Back in the PNW

Port Townsend, WA, 30-DEC-2018 – It’s 4 am. I haven’t made the complete transition to west coast time.

It is a fitting morning to be in Port Townsend. The wind howls and buffets Jennifer’s house here, while Caro Babbo sleeps 30 miles away, across Puget Sound, safe in her slip on Lake Union

Everyone’s life proceeds on multiple tracks and ours is no exception. In our shore life, like our boat life, 2018 is the year of water leaks: a major water leak in Phoenix – the bill, $2000. In Atlanta, a bill for $8000, tracked to a faulty meter. Here in Port Townsend, we arrived yesterday to a two-week old letter from the water company notifying us of ‘‘unexpectedly’’ large water consumption. Listening, we can hear water running somewhere between the house and the meter.

Caro Babbo sleeps, across Puget Sound, safe in her slip.

A galvanized pipe coming into the house is undoubtedly the culprit.

Soggy ground will not giveaway the leak’s location, it’s rained here for the last few weeks. But, the leak isn’t so large that it’s excavated a crater, so we’ll count our blessings. Once it is light and I can find the meter, I’ll turn off the water and then trench the water pipe from the meter to the house – in the rain, of course.

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We spent Friday night aboard Caro Babbo.

Jennifer’s son, Owen, picked us up at the airport, drove us to the marina and came aboard for a few minutes.

Inside Caro Babbo, it was cold but dry. The dehumidifier had done it’s job.

We hadn’t turned off the water heater, so we’ve kept twenty litres of water hot for the last couple of months, but that is the only side effect.

The rudder-tube leak I fixed before I left in October is still fixed so the basement is dry. Hilary Hoffmann, our dinghy, still floats next to the Caro Babbo’s bow, dry, with her self-bailing plug removed. New sailors and next-slip-over neighbors, Carly and Jason’s inflatable dinghy is tied Caro Babbo’s stern, so that they can easily take their Freedom 32, High Dive, for jaunts on Lake Union.

Both Jennifer’s son, Owen, and daughter, Flora, are here with us in Port Townsend for a belated Santa visit this evening at a Christmas dinner.

We’re hosting a New Year’s day brunch on Tuesday for friends who predominantly come from the local boating community. It’s good to be here, to dream, plan and fret over the coming Caro Babbo adventures.

If you’re near by, please come visit us: on Tuesday for New Year’s brunch, or any day we’re here.

All the best in the New Year.

John and Jennifer