Weekenders!

Sorry for the lapse in posts.  Once the weekend crowd shows up the wifi in the marina suffers.  Even our cellular hotspot was failing!  I was starting to entertain fears that there was something wrong with my Google account that was barring just me from getting online.  Then my thoughts morphed into a government conspiracy that was blocking access to all citizens.  But I talked to Ann, another resident here I encounter on dog walks.  She was also feeling the frustration, and so I surmised it was just the extra wifi and cell demand on the weekends.  Sure enough this morning all is well.

We are experiencing gorgeous weather!  It's sunny with highs in the mid to upper 70's with nothing else in the forecast.  Who can complain about that?  So we are getting a very important job done.  We're replacing our anchor line.  The boat came with 30' of VERY rusty 3/8" chain backed by 200' of 3/4" three strand rode.  We knew that wasn't gonna cut it.  The chain is way too short, too big of a gauge and just damn ugly and dirty.  So after much research and shopping we found the best price at LFS Marine supply in Bellingham, about 50 minutes north of here.  Friday we drove up and purchased 120' of 5/16" hi-test galvanized, American made chain.  It's really lovely

Then there is the matter of moving it onto the boat.  First we waited for the tide to come in so the ramp would be close to level.  Then we pulled a dock cart up to the truck and pulled it out of the box and flaked it into the cart keeping the ends in sight.  Then down to the boat where we laid it out on our dock finger in twenty foot turns.  We bought a couple of tiny jars of enamel paint so we could brush on markings - one red link at 20', two red links at 40', three red links at 60', one yellow at 80' and finally two yellow links at 100'.  This will be backed by 100' of the rope rode.  I got a couple coats of paint on the links while Dave took the old scab of chain out and up the dock to the "free pile"  next to the dumpster.  It was gone within an hour.  Go figure.  

We were happy we made the trip to Bellingham.  Several folks we've talked to have remarked they are going to do the same thing.  Not to mention there is an Anthony's Hearthfire restaurant.  They have my favorite hot wings in the world.  There's a little peanut flavor in them, very subtle but very tasty.  And a yummy ribs and rings plate.

  And this cool - literally - feature at the bar-

This is an ice pad for lack of a better name.  It's a frosty, frozen section of the bar where you can park your beer.

Not to mention this feature -

That's Lummi Island on the left and Orcas Island on the right (behind the standing man).

"Didn't they buy a sailboat????"

Yes, we did buy a sailboat.

So why haven't you seen any posts about us sailing?

Actually we tried to raise sail our second time out of the slip but we had a bit of a malfunction.  Our jib furler was jammed.

For the non-sailors-we have two sails on this boat - the mainsail is the one that goes up the mast.  The jib, or foresail is the sail at the front of the boat.

Our jib is on a furler which is like a window shade - we pull one line and it rolls out so we can fill it up with air and sail.  When we're done we pull another line and it rolls up and is stored safely in a roll.  Very cool.  When it's rolled up the drum under it should be mostly empty of line.  Ours looked like this -

Not good.

So after consulting the equipment manual and our sailing moms we fixed it.  Now when the sail is rolled up (furled) it looks like this 

And when the sail is out (unfurled) it looks like this 

Much better, huh?

What's especially nice is that when you pull a line, something happens.  It really is much better than that jammed thing.

So now we should be able to go out sailing and post pretty pictures of our sails out and us with BIG smiles!

After all we are sailors

Dave watching our resident eagle.

In other news - we are not far from the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island.  There has been an increase in military jet activity in the past few days.  Since Dave & I aren't news hounds we started wondering if perhaps war had broken out with the Canadians and we missed it.  After all they do produce those hideous quarters that foul up U.S. showers and washing machines.  It's not like there aren't grounds for a declaration.  So we asked the kid at West Marine about it - because that's how we get our news these days - and he (clearly thrilled to be asked) told us that this always happens this time of year with increased practice flights.  Apparently we could get a bumper sticker saying that we like it?  Umm, no.  Thanks.  I'm pretty sure the blue herons don't want one either. They've been cranky the past few days...

We hope all of your lines are running smoothly friends.

Back Story - Chapter One or How Did Dave and Pam Come Up With This Hairbrained Idea?

Although many of you have heard parts of the story and some of you have heard all of it, and still others have heard eveything multiple times, I thought it should go down on the record how we came to be out bobbing around on a boat.

Dave has wanted to sail since he was a kid.  And when he found himself single in his mid-thirties he started investigating the idea of getting a sailboat to live on in Salt Lake.  He was "between wives" and what better time to pursue a lifelong dream.  At the time he was driving truck for Weyerhauser out of the Salt Lake yard, delivering building materials all over the inter-mountain west.  Coincidentally, I was working at that time for one of their customers, Anderson Lumber, in Provo as the yard bookkeeper.  He took a year of smiling and saying hello before he asked me out.  On that first date, June 22, 1984, he told me "I'm planning to move aboard a sailboat."  I said "That's nice.  I'm going to buy a horse within the next year."  A year later we had been married for about five months when he reminded me we were coming up on the one year mark for my horse purchase.  And so it went - horses, golf, ballroom dancing, camping, etc.  But we never got around to Dave's sailing.

That is until we became friends with Heidi and Laura.  They had a sailboat!  And when they heard that it was a dream of Dave's of course they invited us to go out with them.  They had a beautiful 26' San Juan.  They took us out and Dave took to it like a fish to water.  I thought it was lovely, but didn't really "fall" for it.  It turns out they had a little 11' Snark sailboat they told us we could use as long as we'd like.  It's  a very basic boat with a single sail and a styrofoam hull covered with a plastic skin.  The mast, boom and tiller are essentially made from metal conduit.  And the sail usually is advertising one product or another.  This one was selling batteries - Rayovac.

Dave was beside himself.  He took to refurbishing it immediately.  He painted what could be painted.  He rebuilt the rudder and the daggerboard.  He refinished the base for the mast.  It was stylin'.  We were headed up to camp at Diamond Lake one weekend and we loaded up the little boat.  The next day we launched her off the shore of Thielsen View campground.  It was a bit of a challenge to get her away from the heavy grass at the shore, but Dave was determined and had packed a paddle for auxillary power.  Soon he had the little sail up and was gliding all around the lake.  It looked fun!

Still it took a bit of coaxing to get me to give it a try.  Eventually I relented and Dave gave me a quick lesson on the basics and shoved me off from the grass.  A couple of times.  Finally I got oriented in a way where I could fill the sail with a bit of wind and I was off.  I can still remember the sensation of catching the wind in that little red sail and gliding across the surface of the lake.  It was sheer pleasure.  Those first experiments with turning the boat and feeling how she reacted differently to the wind coming from different directions was magic.  

I got it!  I was hooked.  I wanted more.  A LOT MORE.  We bummed sails with Heidi and Laura every chance we got.  They were very gracious and are to this day the ultimate sailing mentors.  Even taking us out on Christmas Eve that year.  We absorbed everything they would teach us as well studying everything we could get our hands on.  And of course we were in search of our first boat.  

That was 2004, twenty years after Dave informed me he wanted to live on a boat.  So I'm a little slow!  

But ultimately we gave ourselves  a twentieth anniversary gift of a used Catalina 25, My Prozac.  That will be at least another chapter of the back story.

The moral of this chapter is - Long-held dreams are worth pursuing. There's a reason why you held on to it.

Summer Solstice

Let's see, we left off with a soggy day in Port Townsend on Thursday.  Friday we woke to a slightly overcast, but dry, day.  And calm.  We headed out and took care of some business - breakfast, grocery shopping, ice.  Then we prepped Asilo for an outing.

After all, this is the longest day of the year!  We need to be someplace where you get the most bang for your buck in the sunset department.  We got underway at 1:30 and headed out to James Island.  It's one of the closer islands to Anacortes, but it requires crossing Rosario Strait.  Well here, let's just look a the map again
See the #1 on the far right? That's Anacortes.  Follow that line to the left and you'll see Decatur Island.  The little island east of Decatur that looks like a dog bone is James Island.  It took us two and a half hours to motor over because we were fighting the last of the current.  But nobody was complaining.

Midshipman hard at work.

It stayed pretty overcast until we arrived at James Is. and then the skies cleared as we were rounding the top  of the island

There was room for us at the small dock.  That makes for easy dogwalking!

This 44' dock is on the west side of the island.  It was sunny, protected from wind and WARM.

We pulled in wearing hoodies and wind shirts and the folks in the other boat were in bathing suits.  This little island is part of the Washington State Marine Park system.  It has this little dock on the west side, four mooring buoys on the east side, several campsites with fire rings and picnic tables, a covered picnic area and nice vault toilets.  Besides the two boats on the dock there was a kayak camper set up under the covered picnic spot.  He left early the next morning while Si and I were taking our walk.

But back to Summer Solstice.  We all got into cooler clothes and started enjoying our surroundings.  

Dave started exploring in the dinghy.

Penny got caught up with some texts.  Check out the glasseseseses.

Then she got out on the stand up paddleboard.

Not really.  That was the woman from the boat next to us.

Simon and I took a walk.

It's a short walk across the isthmus to the east side of the island.

From there you get a beautiful view out across Rosario Strait.  That high island to the left is Cypress Island.  That's the island we checked out on Wednesday.

Captain Dave is happy for another uneventful trip and perfect landing.  Well and who wouldn't be happy with this weather?

Here's a few more views of this special spot.

This was our first stop when we came here in 2005 and started formulating this whole life change.

So it was only fitting that we return for our first overnight trip.

And it was all the more special that we had such a good friend with us.

The colors got richer and more golden as the sun got lower in the sky.

It was a perfect spot to spend the longest day of the year.

We grilled a steak and enjoyed it with green salad and artisan bread.

Add a nice bottle of red wine and we were feeling pretty grateful for our good fortune.

Dave and I were feeling especially grateful that Benny had given up on some of the Summer Solstice celebration ideas she had researched the night before. In particular the dancing naked around the bonfire or skinny dipping.  

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The next morning we woke to another perfect day.  Everyone slept well, and the raccoons didn't bother us.

Not so for our dock neighbors.  They had left a bag of garbage in their cockpit and the raccoons, who are notorious for this, boarded their boat and redecorated their cockpit.  And not in a good way.

Simon and I saw the pawprints in the dew on the metal ramp when we went for our walk.  And the "deposit" one of them left at the top.

I thought you'd rather see a picture of the sun rising over the island.

We warmed up the cabin by making up a big pot of coffee and baking some cinnamon biscuits.  Back on the island we met a really nice couple who were on their maiden voyage in their new-to-them boat, a Catalina 30.  These folks used to live in Roseburg and now live in Yakima.  They are on a similar path to ours.  

We figured we'd head out between noon and 1pm to catch a favorable current this time.  Around 11:30 the circus began.  First a trawler, about 40', pulled in looking for a spot on the dock or the mooring that used to be there, but is no more.  So they dropped their anchor.  Notice I didn't say "set" their anchor.  This spot is known for being a difficult place to anchor because it's very deep and has a rock bottom.  All the guide books advise not to bother.  We learned first hand in 2005 that this is true.  It was calm though so I'm sure they thought they were holding.  I'm still not sure if they realized they were dragging.  In the meantime a smaller sailboat, maybe 26' - 28', came into the cove looking for dockspace or a mooring.  They asked when we'd be leaving.  When we told them it would be an hour to hour and a half, they too decided to drop a hook.  Oh well.  

That was when our dock neighbors decided to leave the scene.  As they left another small sailboat came in heading for the spot on the dock. 

I decided Simon needed a walk so we watched the fun from a seat on a log on shore.  All three boats were aiming for the newly vacated spot.  The two sailboats prevailed and tied up in line.  And then children started spilling out everywhere.  There were fathers barking, mothers screaming, kids running barefoot all over the place.  

It was pandemonium.

I told Simon it looked like it was time to go.  We headed down to the boat where Benny and Dave said the same thing.  We backed out and as we were leaving we watched the big trawler racing a Boston Whaler for our spot.  

Have fun folks!

Lesson learned: take advantage of mid week cruising. 

We had blue skies and sunshine for our return trip.  Sunscreen had to be applied!  By catching the helpful current we cut an hour off of our trip.  Once again Captain Dave docked us in style. 

So we headed over to The Brown for a Happy Hour celebration/cheap lunner.

Besides Benny had to go back again before heading home.

Back at the marina we took Benny over to meet our dock neighbors, Josh and Michelle.  We shared a bottle of Caldera Mogli which they appreciated.  We got to tour their beautiful Gulf 32 sailboat.  They have really done a lot of nice things to this boat and it's by far the nicest example of this cool design.

Benny, ever the diligent midshipman, informed us last night was some kind of "super moon" and sure enough we were treated to a doozy

It capped off a wonderful visit with a truly great friend.

Thanks for everything Benny!  We miss you already!

Port Townsend

Thursday was road trip day.  And it's good we had an adventure planned because it rained all day.  And the wind blew.  So it was nice to be in a warm dry vehicle.  Our destination - Port Townsend.

But first we had a bit of drama.  The Midshipman, Benny Prennan, couldn't find her purse.  Or car keys.  The ship was searched from stem to stern.  The car was peered into.  Nada.  All purses, backpacks and bags of all sorts were emptied.  Cushions were pulled and inspected.  Still nothing.

Life must go on, so while the midshipman went to the showers, Captain Dave noticed that said purse was hanging in the midshipman's quarters.  In plain sight.  Upon the midshipman's return she inspected the purse and lo and behold the keys were inside.  Whew!

We still managed to get underway on time!  We gassed up the buggie, secured coffee and traveling breakfast items, and settled the pooch on this blanket in the back seat.  To get to Port Townsend we drive south on Fidalgo Island, across Deception Pass (you remember that...

)

and then down Whidbey Island to the Coupeville ferry terminal.  It's about a one hour drive through beautiful country.  We arrived in time to catch an earlier ferry than the one we'd reserved.  This ferry crossing is more exposed to wind and strong current than most of the routes.  As a result it's subject to cancellations.  But we didn't encounter any cancellations.  We did encounter wind and currents and their effects.  On all of our previous trips, the ferries just plow through, a fairly smooth ride.  Today we got a real ride!  There was considerable roll (side to side) making it really fun trying to walk around in the passenger deck lounges upstairs.  We decided we better see how Simon was weathering the ride down in the car. We had to hang on with both hands to get down the staircases and back past all the cars.  Simon was of course sound asleep.  But we decided it was a smoother ride in the car anyway.

We arrived safely at Port Townsend and commenced our driving tour of points of interest since this was Benny's first visit to Port Townsend.  We took her past the marina, to Fort Worden (where they filmed the movie Officer and a Gentleman), Point Wilson

, Point Hudson marina (home of the Pt. Townsend Wooden Boat Festival).  Then we parked in the Historic District and looked in a few of the shops.  Port Townsend has an abundance of cute shops in a charming downtown setting.  Except no one in this group is really a "shopper" for that kind of stuff.  We were just killing time until Sirens opened.  But we did stumble across a spice and tea shop the kept Benny & I interested for about ten minutes.  Then our noses went into overload and we had to get out and breathe some fresh air.  And Hey, it was time for lunch!

Sirens

Benny opted for "vegetable juice".

Pam & Dave went with the traditional grain drink.

And lunch was beef stew for Dave & Pub Burgers for the gals (and Si who got half of a burger).

In keeping with the Sirens toast...

...we headed out to The Pourhouse.

For "another one".

The Pourhouse is a taproom and bottleshop in Port Townsend run by a nice young couple.  We recommend it as a stop next time you head to PT.

Then it was time to get in line for the ferry home.  We had a long enough wait to afford everyone a nap.  The crossing back to Whidbey Island was far smoother.  Which was a good thing given the fullness of our tummies.  

This was our first trip back to Port Townsend since buying Asilo.  We had originally thought we might move her down to Port Townsend, but after today's visit, we're very happy with Anacortes as a home port.  We prefer the feel of the town, the availability of services to the marina and the proximity of great cruising grounds.  So the trip was very worthwhile.

Full tummies or not, we all felt the need for some green food.  So when we finally got back to Anacortes we introduced Benny to our pizza spot, Village Pizza.  It's pretty traditional, and good, pizza.  And it's next door to a pub called The Wheelhouse that was hopping.  Since we overheard that the big table next to us on the pizza parlor side was being set up for a kids birthday party, we opted for The Wheelhouse.  It was a good choice.  Meanwhile a little pizza and some salads hit the spot.

After a long walk with Simon we adjourned to the good ship Asilo to work on a plan for our next adventure.

Stay tuned!

Cruisin'

Benny Prennan, the midshipman, forced us to go out of the slip today.

We did our best job of playing scaredy cat, but she was having no part of it.  So after fortifying ourselves with a substantial breakfast and securing snack provisions for Capt. Dave, we pulled out of the slip at 10am. It was a bit overcast, but not really cold or wet.  As we left the marina we passed the Adventuress, a gaff-rigged schooner tall ship.  It looked like they were training new crew.

The Midshipman.

We headed out into Guemes Channel.

Captain Dave staying warm with coffee.

 I went forward and ran the sheets for the jib so we could put a sail up.  Even though there was no wind.  What the heck?  It couldn't hurt.  Unfortunately the furler drum was jammed and we couldn't deploy the sail.  We tried a couple things, but ended up deciding it was a fix to do in the marina. And after all, there was not enough wind to get too excited about. So we motored on out of Guemes Channel and then turned north up Bellingham Channel between Guemes Island and Cypress Island.

 

See how Fidalgo Island kinda looks like Sponge Bob?  Well our marina is just down from the right corner of his head.  Guemes Channel runs between Fidalgo and Guemes Islands.

As we turned north into Bellingham Channel we saw we had company

This is Zodiac, the sister ship to Adventuress.

It was really great to get to travel alongside this beautiful ship.  

Well, until they started to tailgate us.

(Not really.)

This ship offers cruises that look really fun.  Check 'em out here.

Okay enough with the big pretty boats.

We were out to see something we hadn't seen before - Cypress Island.  

In particular, Eagle Harbor.  We've been told by a few of our dock neighbors to check out this spot because it's close to Anacortes and lovely.  And they are right.  Cypress Island is a favorite nesting area for bald eagles.  As we were closing on the harbor, we spotted several eagles sitting on nests as well a handful down on the beach engaged in some kind of eagle-type beach fun.  

To be honest we were blown away by how many eagles we spotted in a small area close to this harbor.  There are a half dozen Washington State Marine Park moorings you can tie up to here.  It's kind of like going to a state/federal campground.  You tie up then go ashore and pay at the self-service station.  

Cool, huh?  

We'll be back to stay here sometime.  Although tonight the wind is blowing from a direction that might make it a tad uncomfortable there.

So from there we hung a right and traveled across the top of Guemes Island and down it's east side back to Anacortes.  Plenty to see along the way.  

And then the Midshipman figured out how to use the timer on her camera

Then I had to watch for traffic

Check out the tall ship in the background.

The Adventuress had finally made it out of the marina but she wasn't going anywhere very fast.

She looks good from behind.

Captain Dave piloted us into the slip beautifully once again.  Start to finish, we were out for about four hours.

It was great!  We can't wait to spend an evening in Eagle Harbor and hike on some of the trails there.  

Meanwhile, I hope all of you have friends who make you do things that you love to do. Even when you think you don't want to.