Lance Brown
Lance Leonard Brown, a sailing enthusiast who built homes in West Marin, repaired the Inverness Boat House and once navigated a 20-foot sailboat to Mexico relying only on the fruits of the sea for food, passed away last week at the age of 60.
"He loved to sail," said daughter Michelle Brown. "He loved to build stuff and he could fix anything."
Lance was born September 16, 1947 and spent most of his youth in Richmond. He grew up with two sisters and a brother and moved to Inverness in his early 20s where he spent much of his life. He helped raise three daughters, Rebecca, Michelle and Leah.
He held a variety of jobs, working at the boat launch on Tomales Bay. For a time he worked for Dirt Brothers, a locally-owned construction company. He also helped rebuild the Inverness Boat House.
He played pitcher on the Pacific Slopes, a softball team that held weekly games at West Marin School.
Lance wrote articles for The Tomales Times about his travels, including one titled "This Little Ship Came Home," about an epic trip to Mexico on a 20-foot wooden sailboat with friend Danny Joslin. They left from Inverness with only three Snickers bars for food and caught fish to supplement the rest of their diet. When they finally reached Mexico they naively landed at a military base. Soldiers pointed their guns at them but by the end of the night the storm-tossed Inverness sailors were sharing beers with the troops.
While living in Inverness, Lance kept a rowboat at Chicken Ranch which he used to paddle out to a 30-foot wooden sailboat moored offshore, "Tomales Princess." He enjoyed taking friends and family out into the bay.
"We would leave really early in the morning and sail to Shell Beach to watch the Water Dogs' swimming lessons," remembered Michelle.
Sometimes, the girls and their father anchored the sloop off Hog Island, and fished for salmon near the mouth of the bay. The boat had a small cabin with little beds and they spent the night onboard, falling asleep to the lull of the waves.
A big adventure for the children was rowing the dingy ashore to dig up clams and explore the beaches.
On another occasion, he rowed a small boat from Inverness to Saucelito. "He rode tug boat waves for awhile and when he got tired he rowed back," said Leah.
In 1998, Lance left Inverness and traveled the West in an old Winnebago. Michelle and Leah received postcards from Alaska, Colorado and Fresno. Eventually, he sold the RV and ended up in Los Molinos, a small farming town south of Redding, where he passed away.
Lance's sometimes spontaneous impulse to travel affected his daughters.
Six years ago, Michelle enlisted in the army. "I wanted to get out and see the world," she said.
She is part of the 705th Explosive Ordinance Disposal division and just finished her second tour in Iraq. She is currently at Fort Polk, Louisiana and her term of service ends in March.
"I used to talk to my dad about the army all the time," said Michelle. Lance spent time in the Air Force in the 1960s, although he was never shipped overseas.
The daughter and her father exchanged dog tags and Michelle continues to wear his.
"He always wanted me to send him hats and pins and patches," said Michelle. "Everybody back home would always tell me, 'oh, your father is so proud.'"
Leah traveled far a field as well. She packed her belongings in a horse trailer and moved to Florida, where she lives about five miles from the beach in a small town called Navarre, near Pensacola. She owns a 1938 wooden sailboat that looks just like the one Lance took to Mexico.
"I saw it on the side of the road with a 'for sale' sign and I thought, 'what the heck,'" said Leah.
She paid $700 for the boat, which is made of redwood and spruce and was built in Scotland. She also changed the name, from "The Scotsman" to "Tomales Princess."
"I got my love of the ocean from him," said Leah.
(Published in the Point Reyes Light on February 21, 2008)
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