It took two years for Ballard resident Matt Smith and a pair of his equally laid-back buddies from his Washington State University days to sail their 44-footer from Shilshole Marina to Tacoma. Sure, they could have made it in one day, but they decided to take the long way around, via Mexico, Bora Bora, Australia, Cape Town, and the Panama Canal.

Smith, 29, was a Boeing engineer for nearly five years. Then he rented out his house in Ballard before embarking on the SohCahToa with Casey McNeese, and Jeff Stewart, on August 23rd, 2005. On Sept. 16 of this year they came within two miles of Shilshole, but continued to Dock Street Marina in Tacoma, nearly 35,000 miles after they began their adventure.

While the name "SohCahToa" may sound like an exotic Polynesian outpost, it comes from the trigonometry phrase for a triangle's sine, cosine, and tangent ratios. The boat, a LaFitte Cutter, was built by world-class designer, Bob Perry, who started his business in Shilshole.

Smith believes his interest in nautical adventures may have been sparked by watching the 1984 & 1988 PBS series, "The Voyage of the Mimi," as a kid. Part childhood fantasy, part documentary, it starred a very young Ben Affleck.

Smith said that most of their budget was spent on supplies while preparing to leave.

"We packed a sextant, but never took it out of the box," said Smith, whose techno-savvy crew depended on GPS equipment. Their cell phone signals faded far afield.

They did use a low-tech device around the clock. Smith said.

"If you drag a line with a lure behind your boat for 12 hours you're bound to get something. We caught tuna, spearfish, wahoo, tuna, mahi mahi, fish you'd pay a lot for to eat at restaurants.

"You spend a long time on open seas and get stir crazy. You run out of stuff to do. When we knew we were two days away from an island we'd get excited, stay up all night, and want to get there right away," he said. "Most places are really friendly, and word gets around quickly on a small island that a boat came in."

On many stops they anchored for free in a harbor and rode to shore on their red dinghy, "The Duchess of Hazard." Sometimes they paid to moor in a slip, which was usually $20-$40, but, he said, "Cabo San Lucas (Mexico) was $150 per night. That's obscene." He said their time in Mexico was generally negative, spoiled by aggressive hustlers, and he does not want to return.

Highlights of the trip included landing on Bora Bora, part of the Tahitian islands, on June 7, 2006.

"In the South Pacific you find big Islands with tall, green, volcanic points. Or you see small atolls, which are low, with sandy beaches and coral reefs," he said. "Bora Bora has both, and a clear, beautiful, turquoise sea. I could look down 150 feet."

Quite a contrast was their experience 10,000 miles away on Saint Helena, (pronounced he-LEE-na) a small speck in the Mid-Atlantic reachable only by boat. They arrived there last March 25, after two weeks of open sea from Cape Town, South Africa. Smith said it was lush, with a beauty more subtle than Bora Bora, and fewer tourists. The remote island, home to about 6,000, is where Napoleon was exiled, and died, in 1821.

While Napoleon may not have appreciated the appeal of the island's charm, Smith was impressed by Saint Helena's friendly people, and scenic Jamestown, its major "city."

"People call Jamestown the 'Glacier City' because the buildings are set tightly in a valley rolling down toward the coast like a glacier of humanity."

This may be the end of an era, as the islanders plan to break ground on a new airport in about three years.

Luckily, the crew arrived safely in Tacoma last month without any major mishaps, unless you include the time Matt's right ear was sliced into three while operating the boat alone at 2 a.m. off the Fiji Islands. He does not remember much right after the accident, but recalled, "Jeff and Casey were asleep. The seas were doing weird stuff, and the boat did an 'accidental jibe.'" That is when a wind shift steers the boat directly into the wind, and the boom violently swings to the other side.

"Normally the boom is tied down, but it wasn't. It hit me in the side of my head, and knocked me unconscious. I had a concussion. If I had gone off the boat I would have been dead."

Luckily, his crew awoke, and used the first-aid kit to bandage his ear, give him antibiotics, and, little by little, he regained consciousness, but was glassy-eyed for a while. "I was in the emergency room in less than 24-hours," he said. "Fiji's health care was free, except for $40 for X-rays."

What's next on Smith's itinerary? He was just hired as a design engineer for Kvichak Marine, in Ballard, and is selling the boat. He said he will not regret parting with the SohCahToa.

"It served its purpose," he said with a shrug, of his floating home for two years. "Someone else can get joy out of it. To fulfill its role it needs to go long distance."

For a closer look at the SohCahToa's two-year journey, check out: svsohcahtoa.com

Steve Shay may be reached at steves@robinsonnews.com