Walking her dog led to sea change in life

When Catherine Walsh just happened to walk her dog along a particular patch of the River Thames in England, her stroll set in motion a journey that would lead her to circle the globe aboard an 87-year-old boat with her new husband. But indeed, like anything in life, a quick dog walk can turn into a life-changing adventure. It certainly did for Walsh.

It was on that walk that Walsh met Eamonn O’Nolan, a charming Irish retired tech executive with a Kennedyesque mane of floppy white hair and a boat. After a two-hour tour of the Thames, love blossomed. The O’Nolans soon married, with all seven adult children between them in approving attendance, and made a home on the west coast of England. A rather gorgeous family photograph of said wedding is tacked up to a vintage wooden wall aboard the Content, the motor yacht recently docked in San Francisco. It was built by Ezra Fitch, one-half of the retail brand Abercombie & Fitch.

Fitch built the boat in Long Beach in 1930 for his planned retirement adventure down the Amazon. But the Content was just 6 months old when Fitch dropped dead while on board.

“It was rumored to have belonged to Johnny Depp,” said Eamonn O’Nolan, “but that’s not true.”

O’Nolan, who bought the boat in British Columbia, has done extensive research on its history. He knows every nook, every story behind the carved anchor shapes in the woodwork. The Content is, it would seem from my short time aboard her, the O’Nolans’ eighth beloved child.

“The first weekend I got her,” said Eamonn, 63, sitting aboard the Content across from his bride, “I filled the fridge and headed out to Vancouver Island and promptly broke everything.”

The boat has since been fixed, so much so that the O’Nolans are taking it on a two-year voyage around much of the planet, starting in Vancouver, British Columbia, and ending somewhere in the Mediterranean. The hardest sailing the two will encounter is the multi-leg jaunt from Canada to San Francisco Bay.

“That is the nastiest piece of coastline that we’ll encounter,” said Eamonn, who happily chipped away in his brogue while his wife offered the occasional loving eye roll. The O’Nolans are, it should be obvious, downright adorable.

The couple gave themselves a week in San Francisco Bay, taking aboard old friends and one of their many collective offspring. After a few days up the delta, the O’Nolans dropped anchor at the St. Francis Yacht Club and took to exploring the big city. That’s where I came aboard on a windy San Francisco afternoon.

The pair climbed Coit Tower, toured museums and the Haight-Ashbury and treated friends to hourlong jaunts under the Golden Gate Bridge. “We took in a baseball match and froze,” Eamonn said. “And wandered into a North Beach wedding.”

Then he announced, “We went to a Green Party meeting on health care.”

Further digging revealed that the O’Nolans, being active in Green Party issues back home, connected with local party members and attended a meeting at a stranger’s private home in the Sunset District. “We took the Muni to 28th Avenue,” Catherine explained matter-offactly.

“We’re quite interested in upsetting the apple cart back in England,” Eamonn added. “I’m not a hippie; I’m an anarchist.”

I imagined the pair, back on the Thames after meeting just moments earlier, discovering a shared passion for progressive politics and plotting global adventures. As I sank into the main cabin’s couch, just a few feet from where Fitch died, I wanted to drop my complicated, busy life and stay aboard. I could cook up dinners in the small kitchen and crash on the extra booklined bunk, helping to write “Content Goes Home,” the blog Catherine keeps of their journey.

Docked in San Francisco Bay, the O’Nolans seemed to have life figured out. They travel about 50 miles a day, spending seven or eight hours at sea before docking somewhere new for the night. They follow weather patterns and chat with quirky boat enthusiasts, they read novels on two weathered wooden deck chairs and have really tan legs.

Very much like their beautiful boat, the O’Nolans, who found love along a river and adventure at sea, are presently at sea and perfectly content.

The Content is, it would seem from my short time aboard her, the O’Nolans’ eighth beloved child.