If it’s sunny and warm, then boating season must surely be upon us. What was that you said? It’s only the first week in April? Then we must be existing in some kind time/space/dimension vortex because not only were we out on a sailboat all day on Saturday, in beautiful, SUNNY 69 degree weather with light wind, but we’ve been doing boat-type activities of other kinds. Break out the sunscreen!

Beautiful Easter Sunday in Seattle.

Surely summer is upon us. Experienced PNWers might be laughing into their Starbucks cups, but, hey, we are due some decent warm weather. The last two years spring has been late, cold, and nasty and summer has been almost non-existent. I keep track of these things.  We NEED this! This weekend we were about 10F degrees above the average temperature for this time of year. Keep it coming, weather gods.

Oh yes, many things are happening around the Cunning Plan household;  many boaty things. The only boaty thing that is NOT happening is that we still haven’t sold Moonrise. This is becoming almost comical as we wait for that ‘perfect’ buyer. Still, boat selling season is picking up so we keep our fingers crossed. We put in notice at our marina, (that was hard) and if she is still ours at the end of this month, we move her down to Olympia to sit in front of the broker’s office where they get a lot of traffic of boat buyers who, apparently, buy on impulse (?!). Who knew? The price is already a winner, so we don’t know what else we can do. She’s probably the cleanest boat of her kind available right now. And we really have to sell her before we can do much else.

Moonrise on her way to Barkley Sound. This boat will take you anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

But that hasn’t stopped us from thinking about our next move, including the possibilities of that beautiful Sparkman and Stephens sailboat, Flying Gull. We continue to think about that boat, have done some research on financing and on the marina she sits in, and have taken a peek into the future to see what it might be like to live aboard her some day. On Easter Sunday, a day when many people celebrate the renewal of life, Mike and I drove to Seattle and stopped by the marina to visit Flying Gull, hoping her cover had been removed. The symbolism of the day was not lost upon me, I can tell you.

There she is with her full cover. Have mercy, she’s big! She probably sweeps through the water like an opera diva on steroids, her song a rich contralto. This picture does not do justice to her considerable size.

Colorful houseboat on the pier adjacent to Flying Gull. How cute is this?

Our current ownership of Moonrise holds us back, and that might be a good thing because it’s best to be cautious when choosing a boat, especially one that is clearly outside almost all of our criteria. Sometimes that’s what those parameters are good for: drawing lines in the sand that will surely be crossed. I don’t like rules, and I tend to break them with impunity. So we are looking at her again on Saturday. I almost wish that someone else would buy her because it would put me out of my misery. And probably Mike’s, too. Put ME out of Mike’s misery, that is. To buy this sailboat is to have already made the decision to sell the house, and this is harder than it sounds on paper.

The view of Gasworks Park, across Lake Union from Flying Gull.

Meanwhile we get other kinds of boating experiences. Saturday we delivered a Hunter 31 down to Olympia. It was our first experience delivering a boat and we loved it. Do you see how the Universe is opening up in front of us? I will go on record here saying I was right proud of myself getting that boat out of her slip in Tacoma, with wicked tidal currents pushing her nose in all the wrong directions, without becoming overly friendly with any other boat, or any dock. Excellent. Sighs of relief all around.  Then I did the docking down in Olympia in a tight space at the very head of the pier, starboard side tie. Woot! If I had known how to turn off the engine, it would have been pretty impressive. Oy, the fool archetype always makes its presence known in times like these (link provided for educational purposes, you know). It’s always been clear a Captain’s License is in Mike’s future, but for the first time I began thinking maybe it’s in mine, too. What a concept. 

Finally, our boat reviews are getting more traction. I am very excited to report that we will be writing boat reviews for Three Sheets Northwest, a comprehensive blog about all things boating in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve been on our blog roll for some time because if there is news about boating up here, they are going to be reporting about it. They also have a compendium of boat related blogs that they feature, Little Cunning Plan now among them. If you go to their front page you’ll see Mike’s recent post on Winchers featured. It makes me want to dance, so please close your eyes.

You will never get a photo of me dancing, so here is one of my man doing one of the things he does best on Moonrise.

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