Author Archives: Melissa

S/V Elsa, 1974 Ingrid 38

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Let’s all get real clear about one thing: It is Mike who is building the refrigerator system on Galapagos.  In his post on Reefer Madness Mike consistently used the prounoun ‘we’ to refer to all the work being done on our boat. In Mike’s case, he doesn’t generally refer to himself in the plural form as though he were royalty. Mike is not known to say things like ‘Take us to the royal bed as we are tired.’, or ‘We disagree with the lowering of taxes on the masses as we love our money.’.  No, he may speak the ‘Queen’s English’ as a rule, but he doesn’t generally speak as though he WERE the Queen.  Or King. Or whatever.

Mike aboard S/V Elsa took this shot of us as we passed each other out on the bay.

Mike aboard S/V Elsa took this shot of us as we passed each other out on the bay.

So I can only assume that his use of the collective term is meant to somehow imbue me with a sense of having participated more than I actually have. Or perhaps he is using the term the same way people do when the woman has given birth. You know, as in ‘WE had a baby’. Well, NO, ‘WE’ did not. The woman had the baby and you, pathetic man, stood by and watched with helpless awe and wonder. You got to be there for the fun part before, and the fun part after, but the actual growing and birthing of the child? Not so much. And don’t you forget it!

So let’s get real clear about the fact that it is Mike’s job to build this baby. My job is to stand by and watch with pathetic awe and wonder, my jaw usually on the floor. My how our roles have reversed in the last 30 years.

I got this photo of S/V Elsa on a beautiful winter sailing day in February. Could there BE a more perfect name for this boat?

Mike is burning the candle at both ends lately and I am waiting for the crash and burn. He hasn’t set a pace for himself like this since 1992 when we tore the roof off our second house to add another floor on the same day I went into labor with Andrew. If it were not for me, he would be working himself into a lather, and not the good kind. When he started becoming sleepless due to constant perseverating over the fridge project,  I knew I had to intervene and I would need some new blood in order to get his attention. I decided ‘we’ would take a break and have dinner with some new friends of ours and then go and view their beautiful boat, an Ingrid 38 named Elsa. There is nothing like new friends and their boat to get a guy’s attention, especially when the two guys have so much in common, not the least of which is their mutual first name. (Hint: MacGyver.)

If blogs are good for anything it is meeting other like-minded people. We have met a number of great folks through our blog, most of whom live nowhere near us. S/V Elsa’s people, Michael and Kristin, live in Kirkland and keep their boat in Tacoma at Hylebos Marina, where we used to haul out Moonrise, our old Cal 34. Kristin contacted us through our blog late last year and we arranged dinner together. It was great to see them again this year, hear about their new precious grand baby, and finally swap boat viewings.

Bronze samson posts. 100% saucy.

Elsa is a 1974 Ingrid 38 and Michael and Kristin are the third owners. They bought her from someone who had loved her well, started a lot of projects, then had to sell before seeing them completed. Fortunately for them, he left the boat full of brand new parts and pieces of beautiful wood to finish the old girl.  Michael and Kristin, like all old-boat owners who love their vessels, have found a project to fill their hearts and their days as they finish what the previous owner started. Michael’s goal with Elsa is to have a vessel with simple systems that sails beautifully, staying as true to the classic ways of this lovely boat as possible. Apparently owning a boat like Elsa has been a lifelong dream of Michael’s. He’s living the dream!

The previous owner made this block himself. He left a box of them on the boat.

Stepping aboard Elsa you can feel her solid structure under your feet. She rides in the slip gracefully, no jerky movements to put you off balance and plenty of room to move around. In fact, the Ingrid 38 is designed to be sea-kindly and to sail well in rough seas. Originally designed to be a wooden boat, she has the salty look of a much older sailing vessel.  It’s really so lovely to just be able to ‘step’ aboard a boat rather than climb aboard as you have to do with Galapagos. Different boats, different compromises. At 38 feet, Elsa is just right for a couple who wants to do coastal cruising in this area and she is built for off-shore sailing in mind so they have the perfect ‘go anywhere’ boat for two.

All new opening ports, added by the previous owner. Wow!

Like all ‘new’ boat owners, Michael and Kristin have a number of little projects and plans for their girl, but they are also dedicated to sailing her as much as possible. Between sailings there are plans to paint the deck a different color of tan, change the boot stripe color to a pale grey, and they receive their mainsail with new strong track attached this week. We are envious of that little addition to their sailing system and will be keeping a gimlet eye or two on how that performs for them. I get the impression that it is sailing first, boat work second.

MacGyver at his best.

In the photo above, note how Michael solved the problem of adding winches to his mast without drilling extra holes in the hollow wooden spar. Since the spar is painted, he cannot tell for sure what’s underneath the paint except to know that it is a hollow wooden box, many feet tall. He wanted winches, but not holes. So he had these steel brackets fabricated and mounted the winches onto wood boards. These can be easily removed to make sure moisture is not causing trouble underneath the wood. He also had that bar for the staysail fabricated to allow it to move freely as needed. Sweet.

Elsa’s heart.

Elsa’s Volvo engine is accessed through this hobbit door behind the entry steps. For a 38 foot boat, the engine space is generous and I enjoyed Michael’s description of how he would lay down a tarp and ‘swan dive’ into this space, being careful of the crunchy bits against soft flesh. I believe he may have shed a tear or two when beholding Mike’s engine room aboard Galapagos, but hey, you buy a 47 foot boat and you, too, can have an engine room. We all have our trade offs.

Here’s what made me shed a tear or two myself:

Two guesses what this is.

You’ll never guess what Elsa has on board due to the previous owner’s creatively devious mind. This, my boaty friends, is what amounts to a Japanese sitting tub. Yes, that is not me making this up just to make Mike feel guilty. This is an actual fact. Aboard this Ingrid 38 there is a sitting tub in the head. It’s also a great storage space for life jackets but the point is that if they WANTed to sit in a tub of warm water after a rough sail, they could. And I am dead jealous of that. My tub will be sorely missed when we move aboard Galapagos. I see those little tubs in boats like Spencers and Maple Leafs and it makes me swoon just a little. As I fall to the ground on my knees with desire, I have visions of how I could get me one of those aboard Galapagos. I see this one is built in place rather than fabricated and then installed. Hmmmm. The little grey cells begin computing…

V berth on the Ingrid 38.

While Mike and Michael compared notes on things like electrical systems and such, Kristin and I viewed the V berth with a critical eye. Kristin and I share in common a love of a good comfortable sleeping space on a boat. By ‘comfortable’ I mean one that has headroom, light, and that doesn’t require a herculean effort crawling over a sleeping spouse in the middle of the night when nature calls, as it so inevitably does. (And with more frequency, I might add, as one gets closer to that certain age, whatever that is.)

Kristin and Michael are planning to remodel this area. We will be watching closely. Photo credit to their blog.

So she is looking at a remodel of the salon to make cuddling up easier, and create a space for them to sleep more comfortably. I understand her pain. It seems we both have a certain type of space in mind, and while we agree that we understand sailing and safety systems come first, our desires will not be thwarted forever. Stay tuned for updates to all of that on our mutual blogs.

New sinks, countertops, and faucet.

Their galley is adorable and functional. The previous owner put in a new sink and faucet, lined the icebox with nice formica, and resurfaced the countertops. These are all projects that will be happening aboard our boat, too, so I was extra curious about this area. It’s really a lovely space. He maintained the feel of the interior and kept the surfaces easy to clean. Notice the sink is not yet plumbed, but all the stuff is there waiting to be put in place. Here are a couple more shots.

Really nicely done ice box.

Love that easy-clean area on the bulkhead behind the stove.

Notice in the photo above you can see that the previous owner added insulation to the boat, at least above the waterline. Ok, I am dead jealous of that.

For extra coziness on those wet winter days.

Kristin and Michael have a blog you can follow to watch Elsa’s progress as they complete the myriad projects they have in the works. She is already a beautiful vessel and has obviously been well-loved. By the time they are ‘finished’ (HA HA HA) with her, she will be the Queen of Commencement Bay. ‘We’ will be pleased for them.

 

You Speak Your Language, and We’ll Speak Ours

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Happy Valentine’s Day, dear readers! Today is the day that lovers everywhere declare their undying devotion by spending money at Hallmark and hurriedly stopping at the Safeway for a box of Brach’s Special Edition Extra Corn Syrup on the way home. People have all kinds of ways to say ‘I love you’. Some people go have a fancy dinner and hope to have fancy sex later. Some people do the jewelry thing. Some expect candle light and a bottle of “Je ne sais quoi” or some other French words I can’t think of right now. But after 33 (I think) years of marital bliss, Mike and I have our own love language. At the Little Cunning Plan house, nothing says ‘I Love You, Baby!’ like a big garbage dumpster in the driveway! We were in for a delightful weekend of property clean up! Woo hoo! I’m a lucky girl!

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been continuing on our quest to ‘make space’ for this life transition by throwing things out. What better way to clear out the work area of that pile of rotting lumber, that stack of plastic pots from plants, the remnants of the pond filtration system? How else would we dispose of the little shed that Andrew built years ago in the ‘Lothlorian’ area (which we call our small forested space)?

Goodbye cute little hut Andrew built in his youth. Goodbye lean-to that used to have firewood stored beneath it. Hello wide open places!

It’s the end of an era of letting Andrew go hog wild with wood, saws, nails and screws. We thoroughly enjoyed his industrious years of building things in this big back yard we have. And we miss the sound of his little hammer and Daddy’s drill, his archery targets, the tin cans with holes punched through them where the arrows hit their marks.  Gone are the days of large siege engines tossing big things across the neighbor’s fence. He was like a medieval warrior, or at least a medieval carpenter. They were built to work, and built to last. But we have our memories, fond and otherwise, and on occasion at the tender age of almost 23 he still lets loose a few arrows out back. But I am running amok down memory lane right now and that’s not the purpose of this post.

What is this day without flowers? Here’s one from the garden today. We have an early spring in the Pacific Northwest.

No this post is a Valentine’s gift to you, readers, because guess what you get to do now? Go ahead. Guess. I’ll wait.

Ok. You don’t know, do you? Your super surprise extra bonus gift of this day, because we love you and all, is to watch this great video of us deploying our life raft in the back yard. That’s right!!! I’ll bet most of you have never seen a life raft deployed, and the rest of you are asking yourselves why we would even consider doing such a thing. This is why: the people at the boat show told us to.

There she blows.

We had this life raft that was born in May 1993 and last serviced in 2005. Now frankly, we figured it was still good as gold considering it had been protected in the sturdy (and unbelievably heavy) case in its secure holder on the back of Galapagos for the last 10 years. No sunlight or water could get to it. I called around to some places that repack life rafts and none of them really wanted anything to do with it. You know the story: “Oh, you need to bring it in and let us look at it and then we can tell you if it’s any good.” But we couldn’t get a bead on how much this ‘service’ would cost us, or whether it would even be worth our time. For all we knew we should just fill it with those plastic balls and rent it out for children’s birthday parties.

It has been in our garage for a year or so now with us not knowing what to do with it. So what the hell. We had nothing to lose. We couldn’t dispose of it the way it was because it was considered hazardous material due to the canister of gas. And we sure weren’t going to try to sell it the way it was. The guys at the boat show selling life rafts were familiar with what we had and said that in its day it was considered a really good life raft. They said we should just set if off and see what we had.   We’ will likely have to buy a new one anyhow, so we just went outside and pulled the painter. And the rest, as they say, is water under the bridge.

It was a ton of fun, and almost like an extra Christmas to open up the ditch bags and see what was inside. There was plenty of loot, and most of it was still good. Get a load of this:

Real loot!

What we have here is a kite for signaling help, a very nice, brand new Swiss Army knife with every possible gizmo on it, still in the box, a brand new compass, a nice signaling mirror, two different fishing kits, waterproof matches (still good), two short wooden paddles, and a sturdy flashlight. We also found a lot of drinking water in pouches that was still perfectly fine, and a nice first aid kit with a number of items that can be used, and a bottle of sea sickness tablets. I guess those are toast by now.

Look, baby! It works! Nothing says ‘Manly man’ like extra filth and a hammer hanging on your pants.

Turns out this is a very nice raft. In fact, it looks like it is just as good as the new ones we looked at, especially considering the chances of our having to even use it. There is a little light inside, and one on the top, and a kit with an extra bulb. There is a sea anchor attached, and it has weighted bags around the bottom to help stabilize it in rough seas.

A nice sea anchor, attached well to the outside of the raft.

And now what? We are hoping that if we take it to the same place that inspected it twice before, DBC up in Victoria, B.C., maybe they can service it again and put it in a different kind of case. If there is a way to salvage this life raft and use it, it would save us about 2000$, minus the cost of servicing and repacking it. If you know a resource for us, please comment. If we’ve killed it by deploying it, oh well. We figured we’d have to buy another one anyhow. There is always the children’s birthday party idea.

For your Valentine’s Amusement, here is the video; 4 minutes or so of me trying to get Mike to move faster so the video won’t be so long. Enjoy  .[vsw id=”DDc4UgYmkPo” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

 

After a long Valentine’s Day of hurking great piles of rotting lumber and remnants of ancient remodeling endeavors, and deploying still-perfectly-good life rafts, our evening goes like this:

Melissa: What’s for dinner, Baby?
Mike: Je ne sais quoi.
Melissa: You know you are irresistible to me when you speak French. Come here and get your Valentine’s gift you handsome devil.
Mike: Ow! Donnez-moi l’Advil, s’il vous plait.

blogliferaft

 


					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Smelly Cheese Not Included

			
						

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A fun thing about going to the boat show is getting to look at some ‘previously loved’ sailboats for sale. Used to be there were more of them at the show. Now, I think it must cost the brokers too much to give just any boat that kind of visibility, so the pickings are slim. We got to look at  2005 Malo 45 Classic designed for Nigel Calder (It had a new engine. How appropriate.).  It was a pretty nice boat, and only $599,999. Even at less than 20% of that price, we like Galapagos better. Whew! Close call.


We got a couple of ideas for Galapagos on board the Malo 45 Classic. OK, sure, maybe I like the galley a little better on this boat.


We also got to look at a nifty 1982 Shannon 38 Pilothouse, one of only 9 built. The price tag on that one was only a cool $95,000 so getting a bit closer to our league. Shannons are really good boats, so someone is going to have fun with this one. It was a saucy boat but, again, we like ours better. I do love looking at boats, but it’s good to continue to be happy with what we have.


Some of the lovely, saucy stuff on board that Shannon.


What flipped us totally out was going aboard the 2009 Garcia 76. Oh my good golly Miss Molly! That boat is simply amazing. If this is an example of how ‘the 1 percent’ must live, then I have been born into the wrong life. When this boat goes onto the U.S. market, it will be listed at about $2,500,000.00. That’s a lot of zeros.  This is a number that is so far beyond my reality, it seems like one should be able to buy a small country, complete with serfs for that amount. The amount of pure hedonistic indulgence is the equivalent of a gallon of your favorite ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. It’s enough to make you completely sick.


Still,  the aluminum hull of this monster called to me from across the docks. I just had to go aboard because I wanted to be able to wrap my head around a boat that big that looked like it was an awesome sailing boat. Yes, I know there a many boats that that big. But I’ve never been aboard them. Mike and I almost raced each other to the swim step to clambor aboard


The 2009 Garcia 76. Oy vey. I couldn’t get far enough away from her to get her entire self in the frame.


I’m so glad the boat’s owner wasn’t aboard to see us gawking and exclaiming about the size of the equipment on this boat. How embarrassing that would have been. We were all kinds of ‘touristy Americans’, exclaiming in wonder as we surveyed the breadth of the mast, the sheer beefiness of the blocks, the world of electric roller furlers. And on this 2+ million dollar boat, someone had wound the foresail so tightly around the furler that it was hurting the sail. I could barely walk away without feeling its pain. Awful.


Look at the space on that deck! It’s like a Mother Ship!


Here you go. A little sailing eye candy:


Pretty! Just real pretty!


Mike noticed their use of soft shackles, pieces of sailing ‘hardware’ that Mike, too, uses liberally. So we’re sort of kind of like the owners of this boat. In a way.


Soft shackle ahoy!


When I look at boats, I always like to spend an appropriate amount of time on deck before going below because it makes me look like I am actually interested in all the sailing stuff going on up there. But of course, I am really dying to go below. You know, true confessions and all.


Can you just say WOW!?


I believe the word ‘stunned’ would be an appropriate description of what we must have looked like upon finding ourselves in the main salon. Just WOW! First, get a load of that settee and dining area. I’ll show you the galley, which goes the entire beam of the boat, in a minute. Mike and I had our mutual jaws hitting the floor about every two seconds just looking around. Then, when the broker heard me say I would be writing about this boat on the blog, he asked if he could give us the tour and show us some of the finer bells and whistles. Are you freaking kidding me? Lead on, friend, lead on!


First, I noticed the flooring which is not at all the traditional sole in a boat. It’s actually an all weather fabric mesh that I have seen used on floors in industrial chic designs. You can buy outdoor rugs made of it. And it makes a dandy surface on the sole of the boat. The color in this boat, a deep graphite, is quite soothing and gives the boat a quiet feeling.


The other side of the salon.


On the other side of the salon there is another white leather settee and matching white leather club chairs. And the thing about those club chairs is that they are attached to the floor with magnets. To move the chair, you just flip a switch and it releases. Pretty darn cool. But wait! There’s more! What’s behind the chair? That would be the electrical and workshop area.


These are so well organized. They seem like they should be bronze or something but what do I know?


With all the tools of your dreams, of course.


Get a load of that panel. Mike’s sighs were deep and long.


So turning back to the salon, we tarry awhile longer admiring the view of the furnishings (a little afraid to touch them, actually, with our plebian hands)  then move to the galley. The galley; that which left me speechless. It’s just not possible to understand how a sailboat can have a galley like this. I mean, I get it that cruise ships have galleys. But this boat is owned by an INDIVIDUAL person. Not a government or a large corporation. I only wish I could have had a gander at that refrigerator. But we were not allowed to open it due to the presence of smelly French cheese, at least that’s what the sign said.


Starboard side galley.


And this:


Port side galley. I love the counters. Just love them.


And let’s discuss storage. No, let’s not bother. Because this boat has so much it may as well be a condo. But of course, it is 75 feet long. Seventy five feet. I wonder. Does this boat spend much time in a marina? Oh, wait. No. No need for a marina when you have a crane on the stern of the boat where your OTHER boat lives. The other boat was missing, but I’m guess that the ‘dinghy’ would have been roughly the size of our previous Cal 34, Moonrise.


Can we get this on Galapagos? Um. No.


What a world we live in.


We move toward the bow of the boat and find an entire new world of berths and cabins, with heads everywhere. I believe the broker said there were 4 heads on this boat and I didn’t take a photo of even one of them. When that happens, you know I am overwhelmed by all the other sights I am seeing. I’m sure they were simply grand. We have enough trouble with two heads on Galapagos, so I can’t imagine doubling that. But I supposed if you can buy this boat, you can pay people to take care of it for you.


More photos because I simply don’t have enough adjectives.


The port galley is on the other side of those pillows.


And another cabin. This boat seems to be layed out like the big sailing yachts of yore;  like S/V Odyssey, the pretty Sparkman Stephens sailboat owned by the Tacoma Sea Scouts. The owner’s cabin is in the stern of the boat, with captain’s quarters up front, along with guests and crew. Here’s another nice cabin.


Who wouldn’t sleep well in this cabin?


And then, far away in the fore peak, the serf quarters. Nothing says ‘this isn’t really your house’ like a toilet in your bedroom. On a normal boat, this cabin would be pretty nice. On this boat, it pretty much pales in comparison to the other cabins.


Less accommodating and really? The servants can’t use the regular heads?


But I’m saving the best for last. The master cabin. Have mercy, this is a lovely cabin.


The master cabin. Why yes, I believe that IS a glass door to the head.


Alert readers will see that this bed is not on the midline of the cabin. But what about when the boat is under sail and she is heeled over nicely? Won’t the owner be irritated by that? Not to worry. This is a FRENCH boat! And the French are all over your comfort at sea. They have a long tradition of building fine boats. They keep these details in mind. Watch this:


Did you see that?


The broker was positively gleeful as he pushed a button and magically the head of the bed began to rise. Starboard tack?  Port tack? No problem. Push the button again. Raise the foot, raise the head, raise whatever you need to raise in order to get a good night’s sleep below. Sweet.


Then, of course, there is the storage behind all those pretty wood panels. Drawers pull out, hanging lockers pull out.


Pull out hanging locker. Clothes are still in it. Whoopsie!


Finally, there is a work station to die for in the master cabin.


Work station in the master suite.


On the way out I took notice of the nav station.


A plush leather navigation station. Wow.


By the time we’d seen the master suite, we were getting the idea that it was time for us to let other people have a turn. People were lined up waiting to board so no time to actually talk about little things like engines or sailing systems, things like that. I’d say we got a bunch of ideas for refitting Galapagos by looking at this boat, but you’d probably think I was exaggerating. And you’d be right. We just have to appreciate this boat for the work of art that it is and be glad we had the luck to be at the show to see it. Plus we have a blog so we got to see the magic bed and all. What a great day! You see? There IS a benefit to writing all this stuff down!Garcia sign