Hemorrhaging money and getting back to Port Townsend

Today is the day we really start hemorrhaging money.

I ordered the copper coat: seven kits at $120 per kit are necessary to coat  CaroBabbo. It is a four-day process, however, this should be the last time I put a bottom on CaroBabbo. Continue reading “Hemorrhaging money and getting back to Port Townsend”

On Board on Lake Union

The journey from the Port Townsend house to Caro Babbo is two buses, then the ferry and a bus. Total cost in this direction: $5.75.

Door to door, it is about three and a half hours.

I was aboard last Wednesday on my way to Port Townsend from New York and nothing much had changed.

The purpose of being here this week is to get the boat ready to be moved to Boat Haven Marina in Port Townsend next week: Fixing the engine.

Continue reading “On Board on Lake Union”

The demise of the Taylors Stove?

‘‘ Jet A is nothing but kerosene,’’ was a statement that we received over and over again from pump jockeys on our Alaska trip. On the web all the sites I found before we left concurred, JET-A is nothing but kerosene.

[15-DEC-2019 – We eventually tracked all of the stove problems to using the wrong fuel. One MUST use 1-k Kerosene. Nothing else will work. Marine stores carry it, as do most home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes.]

However, all three burners on the stove had pretty much stopped working by the time we returned to Lake Union. John Gardner, from whom I bought the stove, had suggested that we not clean the burners as  suggested at the websites, and we did not. I came to believe that was the problem.

Continue reading “The demise of the Taylors Stove?”

There are no sailing seasons in the PNW, but there is sure a lot to buy before springtime arrives.

I don’t like to think of sailing as seasonal. Being seasonal is what I think of as differentiating east coast sailors from west coast sailor – 3000 miles, notwithstanding. We keep Caro Babbo in the water 12-months a year and enjoy winter sailing.

This year and last we decamped to Phoenix to work on a house there, making sailing seasonal, even if that was not our intent. Three months prepping a house, only to return to Seattle to spend months prepping the boat, delineates boating seasons as much as I would rather have sailed continuously. Continue reading “There are no sailing seasons in the PNW, but there is sure a lot to buy before springtime arrives.”

2017 Seattle Boat Show – Water Maker and Sailmaker

The boat show was very different for me this year. It was Hilary and me alone. I went to learn about water makers, to see my sail maker, and to meet with Jesús and Zoë, who are friends from the newspaper industry who are planning on calling it quits and move onto a trawler.

Hilary and I are staying full time in the Port Townsend house. It has been very cold (to my PNW/South-of-the-Mason-Dixon-Line self): Highs in the low forties, lows around freezing. It is also 2-1/2 hours from Port Townsend to Seattle. Continue reading “2017 Seattle Boat Show – Water Maker and Sailmaker”