Port Townsend – Page 2

I’m your (almost) Captain. Goings on ashore.

Port Townsend, Wa, 18-May-2019 – Call me Almost Captain. I’ve passed all the tests, taken a Red Cross-approved first aid course, had a physical. There is only getting a TWIC card (background security check), getting a drug test and assembling 720 days of sea time, and then, with the addition of another few hundred dollars I will have a 25-ton master’s license for near coastal. Oh yeah, I also will have sailing, and assistance-towing endorsements.

This will allow me to captain, for money, power vessels up to 25 tons gross vessel weight based on volume (not displacement); the vessels will weigh, empty, much less than 25 tons. I can also master a sailing vessel of unlimited weight and get paid for towing boats that need assistance. In the US, it seems I can do all of this on non-commercial vessels, for no pay, without any license. (In other parts of the world this isn’t true: one must actually have training before doing these things.)

Back in the PNW

Back in Port Townsend, after an overnight on Caro Babbo, we return to a water leak at the PT house.

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

We’re home.

Lake Union, Seattle, WA, USA, 30-SEP-2018 – We’re home. We arrived yesterday at 6:12pm.

It was a different arrival than in 2016. The dock was empty. No one to greet us.

The night before when we docked at Boat Haven in Port Townsend, we spoke about how many hundreds of times we have docked, how Jennifer routinely pulls into a slip with Caro Babbo inches from the dock. And so we did here.

The east end of Port Townsend as we sailed away towards to Seattle’s Lake Union.

Port Townsend on Parade

Lord’s Pocket, AK, 14-AUG-2018 — I’m not writing as much as I’d like. To be honest, as much as I feel I should. Traveling in Caro Babbo has become life, it is not an adventure or a vacation. It is our life, or at least my life. Jennifer is feeling she has had enough of this trip and wants to return home, wherever that is now. But we are headed south and it is nice traveling.

We’ve traveled from Juneau to Baranof Warm springs, after Tenake springs, and then Cosmos Cove.

Cosmos Cove was lovely. It is wide with nothing particular to recommend it looking from a chart, but from inside it is silent with a focused view of the mountains across the strait. The trip to Cosmos had been a long 10 hour motor with mirrored water rather than the predicted 10-15 knots. We’ve been shadowed recently by two sail boats, Laiva and Balloon. We’d seen Laiva in Juneau, where it sat empty for a few days before showing signs of life. Continue reading “Port Townsend on Parade”

Leaving Glacier Bay

Icy Strait, North of Hoonah, 5-AUG-2018 — I lay in bed for a while this morning after the alarm went off at 4. I wasn’t tired, but I thought it might be darker than we wanted to leave. Sunrise is around 4:50 in the morning these days.

It probably wasn’t, but I lay there anyway. About 4:20, I got up, used the head and found my clothes in the main cabin where I left them. Socks are always the problem. Without turning on the lights, dark socks in dark shadows are generally found aboard Caro Babbo by feel: either underfoot, or on hands and knees. Continue reading “Leaving Glacier Bay”

Paducah, Kentucky

6-MAR-2018, Interstate 24, heading west – Paducah Kentucky is a long way from Caro Babbo, but not too far away to spend money.

Jennifer closed on one of Hilary’s houses this week, and signed all the paperwork for the second closing, so we needn’t return for it.

We’re riding in a Budget 12-foot box truck, driving some of Hilary’s belongings up to Port Townsend.

Continue reading “Paducah, Kentucky”

Trip over, Caro Babbo is in her slip.

Port Townsend, WA, 7-SEP-2017 – This year’s trip is over. Caro Babbo is in her slip at Lee’s landing. Jennifer, Hilary and I are back in Port Townsend for the next few weeks before we start our fall travels: We’ll spend most of the fall at my residence in Atlanta, with time in Phoenix, New York and, for Jennifer, Berlin. Continue reading “Trip over, Caro Babbo is in her slip.”

We’re on our way, Hilary and Taylors Stove Redux

My apologies for not posting in sometime. It has all been heads down while we raced to get away.

We finally left Port Townsend this past Friday about 2pm.

The Port Townsend house is rented, the lower shrouds are installed, the rig tuned and new burners installed. Continue reading “We’re on our way, Hilary and Taylors Stove Redux”

Our Kill may not be killing, but merely strangling…

We’ve had engine starting problems, but only sometimes — Aside from the known problems with air in the fuel lines — Yep, problems, problems, problems, worse than a house.

Caro Babbo and Ranger 11 dinghy at Port Townsend Boat Haven waiting to sail home to Lake Union

Continue reading “Our Kill may not be killing, but merely strangling…”

Back in the water, again

Caro Babbo went into the water at lunch Thursday. The wind had been blowing mid-twenties gusting to 30. The Travelift operators, who I’ve gotten to know across the five weeks, came by often to find out what I wanted to do. Continue reading “Back in the water, again”