Finding Boaty Everywhere

Gooserock here to tell this story of the latest addition to our house adventure. Puget4 took all the shots except one. Some of these are full sizes; others can be clicked for some enlargement.

I've had a passion for sailing since early 1950's childhood in landlocked Ohio and did a lot of racing, teaching and boatshop work before switching my attention to Celtic music making by the mid 70's.

Puget4 and I married in central Ohio, and often chartered small offshore boats around the western Lake Erie islands for summer vacations. Although a country girl, she took to sailing like a natural. She's unusually mechanical and very Scottishly commonsensical, two traits that are invaluable for sailing.

After she moved us to Puget Sound and we stumbled into our unlikely marina neighborhood house deal, I set about looking to complete our neo- Beverly Hippybillies adventure by acquiring a yacht. I mean, we already had the mansion, right?

Soon we found an ideal boat, decent 25-foot veteran of the early 70's and the biggest feasible for our small docks and tidal marina. It was at a dealer with water access (important because it had no trailer). The asking price at just a few thousand telegraphed the boat's true condition, requiring structural surgery I would be able to do myself for material costs. A brief August visit confirmed the condition, and I knew that almost nobody would buy it.



We went back after Labor Day when boat sales typically shut down. The dealer phoned the owner begging him to accept our lowball of 2.07 laptops, which is in line with market history, and an hour later I was backing away from their dock.

Puget4 had to drive around the waterways back home, peeking down by the shore at strategic points to track my progress. There was no wind, but the tide was changing, so I had to motor the whole 15 miles.



Well the motor--a 10 horse Honda--ran like a champ despite rather negligent treatment over the many months the boat was on sale, so 2 1/2 hours later I rounded the headland at the mouth of our waterway. I began steaming up the channel into the small tidal bay bordered by the undevelopable cliff in the background, a protected wetland out of view to the left, and our small neighborhood behind the camera.

At far left in the photo, above and behind the boat, are the faint outlines of the Olympic Mountains which some days are very prominent. Sailing our tiny dinghy in this bay--which ranges from dry sand at low tide, to only 6-8' deep max--we've seen seals, otters, diving ospreys, bald eagles, seagulls and migrating waterfowl, clams, crabs, flounders and assorted small fish. Only the channel is deep enough for cruising boats inside the little bay.

Here's the boat in our slot in the community docks.



Here we're drying the colorful spinnaker sail, made of light cloth for times when light or moderate winds blow from astern. This sail is old nylon but it's got a long casual cruising life ahead of it if we don't try hot-dogging with it in rough weather.



The streaky smears on the side of the boat are caused by the thin vinyl rub-rail that runs around the boat at the joint between the cabin top and the blue top of the hull. 30 years of exposure have turned it chalky. But it's still great for guarding against bumps and scrapes. So instead of replacing it for hundreds of dollars, we applied $3 worth of vinyl floor wax which sealed it nicely. Soon we'll scrub and wax the deck and sides, and we'll be sitting as pretty as neighborhood boats that run up to 45 times as expensive!

Here's a shot I took of our first morning view of baby through our front window.



Finally, those of you who know contemporary sailboats will appreciate the absurdity of this last picture I photoshopped from a shot of Puget4's. I figure: what do we like about sailing? Well, for one thing, sails! And pulling on ropes. So I've been dreaming of down-dating to a classic inefficient old-time spread with lots of sails and ropes. Actually, these rigs have more sail than the racing rigs, which is better in the light winds of Puget Sound. Also, they're lower so less tippy, and more versatile in different wind conditions as the sails are individually smaller and can be set in a variety of combinations.

Plus it would be so cool to show up at classic boat gatherings in our gaff-rigged hotrod.



Enjoy! --Gooserock