2019s a place where the sea doesn\u2019t whisper. It roars. Kodiak is an island of steep hills, damp wind and hard-earned meals. The ocean was in Lambert\u2019s blood before he ever stepped aboard a working vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNeither of my parents were fishermen,\u201d he says, \u201cbut our whole town ran on it. You start young. You work hard. You learn quick or you don\u2019t last.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He spent his younger years in competitive swimming, always in the water, always moving. But swimming pools became fishing decks, and before long, summer jobs turned into seasons, then years. He worked his way through every part of the operation: salmon fishing in Bristol Bay, Pacific cod in the winter\u2014endless cycles of openers, closers and cold so deep it rattled the teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, Lambert is not your average Bering Sea fisherman. Sure, he\u2019s got the frostbitten fingers, the thousand-yard stare, the effortless way he ties knots that would leave most sailors Googling for help. But he also has a dry, unflinching wit. A laugh that sneaks out of the corner of his mouth. A storyteller\u2019s soul wrapped in raingear and sarcasm. He\u2019s the kind of guy who can make you laugh in the middle of a squall, and mean it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lambert didn\u2019t move to Mexico for the tacos or the tequila. He came to help my friend Peter Metcalfe work on Peter\u2019s 38-foot Hans Christian <em>Kessel<\/em> in the Cabrales Boatyard, the same yard where my boat, the 41-foot Cheoy Lee <em>Avocet<\/em>, spent her summer after our first cruising season. It was Lambert\u2019s first time south of the border, and he had no plans to buy a boat\u2014until, well, plans changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI got food poisoning and was couch-riding in the cruiser\u2019s lounge, half-dead, scrolling Facebook sailboat listings for no real reason,\u201d he says. \u201cThen I saw her\u2014this 1976 Ta Chiao ketch. The photos looked familiar. Turned out the boat was literally across the yard. I could see her from the couch I was dying on. Felt like a sign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The boat, now named <em>Rue De La Mer<\/em>, isn\u2019t pretty. Not yet, anyway. It has an inch-thick fiberglass hull and stained-glass portholes, two of its only redeeming features. But Lambert saw potential, maybe. Or at least a path out of the freeze-thaw loop of commercial fishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coming from a background of journalism, he had always wanted to travel. Sailing, he thought, might be the cheap way to do it. He laughs now, like many of us do: \u201cI\u2019ve never been more wrong in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, he returns to the boatyard between seasons, chipping away at a refit list that reads more like a personal reckoning: rigging, electronics, sails, deck hardware, bowsprit, paint. \u201cHonestly, way too much to list,\u201d he says. \u201cBut not working on my boat makes me want to work on it. So there\u2019s that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lambert describes fishing for Pacific cod in the Bering Sea is as \u201cthe apex of commercial fishing.\u201d Haul gear for 20 hours, sleep for three. Fill the boat with up to 200,000 pounds of cod. Repeat. \u201cYou\u2019re just hoping to come back with all your appendages,\u201d he says.&nbsp; Which, unfortunately, is not an exaggeration. Our friend went deep sea fishing off the coast of Canada and tells the tale of a buddy who lost a finger\u2014clean off, just gone. He had photos to prove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet, when the fish are sorted and the hold is full, there are moments. Raft-ups in Bristol Bay. Grills lit. Rainiers cracked. Midnight sun hanging high above the water. For a brief second, the ocean turns soft again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The real dream is not tied to quotas or survival. It\u2019s the idea of floating freely, of chasing warm currents and slow mornings. Of anchoring somewhere that doesn\u2019t feel like a battleground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lambert wants to start small. Shake out the sails, learn the rhythm. Someday, maybe, take the boat all the way north from Mexico, to bring it home. To prove something to himself. \u201cI think the click moment will be when it finally hits the water,\u201d he says. \u201cRight now it\u2019s just a dream sitting on jack stands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s something about people like Lambert that sticks. He reminds me that not all grit looks the same. That humor is armor. That storytelling is survival. Those dreams, even when absurd or unfinished, are worth documenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of people are out there refitting boats in backwater yards with no real timelines and very questionable budgets. But few of them are hauling gear in the Bering Sea one month and sanding down their bowsprit in the desert the next. Fewer still can make you laugh while describing both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lambert is still waiting to cast off, but in all the ways that count, he\u2019s already underway. He\u2019s working, building, suffering, laughing\u2014and above all, hoping. Maybe that\u2019s what drew me to his story. Maybe that\u2019s what makes me root for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caught between survival in the North Pacific and a dream in Mexico, a fisherman works his way toward freedom under sail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":61681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Marissa Neely","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_image":false,"sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[2167,2000,197,2160,1221],"class_list":["post-61680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-boat-people","tag-lifestyle","tag-people","tag-print-november-2025","tag-underway"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}