Tag Archives: Sailing community

If It’s Spring, It Must Be Boating Season

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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.

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.

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!

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.

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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.

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. 20130330_46

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.

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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Archetypes of the Pacific Northwest, with Magic!

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We pulled the dingy onto the muddy shore at Penrose State Park, looking forward to a hike to the other side of the little peninsula. We hoped we’d see other boats from the Puget Sound Cruising Club anchored there as we were supposed to be there for a raft-up. I’d spent the better part of the previous evening sick as a dog and, feeling more myself, it felt good to get off the boat and stretch my legs. The park was filled with Memorial Day revelers  and several dinghies were tied up on rocks on the other side of the cove. Together we pulled the dingy up onto the mud and looked for a place to tie up.

Me: ” Honey, there isn’t any place to tie off Puddler in this part of the cove. Maybe we should move it closer to those rocks with the other dingies. The tide is coming in.”

Mike: “Naw, let’s just pull it up further onto the beach. We won’t be gone that long.”

Me: ” Are you sure? That seems a little risky to me.”

Mike: “Here’s a rock. I’ll tie it off here. See? Okay, let’s go.”

Always trusting my husband to know what is best, I trudge off with him, ever the ‘dutiful’ wife. Hahahahahaha!

Love is frequently blind.

We spent the next hour hiking the woodsy trail, enjoying the sunshine and remembering why we still live in the Pacific Northwest, in spite of the hateful winters. If only it were like this all the time! We began to think of all the folks we know who live in other parts of the country, never having known the joys of Pacific Northwest Cruising in Good Weather. With newlyweds Tate and Dani of Sundowner Sails Again in mind, we assembled this collection of Northwest archetypes to give them an idea of what they are missing by living down south. Some folks would call these photos ‘ubiquitous’, but I prefer the more academic, intellectually stimulating term ‘archetype’ as it more accurately reflects the esoteric symbolic nature of these images and also allows me to use big words. If you are more on the side of ‘ubiquitous’, you can skip the next part and cut to the video at the end.

Archetype of Haughty Eagle in Craggy Tree; archetype of limitless freedom, our national bird, and my personal totem animal.

 

Archetype of Weathered Driftwood Archway on sand and shell beach; symbolic of hidden mysteries, doorway to homes of native gnomes, elves, and fairies, symbolic of entries into other realms.

Archetype of the Meandering Forest Path; symbolic of the uncertainty of the future, also of worlds between worlds and the interconnected-ness of all things.

Archetype of the Partly Submerged Rock; symbolic of danger lurking beneath the surface and also watching the hell where you are going.

 

Feeling the pressure of time, and the ever increasing wind, we headed back to the other side of the park. As we emerged from the forest we could see the beach where we left Puddler.

Mike: There’s Puddler. Looks like we got back just in time, the tide really came in fast!

Me: It looks like Puddler is…… floating?

Mike: Maybe just a little. We’ll make it in time.

Me: Are you sure? He looks like he’s really floating pretty good. Actually, there appears to be a lot of water between Puddler and the beach.

Mike: He’s headed out to sea!

Me: Hurry! He’s getting further out from the beach. I think you will have to swim for it. (Naturally I assumed it would be Mike doing the swimming, since he built the dingy.)

Mike: Wait, he’s slowing down,  I think he’s moving in our direction!

Me: Call him! Whistle for him! Use your magic to bring him to you! You can do it, I believe in you! Reach your hand out to him and call him by name! (I clap my hands loudly, believing in Mike with all my heart.)

Does Mike have magic powers over his boat? Watch the video and you be the judge, along with our audience at the site, the South Sound Sailing Society. (Maybe we should join their group since we found them easily, plus they had a tasty looking potluck on the beach.)

Pop Quiz

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The lovely Emerald Lady

Answer this question: What is the coolest part of finally getting into the groove of boat shopping?  Is it A) Experiencing boat lust  B) Thinking about spending a million dollars  C) Wasting time trying to make appointments to look at boats or  D) None of the above. If you answered D, none of the above, you would be correct and win a prize if I had one to give you. The correct answer, for the bonus essay point, is ‘making new friends who live in Boat World’. First we met Lee Youngblood, then we went to a club meeting of all sailing people all the time and won a prize. And now, thanks to Lee, we’ve met sailors, soon-to-be cruisers, Kelly and John Wanamaker and their freaking fabulous Cheoy Lee Ketch, Emerald Lady. We spent the better part of 2 hours on this beautiful yacht talking boats, sailing, how to manifest dreams, healthy cooking in the galley, boat projects using non-boat materials, and all kinds of exciting and wonderful boaty boat things! It was so much fun I was practically levitating as we left!

Now before you go rolling your eyes at me and wondering if I’m just easily amused and all that, let’s consider this: when was the last time you had the chance to sit and visit with people who had the exact same interests as you and were just enough ahead of you in the game to be encouraging but not daunting, sharing wisdom and experience but not being condescending? Hmmm? As I thought. It was last year! Maybe even never!

We wanted to meet John and Kelly because we were told that they bought a fixer boat and turned her into a beauty. And that’s exactly what they’ve done! I can’t imagine how they’ve done it in a year’s time, but this is one lovely vessel and it has many of the ‘necessities’ we’re looking for, including an extremely cool aft cabin with its own hatch! They talked about the plans they have for making the boat even more comfortable in the future and Kelly talked about some of the compromises she made when choosing this boat. (She did use the word ‘compromise’, but I put my inner 4  year old in time out and Kelly remained safe. I was on my best behavior.)

As you enter Emerald Lady, you see this. This tells you something about John and Kelly.

So in an afternoon of visiting with new friends, we came away thinking more strongly about setting a date for departure, at Kelly’s urging. And we came away thinking ‘we could probably handle a boat larger than 40 feet if we wanted to, at John’s urging. We came away thinking that the more we look at boats like that Cheoy Lee, the more we like them because they are so comfortable and beautiful, and they feel like tiny houses, yet still like boats. Just maybe we don’t have to spend a million dollars right up front to get the boat of our dreams. Maybe we can spend it a little at a time. I even started thinking that maybe a big master cabin is not so necessary if you have a roomy and comfortable salon. Then I had to slap myself really hard because I started to get too flexible on that point.

As Mike and I walked away from Emerald Lady, I looked back at her and had a little deja vu moment; you know those times that make you wonder if you’ve lived that moment before, like you’ve just looked through the window into another dimension.  And then I remembered. A few years ago we were sailing in the south sound and spent a night at Harstine Island. There was this beautiful boat tied up at the dock. It had gentle curves and a sweet overhang. It looked like it was a modern version of an old sailing vessel; long and slender with teak decks and varnished brightwork. I remember standing on the dock with Mike, staring, sort of imagining what it would be like to be on that boat. I remember saying, “I would love to have a boat like that.” Walking up to the little store at the marina, we met a man coming down toward the docks. We asked him if that boat was his boat.  “The Cheoy Lee? Yep.”  He smiled at us in a dreamy sort of way.