General and Miscellaneous

‘‘Pretty Certain’’

Port Townsend, WA 23-FEB-2026 – We’re not moving the boat to Olympia for the summer.

‘‘It’s pretty certain that you’ll have a slip in Boat Haven,’’* is what Michele at the Point Hudson marina told me.

‘‘They called me and told me to tell you. I don’t know why they couldn’t just call you directly.’’

Neither do I.

‘‘So, you should stay.’’

I said, ‘‘Pretty certain?’’

It’s taken Ten Years…

I have it all figured out – just in time for this information to be useless.

Port Townsend, WA 19-Feb-2026 – This is what I have learned about my Taylors Stove. (I still am not sure whether an apostrophe belongs between the r and the s. I think it might.)

In ten years†, I’ve learned what fuel to use, and no matter what fuel I use, the burner will clog up. But it can be recovered.

The Itch

This is a post I wrote four years ago that I did not publish. I like it and wanted to share.

Amtrak Train #11, south of Salinas, CA 13-APR-2022 – Once the itch starts it doesn’t leave. Time to leave for Homer is getting closer, the days between now and then are planned and full.

Jennifer and I are in motion, and feel like we will stay in motion until we leave Homer heading west. Yet, somehow, once we’re aboard we don’t feel like we’re in motion anymore. I would say we’re home, Jennifer would say we’re onboard. We’d both say we’re alone, and it’s quiet in both the literal sense and the more abstract.

It looks like I ’ll have time for the optional stuff, meaning the 277 items on my to-do list.

Point Hudson Marina, Port Townsend, 22-FEB-2025 – Of course, much of what I work on doesn’t show on the to-do list because I didn’t know I needed to work on it, which brings us to the rudder post.

I don’t look at the rudder post much. It sits in a locker in the aft cabin, pretty much minding its own business. The last time I looked at it was in 2019 after we arrived in Hawaii. Someone in the Maxi 95 group correctly pointed out that the reason we had some water in our port locker was a leaking rudder post seal. I had sealed it the year before while on the hard in Boat Haven in Port Townsend. I don’t remember what I did to stop the leak. I expect I just tightened the nut which compressed the packing further.

Point Hudson: Caro Babbo is home for the winter

Port Townsend, WA, 15-OCT-2024 – We’re home, Jennifer, me, and Caro Babbo. Caro Babbo is floating higher on her waterline and will for the next bunch of months.

So much has changed in five years… has it?

Chapin Bay, AK 29-JUL-2024 – We spent the last two days in Baranof Warm Springs. We’ve been there before. The town is the same, but feels spiffier, better kept and more prosperous. We knew that people generally leave the dock around 11, so we should be there around 11 to 11:30. We spent the previous night about six miles north.

Granite Bay

Granite Bay, Prince William Sound, 29-Jun-2024 – It’s ten after eight in the evening. The sun is at 35-degrees, and the temperature is in the 70s. I’m wearing a black T-shirt, a pair of Carharts without Long Johns, and no socks. I’m sitting in the cockpit writing, while Jennifer sits across from me navigating.

For the past few years, Jennifer has taken us into places that were horizontally skinny. This year they will be vertically skinny. This means that we need to arrive within a specific time window. Tomorrow is easy, we can leave anytime and still be good leaving Granite Bay; we must arrive within a specific time window. Not too tough.

The next day we must leave within a specific time window and enter the next site also within a time window. I trust Jennifer: she counts on her fingers, but has gotten quite good at it.

Never say, ‘‘All is Done.’’

Seward, AK 18-JUN-2024 – Monday, or whatever the next day was that we left, things took an immediate left turn when the V-Belt on the water pump disintegrated. The light on the instrument panel for Electric came on. No alarm, but there it was. It would overheat next.

We opened the table to look at the engine. There was the belt completely off and lying there. I had two more belts in a white envelope on the settee, so I opened the package and put the belt on.

I should have foreseen this. The belts I’ve been buying are not metric. The V on the pulley in cross section is deeper than the belt. I need to tighten the belt after a few hours and I did not. I replaced the belt and made a note to check it when we stopped again. Jennifer pointed out I should check the impeller belt as well, even though it should have the correct V. That night I checked and both were loose. I tightened each and all is good.

Three weeks in a Homer Boatyard

13-MAY-2024, Northern Enterprises Boat Yard, Homer, AK – This is day nine here. Wednesday or perhaps Thursday will be two weeks.

Things are going well. Projects are being completed, or abandoned as not feasible, others defiantly refusing to behave as they have. The many packages continue to show up… some early.

30ºF -1ºC

11-MAY-2024, Northern Enterprises boat yard, Homer AK – It was thirty degrees Fahrenheit last night. The coldest it’s been since I arrived nine days ago.

I’ve been getting good, steady work done and finally decided to make a few phone calls to friends outside of Homer and one inside.