Sunday, June 13, 2010

Watching wind blow

It has been far too long since I posted an update but I have at least one good excuse and lots of bad ones. Unfortunately I have no good news about the rowboat to report but on the other hand no bad news, unless you would consider that the fact that I haven’t even touched the boat since my last post bad news. It is not as if I have just been sitting buy the fire looking out the window however…I have been very busy. Most of my time has been spent with my daughter getting her first house ready to move into. Fun, but a real time eater with so many other things on my list. Actually more than one list if you break it down into boat related and non boat related. The non boat related list seems to be getting longer the harder I work at it and the proclamation in my last post that “this is the year “ may have been as usual a little optimistic but I prefer to look at things that way, it keeps me from just giving up.


The reason that I even have the time to sit down to write this is that I am waiting for the weather to break in Juneau AK so we can make a dash for the Cape Decision Light house (one of my favorite distractions). This years trip in will be by boat from Juneau with a load of brand new kitchen cabinets. If the weather cooperates the boat, a 32 ft. welded aluminum landing craft style boat with twin 225’s should move us along at 27 knots. An approximately 7 hr trip. If the wind does not settle down, well ,It could be a long wet day. The reports we have gotten from the light house is that the sea is “as bad as they have ever seen it” and the fact that one of the windows blew in would be a good indicator of that. I will have more about the trip as it progresses.

A few weeks ago Scooter and I got to help sail the schooner W.N. Ragland for the annual mothers’ day event at the Center for Wooden Boats at Cama Beach on Camano Island Washington. My deepest thanks and eternal gratitude to our friend Andrew Washburn, who runs the Center for Wooden Boat at Cama Beach and the captain and current owner of the Ragland Walter Wallace for the opportunity to crew on such a beautiful and special wooden sailing craft. It was, since I was a kid on the beach at Fox Island, a fantasy of mine to sail on a ship like that and to actually realize a dream like that on such a glorious sunshiny day with enough wind to sail…well I am the living proof that fantasy can become reality . Dream to live and live to dream, check out the Ragland on the Wallace Yacht Co. web site and you will see why we have been coveting this boat for the past few years. It was also a nice treat when on Sunday (Mothers Day) Andrew got out one of the centers nice double rowing boats so Rhonda and I could go for a row. It was another spectacular sunny day, no wind and perfect for our several mile row.

I just received a call from my traveling companions and good friends Steve and Rachel and it sounds like we are going to try to leave at 5:00 AM tomorrow. The adventure begins, I will keep you all posted. Next stop Cape Decision Light House!