Why are two such older people as ourselves who live in Maine starting this venture in San Francisco anyway?

What an excellent question. 

Eventide in Damariscotta

For those of you just landing here, our names are Kate Josephs and Mike Herz. I think I mentioned that I'm 65 and Mike is 86, both of us soon to clock another birthday, that we live in Maine, and we're not journalists and we're perfectly happy at home in this beautiful place with beloved friends all around. Also that we have an elderly dog who hates the water and will not be fun on a boat.

I did explain that Mike used to live in the Bay Area and founded San Francisco Baykeeper in 1989. (You should click on the link just to see his fantastic vintage hair and beard.) Much of his family still lives there, along with 40 years of friends and connections, and his most important lifework. So there's that.

Here's more.

Last summer we had a visit from a friend named Judy Irving. She's a filmmaker from San Francisco with an acclaimed body of work, mostly centered on issues of peace and the environment - especially looking at nature in urban settings. She's a consummate storyteller. If you haven't seen The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, do yourself a favor and seek it out. A remastered version is coming out this year. 

Anyway, Judy was in Maine for a sneak preview of her latest film, Cold Refuge, which played at the Maine International Film Festival. It was a late July morning, and we were sitting on the dock drinking coffee and watching the tide come in. 

Judy was restless. She had just finished a seven-year undertaking and was wondering what she should do now. "What's your next project?" she asked. 

I said I could only dream of knowing - that I'd been doing politics for 20 years not for love but for duty and it was sucking the soul out of me.

"Mike, what about you?" she pressed. 

Now is a good time to mention that on that morning, Mike and I were two days out from our very first psychedelic therapy experience, and all of our thought processes had slipped their grooves a little.

"Only the same thing I've wanted to do for 50 years," he said. "Live on a boat, circumnavigate San Francisco Bay, and collect stories!"

We all looked at each other. This five decade old idea was news to me. Normally I'd greet a proposal like that by pulling mental obstacles out of the air and lobbing them as fast as possible at the perpetrator. 

But not that day. That day Judy and I let the idea sit for a minute. Then we both said, "Well, why don't you?"