Check us out in the latest Issue

What a pleasant surprise to open the latest issue of Wooden Boat and find not only a great article on the Center for wooden boats at Cama Beach but also a glowing reports of the efforts of several of our favorite and local maritime organizations . The Port Townsend Maritime Center, Gig Harbor’s Eddon Boat, and the Foss Waterway Seaport here in Tacoma. I just finished going cover to cover and I may need to get a second copy of this November/December issue #211 .This will be the one that will not get tucked away but kept on the table right next to my big red leather chair .Ok none of them get “tucked away” at least for the first year but you know what I mean. Immediately following the Currents article describing the Pacific North West’s abundance of maritime activities is a reoccurring feature called Getting Started in Boats. This one #19 in the series Oars, Oarlocks, and Rowing is almost perfect timing since the length and placement of the oars and oarlocks has been an ongoing topic of discussion during our all too infrequent work sessions at the boat shop. I will not boar you with the complicated mathematical equation like I did to Rhonda but I am surprised that I could get so excited about a little bit of math (not a subject that excited me in school). A little deeper into this issue is an article that is about a 100 year old Norwegian rescue boat (pictured on the cover). Again this well written article is interesting in its timing since we had just a few weeks ago looked at an old US coastguard surf rescue boat built in the 1930s. Is some body trying to tell us something? Maybe my boat “senses” are just more tuned in these days, who knows. Anyway the bimonthly Wooden Boat is a wonderful way to pass the last few wakening minutes of my day and when I can’t keep my eyes open any more I will sit back and picture the issue that someday will have one of our boats inside its cover. Until that happens (and it will) you will just have to settle for the musings and pictures here at the Salmon Beach Rowboat Project. Enjoy.

Scott

Catching Up

Boy have I been a bad blogger. I have been so busy that I haven’t even stopped long enough to post a simple note to tell you that we didn’t get eaten by bears in the Olympic rain Forrest or that we didn’t drink too many Port Townsend Beers and fall off of the dock at the Wooden Boat Festival. I didn’t even get a chance to brag that I was getting a second opportunity to go the Cape Decision Light house or that we went to look at a 1934 coast guard surf rescue boat that Andrew found on the internet. So I guess it is time to do some catching up.

Since my last posting Rhonda and I had a great hike (about 12 miles) up to a lake above the Sol Duc hot springs. It rained buckets but the scenery was unbelievable and in my opinion the best end to a long hike is to soak in a hot springs at the end of the day and if you can get away with it soak in those same hot springs the whole next day.

After a great seafood dinner at Scooter and Willi's with a great group of people to celebrate Willi's birthday on saturday night, Sunday we went to the wooden boat festival at Port Townsend. The weather was perfect, a nice warm day no clouds and enough wind for the boats that knew what they were doing to sail out of the harbor at the end of the day. What a beautiful sight. Scooter ,Willi, Rhonda and I had a great day together and our only disappointment was that the roasted cashew vendor didn’t show up this year. Mark my words; we will be attending next year’s festival with a boat of our own! The venue just keeps getting better, this year they had the new building open that includes a beautiful boat shop that will only get better when they start working on boats in it.

Next thing you know I am being talked into a second trip to the light house at Cape Decision AK. And even though we had what I thought was an epic journey in June this one was yet another Alaskan adventure that I don’t have the space or time to recount here. Let’s just say that Cape D. in late September is a whole different experience from any of the trips in June or July.

No sooner had I gotten home and muddled thru what was left of that week and our friends from Juno, Steve and Rachel drop into town for one of their whirlwind visits and we ended up at the Harvest Festival at Tahoma Farms on Saturday night around a bonfire listening to a great four piece bluegrass band from Olympia called the Black Berries. The next day we all went over to look at what may be one of our more interesting future projects. A wooden surf rescue boat that had been converted to a fishing boat at some point in its life and is currently resting in a building out in Graham WA., waiting for a troupe of wild eyed wooden boat enthusiasts to bring her back to life and restore her to a more original rescue boat condition. Now that sound like fun doesn’t it?

Another very busy work week and then…whew the weekend and a chance to slow down and take a breath. Well we would have done that but when our neighbor Chris decided we needed to all go to the harbor for breakfast on Saturday morning (it was a nice morning and the water was smooth) Amy , Chuck, Chris , Rhonda and I piled into the boat and off we went. Breakfast was good and we stumbled upon the Gig Harbor Chum festival so we wandered through. You would think that I might have been most interested in the wooden fishing boat that is being restored there at the end of the bay but the display of rocks from the annual Gig Harbor round rock competition was the thing that caught my eye. Anyway we had a nice boat ride and I actually got up to Amber’s house to do a little work before the day was gone. Sunday we drove over to eastern Washington to check out Rhonda’s Dads new place. Couldn’t find any boats over there but did take a spin around the property on the new Quad that they just got.

So here we are burning thru another work week enjoying the fall weather with a fire going in the wood stove Jack curled up and snoozing on the couch and Randie (our cat) looking over my shoulder as I finish this up. The daylight is pretty much gone when I get back to the beach these days and it is not going to get any better for quite a few months but Scooter will be back soon enough and by then I hope to have the other projects in my life to a point that we can take some time to do what we love best and that would be hanging out in the boat shop.

So thanks for your patience with my many distractions, we will get to the Salmon Beach Rowboat some day…I promise.