Northwest 21

Hauling Out

2010-03-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

We purchased our little boat (sadly still doesn't have a name) in September of 2008. She came with lots of friends living on her underside. Came close one day to getting her partly cleaned off, but never got her hauled out and cleaned up properly.

That's going to change this week. We've got an appointment with the yard at the end of this week to get her hauled out. We plan on doing bottom painting, fixing a couple small scratches on the hull and deck and maybe a bit of work on the teak. I've never seen her out of the water, so I'm excited to get her out and take a good look.

At the same time, Geoff is hauling out Solana at the same yard so it should be a good time.

An update on the leaky windows: I'm happy to report that the boat has had little to no leaking from the deck this winter. With the newly sealed windows and the tarp installed over the companionway, mostly covering the windows, she's stayed nice and dry inside. Not once have I had to pump the bilge!

Next Big Adventure

2010-03-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I've written here. Since the new year, I've only gone out twice on our little gal. Been busy with work and getting sick earlier this year. But the next big thing coming down the pike is my ocean upcoming ocean crossing with the Jolly Roger! I'm leaving for Puerto Vallarta on April 20 with a one-way ticket. We're set to cast-off on April 23 and make our way to Hilo, Hawai'i.

I'll be syndicating our blog posts here, so you can follow us here, or check out our crew blog at http://sailingjollyroger.posterous.com

Leaky Boat in Seattle Winter

2009-10-31T11:23:00.001-07:00

The high winds and the lung butter along with the need to make money after a great summer of sailing have kept me off the boat so far this fall. A few weeks ago, I spent a weekend while Lo Lo was away resealing the windows on the boat. They had been leaking even wit

h a light overnight drizzle. That would not do with the coming winter with wind and driving rain expected.

It was a perfect September weekend in Seattle. After a couple of false starts, I managed to scrape and reseal the 4 windows over the course of the weekend. It took about 10 hours total - way more than I thought it would take, but I got some sun, had a couple beers, and entertained the local gulls.

The first window I took on was tough. The sealant was pretty new and it took a while to get the window frame pried up and another hour or two of scraping to get it clean. I was able to get the rest of the window frames off with my fingernails (probably why they were not keeping any water out).

I'm not a great caulker but I'm a perfectionist so I'm ultimately not completely happy with the result. We could probably use new window frames altogether and could probably stand to re-bed the screws, but after a couple of rains, I didn't notice any major leaks, so I'll call it a success.

For my next trick... I'm currently looking for a trailer to borrow for our boat so that we can haul it out and do some work in our driveway dock like bottom paint and fixing a couple of hull scratches and gouges.

Beautiful Evening Sail

2009-09-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

The wind went nearly dead as I was waiting for Todd and Ben to show up last night, but as we got going around 7pm, it picked up and we had a magnificent, chill sail. Pretty short, but we got to fly the spinnaker and drink a couple beers (rum and coke for the liveaboard). Then I slept on the boat and woke up to rain and seagulls. Not bad.

More photos

Sum-sum-summertime

2009-08-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

It seems it's really hard to keep up with a blog in the summer. We've been very busy since moving our boat to Shilshole in the beginning of June. We moved our primary residence in July to Ballard, getting closer to the boat. But that meant packing, unpacking, settling, doing all 8 things that everyone has planned for every weekend day of the summer, plus a little R&R with each other.

It's great having the boat at Shishole. Our slip is in a perfect spot to start conversations. Everyone loves the unique look of the boat and are blown away by the amount of space inside as well as the layout of the cabin. It's nearly impossible to sit on the boat working on little projects without most people walking by to say hi and ask about the boat.

We've gone out a few times, including through the locks into Lake Union once. First time through on my own boat. Luckily we got to go through the small locks so we didn't have to tie up to 250 research or fishing vessels. (That's Emily, the mayor of Duck Dodge, helping me through the locks)

Once in Lake Union, I got a chance to swim around the boat and find that we have enormous mussels growing on the bottom of the boat, ON THE ANTI-FOULING PAINT. Going to need to get her out of the water for a couple of days and scrape and repaint for sure before the weather turns sour.

Also trying to get an overnight going on the boat somewhere before the summer is over (see note about our popularity above).

New home

2009-05-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to Shilshole Marina after a long trip heading into the wind the entire time. The wind let up from its constant 10-15 knots so that we could eat our lunch, but other than that we found ourselves beating the entire day.

We left at noon from Des Moines with the sun high overhead and the wind steady from the N. We not so quickly realized that we weren't able to beat as well as we would have liked and by 4:30, just a few miles past Three Tree Point, we decided to motor for a while. It was a good test of what our little 32 year old motor was capable of. It ran for 2 hours straight with no problems. Seems the issue is when you pull back the throttle after running at high speed for a while. It just dies. Will have to figure that one out as it's kind of important when you need to not hit stuff.

We ended up motoring until about 6:30, at which point we were somewhere in the middle of Elliott Bay. Once we were happy about not being in the way of ferries, we cut the motor and raised the sails to see how much further we could get before sunset. A little before 8 and not really much closer to West Point and the sun setting, we decided to motor the last bit to get into our new slip before it was completely dark. We pulled in around 8:30, tired and happy to be home at O-4.

We fired up the grill and invited some friends over for beer and gardenburgers. We eventually got her cleaned up and on our way out to grab some more beers in Ballard, we ran into our friend Chris who we found out has his boat at N dock (right next door). So now we've got Ben at L-dock and Chris and Tracy at N-dock. This is shaping up to be a great summer.

Off to Sail!

2009-05-30T09:27:00.000-07:00

The weather has cooperated (so far) and we'll be setting sail to Shilshole marina later this morning! Follow our progress on twitter or facebook.

Barnacle Scraping

2009-05-21T15:08:00.001-07:00

What happens when it's blowing out there and you can't seem to tack because you don't have a lot of experience sailing and you have accidentally left the motor down to create drag and the shore is within pug throwing distance and your depth meter says 7.7 and you don't really know if that's from the bottom of the keel or the water line but it doesn't matter anyway because you're fucked at that point? Well I don't know about you, but for me that meant I almost got a free
barnacle scrubbing against the shore.

I say almost because by some miracle we were able to jibe and drift away from the shore. I never got a look at how low the depth finder actually got, but I was prayin' for sure.

Many thanks to my crew for not freaking out and for actually saying they would still go out with me again. I'll see if they actually follow through with it in the future.

In the meantime, I'll work on my close-quarter tacking around logs out in the sound, not so close to shore.

We're Moving!

2009-04-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

When we got on the waitlist at Shilshole last month, they told us that the projected wait was about 6 months. Yesterday, I got word that a slip was available for our boat, so we're moving to Shilshole to join the ranks of the Shilsholed: Ben, Fisher, Jason and Christy (not for much longer), Bob, and others we're sure to meet soon. We'll be on O-dock, not far from all these hooligans.

It's a great spot, right at the cross float, with lots of room to maneuver and only a boat in the front of us to hit. And close to the road to entertain hecklers and onlookers.

Look for us on June 1!

It's About Time!

2009-04-06T00:36:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I should tell you about the time I nearly fell off the boat trying to dock it. When I was hanging off the life-rail and my boots were wet and Stan had to drag me bodily onto the pier AND dock the boat at the same time. But I will save that story for another day.

I just needed to scribble in a few words tonight to express how grateful I am that Stan knows how to work this boat thing. I'm feeling a little deflated after this afternoon's run. I just can't seem to retain any of what I have learned about sailing and my stomach fills with the same old butterflies and dread every time he even mentions the word "boat". Today was especially difficult for me. Because operating a boat requires a pure brute strength that I simply do not possess, I find myself feeling utterly useless on board. Lifting the motor out of the water nearly made me pass out from the effort today. And the jib sheet that almost got away from me also almost sucked me over the rails and into the water with its force. I'm also not very "robust", as Stan would say, when it comes to cold weather. In fact, I hate being cold. One would have to ask oneself, given my weak arms and my loathing for all climates under 85 degrees, why I agreed to own a boat in the Pacific Northwest in the first place.

And I would have to say it has something to do with me wanting to prove that I could do this. It would also have something to do with me wanting to learn how to not curl up into a ball of heaving nausea whenever I come into contact with boats, planes, or trains. I really wanted this experience to make me a tough, seasoned sailor. Instead, especially after a day like today when the only bragging rights I could claim were "I didn't fall off the boat", I am feeling like I'll never get it. All that I've read about "being one with your boat" does not apply to me. I flail like a dead fish when given directions. Even my mnemonic devices are useless. There is not one drop of instinct in me when it comes to sailing. Aside from feeling crappy at not being able to understand half of what's being shouted to me ("Aft"? "Fore"? "Boom's Away"? I thought these were things only cartoon pirates said...) I can't seem to shake loose the overwhelming sense of impending destruction whenever we set foot on that deck. I feel like, at any moment, I could be watching my keys float to the bottom of the ocean, or, worse yet, my whole damned boat. I know some people would say this aspect of sailing, the unpredictability of it all, is what makes it fun. For me, it makes it borderline miserable. It's not like driving a car where pushing down on a pedal makes it go and pushing another pedal makes it stop. Sure, there are subtle adjustments you make in between stop and go, but none of those rules apply on a boat. I mean, when you're in a car, you can control whether or not you will crash into the car in front of you because there is a guarantee from the world of physics that the road underneath you will stay still no matter what you do to the car. Not so on a boat. Some supertanker comes chugging through the Sound and you have to spend the next ten minutes bobbing up and down on waves you didn't make. Then there's the wind. One second it's there, and the next it's not. And having to take this all in, having to finesse your sail tension and your steering every ten seconds or so, is exhausting to me. I don't know where I got the idea that sailing was supposed to be leisurely, but it's NOT. It's WORK! It's constant movement and adjustment! It's not leisurely at all! And it's COLD outside to boot!

Sailing is just unlike anything I have ever done in my life. I feel like my life, Stan's life, and the life of our boat insurance policy is at stake every time we take her out. It puts me on edge. It's not like my other interests in life where goof ups are easily corrected. Cooking, knitting, crossword puzzles... these are tame hobbies. If I put in a carrot where a zucchini should have been, or purl instead of knit, or put the wrong word into five down, I can adjust without huge consequences. No one dies when I oversalt the soup . In fact, no one may be the wiser (especially if I use pencil on the crossword puzzle). But, if you tack when you're supposed to not tack... or if you cut the engine too soon, or not soon enough, you could literally permanently hurt yourself, or your sailing partner, or cause never-before-seen-amounts of property damage. And I am OBSESSED with this idea: that I could be the cause of said death and destruction. It's an enormous amount of responsibility to carry around while doing something "fun". I feel like I have been given license to operate a battering ram without any instructions.

This could easily turn into a rant about how this city slicker has made a terrible, expensive decision in buying a boat (has it already?)... that maybe i ought to just stick to pavement-dependent activities... but I want to put it out there that I've just had a hard day of being all thumbs and two left feet (and weak arms) and it feels awful and I have to confess that there exists a much steeper learning curve than I expected. I'm hoping to look back on this in some time and laugh at what a scared novice I was. I'm hoping to let go of my need to know everything before it happens... I'm sure that once I remember that steering goes backwards and that "into the wind" means... whatever it means... I will actually ENJOY sailing. But, I have to give voice to the part of me that is entirely unconvinced right now. And I have to say thanks to my sailing partner for getting us, once again, out and about and back in again without a hitch.

How to Find the Time?

2009-01-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

Well, we're back from our vacation, ready for the new year, but now is the time where we're both too swamped with work to find the time to take our boat out. I got myself a pair of foulies and I'm ready to go, but I wish there was a way to put off work and other engagements and be out on the water again.

In Panama last month, I found myself thinking alot about sailing. Sailing in the tropics, sailing in Seattle, sailing with friends or sailing alone. I've got the bug and now I need to architect my life around being able to get blown around by the wind.

Maybe one day I'll be able to simplify my life and be able to do the sailing, surfing, skiing that I want to do and still make a living or whatever that means.

All Quiet cough on the Home Front

2008-11-18T09:53:00.000-08:00

Both Lolo and I have been convalescing with pretty bad flus and pneumonias. Personally I've been down about 3 weeks now and while feeling much better don't feel it's a good time to test out my lungs' strength after pneumonia in Puget Sound's winter weather out in the open on a sailboat. Lolo's nearing the end stage of a pretty bad one too, but since she's still coughing and can't breathe well sometimes, it's probably a good idea for her not to go out either.

So, as soon as we're healthy again we hope to be facing the NW winter weather and get some sailing in.

Two Trips, One Post

2008-10-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

So I wrote on Saturday that we were taking our boat out for our first ever sailing trip without the expertise of our sailor friends. It was a gorgeous day, sunny with about 10 knot winds. The waves were small and the wind coming from the north. Our crew was myself, lo lo, Derek and Ross (an old friend from Portland and lead in Echo Helstrom). The most experienced crew member was myself with 4 whole sailing trips under my belt, so by default I became the captain.

We left the marina a bit after noon and got our sails up and we managed to sail on the first try! We made our way across the sound toward Robinson point, tacked back toward Seahurst and eventually made our way back toward the marina after some more futzing around with the sails. Oddly enough, we had our hardest time on the broad reach and downwind sailing. Later found out we should have been reading both pages on that heading. I think the wind was also picking up some so it became a bit more difficult to steer. Ross still did a great job at the tiller and Lauren and Derek worked the sails well while I just hung out and barked orders, like a good captain should.

Today, Ben and Kim came down to Des Moines. Lauren had to work, so it was just the three of us. Kim has a little bit of sailing experience, but mostly captaining 100-ton vessels and water taxis and not much time recently on a 21-footer. :)

When we left the marina, the wind was not blowing too hard, maybe 5-10 knots from the SSW. Forecast was for rain, but we got none. Forecast was that the wind was going to die down to about 10-15 in the afternoon, but that didn't happen either. Wind waves reached about 2 feet (I think) and it started blowing 15-20. We had too much sail up, even with the reefed main and our little toy boat became pretty difficult to control. We were consistently going about 6 knots on the beam reach, but the waves were tossing us around quite a bit (at the writing of this post, there is also now a small craft advisory in effect).

We saw a great big sea lion chillin' on the shipping channel's marker and we were even visited by a couple of porpoises! It was totally rad to have them playing around the boat. Kim was at the bow watching one swimming in our bow wake while Ben attempted to get video of the other one that kept swimming under and around our boat. Totally rad. I'll post the video when Ben gets it online.

After a couple hours of working out our biceps at the tiller, we decided to head in before our little outboard could no longer hang with the conditions. It's really good to know what the boat can handle and I'm really glad to have had two experienced boaters out with me during our "testing".

Docking was interesting, especially when our rigging got into a little tussle with the roof of the next dock. Luckily our boat won and we eventually made it back into the slip. Beers were had, stories shared and burgers eaten at Dead Robin.

More photos after Ben uploads them.

Real Maiden Voyage

2008-10-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Since it's such a beautiful day, we're going to try and go out and futz around with the sails and see if we can't get her going. Should be nice. Forecast calls for 5-15 knots. Current weather at Des Moines is about 6 knots (http://www.windfinder.com/report/woodmont_beach).

Wish us luck! :)

Lake Sailing

2008-10-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Lo Lo, Derek and I met Geoff at his boat, Solana and went out for a day of sailing. The plan was to make it out to Lake Washington, but after the University Bridge, Geoff was having trouble with his battery bank (he's got an electric motor) and we decided to turn around and just sail around Lake Union.

We were dog-sitting this weekend, so we decided to take the dog along. He's an enormous Greyhound that looks like Santa's Little Helper. He's also not usually very happy about being out of his comfort zone: in his living room, between a woman's legs (nothing sexual, he just likes women more than men and is afraid of most things and has a brain the size of a walnut and is probably a little autistic).

For most of the day, we ended up doing a couple of laps around lake union with 10-20 knot winds, got to fly the spinnaker a couple times, learned a bunch more about sailing.

We grilled some shrimp skewers, watched some kids in El Toros learning to sail, got buzzed by numerous float planes and I managed to get sunburn on my nose and eyeballs.

I'm desperately trying to find the time to go out on our boat while we have this window of nice weather, but it's hard to coordinate our schedules to have some daylight to go sail our boat.

Definitely loving the experience of sailing. Stoked we got a boat. And stoked we have lots of great friends to go sailing with.

Lo lo at the tiller.

See all the photos on flickr.

So Many Little Things

2008-10-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

Spent about an hour or two on the boat today taking care of some little things to get ready for our first sail. Purchased the safety gear to make us legal earlier this week: PFDs, life sling, flares.

So I installed the life sling and stowed the preservers and put the flares into a drawer under the sink. I also took out the anchor rode to measure it and check it over. In all, we've got 140' of chain/nylon which I believe should be enough for an overnight stay in most places around the sound. It would be nice to get a second anchor for those tough spots.

Started the motor to make sure it still runs and it started easily, but it still oozes brown goop when I angle it out of the water. Discovered the motor swing mount on the actual boat works, but requires some umph to get it up. The motor's swing is much easier to use, but causes that oozing when it angles the motor.

I pumped out the bilge because there was a bit more water than I would have liked in there. Will keep an eye on it. Nice to know the bilge pump works. Gotta figure out how to keep the gasoline smell out of the cabin. Perhaps need to get better sealing gas cans or vent it out of the compartment where we keep it.

Measured the sails so that we know what we've got and can also find another headsail for different weather. Discovered we need to replace 3 battens on the mainsail because they're either broken or missing. The jib uses plastic hanks and two of them are broken or have cracks.

Jib
Foot - 132"
Luff - 348"
Leech - 310"

Main
Foot - 108"
Luff - 292"
Leech - 310"

Some other things we need include: extra dock line, waterproof flashlight, reefing line, some general purpose stainless wire, krazy glue (to fix the GPS antenna mount which I broke trying to start the motor the other day), and a new nav light bulb.

Still have to figure out how to turn off the mast light when using the running lights. There's only one switch and it turns on the bow and stern lights as well as the mast light. Also, don't think we have an anchor light.

Add Rum, Twist of Sail, and Shake

2008-10-07T23:18:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I should have written days ago, when the salt was still crusty on my face and my hands still frozen into curled pink claws. You can read all about Saturday's near-hurricane force winds below. It's a little challenging to keep up with documenting it all. If there's one thing I'm learning, it's that sailors spend every spare moment cataloguing their lives. It's important stuff. It's not just about technicalities; this is a spiritual journey, and it demands documentation. If I am to be a sailor, I need to fully embrace all parts of my vocation. Feelings, dreams, to-dos, accomplishments... it's all waiting to be written down alongside positions, locations, and shopping lists. Sailors are meticulous. Sailors are prolific. Sailors are just like me. Maybe that's why this whole sailing thing seems both wildly unorthodox and seamlessly fitting all at once. I've found My People.

Saturday was thrilling. It was a two hour roller coaster ride. The carnie holding the ropes was Ben, who laughed like a madman the whole time. His partner in crime was Fisher, a true man o' the sea if ever there was one. A few shots of rum to stay our nerves and we were off. Forty knot winds gusting to 50, rail in the water at a 45 degree angle, and me wrapping my tiny cold hands around anything that would keep me aboard. Two hours went by in a heartbeat.

I am SO encouraged by the friends we are making along the way. Everyone who learns we have just bought a boat smiles giddily like I've just announced Santa Claus is in the next room. Everyone is so helpful, so friendly, so NICE to us. I think it's because we all understand (even those of us who haven't fully realized it yet) that we've all just sunk lots of our hard earned money into something that has the potential to both kill us and bring us the greatest satisfaction we have ever known. Everyone, and I mean EVERYone, who has sailed and has found out about our boat gets this LOOK. I can't quite explain it. It's like we are all part of this secret society and they are thrilled that we've just joined. Sailors seem to know something the rest of us don't.

I keep trying to compare this camaraderie to the camaraderie I see amongst folks attracted to other "adventurous" lifestyles... I think about my back-country skiing friends, or friends who mountain bike, or rock climb, or kayak... we don't talk much about what those short bouts of adrenaline and communion with nature do to their psyches. I can only imagine that their experiences bring them closer to understanding profound things about the power of nature, her indifference to one's survival, and the thrill of accomplishing when all signs are pointing to "ridiculous way to die". There seems to be something different about sailing folks. The mountain climbers and kayakers I know are gravely aware of their risks and face them with seriousness and calculation. I think sailors do too... but they seem to do it with a splash of whimsy and romance. They seem to understand disaster is part of the package. I don't sense that adventure sport folks consider failure an option. Sailors know it comes with the territory. They almost embrace it. They know their dreams are laden with folly, their goals a bit hazy and surely riddled with detours, but they chase them anyway. There is a certain lightheartedness in the people I've met. It is this lightheartedness, plus their love of a good drink and good story, that keeps me believing I have chosen my folly well.

About the Boat

2008-10-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

In response to Fisher's urging to provide more information about our boat, I've started to track down information about the Northwest 21. I've located one of the previous owners of the boat and he was very helpful and sent me the original brochure.

According to the internet, about 70 of the 21s were made in the late 70s and early 80s. According to our hull identification number, ours was possibly hull #2 made in March of 1976 in Gorst, WA.

Boat specs
We have the fixed-keel, tall rig variety of the boat. It is a one-piece fiberglass hull construction with the hull and deck glassed together.

Overall length - 21' 0"
Length at waterline - 16' 9"
Beam - 7' 11"
Draft - 60"
Displacement - 2300 lb
Ballast - 700 lb
Headroom - 5' 7"
Sail Area (100% fore triangle) - 243 ft²

Sailing
All sheets and halyards are led to the cockpit for easy single-handed sailing. Mid-boom sheeting with roller traveler.

We've got 3 sails: main, jib, and spinnaker. Main has one reef point. Spinnaker comes with a sock for easy handling.

Niceties

It's got a fully-enclosed head with port-o-potty and vanity sink. (Gotta get that make-up on before making port)
Sleeps 5 (umpa lumpas) or 4 normal humans with two short, friendly people in the V-berth.
The ladder was replaced with a step that holds an ice box.
12-V adapter and included travel blender
GPS & VHF radio

As we learn more about the boat, we'll post what we learn here.

Dark and Stormy

2008-10-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

Went out sailing with Ben yesterday with 30-40 mph sustained winds. Not with the little guy of course, but with Ben's Westsail 28, a 14,000 lb behemoth. No offense, Ben.

Check out the full account at his blog.

Looking forward to one day taking our boat out into winds and waves maybe half the speed and power as yesterday.

Here's a video by Fisher.

P.S. Drank WAY TOO MUCH rum and beer after the trip. Maybe the problem was *not* sleeping on a boat afterward.

Making Lists

2008-10-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after my last massage client, I decided to run over to the boat to take a nap, do some maintenance, continue the list of things to buy/replace and just to spend the last warm day in Seattle outside on the water.

I ended up not taking a nap, the excitement of getting things ready to actually go out sailing taking over. The fact that I had about 4 hours of sleep last night not an issue.

I got there and started the motor and warmed it up for a bit so that Lauren and I could motor out past the breakwater and float for a bit in the glass-calm water. I stopped it after a bit to wait for her and when she got back I couldn't start it again. I think we figured out what the first major purchase will be.

Instead, we hoisted the sails to practice, got hooked up to shore power, tied and untied things, and practiced bowlines. We also talked with our neighbors, who are very helpful and awesome. They helped us measure our mast, figure out how to restart our motor and offered us beer. We feel very lucky to have found the slip where we did.

We're looking forward to sailing with Ben this weekend. Just gotta get our goretex out of storage.

Time

2008-09-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

It's been hard for me lately to keep truckin' through work and life when all I can think about is sailing. Every morning, I wake around 7 and for the next hour, I am sailing in my head. I'm hoisting the sails, trimming them, tacking, jibing, steering, tying knots, setting the anchor, sleeping below deck, fixing, cleaning, etc. I feel like with all I've read about sailing, it's time to get out on the water and actually do it. Time, money, commitments, schedules and my lack of sailing experience make it impossible right now to just go down to the dock, cast off and go float out there in the sound under wind, or otherwise.

I'm looking forward to the day where I can head over in the evening, go out for a couple hours and call it a night. I believe I'll continue to sail in my dreams until that time.

High Tide Comparison

2008-09-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

This is a photo from a few minutes before high tide.

Maiden Voyage

2008-09-28T12:20:00.001-07:00

We began our sailing career with a short voyage from our slip at F dock to our new slip at D dock. We made our way to the dock just before high tide so we had plenty of room between our berth and the wall of rocks next to and below our boat. With neither of us having any experience motoring (or sailing) a sailboat, we planned our route and our equipment, our positions on the boat, and our jobs during the voyage as if we were planning for an antarctic voyage. Checklists were made, jobs were agreed upon and we took a deep breath to begin the voyage.

Our first task was to start the 2-stroke outboard. The week before, we were given instructions by the previous boat's owner and received information about the quirks and "character" of the motor. We pumped the fuel line attached it to the motor and started it to let it warm up for a while. When we agreed that it was sufficiently warm, we prepared to cast off. As soon as we cast off the bow line, the motor began to sputter and ask for a different mixture. I ran back to adjust the mixture, then cast off the stern line and we were afloat.

Our next objective was to get the boat pointed out toward the end of the marina which proved to be "impossible" at first. Apparently sailboats don't like to "steer" or "go where you want them to go" when you "don't know what you're doing". Using the boat hook to push off other boats and the looks from the onlookers to guide our boat to the right heading, we managed to point the bow down the row.

At this point, with adrenaline rushing, Lauren crouched near the bow with her boat hook poised to harpoon any boats that "jumped out in front of our boat," we headed into what looked to us to be an Indiana Jonesesque gauntlet of rotating knives, poison darts, and sharp pointy things ready to spear us. With my attention directed to the dangers ahead, I failed to notice the 3 giant gray and black spiders crawling toward my hand on the motor's tiller. Fighting back these beasts while trying to maintain calm so that my mate would also keep her cool, the motor began to sputter and eventually quit. Apparently, moving 20 feet had been too much for it. I could not restart it. The boat ended up drifting into a perpendicular-to-our-desired-path arrangment and we used our blessed boat hook to pull us closer to the dock and we slowly pushed our boat back to it's slip.

We took a breather now because the motor wouldn't start.

Eventually I was able to restart the motor. I believe we had flooded it running to high of a mixture. We later realized the motor was not happy with our decision to not bring any alcohol aboard for its maiden voyage because as soon as we cast off the second time, the motor began to sputter again. But this time we were pointed in better direction and we managed to turn and get going straight and the motor decided to play nice. I dared not open the throttle too much so it felt like the trip to the end of the dock took an hour. In reality it was probably closer to 30 minutes (but most likely 5).

We made the left turn and then another left turn at the end of D dock, and got a glimpse of our destination, D-54! After my initial elation, the dread of having to turn into that berth and not hit Kawabunga! set in. Luckily there were others at the dock and after a "missed" wide turn, overshooting the berth, we managed to pull in and tie up.

Earlier, we thought we might want to go out for a little sail. We decided run to the store to get some beer and just sit with the boat for a while and give it a little scrubbing of the deck.

Low tide

2008-09-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

It's crazy to see how low the tide gets here. Feels like you have to
hike up a serious incline to get out from the dock. Good exercise, I
guess.

Our First Boat

2008-09-26T12:36:00.001-07:00

We've done it. We bought our first sailboat this week. We've yet to have our first adventure. But tomorrow we get to move to a new slip. Since neither of us has ever piloted a sailboat with a 2-stroke outboard through a marina with expensive boats, this may end up being our first adventure.

Our plan for Saturday is to clean her up a bit, move her to her new slip at D-dock at Des Moines Marina, and take inventory on the boat. Then we make the list for things to buy.