Category Archives: Preparing to cruise

Gearing Up!

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June 23 is fast approaching. In case you are wondering why that day is important, aside from it being Mike’s birthday,  it’s the day by which if Moonrise doesn’t sell we will be sailing her back to her home port in Tacoma and getting her outfitted for an actual adventure. I’m holding my breath. In a recent post I threw down the proverbial gauntlet and challenged the Universe. Either sell our boat, or give us a good vacation this year. It’s just entirely possible we will get our vacation. So it’s hard to be sorry that the boat hasn’t sold yet. The vacation cannot come fast enough for me.

I want this. I want it now.

I want this. I want it now.

I remember the last time we headed up to Barkley Sound and how much planning we did for the trip. We bought a Spot Locator so family could keep track of us, only to realize when we failed to push the magic locator button at the end of the day, they got worried. Oy. That was a mistake. We dithered and bought things and laid on supplies like we were going to the far reaches of civilization. Imagine our dismay when we realized just how many boats there were up there in the wilds of Vancouver Island. And they actually have grocery stores there, too! Imagine that!

This time we are preparing in a different way. With all of our ‘stuff’ off of the boat, we have the opportunity to be choosy about what goes back onto her for the trip. Only things we know we will use will find their places below. Of course, that includes my hammock. I will need that desperately. And reading material of all kinds. I like to have a small library to choose from as the spirit moves me. Mike has bought another anchor off Craigslist to replace the one we lost last year in the ‘sailboat hard on the rocks‘ debacle, so that will go on the boat. This year we both have new cameras, one of them waterproof. And I have a fancy new Asus notebook computer with some fabulous navigation software that we’ll be reviewing. We can’t wait to try it out.

But that’s not the only new toy we’ll be having on this trip.

Looks like Mike had an early birthday this year! Is that a halo?

It may seem counter intuitive to some, but we bought an auto pilot for the boat. Yes, the boat will be for sale again when we get back, unless we find a buyer while we’re up there. But the way we look at it, if the boat doesn’t sell and we keep it awhile longer, we’ll enjoy having one. Going to Barkley Sound without one would still be fun, but it would mean taking turns being wheel slaves constantly as it’s likely there will be a lot of motoring time unless we get lucky. This will be a long trip and if we did something else for a vacation, that money would be spent anyhow. So we’ll get to use it for the trip, and as long as we have the boat. And it will make Moonrise that much more desirable to someone else in the future. See how happy Mike looks? That’s because we are going to learn so much about installing this thing and making it work and all that learning will benefit us the second time around.

While we’re waiting for next weekend, we’re busy reading some classic sailing books by Tristan Jones. I’ll be taking some of his books aboard for the trip. I’d never heard of him before, but noticed an entire shelf devoted to his considerable works at my local used book store. He tells a good yarn and did things most sane people wouldn’t even consider, such as taking his trimaran, S/V Outward Leg, across the rivers of Europe during the height of the cold war. Oh, and when he did this, he had only one leg, the other one being a wooden model allegedly carved for him by none other than Larry Pardey. I have not checked this out with Mr. Pardey, so I’ll just take Tristan’s word for it. His books are page turners and we found we couldn’t wait to see what kind of wild thing he did next. He must have been some kind of character. Pick up one of his books and see if you can read just one. By the time we come back, maybe I will have read them all.

 

 

How I’m Going to Spend My Summer Vacation! I Mean It!

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In naming this post, I’ve thrown down the gauntlet; drawn the proverbial line in the sand between us and the Universe.  It began when I realized two things: we haven’t had a really long sailing vacation since 2010, and we never get to use our boat since we moved it down to Olympia. We’ve had such lovely warm days here of late, and there has even been a bit of wind. We eat dinner on the patio, overlooking the pond and garden and watching the koi spawn. This is lovely. The garden is amazing this year and watching koi spawn is a lot more interesting than some things I can think of.  But sometimes we’d both rather be on the boat, eating dinner in the cockpit.

The koi are spawning early this year and the shallow end of the pond is covered with eggs. The koi will probably eat them all. Got to love an animal that eats its own young without even regretting it.

The koi are spawning early this year and the shallow end of the pond is covered with eggs. The koi will probably eat them all. Got to love an animal that eats its own young without even regretting it.

Just as I was about to get lulled into a nice, deep complacent lack of giving a c**p about boats and plans; just as I was about to throw caution to the wind and stop caring about any of this stuff because it’s just too much out of my control anyhow,  these two simple facts converged in such a way that I began to panic. I feared another summer would go by without a really good sailing vacation. I thought about the coming winter. (We Pacific Northwesterners always start thinking about winter just about the time the Summer Solstice comes around. It’s our way of pre-grieving the loss of the sun.) I thought about things like ‘carpe diem’, and other ubiquitous sayings that mean you should stop what you are doing now and go sailing. And I was seriously not amused at the idea of owning a boat without being able to use it, even if that boat is for sale. I felt my temper rising, just a little bit.

I have NEVER had waterlilies bloom before August. I have three in bloom this year already.

I have NEVER had waterlilies bloom before August. I have three in bloom this year already.

So I made a suggestion. It was really more in the form of a pronouncement, as my dander was up with frustration, but still, it was well thought out: If Moonrise does not sell by the end of June, we are retrieving our boat from Olympia, getting her ready to go, and heading back out to the west coast of Vancouver Island. I want to remember what the big ocean looks like and feels like, and that’s about as far as we can reasonably go in the amount of time Mike has.  I need to remember why we are doing this because it’s been such a frustrating experience so far. We’re not even to square one and already we are behind schedule.  I know that if I get out there and see even one whale, I’ll remember.

This was 3 years ago. That's too long between good, long trips.

This was 3 years ago. That’s too long between good, long trips.

We also need to practice doing things like charting, setting way points, paying more acute attention to weather, and keeping watch. We don’t need these skills very often around here as we’ve been sailing here for 10 years and we pretty much go to all the same places most of the time due to time pressures.  If you don’t have much time, you don’t go very far in a sailboat. So this kind of trip would allow us to get offshore, even if not for long. There will only be the two of us on the boat for this trip, unlike our previous trip to the west coast when our son, Andrew, was with us. He is good crew.

Also this cave almost ate me the last time we were there. I probably should go back and have a little conversation with it, just to clear the space between us.

Also this cave almost ate me the last time we were there. I probably should go back and have a little conversation with it, just to clear the space between us. It’s bigger than it looks. And darker. Much darker. 

Now that I’ve begun planning for our trip, the gauntlet is thrown, the die is cast. Now that the decision has been made, it wouldn’t surprise me if we get a last minute buyer for Moonrise.  If that happens, we’ll have to cancel the trip. But then we can spend our time looking at boats for real.  And that will be just as much fun.

Just in case the Universe is unclear about the plan, if our boat doesn’t find a good buyer before the end of the month, we’re going here. Let it be written, let it be done.

 

 

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.