Setting course for California dream

05.12.09

Blake Galliford has some people questioning his normality.

The 25-year-old southern Colorado native has made up his mind to set sail in the coming days in a 25-foot barque bound for San Diego.

Galliford was visiting his grandmother, Phyllis Blake, 90, of Kewanee in September when he purchased - for $200 - a in ruins, 1981 United Sailing Yacht sailboat, which he has since restored. Perhaps as early as Monday, he plans to set sail from the Peoria limit to San Diego to start his own alternative-energy business.

Galliford has had his sea legs most of his life, though he only recently took his first sailboat a bicycle.

"It was awesome," he said of feeling the wind and waters move and propel the boat.

"I'd done a lot of reading about plane boats, so I knew all the parts and what I was doing, but the experience itself was awesome."

Galliford and his dad, Ralph Galliford of Stronghold Rock, Colo., have restored several boats together. Their first boat was a 19-foot cabin cruiser, which they towed to Alaska for a monthlong fishing set off when Blake Galliford was in high school.

Source: Peoria Journal Star