Monthly Archives: May 2013

Identifying Wildlife

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Today was a good kind of day. In fact, it was one of the best kinds of days a person can have on land, and a great antidote to my curmudgeonly mood of late in terms of  the subject of boats. Mike and I went down to Olympia to check on our girl Moonrise, have lunch, and generally spend the day hanging around together. We found Moonrise bobbing sweetly right in front of the broker’s office, next to my friend Sue’s “pirate ship”, also for sale. Hurray! Potential customers walking along the boardwalk have an unobstructed view of our boat. One of the brokers showed her today to a client who came down to see a different boat, saw ours, and wanted a viewing. So it does seem like she is getting more attention in the Olympia market.

Moonrise and her blue water friend.

Moonrise and her blue water friend.

What made today so much fun was that while we were in Olympia, I photographed two boats for writing reviews and that gives us legitimate access to the docks where we can walk slowly up and down looking at hundreds of different boats. It’s amazing how legit a person can look with a smart looking camera hanging around her neck, even if it’s just a little point and shoot digital camera with a fancy lens and complicated menus. (Right Lee Youngblood?) Today we saw plenty of very cool boats that made us want to see more.

This one is named 'Sea Lass'. It's pretty awesome.

This one is named ‘Sea Lass’. It’s pretty awesome. I’d love to review it.

I wish there were some kind of field guide to world sailboats because identifying sailboats is much like identifying wildlife. Most often there is no identifying builder’s or designer’s name anywhere on the vessel in plain sight, so one is left asking questions as though it were some wild animal naming test. What is this boat’s shape? What are its obvious habits? Is it a fast traveler or a slow and steady beast? Would this boat live best close to shore or would it revel in the deep blue sea? Is it built for colder climates and rougher conditions? Or is it a lazy kind of boat that enjoys soft warm breezes and gentle swells? Is its life expectancy long and full, or short and sweet? We ask these questions, looking for clues to the creator. After walking a couple of docks in Swantown Marina, we suspect there is a large contingent of Crealock owners down in Olympia.

What is this? Any ideas?

What is this? Any ideas?

Isn’t it strange how the feel of sailboats is so much different than that of other kinds of things we might travel inside? When we see an old boat, teak trim allowed to go grey in the weather, bronze fittings turning that distinguished shade of blue green, our thoughts go immediately to what journeys that boat has had. Where has it gone? Who has had the pleasure of the traveling? What has it seen? What adventures are resting in it’s hull, waiting to be uncovered? We don’t ask those same kinds of questions with old, beat up cars, though.

All I think of when I see a beat up older car is that it probably shouldn’t be on the road anymore’ that it’s likely a danger to self and others. Even with RV’s that may have traveled thousands of miles, the feeling is just one of ‘sheesh, wish this were newer’. There is never the level of respect for these vehicles that one can feel for a sailboat. Somehow, wisdom and experience doesn’t seem to be stored in them the same way.  I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps it’s that boats have been around for centuries. Cars are still pretty new in terms of our human experience. Maybe they just don’t speak to us on a cellular level like boats can.

Look closely for the guardian of the boat.

Look closely for the guardian of the boat.

So we wandered and wondered today about the boats we saw. We want to get started looking again for our next boat because it may take us awhile to find her. It will take a lot for a boat to live up to the expectations set by Flying Gull. The bar is set very high. We’ve come to terms with the fact that this summer will probably not be filled with sailing, but we’d like it to be filled with looking, like it was today. There are also some boats down in California that we’d like to go and see like this Cheoy Lee 50. It’s somewhat out of our price range at this time, but who knows what can happen?

Today we enjoyed photographing an Endurance 37 (the pirate ship in the first photo) and an Endeavor 42, both for sale through Capital City Yachts. I’ll be writing reviews of them to be published at a later date on ThreeSheetsNW.com. I’m always looking for interesting boats to write up, so if you are in the Puget Sound area and own an interesting boat you’d like me to write about, or if you are a yacht broker who lists interesting boats, drop me a line. My most recently published review is on a sweet little Perry designed Islander Freeport 36.

So, note to the Universe: more days like this, please.

Kind of says 'Yorktown' to me. What do you think?

Kind of says ‘Yorktown’ to me. What do you think?

 

Meanwhile…Back at the Ranch…

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I feel compelled to post an update about our lack of progress. When we started this blog I wanted it to tell the whole process, not just the fun part. This is one of those posts that is not all about pretty paper umbrellas in fruity drinks. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty much the opposite of that.

This is not happening in this post. Be prepared.

Lately the energy around this whole cunning plan of ours has been about as thick as Mississippi mud. I understand that’s pretty thick, as in the stick-to-your-boots, cement-heavy clumps of clay kind of thick. Just to flesh out the metaphor, I’ll bet it’s stinky with anaerobic bacteria, and it’s red and stains everything it touches forever and ever. Am I being too dramatic here?  I am about to drive myself insane. This time I’m not alone, as Mike feels much the same way. Two insane people together. It’s not pretty. We watch a lot of TV lately…Have you seen Big Bang Theory? It’s a good distraction. We laugh and laugh and laugh…

Here is a soothing tree peony.

Here is a soothing tree peony.

The short of it is that we moved Moonrise down to Olympia where she would ‘sit in front of the broker’s office’ so that passer’s by could see the boat. She’s a pretty boat, well kept, good repair, reliable engine, and all that. The only little glitch in that plan is that…wait for it… she is not actually sitting in front of the broker’s office. She’s in a regular slip, and so it’s pretty hard to see her among all the other boats. We gave a big collective sigh on that one because it just figures.

What is up with this issue with selling the boat? It isn’t as though Moonrise isn’t getting shown. She’s been shown several times. Maybe she’s being shown more in Olympia than she would be here. Who knows? Brokers can only do so much. It doesn’t matter anyway, since we gave up our Tacoma slip, which was snatched from our hot little hands practically before we could spit. Who knew our slip was so desirable? So now we have a boat that is inconveniently far from home home, still sitting in a slip surrounded by other boats, still on the market, and still unsold. The price has been lowered again. It’s more than fair. Really. I even wrote our own Yachtworld ad so that I could be sure it accurately reflected our boat.

We'll refer to this later.

We’ll refer to this later. See the bird netting? That’s to protect the koi from herons.

Between the Flying Gull debacle, which still sits on my heart like a f***ing stone, and the difficulty we’re having selling this boat, on this particular day I feel as though it’s going to be a cold day in heck before I’m going to want to buy another boat, since whatever boat we choose we’ll be stuck with until the end of eternity. Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but the sheer difficulty we’ve had selling what is really a very good coastal cruiser in a price range most would kill for makes me feel very strongly that we better choose oh so extremely carefully next time.  We better get that most elusive of boats: the one that can do it all. You know that boat I’m talking about; the one that doesn’t exist.

There is probably someone out there who would be glad to tell us right now that it’s ‘not about the boat’. I beg you. Don’t say it. Really. Instead, read this page for a description of the reasons we feel the need to sell our current boat before moving forward. If we decide otherwise in the future, the blog readers will know it soon enough.

Okay, enough yelling, foot stomping, spitting and general acting out.

This door to replace one that has seen better days

This door to replace one that has seen better days

Meanwhile, back at the ranch house, Mike’s work at Boeing is looking like there could be some major changes coming since he’s a developer and Boeing is trying to find ways to save money on IT. This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing but it might give us an opportunity to live differently faster than we thought. Therefore, not wanting to be caught with our proverbial pants down, we are starting to get the house into shape in earnest. That means Mike has been replacing old doors and painting trim. I am working with my little gray cells, planning what to do with my 4000 gallon pond, which is a huge liability when it comes to renting the house. I’ll have to find a home for my big koi, and then we’ll probably fill it in and create a pondless waterfall. That way we can still have the stream and the sound, but no danger to small children and animals. And very little maintenance. I’m all about that lately. This project will probably take the whole summer unless I can hire part of it out. I am loathe to get started on it, frankly.

And then we have more junk to get rid of, the exterior trim needs painting, there is wood that needs repairing, more molding that needs finishing, old doors that need cleaning, the wood floor in the dining room needs refinishing, the saltillo tile needs a new finish, we should get a load of gravel for the driveway, go through the stuff in the attic, the wallpaper in Andrew’s room is peeling and his room needs updating anyhow since he’s not 7 years old anymore, oh, and both kids are coming home so that means I have to move all my stuff out of the closet in Claire’s old room and reconsider our food storage options in the kitchen, rearrange furniture again, decide how to store the things we will not be tossing out, put more stuff on Craigslist, possibly have a big sale at some point. Anyone for some Big Bang Theory? The couch beckons.

So what we’re looking at here is a summer of work projects… around the ranch house. Open invitation to anyone who complains that boats are a lot of work: want to come over? We’ve got a few hundred big jobs we could use help with.

Yeah, I thought this was an interesting photo, too. That's what it's all about just now.

Yeah, I thought this was an interesting photo, too. That’s what it’s all about just now for Mike.

Unlimited Weekend

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We’ve just returned home from a fabulous weekend! How many days make a weekend, anyway? 2? 3?  An infinite number? It feels to us like at least 6.

Friday evening I met Mike down at Moonrise after work. We decided we were going to leave Friday evening because the tides and currents would be lousy against us on Saturday morning and it’s a long way to Olympia. We were taking Moonrise down to our capital city to sit in front of the yacht broker’s office where they get a lot of foot traffic. The wooden boat festival was going to be there for the weekend, drawing thousands of people. It would be a good time for our boat to be seen, plus we thought we’d get to see some very cool old boats. Regular readers will understand that we feel a special ‘something’ for specific wooden boats, and that ‘something’ hasn’t gone away. So a weekend of boat drooling sounded like a good plan.

I told Mike if we buy the right kind of boat, he will need one of these as a tender.

I told Mike if we buy the right kind of boat, he will need one of these as a tender.

We shouldn’t have been surprised by what turned out to be the classic ‘slow motorboat ride to China’ because the winds blew all last week, so they were all used up, leaving none left for this weekend. But the trusty Westerbeke made it to Eagle Island and we picked up a mooring ball next to a group of small motor craft, rafted up together. Words of wisdom: if you want a quiet evening, do not even think about mooring next to something like this. I knew it, but we did it anyway. Still, after they drunk themselves into some sort of stupor and blew their speakers out, we had a peaceful night’s rest and were off to an early start on Saturday morning, against the tide, but already halfway there.20130512_34

Good thing the scenery around here is outstanding because it’s a long way to Olympia on a Cal 34. I’m not complaining though, because a day on the boat, even motoring, is better than the best day doing regular work. And even with the 2.4 knots we were going through some of the passages, we still managed to get to Olympia by 11:00. As we pulled into the slip at the brokerage, the decision was made that we would leave Moonrise in Olympia where she was sure to be seen by lots of people looking for a nice boat rather than try to get back to Tacoma the following day. After all, that’s where we found her 5 years ago. We’d figure out how to get ourselves to Tacoma somehow, but meanwhile we would enjoy the wooden boats and the festival. Life was good, the sun was shining, and we were on a boat weekend! What could life possibly offer that was better than this?

Seeing Bald Eagles fishing at the beginning of a trip is good luck for me.

Seeing Bald Eagles fishing at the beginning of a trip is good luck for me.

That was not a rhetorical question. Life actually DID offer something better by way of the wooden sailing vessel Odyssey, the 90 foot 1938 Sparkman and Stephens (yes, you read that correctly) sailboat that belongs to the Tacoma Sea Scouts. We love this boat! She left Tacoma just after we did, and for awhile we got to be on the same water with her. But she is very fast, so she had been docked overnight by the time we arrived in Olympia.20130512_17

Our relationship with the Sea Scouts, while  tenuous, is of long standing. Andrew participated for awhile in his youth, but he is really not a group sort of person and it has been Mike who has been involved with them over the years. He helps them out with their website. So he knows some of the adults who work with the scouts. And he managed to get us a ride back to Tacoma on board this classic ship! Happy Mother’s Day to me!!

Now I know why these wheels have spokes. It's not as easy as it looks.

Now I know why these wheels have spokes. It’s not as easy as it looks. You can’t tell by looking but I am having a great time.

Oh yes, you know very well how we felt about that. It was fabulous! If you go to the link and look at the photo of Odyssey under sail, I think you will notice a resemblance between this ship and another one we’ve written about recently. Go ahead. Do it now. I will wait.

See what I mean?

In return for their generosity, I’m going to write up an article ‘reviewing’ that boat and the Sea Scouts program in the hopes that it will draw attention to this worthy cause. Mike is going to revamp their website and make sure they have a Paypal Donation button because this is a great organization and they have a spectacular boat that needs work. They need money, and they deserve to have it. Not only do they keep a love of sailing alive in the young people who belong, they also keep alive the history of this beautiful boat, which was in service in the Navy during WWII. If that sounds familiar it’s because it is. If it were not for the Sea Scouts this boat would be languishing in some slip in Seattle, rotting away like another boat we know about.

So we enjoyed tremendously the trip to Tacoma from Olympia. We were all a little sleepy as we cast off the lines at 6:30 AM.  This turned out to be perfect as it got us back to Tacoma before lunch. A generous Sea Scout Connor ferried us across the water to our old marina, where our cars awaited.

To sail to far away places...

To sail to far away places…Yes, Mike got a turn, too, even though it isn’t Father’s Day.

But our weekend wasn’t over. We trundled back to Olympia in the car to clean out the boat and retrieve all of our belongings. Since we’ve been keeping her in ‘show perfect’ condition, we’ve had to load her up with sailing gear and food before taking off for the weekend. So there was work to do. When we arrived at the brokerage we found that someone was scheduled to see Moonrise already! We made quick work of getting the stuff off the boat and giving her a quick wipe down, then skedaddled out of there and went to get lunch. When we got back we found that the broker had already shown it once, and there was currently someone else looking at it. Wow! Moonrise was in Olympia for less than a day and already two people were looking at her. This is more action that she would get in a month in Tacoma.

I had to show you this cool wash basin in the Captain's quarters. You fill with water from the spigot, then it drains into the bilge when you fold the sink away. So cool!

I had to show you this cool wash basin in the Captain’s quarters. You fill with water from the spigot, then it drains into the bilge when you fold the sink away. So cool!

Our car loaded up with gear, we once more found our way to Tacoma and to our house feeling like we’d had a great weekend, filled with sights, sounds, and adventures, not to mention food. I will pay for that this week.  We’ll also have much cheaper moorage in Olympia until the boat sells, so we will be saving money. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Moonrise, in her new slip, ready to go as usual.

Moonrise, in her new slip, ready to go as usual.

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