Repairs and Upgrading – Page 7

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”

We’re back in the PNW

We’re back in the Pacific Northwest. Well, at the moment, ‘we’ refers to Hilary and me.

Hilary, Jennifer and I spent from October 5th through January 7th in Phoenix working on a house Jennifer owns. It was a time to get fit as Jennifer and I worked 6 to 7 days a week from sun up until we needed to stop.

I got in shape by moving approximately 25 tons of gravel with a wheelbarrow and a shovel. It feels good to carry muscle again. The trick is how to keep it; I don’t belong to a gym anymore.

Continue reading “We’re back in the PNW”

Humidifier isn’t on recall, scheduling boat pull and worries

Derek was nice enough to send me a picture of the label on the dehumidifier. Given the serial number it is not a recalled unit.

The label on the dehumidifier that freed us from the recall hassle.

I’ve asked Derek to plug it back in, turn it on and make sure the drain hose is in the sink.

Continue reading “Humidifier isn’t on recall, scheduling boat pull and worries”

Pudgy Comes Homes, Dehumidifier is a fire hazard

Last week, our friends Jeff Storm and Kimberly Lindberg towed our Pudgy home for us.

Their trip was not uneventful with an engine overheating, and a very long wait for the locks in both directions.

But, they brought the Pudgy to our slip, where it is safe and sound.

Continue reading “Pudgy Comes Homes, Dehumidifier is a fire hazard”

We buy a Portland Pudgy

Yesterday afternoon my Google Alert found a Portland Pudgy for sale in Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island, very near Seattle. It had been posted 33 minutes before. It was listed at $3400, is in new condition and came with a Bermuda sailing rig. I contacted the seller and bought it.

Continue reading “We buy a Portland Pudgy”

Status, statistics, and did anything not break?

1-OCT-2016 – It’s easiest to answer the last item first. Yes, a number of things did not break. None of the standing rigging had any sort of failure (the standing rigging is what holds up the mast). After that it becomes a little more difficult to think of something, None of us, personally, were injured or became ill, nor did any of our guests, so the human factor held up well. Continue reading “Status, statistics, and did anything not break?”

Conversation Part 3: Picking up the Parts

On Monday morning, the day the Canadian people celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday, shortly after 6 am, Jennifer helped me climb into the dinghy. I’d left the two five gallon cans of gasoline in the dinghy and added the remaining two-cycle oil and a mostly empty five-quart container of crankcase oil. Continue reading “Conversation Part 3: Picking up the Parts”

Conversation Part 2: Kitasoo Watchmen and a Float Plane

I’m not sure when pictures will get added. The drive that held all my pictures crashed and has not yet been restored from a back up.

‘‘Why do they always want to tie up on the port side?’’ Cara asked, not the world at large, not God, but Joe.

Joe looked at Cara, made eye contact but didn’t even bother to shrug.

The aluminum boat Kitasoo Watchmen backed away from port the side, then came along the starboard side a distance away from the Nordic Spirit, but before the boat could tie up the floatplane appeared, touched down on the water and stopped about 250 feet to starboard.

Joe looked at me. We climbed over the side into the dinghy. The engine started with a single pull.

Continue reading “Conversation Part 2: Kitasoo Watchmen and a Float Plane”

Status: More air-freighted engine parts, more new friends.

Friday June 3rd – It’s 46°F in Ketchikan; Hilary wakes up and comments occasionally; Jennifer arrived in Providence five hours ago; 18 hours ago I ordered more engine parts, this time from Seattle. Caro Babbo strains on her dock lines against the 25kn winds that blast through the harbor. Continue reading “Status: More air-freighted engine parts, more new friends.”

Conversation with a prawn fisherman or, can the world get any smaller; and the bleed screw shears, I make friends with the Canadian Coast Guard

I apologize in advance… this is not edited and does not have graphics, but I only have a few minutes here in Klemtu before the float plane arrives, and then I will race back to Caro Babbo in Quigley Cover ahead of weather.

Cruising is defined as breaking down in exotic places. It is also meeting the most wonderful people and in my case seeing a thread through my life that I would never have thought would show up.

Nordic Spirit came into view as I rounded a dogleg in the channel between islands.

She was at anchor in the channel in a marked anchorage with no lights, sitting dormant, not answering any radio calls from the Coast Guard. I wondered if the crew had left the vessel. I turned down the outboard when I saw a man’s silhouette in the wheelhouse. Continue reading “Conversation with a prawn fisherman or, can the world get any smaller; and the bleed screw shears, I make friends with the Canadian Coast Guard”