In da hood

We live in a marina these days.  It's so lovely here.  I can post pictures like this until the cows come home

By the way - no cows call the marina "home".

But it won't give you a feeling for our neighborhood.  As I've mentioned before, there are 950 slips in this marina.  And for the most part all of those have a boat parked in them.  However it's different from the RV park because most of the time nobody is home at most of those boats.  But there are a few of us that bump into each other daily.  This is John

We like him a lot.

John has a beautiful Pacific Seacraft 34.  And he keeps it immaculate.  We walk past on our way to the restroom/shower/laundromat/parking lot several times a day.  And it's always a pleasure to stop and visit with John.

I'll try to introduce neighbors individually so I don't muddy the water.  The folks we've met on the dock are all good folk.  They are helpful, friendly, interesting. 

In case you haven't noticed - THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY!  Sorry to shout, but it's a big deal.  I'ts like getting a shot of vitamin B.  The docks are more alive. People we haven't seen are here working on their boats.  They are the people who know better. This morning I walked past John at his boat and he announced (in shorts and bare feet) "The sun's coming out at 10."  I believe John.  And sure enough, we've had sun.  And here's proof 

These are my bare feet on a sunny deck.

That's one of the best feelings ever.

Dave had a VERY productive day today.  He gave away the little dinghy that was taking up most of the space in our dock box.  He then organized the dock box.  And he organized the lazarette (our garage).

Taken on a colder day, but this is the lazarette.

 Then he got the engine recommissioned and started for the first time this season.  All worked well - a big check-mark on the To-Do list.  A big step toward leaving the dock.

This weekend is the Waterfront Festival.  Apparently it's kind of the city's fair and it revolves around the waterfront.  We'll try to be good reporters so you can share in the fun.  All I know is we'll be at the Marine Swap Meet at 7 am.  

For now we're enjoying sitting out in the cockpit with a beer (or two...)

We're watching smaller birds dive-bomb the osprey and bald eagles that are perched in the trees across from us.  

This pretty much describes the evening.

To all of you good friends we wish a sweet TGIF and a sunny weekend.

Slacker!

What can I say - I had company!  Some of our favorite peeps on the planet came to visit.  Deena & Kristy, along with Deena's sis D'Ann and cousin Louise arrived right after I posted the last post.  Almost 48 hours ago.  Feels like a blink.  They arrived Tuesday evening around 9pm and checked into the Cap Sante Inn .  It's the closest lodging to the marina (and us!).  It's an older motel, but is always clean and well maintained.  And it has the nicest sheets and towels you'll find with out spending triple the money.

Of course Dave, Simon and I walked up to give them good-night hugs.  A couple of hours later we rolled home.  The next day we ate our way through Anacortes.  Breakfast at Calico Cupboard.  No one was disappointed.  Especially me

Great biscuits and gravy.

Kristy had to nap after her breakfast.  The rest of us loaded up and went for a driving tour of Fidalgo Island. Captain Dave was the cruise director.  We skirted the waterfront looking out across all those beautiful straights and channels, out to the lovely San Juan Islands.  Then we went inland past Campbell Lake which has an island in it. Making it an island on an island.  Which apparently doesn't happen often.  We then drove up to the top of Mt. Erie to check out the view.  There was a cloud on top however.  But it didn't dampen our enjoyment

As you can see the cousins were happy to be together.

Then back to Cap Sante Inn to wake Kristy up and drag everyone off to The Brown before they dozed off.  

I wanted to be sure that Kristy, who is a burger expert, got to try the best burger in Anacortes.  

Again, no one was disappointed.

Then we all did give in to naps.  Well, I checked my work email.  But I did close my eyes for a few minutes. I had to because we had to regroup for Happy Hour at Anthony's!  

And we were so happy that we inspired the guy at the next table to come over in the middle of his dinner to volunteer to take our picture.

They're really smiling because there's a warm fire right behind them.

What kind of hosts would we be if we didn't take them to Happy Hour at Anthony's?  Besides we don't need much of a push to get happy.  And since it was Wednesday, we got to watch all the sailboats going out for race night.  We sat out on the patio by the fireplace.  They also have outside heaters overhead. And if you're still cool, they will bring you a blanket for your legs.  But the heaters pretty much do the job.

Once we'd got our happy on, consumed some clams and shrimp cocktails, it was time to walk the docks.  We ran into David, the nice guy who took our picture back at Anthony's.  He invited us down to his boat, an Island Packet 35' catamaran.  Sorry I didn't take a picture Heidi & Laura.  It was a very cool boat.  And he was a very nice guy.  Even if he only hugged Louise.  

Then back to Cap Sante Inn because there was more visiting to do.  Simon was really appreciating stretching out in the middle of a full-sized rectangular bed(as opposed to our triangular bed) and being catered to by a group of women.

Finally Simon dragged Dave & I back to the boat around midnight.  We got to have one more decadent meal - breakfast at Calico Cupboard. 

Again. 

No, I didn't repeat the B & G.

But then they had to hit the road.  

We miss them too.

And I think Dave is disappointed he doesn't have a posse anymore when he enters a bar.

Meanwhile, I got some work done. Simon & I walked in Rotary Park and observed nature.  Simon was checking things out at ground level.  But I got a chance to look at one of these webworm nests up close.

Cool huh?

I'm so glad we got to visit with good friends!  Thanks for driving the extra hours to come see us!  

We love you guys!

I wish all of you out there the blessing of good friends who help you smile and let you cry.

We're getting there...

Are you all wondering if we will ever leave the dock?  

We are.

Just to bring you all up to speed - there are certain things that you have to do to be "street legal", even on the water (pirate land).  You have to have certain safety equipment on board - life jackets, flares, fire extinguishers, horns, lights - because the Coast Guard can pull you over and check your boat out to make sure you're in  compliance.  By the way, the whole protection against unreasonable search and seizure that applies on land doesn't apply on the water.  Pretty interesting.  So we have been restocking those.  

There are things that are not necessarily required, but just plain old prudent.  Like instruments to tell you how deep the water is.  A couple of days ago I was curious about what the wind speed was so I flipped the switch for the instruments expecting to look at our wind speed meter.  Normally when these instruments are powered up I hear a "beep".  In fact a couple of days before, that's exactly what happened.  This time - no beep.  Tried the switch again.  Opened the little cabinet with the backside of all of the instruments and checked all of the fuses.  They were all good.  So that means checking the fuse behind the electrical panel.  We have to do this yet.

Then there are the things we personally require before we leave the comforts of the marina.  Like a working toilet.  As you know if you've been following the blog, that system has been in rebuild mode.  We're there now.  In fact today we scrubbed the bilge (kind of like a wet cellar).  The exorcism should be complete.  There are NO LEAKS.  I'm happy.  

So we're very close.  We have to check out that instrument issue.  We'll top off the water tanks, dump the holding tanks, top off the propane tank.  We'll make sure we have some yummy food. And we'll make sure we have some conditions that won't be too challenging - wind, currents, tides.  And we'll go somewhere close, so we can come back in if something we didn't expect raises it's ugly head.  

For the non-boat peeps out there - the bilge is the low spot in the hull of the boat.  It's under the floor of the cabin.  You lift out sections of the floor and you can see it.  On a boat like ours it's less than a crawl space.  It's enough room for water to gather and there is a pump that comes on and blows it out the back of the boat.  There's been skunky water in there ever since we bought the boat.  That's not unusual.  But it wasn't our skunk, so it had to go.  Today we brought in our hand pump and got rid of as much as we could that way.  Then I went in with some rags and soaked up the rest and wrung it out until it was dry.  Then I wiped it down with cleaner.  Unfortunately in this process Simon got bored up on the settee (couch) and started  "redecorating".  That's what we call it when he starts throwing things off the furniture.  In this case he tossed the just washed area rugs, throw pillows and my sweatshirt.  And they just missed ending up in the skunk.  I corrected that and asked him not to do that again (smirk).  Five minutes later I heard a clatter and then I see Simon land in the bilge.  I yarded him out and up on a settee before his paws got wet or he even registered what happened.  For a split second I thought of taking a picture for the blog, but I know none of you would have approved of that.  

Okay enough talk about the ugly side of boats, today Dave took advantage of the damp weather and swabbed (mopped) the decks.  It's so nice to have those dirty spots clean.  And here's a couple of pretty spots from Rotary Park

Lot's of wild roses along the walking path.

I love these two big madrones that like to "hang out together" over the edge of the bank.

Here's to crossing things off our to-do lists!

The Kraken Revisited

Yes, we thought it was dead too.  But no!  After our last writing a couple of issues developed, perhaps because the beast was weakened by the fight, or maybe it was just laying low, waiting to pounce when we least expected.  We found two threats.  One was a slow leak at the joint in the flushing pump that houses the joker valve (nothing funny about it - picture Jack Nicholson in Batman).  We got that fixed a few days ago.  In fact we rebuilt the whole dang flushing pump.

Yes, this was the job that required the use of an offset screwdriver, short-shafted screwdriver and several wrenches and socket wrenches to remove one part.  

The other weak spot was the pump at the Y-valve that pumps "stuff" overboard if you're three+ miles off shore.  There was a leak in the pump housing.  And the thing stunk. We can't pump overboard in Puget Sound anyway, so it had to go. We've been waiting for a dry and temperate day for this project, this morning we decided we could wait no longer.

Simon could.  Once we got out of bed he settled smack in the middle and slept until 9:30.

So we got into our rain gear and we dragged the Radio Flyer

(see Monday...Argh) 

down to the boat to pump the holding tank as dry as possible (which by the way is NEVER dry enough). Our plan was to pull out the pump and splice the hoses.

Basically behead the Kraken.

Unfortunately we didn't get a good enough, confidence-inspiring seal at the splice.  Who wants to fret about a Kraken under their bed regenerating a head or two?  So we were off to the chandlery to buy more sanitation hose.  And since it was Memorial Day, that meant West Marine, who wouldn't think about closing on a holiday.  Back to the boat where we ran a single length of hose from the tank to the deck fitting.  No leaking there!  And so at last the Kraken has been slayed.  The head is up in the dumpster along with a couple of tentacles.  And the boat really does smell so much better.  And tomorrow I'm going to scrub out the bilge which will really be the icing on the cake.  

A couple of you have asked what a Kraken is. Well it's a mythical sea monster that is a giant octopus type thing.  Like this 

Surely you see the resemblance to the thing in our boat, no?

Tonight I wish us all a night of monster-free rest.

Ooops!

I was reading in bed last night until gravity won the fight over my eyelids.  So I turned off the Kindle on my phone, took off my glasses.  And realized 

I didn't post a blog entry.

And of course first thing this morning I got an email from Heidi asking "What the heck?"  Thanks, Heidi it's good to know someone misses me when I slack off.  What can I say, yesterday was kind of a weird day.  It rained a lot.  We don't have much in the way of projects we can do now that don't require a dry day.  So we chewed our granola and sat around and looked at each other for a while.  Dragged Simon around in the rain a couple times.  Dave read.  I crocheted.  Then we decided to head to the Crafternoon event at The Brown. They had half a dozen or so crafters & artists set up in the back behind the shuffleboard table.  Among them was the Sasquatch artist.  More on that another day.  

Meanwhile it was still Sunday Brunch which means Dave had to try The Breakfast Burger.

A once-in-a-lifetime event according to Dave.

This is a bacon cheeseburger with a fried egg served between texas toast and topped with sausage gravy.  

And tater tots.  He let me taste the gravy and it was the best.

And then we took a drive to see some part of Fidalgo Island that we hadn't seen yet.  We got a good view of the bay from a hill south of town.  And since there was nothing pressing going on back home on the boat, we took the scenic loop drive around the peninsula that the refinery is on.  It doesn't sound that nice, but Heidi and Laura took the drive when they were here and told us about it.  And yes, we too saw the cool old rail car they found

Now I see why you guys didn't go poking around.  A couple of these cows were givin' us the stink eye.

Back at the docks we visited with a couple of our dock neighbors throughout the day. But overall it was a pretty quiet day.  

To leave you with a bit of beauty

I walk past this little wooden boat several times a day and thought I'd share that joy with you.

Yes, she surely is.

Tides

The other day I mentioned that I'd worked for the better part of a tidal change with a footnote that tides change every six hours.  When you live on a dock the tides become part of your daily existence.  I guess you could compare it to being aware of the way the trees in your yard shadow your windows throughout the day.  When the tide is out the ramp up to the restroom/laundry/shower/parking lot is very steep

And then the tide comes back in and it's like a nice little bridge

If you're a boat, you've got your own issues with tides

But wait six hours and things work themselves out

It would be nice if six hours could solve all the world's problems, no?

So even though tides change every six hours, it's not like the arc of a pendulum.  

This is the tide table for our location.  Right now it's a few minutes before 9pm. So we're over there on the far left side of the chart.  We'll have another low tide around midnight.  I'll sleep through that. And then we'll have another high tide about the time Simon and I go for our walk around 6 am.  That'll be nice.

And then around noon we'll have a lowwwwww tide.  It'll be ten feet lower than it is right now. Alot like climbing a steep staircase without the steps.

Not a good time to be moving freight up or down the ramp. 

Ask Dave.

(Refer to May 13 & Frankenhand posts).

My favorite analogy for the tidal change compared it to a large bowl of water.  When you move it, the water sloshes from one side to the other.  That's kind of what's going on with the tides.  Okay, you have that whole lunar influence and such.  But I really like the sloshing in the bowl idea.

I also like that the changes aren't symmetrical.  I like it because it teaches me that symmetry and balance aren't the same thing.  The tides are certainly an example of balance, yet they vary all the time.  Meanwhile we've all known somebody along the way that HAD to have symmetry in everything, and I think we can all agree those folks aren't any where close to being in balance.

So tonight I wish you all balance and comfort as your tides come and go.

Just like that

Yesterday it was gray and cloudy.  And quiet.  Since we've arrived the parking lot has 12 - 15 cars in it.  This morning we left around 9 am headed to the hospital to get Dave's stitches removed.  We were in and out in 15 minutes.  With cheerful medical people all around.

For the 30 seconds we were in the waiting room I found a cool local weekly pub that had a listing for a garage sale out by a little lake in the middle of the island, Campbell Lake (which has an island in it!) that had a bunch of boating stuff.  But nothing we needed.  Still a cool side trip.  Dave scored a couple paperbacks.

Then into Burlington to buy a printer.  Never mind.  Boring.  But the traffic - - unbelievable for the population here.  Why?  The collapsed bridge!  Yep, that was just about 25 miles from here.  On I-5.  Basically a chunk of I-5 fell into the Skagit River (that's skajjit).  It's closed.  And that means a whole lot of traffic has to go through small towns.

We got back to the boat without too much grief.  And that's when we noticed the change.  The marina has come alive!  The summer folk have arrived.  You can hear voices coming from all directions as people open up their boats and get rigging reset.  Carts of bedding and towels are being loaded.  Dinghies that have been stored on deck are being dropped into the water.  Kids are running on the dock with their shrimp nets peering into the water.  Outboards are being started.  Boats are moving around.  It's wonderful! The marina has come to life.  And the sun is shining on the deck

Check out this crab cloud! 

I think it's an omen!

So Dave & I are sitting in our stern seats watching the sun set with a glass of wine.  

Here's to a good summer to us all!

Are we in San Francisco?

You would think we were on land in that beautiful city by the bay if you could see and feel how our boat is trembling right now.  We have a stiff wind blowing from the southeast this afternoon and evening.  Asilo is straining at her docklines, thus causing the trembling act.  We've always kept our boat on a mooring ball (like a permanent anchor) which means the boat swings so it's always pointed into the wind.  This is the first time we've had a boat kept in a dockslip which means she's not always oriented in a comfortable position for her.  So we hear creaks from lines stretching on their cleats, groans from the fenders being squeezed against the dock.  And if you're outside you hear the "chimes".  There are 950 slips in this marina.  Of those we estimate at least half are sailboats.  That's around 500 masts.  On each of those masts are lines.  When the wind blows those lines slap against the masts.  Okay, some of us try to be considerate of our neighbors and secure those lines so they don't make noise.  However when the wind really blows the boats move back and forth and if you have lines inside your mast, you just might not be able to do anything about that.  So walking the docks you have a musical score played by these huge pipe chimes.  It reminds me alot of the old bamboo wind chimes my mom used to love out on the back porch.  Usually more "clack" than "bong".  But there is the occasional shackle that is ringing the bell.  For me it's a lovely sound track for a walk.

Today was filled with errands.  I put in a few hours logged in as a CPA.  Then we headed out.  We have a constant "dosey-doe" going on with tools between the fifth wheel and the boat.  The project we worked on yesterday made us painfully aware we needed some of those contortion tools like offset ratcheting screwdrivers, shorty screwdrivers, screwdrivers with long extensions.  We could have used all three of those items to remove one part.  And we had all three in Booner.  So today we traded out some tools.  And shopped.  Simon was way overdue for a new bed.  So off to Burlington where we found him this honey of a bed

He's quite pleased.  He can use it this way...

...and this way.

And it has that super soft fuzzy stuff inside.  

We also scored this pitcher thing.  Which is airtight.

That means it can be stored on it's side.

And that's a good thing because this is what our refrigerator looks like

Yes, that is just a deep hole that's smaller on the bottom than the top.

Very observant!

For the non-sailors, fridges on boats are top-loading so when you open them less cold falls out.  Since we are always resource-wary on a sailboat (our fridge can run off of our batteries when we're at anchor), everything is built to conserve energy in all of it's forms.  So the fridge is small and top-loading.  

And the other cool thing about this pitcher is that it also has a handle on the top!  So it's easier to grab from the top!  I'm gonna use it to make some sun-tea.  Maybe this weekend. 

We're thinking we may see some action around here over the weekend with the holiday.  And not just any holiday, but a season defining holiday.  We'll keep you posted!

Just one block over...

Today we grabbed lunch during a break in our project (to be posted another day).  And the default these days is "The Brown".  Actually it's The Brown Lantern but the locals call it "The Brown".  Best burgers for sure.  Hey, don't take my word for it, ask Simon

He's looking at his bowl waiting for his food to turn into a cheeseburger from The Brown.

I digress.

We needed a part.  Not a mainstream part, but one of those obscure parts you just hope somebody has sitting in a greasy, dusty bin somewhere.  So we started out by walking a couple blocks down from The Brown to Marine Hardware and Supply.  The mother-lode of dusty bins.  We showed one of the guys our parts and he shook his head.  Damn.  So we walked back to the truck which was parked a block off the main drag.  And we decided to take most of our stroll on this other block we hadn't visited before.  I think it was "O" Street.  And we saw all kinds of cool stuff

There were these cool little bungalows. 

With this cool wall out front.

Check out the detail.

These doors go into a wood artists' place.

Gotta go back when they are open.  The wood art inside is phenomenal.

And it's a work place too.  It had a very impressive shop.

Buck are you out there???

This park was on the next block.

I think this may be some kind of stage because there's steps curved in the background like stadium seating.

Did I mention it's Rhody season here?

Back to the boat, after three more stops (where we didn't find our part).  We got the project finished up successfully anyways.  And in case you didn't know it's Wednesday.  That means Wednesday night races.  Lots of activity in the marina with boats and their crews making preparations

and putting on foul weather gear because this is what it looks like over the race course

Actually it looks worse than the picture.

Meanwhile Dave, Simon and I opted to retreat to the cabin of our cozy home to make some Pasta Bolognese with the excellent sauce we made and canned back at the Holiday RV Park with our canning buddy Leslie.  (Hey Les, it's awesome!  It was worth all that wine we had to consume so it cooked long enough)!  Seriously, we sweat over making this sauce all of a Saturday afternoon and part of Sunday.  And THEN we canned it.  It was worth the work.

YUM.

And shortly after we sat down to eat it started pouring rain.  Gotta hand it to these Anacortes racers!  They are out there every Wednesday night.  Guess we need to grow some gills...

It looks like most of the PNW is getting rain over the next few days.  I hope all your gardens are flourishing and your weeds are drowning!