03/01/2011, Seattle
Well, today is Tuesday. It's the first day I've not had to get up and go to work. My first official day of retirement, although it still feels like a vacation.
It's a bit scary too. The dream is really happening!
For so many years the changes and steps made to make the journey have been slow in coming. All of a sudden, we'were down to mere months.. then weeks, and now days! Yikes!
I spent the morning on the boat intending to get up and get stuff done. Well, that didnt' happen. My project for the week is to get our taxes done. Some vacation! I'm using my folks dining room table to do all the 'paper' projects I've got lined up! So far today, I've managed to push the piles of paper around and around, fixed a virus in the computer, had some breakfast, did a load of laundry, brushed the cat, and now I'm writing in the blog! I'm thinking that this isn't my day to do the taxes! Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe I'll just go eat bon-bons for today.... oh, wait, there's something shiny!
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Comments [2]
02/20/2011, Des Moines
What have I been doing? It seems like I put a note in here just a couple of days ago, and then today, I realized I have been absent from the blog way too long. The worst part is that I really don't have a great excuse, as there have no major projects, no interruption of our life...nope...just the day to day stuff. Going to work, eating and going to bed. We have managed to squeeze in a couple of little projects, some wiring, cleaning out some lockers, paperwork for getting ready to leave. I did get the new 55 pound Rocna anchor installed, with the new Quickline swivel. We switched the Bruce anchor over to the chain rode combination, and put the CQR anchor down in the hold as a spare. That will give us the new Rocna as a primary and the Bruce as secondary anchors. While at the boat show, we were able to pick up a 500 foot piece of poly line to serve as a stern line to run to shore for use up in Canada where the use of you main anchor on the bottom, and a stern line to the shore is pretty common. Jeanne got this loaded on a large spool that we will rig a mount on the stern later this spring.
Well, the sun is out, it is a beautiful day, so we are going abandon ship here in the Marine View coffee house and go get something done today.
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Ken and I would love to see how you mount the spool. We've been thinking of doing the same thing and need mounting ideas for the spool.
~Julie & Ken
A) You have better access to the shore to find a good tree, branch, log, stump, rock or one of many pre-made ring connections someone else established.
B) You have better measure of the minimum depth you will sit in and can see where the bottom comes up and any “hidden” rocks. The bottom comes up fast which is why you need a stern tie.
2. The biggest struggle is pulling the line though or around your tie point. Your spool needs to payout easy; it needs to be on an axel or spindle.
The friction of the slip-through at shore point is the source of frustration. I use a loop through there because on departure, you simply pull the line through and there is no need to dingy in to untie. I take control of both lines on the way back alternating pulling myself back to the boat and pulling the tag end through the loop. It takes a bit to get the coordination. Paddling back with the dingy is not practical. Your pull on t
3. I use a horizontal axel made from my deck brush handle lashed to my stern rail to payout and to retrieve. This all gets removed during the stay. The spool of line is set aside then. I like the temporary spool setup because I can put it exactly where I need it and remove it as required.
4. I usually put one side of the looped line on the sheet winch for stern line length adjustments required for tide and wind the other side is tied off on the stern cleat.
5. On retrieval I turn the spool by hand while laying the line in neat rows. Two people make the job go easy, one turns the spool, and one lays the line.
02/05/2011, Des Mines Marina
OK...we have had our fun weekends...now it is back to work!! I need to finish up some wiring projects, get the new anchor installed, measure for the new auto pilot, wire in a new couple of lights....the list never seems to be depleted!!
Jeanne did do a couple that were on my list for today, so I guess my list is shorter than I had planned. She installed the new teak holder for our hand held Garmin GPS and the new ACR GPS enabled EPIRB, all at the nav station where they are easy to get to if there is an emergency.
The EPIRB is another one of those large dollar items that we have, and hope to never use!! In the picture above you can see the EPIRB, the Garmin GPS and the new waterproof cover for the inverter that Jeanne made. Our inverter is some what in harms way if we should take a large wave that comes in the cabin door way. So Jeanne sewed a new waterproof cover for it that will protect it.
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Get down here guys!
01/31/2011, Burien, washington
Saturday morning found us back down town picking up our Portland friends to go to the Boat show. Like the best laid plans of mice and men.... everything changed! The ladies decided to go on a Seattle shopping spree, so Jeanne brought the Explorer so she could haul the whole group around town. The guys all headed to the indoor portion of the boat show. We had a whole day of goodies, gizmo's and boat gadgets!! We ran into lots of friends, and even found time for a couple of seminars. Not a lot of money was spent, but we had a great time.
The schedule, if you want to call it that, was to meet up at the Pyramid Brew house right across the street from the boat show at 5:00 with all the boating friends from around the PNW as well as Mexico and California!! Jeanne had been cooking up a suprise for the evening, so the 8 friends from Portland and Jeanne and I needed to be in the parking lot at 6:45 to meet our "Shuttle Express" van to drive us to see Dave Calhoun play at the new Piranha Joe's in Burien. Dave did not know we were coming, so he was pretty blown away when we all showed up in funky star shapped sun glasses, beads and noise makers!! I had spread the word to the 40 or so other friends that were at the Pyramid as to where we were off to, and if they were going south to stop by. And a lot of them did!! WOW what a party it turned into...let's just say, it was with out a doubt the first conga line to ever dance thru the restaraunt.
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Would have liked to be there for that one!
01/30/2011, Seattle Boat Show
Well...the great seattle boat show has come and gone!! From all of the vendors that I spoke with, it would have to be considered a huge success!! I dont know if the expectations were low, or some small segment of the boating economy has made a strong up-turn. Many of the vendors that we worked with, on a variety of things were either very low on product or just plain sold out.
Jeanne and I really had very few things that we were needing to find, with a couple of additional fun things to look at. All of the above we taken care of, at what we feel were very well priced. There are a couple of things that will have to be shipped, due to low inventorys or our particular special needs!
One the high lights of this show was a chance to spend some time with Rich Boren, off of SV Third day. If you have not been reading some of our earlier posts, rich and his Family live on their boat down in Mexico, so he was an exceptional source of information for us regarding our trip into Mexico, as well as some stops along the way!!
Rich (in the picture above) was at the boat show marketing his watermaker that he designed!! From all of his reports, the boat show WAY exceed his goals!!
We mananged to spend all or part of 5 days at this years show!! we are tired but feel that it was certainly worth it!!
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01/29/2011, down town Seattle
All on board....The food was great..the belly dancer was fun...and we got to ride the SLUT there and back!! What a blast to have the Crew from the Compass Rose yacht club up for a visit!! tomorrow we will hit the boat show, although i have a pretty good idea the ladies are going to bail on us and go shopping!!
the Boat show...the Boat Show...the great Seattle boat show!! see you all there tomorrow!!
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