From PASSION to PROFESSION

To hell with Covid, they did it anyway. Erik Brown, 30, and his wife, Alyce Flanagan, 30, decided to pool their sailing competence and boatbuilding skills to open Left Coast Charters at Boat Haven in Port Townsend, Washington. Blending personal preferences with an occupation is a dream for many, especially during a pandemic that prompted many people to make a thorough evaluation of priorities. But it’s also a leap of faith, which can be daunting because of the imponderables.

Brown, from New Haven, Connecticut, and Flanagan, from a prominent Northwest schooner family, picked a business that’s proverbially right in their wheelhouse. Both sailed most of their lives. Both are licensed captains. Both crewed on of the St. George School in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Hudson River sloop that was owned by the late folksinger and environmental activist Pete Seeger.