TrawlerFest and back again; very nice run from Anacortes back to Seattle on Sunday with Bill Kimley (owner of Seahorse Marine) and Martin (previous owner of sister-ship Mandarin DD462-01) crewing.

We had a good time at TFest; it's the people really. Reconnected with some old friends; met some interesting folks for the first time. Enjoyed hanging out on the boat with Bill, Martin and David (who recently made a trip to HK, CN and PI looking at Diesel Ducks). George Buehler (Diesel Duck designer) joined us on Saturday.

Chuck & Cindy spent time with us; they've been looking at DDs for awhile. They, along with David, were introduced to us by Terry at Capital City Yachts (Terry is one of Rusty's favorite friends; always has a treat for him). Rusty acted as official greeter for folks coming aboard to see DavidEllis. The reason DE was an "exhibition boat" at the show was so Seahorse Marine, and their local rep, Capital City Yachts, had a full set of Seahorse boats available to show. Kurt & Marcia's DD462 Sedan Alpenglow, a 52 Seahorse fiberglass (the same model Tjasa & Aiden live-aboard in Hong Kong) and our DD462 Pilothouse made up the set. As a bonus, a Chuck Neville design trawler that was building at Seahorse when we first visited, was also in the show, just across the dock from us. Must have been gratifying for Bill K (and for George B) to have these representations of their efforts on show, all together in the same place.

Just a few weeks of school left, and we're getting deeply into boat projects aboard DE. Yesterday afternoon Bill Haines, of Island Marine Instruments came aboard to attempt "swinging" our Dirigo magnetic compass which has been stored aboard DE all this time. I'll write more about the technicalities of a magnetic compass aboard a steel boat and what we've done to date later. For now I'll just say we spent a few hours yesterday making slow circles on the water, attempting to find a location and/or combination of adjusting magnets that would un-stick the mag compass, which so far has shown no inclination to swing in a pilothouse location where it could actually be seen (and steered by). We're going to have to build (or have built) some kind of mounting platform for the compass... more on that later.

Some electrical projects, applying knowledge gained in my classes and working up a master project list, which we'll have to prioritize and match to our budget. Our friend Dennis Mok (used to be chief engineer at Choi Lee shipyards, located near Seahorse Marine in Dou Men, China), will be bringing his family to visit early in July. He's offered to help with some of my projects (a wonderful gift) and we may delay going north a week or so to take advantage of his offer on some of our more complicated projects.

Next week we'll make a road trip to Sebastopol for granddaughter Jordanne's high school graduation. She is the 4th generation (counting Dorothy's dad, Ellis) in her family to attend Analy H.S. I'm amazed that the time has gone so quickly as I have "just yesterday" memories of her birth at the Naval Hospital in Coronado. I'm very interested to see what happens next with the amazing Miss J.