Bulletproof in Anacortes
This is happening! We have a slip in Friday Harbor through the end of April, at which point Jon's job ends and we are officially on the hook. My leave from Rainier Valley Food Bank started April 1st, though I've been doing some contract work, including our 2016 Annual Report. We have a better sense of our overall plan (as good as plans can be when you're sailing), and now we're just taking care of final details before officially being boat locked, jobless, and car-free. Dotting the i's and crossing the t's, as it were. We had a leisurely motor sail over to Anacortes on Sunday—about a 3.5 hour trip from Friday Harbor, during which I made a delicious breakfast. I've been cooking a lot of protein and veg lately, focusing on whole foods for optimal digestion. I've had more time to just really enjoy cooking the way I want to, and I'm thinking I should keep track of some recipes on this journey! Fear not the salad for breakfast! This was a rainbow carrot and jicama salad, with sweet potato and hard boiled egg I made ...
Today we had appointments lined up with a professional rigger and a sail maker. We woke up on the brave side of berth, ready to bare any bad news about the condition of our dear boat. Now, as the sun sets and I have a moment to write, we are are dawning our sailor pride as we received nothing but good news and encouragement all day as to the worthiness of our vessel. "Bulletproof" & "bomb proof" were a terms that arose repeatedly from both the rigger and the sail maker! Few.
Jon spent the morning with a nice fellow named Kent from Northwest Rigging, which we can't recommend enough. Kent and Jon looked over our rigging, inspected the chainplates, and began taking measurements for the solant stay configuration Northwest Rigging will build for us. The solant stay is our storm sail option for when the winds offshore kick up. It employs what is known as a Highfield Lever, an insanely elegant and expensive mass of stainless steel which I will diligently wrap in Jude's night time diapers when not in use.
Sounds like Kent has quite a few passages under his belt, having sailed to and fro Hawaii quite a few times, lived aboard as a youngster and rigged his first sail boat at 14. His boss has 40 trips to Hawaii under his belt. Forty! Needless to say, Kent's opinion matters to us! At one point Jon asked Kent (sort of off-the-cuff) "Would you take this boat offshore?" As if bracing for a big wave, Jon was relieved when Kent said "Ohhh yeah, definitely." Jon pressed, "Even with a 3 year old?" "Yeah, sure!", Ken replied. Once more: few.
Kent said in the 1960's the average boat making passage from the Pacific Northwest to Hawaii was about 26'—quite small by today's standards, with a high oh-shit factor. (I'm beginning to measure the overall scariness of ocean sailing by a very technical scale of 1 to 10 oh-shit factor.) Our boat, a Pearson 365, designed by Bill Shaw, was built in the 1970's specifically for offshore cruising for Bill and his lady. I don't know much about Bill—not a thing to be exact—but I've conjured an image: he's this semi-surley Hemmingway of sailboats. A bit quirky, but overall very practical and straightforward. Bullet proof. This conjuring of Bill's persona upholds my mantra: What's good enough for ol' Bill Shaw and his broad is good enough for me! Are there better boats out there? Larger boats?! Yeah sure. But this ol' Decision is ours and she's bullet and bomb proof.
Jon and S/V Decision, sans sails as prep for a new mizzen and rigging inspection. Vince from Ullman Sails in Anacortes came out to measure the mizzen, which his shop will craft. He paid our Decision some nice compliments too. "This is an excellent blue water boat" Vince said. Once again, an opinion that matters to us from someone that has been crafting sails since 1980.
Anacortes has a lovely marina, Cap Sante. Super clean. Nice without being so posh that we feel askew as salty family sailors. Upon arrival, they give you a welcome reusable bag with a beer cozey, a floaty key chain, a chip clip, and more collatoral and maps that you can ever ask for local business fare. Great showers and laundry facilities—everything uses cards instead of coins (nice touch.) Quick access to a nice shoreside trail that leads up to the little ridge in the foreground in of the above photo. Jude and I had a nice hike up there today, where we spotted a mama snake and her curious babes slithering through fennel fronds and grass.
We'll be between Anacortes and Friday Harbor this week, returning to Seattle for a couple days on 4/27 and 4/28. Saturday we're driving out to Tonasket, where our friends Kristi and Greg have graciously agreed to let us store the family wagon. Next week, we are fully committed. No more marina. No more cars. All boat, baby!
A couple of other final touches we are trying to get the word out about ...
Selling my super nice and light Specialized road bike.
Finding 1 exceptionally awesome crew member to sail down to Mexico with us this summer.