Now we had a full complement of crew having hired a captain (Later to be referred to as Captain Bly!) and taken on a crew member. Now this Mr. Bly was from the marina we were birthed at and is well known. But wasn't known at least by me but by others, I later discovered he is a regular Jeckle and Hyde!! I became familiar with this hind quarter a couple years earlier at a gathering of Pirates festivities that is held on a yearly basis in Puget Sound formally call the Lats an Atts Partay.
 
Over the next two years Captain wife and I became more familiar with him; we had Capt Bly over for dinner and drinks numerous times or just for drinks where he would "plug the hole in my rum bottles." This scaly wag has a very high opinion of himself who fancies himself as a ladies' man and his inflated skills level.
Now bear in mind that having lived on a scow of the sixties vintage and I might add I wouldn't set foot on it for fear it would sink at any moment; now this barge shows all the gory signs of neglect that a cheap skate bum could employ. There is no way he had any comprehension of a modern boat and it's complexities I would later discover amongst other things.
But as I had never been off shore and he like some other less than desirables by some stroke of luck or trickery had passed the test given by some night class to call themselves captain in the legal sense. Having met some of these blokes I have to question the intelligence level required or the difficulty of said test! None the less this is where I kick myself for placing my trust in this two faced bastard with the forked tongue; I hired him to get my precious sea horse to the bay area. It infuriates me that I didn't see thru his facade. An act that he maintained all the way to Neah Bay and should have got an academy award for.
Anyway off we go headed for the Straight of Juan de Pukie after have had the pit stop in Port Townsend. As we approach Port Angles and the Dungeonous Spit I'm at the helm hugging the coast line to avoid the oncoming winds that are building. With stomachs churning the intrepid crew pears out over the horizon at the mounting sea state and all the while Capt. Bly is smiling from pointy ear to ear and he defiantly is not Vulcan.
By now things start to get interesting after having lost my lunch the egotistical one was at the helm by now and we are experiencing electrical problems with the alternator as the sun begins to set. By the time we have Neah Bay in sight on the plotter it's after midnight and the alternator is definitely bingo. Hey but not to worry right as we have a spare and a regulator aboard. We tie up next to some commercial fishing vessels for the night to get some rest. The next morning it was all hands on deck for the greasy spoon up on the hill and then the alternator. Despite appearances which by now I'm beginning to realize are fleeting at best the dinner served up the worst breakfast of something akin to slime which made me want to vomit all over again such that i made a hasty retreat to walk the dog.
Next we undertook the electrical solution feeling fairly confident knowing we had a new Balmar 100 amp electron maker and the controller called a regulator. But when we opened the two boxes a stark realism came home like a Mack truck that perhaps we were in over our heads as the new electron contraption had more wires coming out of it that the old one. But wait the worst was yet to come as the control device turned out to be programmable! However being hearty souls we were undaunted by the apparent complexities over confident in our abilities we decided to proceed. Captain Bly and the "navy architect crew member were sure the obstacles could be overcome. Captian wifey was less than confident and disappeared to seek out some professional help aboard one of the fishing vessels and thus slipped out unnoticed. Upon returning she declared she had secured some salty hands to help, savvy? First aboard the good ship lolly pop was the second mate apprentice electrician who rather pointed declared "I don't get this at all"; better wait for my boss to show up. OhOh. And so we waited for the ol man in the sea to come pay us a visit like Santa. Eventually a round rolly polly of an individual came aboard with white hair and a beard and declared in no uncertain terms we were screwed! You see his postulation was that neither the control device or the electron contraption were compatible and there was no way in hades he could lend a hand. This is where I had to call a halt to the mayhem and decide to return to Seattle to make repairs and for all intents and purpose end the trip. On the way back my stomach is still doing double back flip somersaults and I tell Captian BLy to head for Port Angles so I can get some relief! Not the not so quiet crew member with the opinion on every aspect of my pride and joy declares he needs to catch a plane to the Bay area because he has a schedule to keep! In Port angles we all have a real breakfast and he catches a bus.
On the way back to Shilshole Sharon starts feeling a bit queasy with a low grade temp; but we start making contingency plans to try and make the weather window to get out of Dodge before the first snow fall. We make good time and a few days later Sharon is in bad shape with severe stomach cramps that bent her over. Finally I get her to agree to go to the hospital where they promptly take out here gall bladder. Had we continued down the coast she would have died according to the two surgeons. So while she is recovering and unable to hit the high seas I hatched a plan with the scaly wag scurvy dog I thought I knew to deliver my preciousness to the Bay area. Another momentous blunder on my part in hind sight. By now Sharon is out of the hospital and back on the boat where we make preparations for Bly and crew to take off so Sharon can do her post op exams and we can continue our dream albeit all wet. We met with forked tongue and hammered out a deal that we should have read before we signed if you know what I mean. We paid him and exorbitant fee I was later to discover that would ultimately double, but I'm getting ahead of myself. He come over with wench in hand to declare he had put together an all female crew as he fancies himself as a ladies' man though I can't imagine what any female could see in this bum. Off we go to a place of repast for rest and my beauty heads for Frisco.