Category Archives: Travel

Vacation 2013: Successful Slothing with Plenty of Archetypes

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After 3 weeks on the boat with no one else present to intervene, the verdict is in: Mike and I did not kill each other in our sleep. This is no small thing because it means we could cruise successfully and our relationship would survive. To put this in perspective consider this: we’ve been married 31 years, we’re both seriously “oldest children”, and are pretty much accustomed to doing our own things. We both need our space and our privacy. We are both at the proverbial ‘top’ of our fields and when at work, we are the ‘go to’ people. Not to mention that I’ve worked for myself for the last 13 years. (Translation: Boss me around at your peril.)  So the fact that we can live on a boat for even 3 weeks without killing each other quietly and surreptitiously is significant and encouraging.

Why, yes, those are Tate’s famous Margaritas in those jelly jars. Mike was hoping if he medicated me before the game he might win.

Plus, we had a ton of fun and played Scrabble at least once. I read a total of 10 books, including Love, With a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche. Great book! Mike read Moby Dick, which is a tome so huge it took him the entire vacation. Our days developed their own rhythm: Mike gets up and makes coffee. Melissa gets up and joins him. One of them makes breakfast.  Then there is reading and napping, then lunch. Then more reading and possibly a paddle or row to leisurely explore a beach. Then more reading and napping. Dinner in the cockpit or in the cabin while watching a DVD. Beautiful sunsets. Bed at sundown, 5 minutes of reading, then deep sleeping.

Now I have to go back on my diet. Damn and damn, again. It was totally worth it.

Visibility about 1/4 mile, give or take. Winds on the nose at 25 knots, but higher winds ahead of us. This might be exciting, but it’s not relaxing. We turned around and were happy to do it. Photos just don’t do the sea state justice.

My last post announced that our plans took a rapid change when Mother Nature intervened in our attempt to go to Barkley Sound. It seemed the better part of wisdom to abandon that plan rather than to go willingly and knowingly into gale force winds and fog. Moonrise would surely take the beating well, but that wasn’t our idea of a restful vacation. So we turned around and went back to the Gulf Islands. Since we had more time than usual, we got to go further north than we have before and explore places new to us. What a great thing to find a new anchorage, spend a couple of days, and then move on at our leisure! Being on a boat is so easy when the weather is fine. We really needed this time of deep sloth behavior.

This wooden boat is in the boat yard at Port Townsend. Notice the instructive sign.

Now that we are back, the push is on to continue paring down our ‘stuff’ and prepare the house for either sale or rent. While away, I was sorely tempted to just sell the place and be done with it. If we can get Moonrise sold to a new owner and find a boat we can live on, then we will feel like we’ve really moved forward with our plan and the decision about the house will be easier. Being away for three weeks helped us clarify that our goals remain constant. This is a good thing, because being in the house we can get so involved with the day to day maintenance of the place that our world becomes quite small and dense, like a black hole from which there is no escape.  Being on the boat allows us a vision of a simpler way of living that would be less chronically stressful, even though it comes with its own kinds of problems.

Last year I posted about some of the Pacific Northwest Archetypes we experienced on one of our weekend trips. This trip there are extensive lists of archetypes, which makes a handy way of organizing all the data we have. We both look forward to catching up on the blogging, one part of our everyday life is always a pleasure. We have stories, and we will be telling them.

Archetype of Water and Stone, Kuper Island, B.C.

 

 

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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Tour Along the Columbia River, or, How To Get OUT of the Rain

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Thanksgiving has just been celebrated and I know that the main topic of conversation at everyone’s family table this year must surely have centered around the silence that has been the Little Cunning Plan blog lately. Fear not, thankful readers.  We have not yet drowned or gone insane, although there are days when we believe the end times must surely be nigh. High winds and heavy, pelting, disgusting never-ending rain are part and parcel of November in the not-so-pretty-anymore-is-it? Pacific Northwest.  Bring out the dawn simulators, treatment lights, and 5-HTP. Winter is descending. In a previous life I must have been a bear who killed some innocent tourist as it is my karma to be born human and NOT be allowed to hibernate during this most apocalyptic time.

But, nasty weather and fallen limbs aside, we’ve had some actual activity here that might be of interest. There was a trip down to Boardman, Oregon, on the Columbia River. Would I like to travel to the eastern side of the mountains, where there is no rain? Why, yes, thanks! I would! My sister and her family are moving there for 18 months so we took the long drive down to check it out. It didn’t take long to see the town, since it’s one of those towns where if you blink you’ve missed it.

Quite the cute little marina with mostly sailboats! There is a waiting list, of course.

However, they have a lovely marina park and hotel right on the river, complete with a heated outdoor pool and a really great outdoor hot tub. Just what the doctor ordered for this bone cold body. MMMM! The marina is worthy of note due to the price of the slips: $385 for a 35 foot boat. That’s per YEAR! That’s right. $385 per year. It’s killing me. Except that it’s too far from the salt water for me, and there is a waiting list. Still.,..

I liked the River Lodge and Grill in Boardman not only for its terrific pool and hot tub. The managers there must be quite nice people because they personally take care of a colony of feral cats on the property. Upon arrival, guests are greeted by Buddy, a friendly black cat who showed up at the property some years ago.

Buddy, official greeter at the Boardman River Lodge and Grill, who enjoys being petted.

About 6 other cats live in and around the work shed on the property. They are all feral, and some have been there longer than the 7 years these managers have been in residence. There were about 14 cats when they took over the property. They systematically live-trapped each one and had it spayed or neutered at their own expense. Over the years they have been able to find homes for many of them. They installed a cat door leading into the shed, and also a separate structure for the cats to get out of the weather. These cats are well cared for, even though they remain feral and will not approach people.

These cats are too skittish to pet.

Grey kitty will not be petted. He runs away.

Next time I am in Boardman, I will stay at the River Lodge and Grill again. The rooms are nice, the managers are cat lovers, and the hot tub calls my name, even from afar.

On the way home we crossed the river to the Washington side, traveling through the Columbia River Gorge, one of the most scenic areas in America. We stumbled upon this place of worship high on a rock overlooking a winery and the river. I stopped to invoke the will of the sun god. It didn’t work.

Channeling my inner pagan goddess, who is apparently too weak to capture the will of the sun god.

Actually this is a complete replica of Stone Henge, built as a monument to fallen soldiers in WWI. Apparently it’s quite popular, but I had never heard of it.

It’s wine country.

All the muted colors. All the grey.

Another exciting sighting: Big Horn Sheep. You have to look carefully as their camo is better than anything a hunter can wear. Only their white rumps give them away. We saw a herd of about 30 of these. It was my first time seeing them.

And if you look carefully…. aren’t they cool? I love them!

Stay tuned as there will be other news forthcoming, including chickens. Yep, chickens. That’s what’s known as a ‘teaser’, folks.