Tag Archives: Travel

Second Time Around

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I’m sitting in my mostly empty house running down the seemingly never-ending list of ‘to do’ items in the coming days.  You will never know how many little projects your home needs until you move out of it. In fact, I think all homeowners should have the opportunity to move OUT of their homes every ten or so years just to keep things fresh. In my life I’ve remodeled two houses and bought an old boat and refitted that. I thought I knew what hard work felt like. But I’ve never worked as hard as I have in the past three months, and that’s saying something. We need a vacation. How about a trip to Mexico?

Playa El Burro. You can barely see  S/V Galapagos.

Slowly but surely we are getting the hard work done to prepare this house for new renters; renters who are not our children. It was great renting the house to our kid and his friends. The bar was super low in terms of what they expected of the house. Since Andrew grew up here, he was used to the fact that the three way switches in the kitchen and office were wired incorrectly. He didn’t expect there to be a doorbell; people just knocked. The old  dated pale yellow wallpaper felt warm and comfortable to him. The grout in the family room and kitchen, well, hasn’t it always been black? The chipped paint on his bedroom door wasn’t an issue, much less the fact that there were two different kinds of doorknobs on the doors off the hallway. The nicked and scratched paint on the cabinets in the kitchen? Part of the patina; evidence of a room well used. All the scratches on the solid fir doors left by various dogs over the years? Ahhhh, we love the memories of those pooches. And are all those growing green things in the landscape actually weeds that set a million seeds? Who knew? These things have flown beneath the family radar for 18 years. We just didn’t care about them. (Except the weeds. I totally cared about and took care of those. All the time.) But now that we are trying to make the home attractive for other people, we do care about those things. As well as thousands of others. 

Yes, having Andrew and Friends move into the house worked great while it lasted. The mortgage got paid, the kids had a much nicer place to live than they could have afforded individually, and Mom and Dad got to move onto their spiffy old boat and pretend that they would never have to come back and face the music that is moving out of the home you’ve owned for many years.  We downsized our possessions quite a lot, and then we just kind of … left. On some level we knew it was too good to last. And we were right. Kids get married and go off and do the things they are meant to do in life.

When we left last time, all of our furnishings stayed right where they were. This time as we clear the house we are faced with choosing which things to keep and which to let go of. It’s probably not a surprise that I don’t let go of furniture easily. Once it’s gone, I’m fine, but the parting is hard if it’s a piece I like. And I do like furniture. Some of the most ‘historical’ (a word which here means I’ve probably had it for decades) pieces are being given to family and friends, which makes the parting a sweet sorrow tinged with a good bit of happiness. The velvet living room chairs and antique mirror going to a cherished ‘adopted’ daughter, our own daughter’s best friend; the piano of my childhood going to our very close friends who live just across the street; our green four poster bed borrowed by some of Andrew and Jill’s best friends, the ones with the new baby; Andrew and Jill choosing our sofa and a couple of stuffed chairs for their future home.  Even my own sister and mom are taking a couple of things. We infuse meaning into these giftings of furnishings with the history of the Boyte-White family woven into their very presence.

And so here we are; sitting in a house with little furniture surrounded by a yard with almost no weeds as summer disappears into the darkness of fall, slowly but surely moving stuff out of all the rooms. It’s a little like gradually disappearing.  In the end we are going to wind up exactly how we started in this house: living in one room, sleeping on a mattress on the floor surrounded by the few things we need to live day to day while we finish cleaning and remodeling the rest of the house. We are still on target to ‘leave the dock’ for the second time sometime in October. 

Astute readers will be asking the obvious: But where are Andrew and Friends going? The friends had a baby and moved on. But Andrew and his wife, Jill, are preparing for their own traveling adventure. They’ve been planning to do some extensive traveling and their plans are coming to fruition. They are outfitting their Honda Element for camping and about the time we leave for Mexico they will be heading off on a cross country trip and then to Europe. They fly from New York to Paris in December (BRRR) and plan to sell their Honda when they get to North Carolina. After a stint in Europe they hope to get to Ecuador to visit our Claire and her Dan, and then we are crossing all our fingers and toes they will come do some crewing for us aboard Galapagos, wherever we are at that point. You can follow along on their travels if you like, since they’ve started their own blog The Wander Blobs. Why that name? It’s a story, and I’ll let you go to their blog page where they define for you: What is a Blob? We are enormously proud of them both for having a dream that became a plan that is now a happening reality. 

And speaking of keeping dreams alive, we had the good fortune to meet up with the crew of S/V Totem up in Seattle. Jamie and Behan Gifford were the special speakers at the recent meeting of the Puget Sound Cruising Club. We last visited in person with them down in the Sea of Cortez where we made darn sure we got a chance to get them on board so we could pick their brains about our pitiful rig and our need for a new sail. They gave a great presentation on some very special places they’ve been and totally lit the fire for us again. Thanks, we needed that! Having our noses to the grindstone as we do, our cruising life feels so very far away, almost like it existed in a different lifetime. It was great to see them, and also to see so many of the cruising club folks we’ve met over the years. Kevin and Cressie on S/V Blue were there, as well as a few other ‘boats’ from the sea of Cortez. It was a little like old home week and makes one realize just how tight and small the cruising community is. It seems like a small world when you see people you knew down in Mexico back here in Seattle. 

In the same vein of keeping the dream alive, you’ll notice the photos I’ve posted are not from the house. Why would you want to see photos of me cleaning grout or painting molding? After listening to the Gifford’s talk I began thinking about all the many beautiful places we’ve seen so far that I haven’t written about. This place in these photos stands out.

These photos are of the the rock art you can find close to Playa El Burro, in Bahia Concepcion. Finding this rock art was one of more entertaining hikes we did as the weather began to warm up last May.   We anchored at Playa El Burro for this specific reason.  What I want other cruisers to know about finding this delicious rock art is that the guide book everyone relies on is wrong. The most popular guide book tells you that the trail head can be seen from the anchorage and this is not correct. There is no trail to the rocks. You can absolutely see a well defined trail going up the mountain, and there is a trailhead close to a small roadside restaurant. But if you take that obvious trail up the hill you will never find the petroglyphs and you will be very disappointed. I’ve taken photos to show you exactly where to go to find these spectacular pieces of ancient art. Go in the morning and you’ll have shade for your hike.  And the guidebook is totally right about the bell rocks! You’ll find huge boulders that ring like a bell when struck due to the iron content. I’ll go a long way to see rock art. But this place is really easy to get to.[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_llpgJgl9fU[/embedyt]

Back to my previously scheduled program of hard labor. S/V Galapagos, out.

This is sign by the roadway. You want to find this sign and then walk inland from the road toward the clump of trees. Once you’ve located your first petroglyphs among the trees, just keep going uphill from there, following the tumbled boulders. There are hundreds of pieces of art. It’s fantastic.

Here’s the view from the position of the sign.Turn around and walk inland to find the rocks.

 

 

 

Field Trip to Emerald Galvanizing and Lake Union

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Whenever Mike and I get to go someplace new to do a boat task, we feel like we are going on a field trip. We always learn so much about things we’ve never been exposed to before. Our major project of the month is the anchoring system, including refurbishing/rebuilding the windlass locker and getting the 300 feet of chain we carry regalvanized. Time for a field trip to Emerald Galvanizing in Seattle, the only game in town.DSC03205

The previous week, we had removed the chain from the chain locker and had it stowed securely in the back of our little red beater truck. My thought was that I would take it up to Seattle on Friday, but Mike didn’t want me to have all the fun by myself. He took a half day off from work, I picked him up, and we tootled up to Seattle.

Emerald Galvanizing is in a small building that you’ll miss if you blink. It literally looks like nothing until you get behind it, where the action it. Then all the mystery is solved and we realized how dead simple it actually was to have this done. When things are unknown, they don’t seem simple. They seem daunting and complex. This was none of the above.

When we drove into the yard, a very nice man (in the photo above)  put a pallet on his truck lift, drove it over to our truck, and removed our chain by hand, piling it on the lift. He’s been at Emerald for 39 years and is getting ready to retire. Makes our time in the saddle pale by comparison.  He was able to tell us right then that our chain was in really good condition. One small area, that we had been concerned about, was just now ready for regalvanizing. This was excellent news as replacing the quality of chain we have would have been a ton of money, as usual. He said the chain would be ready in a week, took our name and phone number, then offered us a tour of the workshop. Fieldtrip! Yay! If only my good camera were not in the shop being cleaned.

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Is that the glow from the Crack of Doom?

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Don’t even think of putting your hand in there.

This galvanizing business is hot and dirty work. We watched the guys for awhile as they handled the large metal buckets of parts and dunked things into the molten zinc bath. Standing in the work area, we could have been in the depths of Mordor with the molten zinc bath glowing orange, surrounded by dim and grey.  No Orcs in sight, but should I ever come upon a magic ring that keeps evil in power,  I’ll know where to dispose of it.  The mind reels with possibilities.

But no, the workmen were all smiles and waves. And I had to wonder: Do these guys who work here ever get their skin actually clean?

Our chain will be put into the pool of molten zinc, then it will go in a centrifuge that will spin the excess zinc off. We should have it back long before we are finished with the windlass locker, which is turning into quite the project. More on that later. Meanwhile…epoxy epoxy epoxy.

When we finished dropping off the chain, it was mid afternoon on a Friday in summer.  Which means that rush hour starts before 3:00. In Seattle, in rush hour, you aren’t going anywhere. You’re going to be sitting in traffic. No, thank you very much. We were pretty much stuck.  Yes, that’s right, stuck in Seattle on a really nice day. The horror.

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The steampunk-looking boiler on the Virginia V.

We decided to seize the day, park the car by Lake Union near the Center for Wooden Boats and go walk around the lake, look at boats,and generally take in the atmosphere. Our favorite Starbucks with its delicious coffee and excellent bathroom for middle aged tourists is close by,  and we could say hello to one of our favorite boats: M/V Lotus, which is docked right there behind the museum. Boats, coffee, bathrooms open to the public. It was a dream date.

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in the bowels of the steam engine.

South Lake Union is really a fun place to just walk around and people/boat watch, but you shouldn’t miss seeing the Virginia V, docked right there behind the museum. Launched in 1922, the steamship Virginia V delivered people and goods from Seattle down the water to Tacoma via the west coast of Vashon Island.  She is built entirely of clear Douglass Fir and her steam engine is something to behold, like something out of a steampunk novel, except real.

Our tour guide was an extremely competent young man named Ed. Ed knows probably everything there is to know about this ship, as well as the other boats on the dock. He’s pretty impressive and answers any and all questions with factual information including numbers, dates, names and all. Ed is a history teacher’s dream. Just don’t suggest they might use WD-40 on that engine as a lubricant. One of the guys in our tour group mentioned something on that order. I’m thinking Ed has heard that one before, and his amusement is running thin. I hope I hid my smile well.

With still some time to kill, it seems appropriate to sit on the end of the dock and dangle our feet in the cool water of Lake Union. You don’t have to worry about sharks taking a foot off because… it’s a LAKE! All the little sailboats are racing each other, seaplanes are coming and going, it’s a cool place to hang out for an hour. greensailboat

I’d say that if you are looking for an interesting afternoon, go have a tour of the Virginia V after you drop off your anchor chain at Emerald Galvanizing. Ask for Ed. You’re going to learn some history, and there will be no test later!

Oh, and by the way. Here’s a piece of good news for you: When we left the truck, I accidentally left my window rolled all the way down. As in completely down. Mike’s bike was in the back of the truck, locked, but drawing attention. Mike’s backpack was in the cab, my bag from Nordstrom Rack with new walking sandals was in the cab. When we returned, all was exactly as we left it. No one took anything! Yeah, I know there’s no drama to this. No one stole anything, no one was shot, pretty much nothing at all happened.  That’s the point. Just a piece of good news about humanity in a week of pretty shitty news otherwise. People are mostly good. If they weren’t, then the bad things reported on the ‘news’ would not be ‘news’.

 

 

 

Jarrell Cove Holiday

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We’ve decided that since we can’t have a long cruise this summer (BOOO!!!) we will do long weekends exploring south Puget Sound. As a rule, south sound is less crowded than the northern area and there are a lot of quiet areas to anchor, even if most of them are surrounded by houses.  Our engine, Hiram, got all the pent up energy out of his system on this trip, although we actually got plenty of sailing in as well. That’s kind of unusual in the south sound. We’ll take it!

Hey, that’s a Cal 34 sailing there!

So off we went to the lovely little Jarrell Cove on the north end of Harstine Island. We took off on Thursday evening, figuring we’d take advantage of the currents for a head start down to the island. We had an ulterior motive: to visit good friends Rose and Gary Benz, see their cute little Vivacity 20, Mudduck, and convince Rose to cook dinner for us.

Mudduck is like a boat for fairies. That boarding ladder is so tiny it borders on adorable. See how she sparkles?

The last time we were in Jarrell Cove was so long ago I’d have to do math to figure it out. You know how I feel about math. We had just sold our Catalina 27 to a woman who lived on Harstine Island and had docked the boat at a small private marina there. We had some boat stuff to bring her so decided to make the trek. Aboard our new-to-us Cal34, it took us an entire long day to get there. It seemed like such a long way.

After spending two nights in Rosedale catching our breath and doing a few boat projects, we had a nice downwind sail up Case Inlet to the northern shore of Stretch Island for a night, hoping to go ashore and walk a bit. Okay. I’m just going to say this: waste of time. There is a park on Stretch Island but perhaps the island is named for what a ‘stretch’ it is to say that this park is anything but a small beach, surrounded by – you guessed it- houses. Can you tell I’m ready for a little anchor time in the wilds of Canada? We anchored in front of a houseless sandy bluff and didn’t even get off the boat. Should have just gone directly to Jarrell Cove. Next time.

Scene from the side of a very sweet workshop.

Scene from the side of a very sweet workshop.

The wind shifted for us overnight, and we sailed into Jarrell Cove the following day, looking for a place to anchor. Perhaps my memory is bad, but it seems to me like we anchored out last time we were there. This time there were no places to anchor inside the cove, which was filled with mooring balls from the state park, as well as private mooring balls. We decided to pick up a ball, as it would be good practice.

The last time we tried this on Galapagos it was at James Island in the San Juans. The boat was new to us and I was filled with anxiety about the closeness of rocky cliffs. Mike was filled with anxiety about my anxiety. It was windy. We tried a couple of times, then bailed on the whole project instead of stopping, calming Amy G. Dala down, and coming up with another plan. It was dead disappointing and we felt like mooring ball failures.

There she is!

This time was way different! We had at least two plans before we even started. I helmed the boat, Mike lay flat on the deck just by the cockpit, and we picked it up on the first pass. Take THAT people on the nice Beneteau hoping for dinner and a show! Nothing to see here except a pretty boat! Go back to your previously scheduled drinking party. We high fived and I was so excited I posted to Facebook.

Tiny bitty winches and a tiny winch handle. Coming from our big boat, these amaze me.

We hooked up with Rose and Gary and prepared for a fun-filled afternoon and evening kayaking, showing off Galapagos, looking at boats, and visiting. The thing about Rose and Gary is that they like little boats. They like them so much that they own at least 10 of them, including that cute little twin keel Vivacity, 6 kayaks, a minto, a double kayak, and a zodiac. They are our heroes. In retirement, they live a life we aspire to live. They are in a great community of people who do things together and support each other,  have a wonderful place on the water where they can launch their little boats anytime they want to, and they have huge his and hers workshops where they can putter around and make lovely things. Seriously, if Harstine Island were not in the south sound (read: not enough sunshine, winters too long and dark for us) we would consider retiring there.

Rose also has a number of industrial sewing machines, since she used to have a saddle and tackle shop.

We spent a completely quiet night on the mooring ball and awoke to brilliant sunshine for our motorboat ride back home. It’s sure hard to leave when the day is so pretty and warm and the cockpit is so comfortable. No wind, but we continue to be amazed at how fast this boat goes compared to our Cal34. We left Jarrell Cove at noon and arrived back in our slip by 4:30. Whaaatt?? Of course, timing is everything through the narrows, but still, we were pushing 10 knots with a lift of about 2 knots from current. Not bad at all! I guess size really does matter.

Need a screw or nail, or brad, or anything else?

Back in Tacoma three friends waited on the dock, having seen us coming. I sure appreciate it when people run to help, just in case we need it. It makes my docking anxiety go way down. When was the last time we got that kind of help with stuff at home? I’m staring at the rocks that need cementing around that pond in my yard. I don’t see anyone at my front door here with big smiles on their faces, arms outstretched to catch bags of mortar …just saying. Our marina is pretty great.

Mike always makes a little list of things he’s decided to do to the boat at the end of every trip.