The Break in Puget Sound:
Play and Prep
Hey… it’s October!
Hello Sound Discovery Blog readers! We’re back, after a week
hiatus in the rainy city… and boy, did it rain. Not only did it hit record-rainfall
levels over the weekend we were in town, a whole winter storm came busting through
Seattle while we were resting. We had several projects that we needed to accomplish
before leaving Seattle, and we finished them ALL (despite the weather)!
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| Jonathan's dog Cama supervises the wind vane installation. |
We had an excellent visit with my parents for Clif’s birthday
last Friday. We drove up to Bellingham, WA, to check out, and eventually
purchase, a used Monitor Wind vane (quite the birthday present). It looked like
some flying contraption of Leonardo Da Vinci, similar to the wings and gears you
would see in an image from his sketches, so I affectionately called it “The Da Vinci
Machine,” or Leonardo (who also happens to be the best Ninja Turtle). We have heard
that our wind vane will become our best crew member, and after a several day installation
process and a trial run this morning sailing out of Edmonds, we agree that he
will live up to that expectation! If you’re really interested in the workings of
the wind vane, look up “Monitor Wind Vanes” online.
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| Clif and Jonathan are hard at work at the Edmonds dock. |
We absolutely lucked out in Edmonds meeting our new friend Jonathan,
owner of the S/V Moment, who lives in Seattle. He spent the summer sailing up
to Alaska and back, yet we didn’t run into him until going through customs in Friday
Harbor. He was our savior this week! Jonathan not only lent us his vehicle, but
also helped Clif install the entire wind vane from start to finish. We also spent
an evening at his home with his wife Erin, who made us an awesome meal before
we set sail. We could never express how thankful we are for all that they provided
us while in port. We can only hope (nudge,
nudge) that they can come down to Mexico and maybe spend some time warm weather
sailing (Coronas included).
We also were very lucky to have my grandparents close by in
Mill Creek, just north of Edmonds, where the boat was docked all week. We were given
hot showers, a big cozy bed, yummy meals, (everything that comes included with
a visit to Grandma’s house!) and even some well-deserved movie/tv time. They
also lent us their car for boat errands and sent us away with parting gifts. We
know that they will be reading this from all the way across the country as they
go on their own sailing adventure: Thank you. We hope you have a blast on your
cruise (Grandma, you deserve a pedicure at the spa) and know that we are safe
and in much better weather than last weekend.
New Additions to Sound
Discovery:
In the Seattle area we….
-
Purchased our first wind vane,
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Purchased a new rub rail,
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Picked up our new Walker Bay sailing dinghy from
AML (Thank you FT!)
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Installed the Monitor wind wave
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Replaced the rub rail,
-
Reorganized our storage so that we could make room
for…. (drum roll please)…
-
A new crew member!
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| "Look! No hands!" Dave and Clif enjoy the wind vane. |
Our good friend Dave Leggitt is aboard now, sleeping in the quarter
berth. He arrived last night from Juneau and we took off this morning in the rain,
bound for the coast. We are lucky to have him onboard. Dave is currently running
a non-profit organization up in Juneau and Sitka, Alaska called “Coastal Footprint.”
He spent most of the summer cleaning up garbage from the outer coast on his Cascade
29. Definitely check out more about his project and mission at www.coastalfootprint.org. It’s worth
a look!
I also re-provisioned the boat this week. It will be interesting
to see what kind of food consumption two 20-something boys can do, rather than
just Clif and I making meals for ourselves twice a day. More on that soon…
What we are reading….
This is a new section that I will be updating every once in
a while. We have been accumulating a vast number of books, either given to us
or purchased ourselves, and I thought it would be fun to let folks know what we’re
reading. You might be curious to look into a couple of these books yourself,
especially if you desire some seaworthy book getaway.
Here’s what on our bookshelf to read during the upcoming
months:
-
The Sea
Runners, Ivan Doig
-
The Lost Art
of Finding Your Way, John Edward Huth
-
The Voyage
of the Cormorant, Christian Beamish
-
Daring Greatly,
Brene Brown
-
The Geography
of Bliss, Eric Weiner
-
Moby Dick,
Herman Melville
-
Two Years
Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana Jr.
-
Tales of
the South Pacific, James A. Michener
-
Kon Tiki,
Thor Heyerdahl
-
Yarns, Tristan
Jones
We actually have quite a few more books onboard, but those
are the relatively new ones that we have on our to-read list.
On the Outside...
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| Our crew for the Neah Bay to San Francisco Passage. |
From here on, we will be on the outside, heading down the west coast. Which means we will only be communicating through our Delorme GPS tracker. I might have cell service once in a while, if we get close to a port, but most likely won't be using the cell phone until we get to Bodega Bay. Bodega Bay is our next big stopping point. We will be spending quite a bit of time there, enjoying spending time with Clif's family.
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