Now that we are back in the land of interweb, I can get to updating the blog. Let me just say that if you are looking for the ability to make phonecalls, text, or send an occasional FB update while in Canada or Mexico, then the Verizon ‘all you can eat’ plan that includes Canada and Mexico is probably fine for you. If you want to use the internet for anything other than that, forget it. Ordering from Amazon: No. Doing a Google search: also no. Looking at more than the first ‘page’ on your FB: are you kidding? No. Loading FB comments or replying to them: that’s a ‘no’.  Getting the latest U.S. version of the news: pretty much NO. (We didn’t miss that much.) If you can ‘splain this to me, please do.

It’s not always pretty sunsets and drinks with umbrellas in the cockpit, but sometimes it is.

Even though we had good reception most places, three ‘bars’ or better, we could not effectively do anything web based.  It was an exercise in frustration, mostly for Mike, since I am not interested in trying to tame a recalcitrant electronic device. If my computer or phone won’t work, it’s got exactly 5 minutes of my messing with it before I see a shiny thing on the other side of the boat and go toward the light.  I decided I would just read my books. It’s going to be a challenge getting used to having sketchy connectivity. After all, this isn’t a vacation; it’s how we live now. And we are a ‘connected’ family. Nevertheless, we shall persist in this thing as in others.

In the flurry of activity gearing up to leaving the south sound area, our son and daughter were intrigued with the number of parcels delivered to the house. Was this Christmas in July? It was not. It was stuff for the boat, for the engine, for the solar panels, you name it: we wanted extra parts for it. But as we cruised, other needs came up and we began using the old fashioned ‘general delivery’ service that allows you to have mail sent to the post office near you and held for 30 days. We had my offshore PFD delivered to the Post Office in Port Townsend. Now that we’re in Friday Harbor again, their Post Office is our new address.

It seems like a foolproof system, sending things to a Post Office to be picked up. But there is never enough proof against fools so we share our new found wisdom with those of you who may use this delivery service in future. As we scrambled around Friday Harbor checking packages off our list in a time-consuming game of ‘scavenger hunt’, we learned some stuff. And got some good exercise in the meantime.

View from the American Camp trail around the Friday Harbor airport. Best blackberries anywhere. Shhhh.

1. Amazon, from whom all goodness doth flow nowadays, doesn’t always deliver using the Post Office. Of course, we knew that. But when you have a house, it doesn’t matter what color the delivery truck might be.  So it wasn’t on our radar. Sometimes they use UPS. Sometimes they use FedEX. Sometimes they use a combination of those things. Unlike at home, if you think they’ve used the Post Office, but they actually used UPS, you want to know it. Fortunately, if you have *INTERNET (* see above) you can check your account to find out how something shipped.  If they use UPS, you may or may not get a phone call saying you have a package and they will hold it for 7 days. Not 30. Make sure your Amazon account has a phone number where you can be reached. Thankfully the nice folks at the Friday Harbor UPS place, down by the airport, called me when we were in Sidney and told me something had been delivered. I was pretty confused, then they were confused about why I was confused. Save yourself some stress and confusion by checking out how something will be shipped so you’ll know how long it will be held. I’m glad we were in a position to pick the Amazon order up before the 7 day ‘hold’ period was over.
2. If you have a name like mine, Melissa White, be aware that you are not the only person with that name, even though there is always only one of ‘You’ and you are very, very special.  Imagine my surprise when Mike got an email through the blog that ‘Melissa White’ had received a package that was addressed to General Delivery in Friday Harbor, but it wasn’t for her. This alternative ‘Melissa’ somehow, without opening the package, found us on the interweb and contacted us through the blog saying she may have received my package. We are very happy we were able to pick up that email during one of the few times we could do so while in Canada. She returned the package to the Post Office and we picked it up today. But we also will allow this to be a happy accident and meet up with this other “Melissa White” to compare notes about being us. Of course, the Friday Harbor Melissa has an actual address, so she is unlikely to get things mailed to ‘general delivery’. Still, the postal worker probably thought she was doing Melissa a favor in delivering to her home. I wonder if putting something like “Yacht in Transit” in the address would have helped differentiate us from all of our dopplegangers.
3. Sometimes things take longer to be delivered to an island. Right? So it’s nice to not have a schedule while you wait for large packages. Things that should have been delivered on Monday, might actually not be delivered until Thursday. Best to not have a schedule.
4. It’s nice to have an actual street address with a person attached to it to have expensive parts delivered. We are grateful to Steven Roberts of Friday Harbor for letting us use his address to have a couple of larger things delivered. That reduces all kinds of worry.
   

   Just going to pick up our mail. Out in the middle of nowhere.

And for those of you who do not live on a boat unleashed from land, here’s how things roll for us: Yesterday we walked about three miles to get to the UPS delivery place to pick up our Amazon packages and to Steve’s street address to pick up a part for the Hydrovane installation (which we hope will now be PERFECT). We took a great path around the airport perimeter, picked extremely plump and yummy blackberries as we walked the trail and then walked along a heavily traveled road to a dirt road to the delivery location. It was a house.  Mike knocks on the door and the home owner comes to the door. ‘Hi, I’m Michael Boyte. I think you have a package for me?’.  Homeowner hands over the package containing $350 worth of Hydrovane parts. Honestly, it seemed suspicious the way things so easily went down.  Then the guy offers to drive us back to town! Winner! Who says ‘no’ to a ride when the alternative is to lug two boxes on a cart about 3 miles to town? As our daughter says, ‘This is the life you chose’. Getting the mail. That’s our ‘one thing’ we did yesterday. And it was great.

We’re getting kind of anxious to get going down the coast. All the cool kids in our class have already graduated and left home. S/V Blue is gone, S/V Bella Nave is gone, S/V Brigadoon decided to stick around here for a grand baby. We’re the only ones we know who are still ‘here’ and it’s beginning to feel a little like that clock is ticking. As of now, we sail out the strait to Neah Bay to wait for weather, if necessary, a little before Labor Day.  That’s pretty soon. May the weather be fine.

S/V Galapagos out, for now.

One of our long-time readers made a comment recently. He said, ” Now that’s a cruising blog post!”. Such a simple comment, but such a moment that shifted my consciousness. It’s true! This is no longer the ‘planning to cruise’ blog it’s been for 5 years. It’s now a real live ‘we’re cruising’ blog. So strange and wonderful.

Dodging the cute little boats during one of the many sailboat races in Olympia.

I’ve been thinking about the word ‘cruisers’ lately. We have a lot of time to think about things like that now.  You know, that word has never really set well with me. I think it’s because of my age. When that word first came into the local vernacular, I didn’t think ‘cruising’ was something to aspire to. Cruisers were people who drove their cars down the boulevard in the heart of the town, hair gelled back, cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, one hand on the wheel, looking for trouble. They ‘cruised’ the road, usually late at night, windows down, sound blaring, yelling at friends on the sidewalk and other passers by.  They were like wound springs, running on tension, waiting for a scene from American Graffiti, or worse. They were right on the razors edge of the law. Cruisers made me nervous. You never knew what they were going to do next.

Sure, they’re having fun. Until someone falls out of that car. These guys make me nervous!

Is that what we are? Are we spending our last gasp of young-enough going from anchorage to anchorage, looking for fun and excitement, if not a run-in with the law? Are we laid back, and gelled up? Has our ‘cruiser casual’ already gone too far? So far the most excitement we’ve had is a group of four Egyptian college students who shyly asked if they could come aboard and have their picture made with Galapagos. Now THAT was fun. Of course, I said yes. And they did and it was a great prelude to what we hope will be many fun encounters with people from completely different lands who are as curious about us as we are about them.

The closest we’ve had to a run-in with law enforcement is when we decide to stay a little longer than is absolutely proper at the public dock, because we’re having too much fun with friends to leave. Or maybe it was the time we anchored in the bay close to the work dock in Olympia. I mean, there were no signs saying we couldn’t do it. Security came by the next morning and ran us off, but too late, Mr. Man! We already spent a peaceful night. We’re back to our renegade youth when rules seemed more flexible than they probably are and asking for forgiveness is easier than asking for permission. These small run-ins used to stress me out. Now it’s just, ‘yes sir, moving right along, sir, three bags full, sir’. Then we finish breakfast before pulling up anchor. No one wants to make trouble. Not security men, and not middle aged sailboat anchorers. We are all out there just doing our jobs. Theirs is to say something to us. Ours is to let them say it, be agreeable,  and move on.

Egyptian students. We were pleased to take their photo on the boat.

Come to think of it, people who are not in the world of boating don’t always understand what you mean when you say ‘We’re cruisers’. If you consult any of what passes for a  dictionary in these times of communication by tweet,  the first definition you’ll find is ‘one who cruises’, which is no help at all and besides, isn’t there some kind of rule about using a form of the word in the definition of that word? I believe I learned that in third grade. Seems kind of basic to me. Where is the Oxford English Dictionary when I need it?

Then you’ll get definitions such as of ‘small war ship’, or ‘motor boat that is big enough to live on’, or ‘police car’ or ‘large motorcycle that cruises’. Nowhere is there a definition on the order of ‘people who go at a tortoise’s pace from place to place on their sailboat just having fun and looking for laundry facilities and free water’. So I’m trying to think of another word that would describe this ‘cruising life’ we lead now. Traveler? We certainly aspire to be ‘voyagers’, but we can’t call ourselves that yet. Explorer? Nomad? Those are over-used. Drifter? I certainly hope not. That has it’s own connotations, probably those from the depression era. Sailor? Maybe. But that doesn’t capture the whole thing. There are many sailors who are not cruisers.

Trying the Sup Board at the home of friends. We can see the draw. It’s kind of fun in an ‘oh god please don’t let me fall in’ kind of way.

Maybe we need to make up a word. Its definition would be: people who travel by boat, on purpose, looking for life to be full of interesting and entertaining happenings, good people, good coffee, good night’s sleep, and good weather. Or maybe just: People who travel by sailboat, leading a life that’s full. Got a word for that? Bring it.

And while you’re here: Do you, or someone you know, want to be ‘cruisers’? And if so, have you been looking at Galapagos with an eye to having a boat like this sometime? ( I mean, why wouldn’t you? She’s pretty great.) You’re in luck. A sister ship has just come up for sale down in Florida. SV Gromit is for sale again. Just back from the Caribbean, she’s ready to go again and make your own. Here’s a link to her For Sale page.  There are not many of these Olympic Adventure 47’s available in North America. If you are looking for a stout boat that can take you anywhere, give her a look. And as fellow owners, we’ll be there to give you a sounding board and the benefit of our experience as you make her your own.

SV Gromit