Getting Hyacinth ready for sea

 Chapter 2

In our last post we were on our way home with our new-to-us Albin 25 micro trawler in tow. After visiting friends in Wenatchee and picking up some fruit to eat and can we arrived home in Lacey on September 8^th just before our 45^th wedding anniversary on September 11^th.  The boat fit snuggly into her new spot next to Salish Airstream and we were off to the races to get her ready for her maiden voyage with us at the helm.  Finally on Monday October 18^th we put her in the water for the first time and after a delightful ride most of the way to our goal of Jarrell Cove State Park our engine quit 16 nautical miles from where we started and we had to get towed home.

Hyacinth fit perfectly into the slip next to Salish Airstream

Our first challenge caught us by surprise.  We had been careful to make sure that the boat was insured shortly after the purchase and had no problem getting Progressive to bind a policy.  Apparently binding a policy is only binding if you are the purchaser and on arrival back home we got a letter indicating that they had changed their mind and were cancelling the policy without cause. I will just say we were more than a little unhappy but have since found a company to carry the insurance.  Apparently the age of the boat is a concern to insurance underwriters.

Another “must do” job in my mind was to get the boat named both so we could apply for things like a radio license and MMSI (essentially a phone number for the boat) and start referring to her as something besides “the boat”.  Since Salish Aire was kept (with our permission) as the name of our last boat we wanted something unique and Clarice felt a small boat should have a small name.  We’ve never named a boat after a person before but having a new granddaughter at hand who has a very unique name we thought it was about time to go that direction.  Our granddaughter is Hyacinth named after the bulb plant with the wonderful smell that we grow in our flower gardens but there is also a Water Hyacinth.  So (with our son and his wife’s permission) the boat has been christened [Water] Hyacinth. 

Hyacinth gets her name on her stern with a picture of a water hyacinth

We were a bit concerned with saying Hyacinth over the radio and having the name understood but the Coast Guard seemed to have no trouble with it on our first day out. Ummm – nice to test it out but just a bit embarrassing to have to call them.

Clarice made a comment today about “needing” to clean something.  I looked at her and said that most people would have said they “want” to clean something but in her case cleaning is a need.  Thus it was with Hyacinth and she had already started by the time we got back to Lacey having de-mildewed the inside and gone over everything with at least one scrub down with Simple Green.  The process continues and will until the boat is gone or Clarice is too frail (if she gets dementia she will be the lady with the washcloth wiping down the nurses’ station in The Home).

So when we got home we started by hauling all of the extra parts that had come with the boat and anything not screwed down into the garage for sorting and review.  The process for prioritization was “what do we need to do to get the boat ready for camping on overnight in the Pacific Northwest (PNW)” where rain and fog are rule fall weather. 

Here is a list of what we have done so far:

·        Albin 25’s were built with an open top over the pilot house covered in cloth something like the very early Volkswagen Bugs.  We felt that a PNW boat needed a hard top so we did our first major fiberglass job of our lives and are pretty pleased with how it turned out.  My original plan was to get a piece of thick acrylic plastic and bend it over the hole as it is a material I am somewhat familiar with.  The issue was that it would need to be arced (preferably in an oven) and a 3 ft by 5 ft piece came to about $750 for the raw material.  This was a bit steep when we recognized our chances of failure were fairly high.  That led us to move to fiberglass.  Step one was to cut a piece of Coosa Board – a commercially available light fiberglass based material that looks like grey plywood but is much lighter and much more expensive that fit the hole and to glue and screw it into place.  Before that could be done we realized that over 45 years the aft edge of the pilot house roof had drooped (the sides had spread outward and the arch lowered).  This created a compound curve to the hole we needed to fill and it seemed to be good practice to lift it back to its original shape anyway.  I did this by cutting an oak truss to the original arch shape then pulling the sides back together with a ratchet strap – once the arch fit the truss the two were tied together with screws and currently we are planning to leave the new wood in place as a permanent fixture. So the roof was lifted and the arch back in shape with the Coosa board in place and we were ready for the top layers of fiberglass.  After several YouTube videos and a trip to TAP Plastics in Seattle we were off and running.  With both of us working in concert we applied 3 total layers of fabric with resin and the result was darn good!  The final step (other than painting) was to add 3 more layers of fabric and resin to the ceiling on the underside of the Coosa Board. Based on adapting a YouTube video to our situation we brushed a layer of resin on the ceiling and then headed to the driveway where on a plastic sheet we pre-laid the 3 layers of fabric and resin before rolling them on a cardboard tube.  The result was a heavy and slimy roll of stuff that would turn to a solid before long so we headed straight to the boat.  We had covered everything from the windows down with a painter’s tarp and had disposable coverings on our heads.  We set an extra can of mixed resin and hardener close at hand in case it was needed and went to work.  Clarice unrolled the slimy fabric/resin while I tried to make it stay in place with a special metal fiberglass roller.  It was tough work with one section trying to fall loose while I madly rolled another section.  Finally it looked like it was all going to stay in place then the whole thing fell at once right on our heads.  About then the painter’s tarp fell off the things it was supposed to cover and I managed to kick over the extra mixed resin.  It was a low point.  We rolled the fabric/slimy resin back onto the cardboard tube and rested an few minutes during which the resin on the ceiling started to “kick” a bit which is what we should have waited for in the first place.  Our second attempt at sticking the fabric sandwich to the ceiling was successful and in the end it was good.

Coosa Board is glued and screwed into the hole (in this photo the saw 

cuts are visible on the underside which allowed the board to flex to fit the arc)

Fiberglass was applied to the top of the Coosa Board

Fiberglass has been applied to the underside after filler was used to fair the saw cuts. 

The oak truss is also visible in the photo

White paint then grey non-slip paint was applied.

·        Hyacinth came to us with just vinyl side windows to be snapped in place.  Again we felt this was not up to our needs in the PNW.  Among the extra parts was a brand new roll of rubber window molding so someone had likely planned the same improvement in the past but never moved on to the next step.  We understand that to get shatterproof glass the shape we needed was an expensive proposition so instead we went with darkened acrylic which I could shape in my woodshop.  The windows are now installed and look very professional.

·        When we got the boat a previous owner had replaced the flooring with Corian brand countertop material (real stuff – labelled as such – not an off brand!). It was heavy, slick, and brittle and we knew it needed to go.  We headed straight to the lumber store after a careful look at our retirement funds knowing that the ongoing pandemic has led to a massive increase in the costs of lumber (mills shut down but home projects went up so it is a scarcity market situation).  A single sheet of ¾ marine grade plywood came to about $150 – ouch.  We took the Corian pieces and laid them on cardboard and turned a number of small pieces into 4 major templates which eventually (after a number of coats of protective paint) became our flooring.

New floorboards are getting painted in the garage.

The (white) Corian is out and marine plywood is in.

·        The battery storage area was completely reworked with a new floor, new battery box and a brand new, never previously installed water heater that came with the boat installed in it.

A refurbished battery compartment with a new battery box (white) 

and the water heater that came with the boat installed (silver).

A new faucet had to be installed to take advantage of hot water being available.

·        A Wallas brand diesel heater/cooktop was purchased and installed.  Clarice was pretty adamant that she wanted to stick to only one fuel onboard (a propane stove would have required a proper locker which is a big deal in the marine world for safety).  A new in the box diesel furnace also came with the boat but for a number of reasons we opted to leave it out and get the Wallas with the blower (heater) option.  A fan and ducting to the aft cabin have also been installed so we hope to move enough heat from the front to the back to keep it at least minimally comfortable back there if someone chooses to sleep in that area.

Wallas diesel fired heater/cooktop

·        Clarice’s composting toilet has been installed (and the very nice brand new marine toilet that came with the boat sold off).

The Nature's Head composting toilet is waiting for the floor to be readied for it to be installed.

·        New LED lighting has been installed throughout the boat.

·        We now have 3 commercial grade bilge pumps (I still can’t figure out why we need 3 but it was easier to buy a 3^rd one to replace a crappy non-functioning original one than to pull out all of the original hoses and switches – or at least I keep telling myself that.)

·        We have installed a heater that heats using engine heat while underway in the forward cabin (after much gnashing of teeth I think I finally have the non-standard pipe threads sealed). It was nice on our maiden voyage as when we leave the cabin door open it puts out enough heat to warm the pilot house a bit.

The engine heat heater was a challenge to keep from leaking engine coolant.

·        I have reworked and reconfigured a lot of electrical wiring.

·        The chartplotter that came with the boat is installed and functioning as are the autopilot, a new VHF radio, radar, and an AIS transceiver.

·        Many many screw and retired other holes through the fiberglass have been filled (with many to be filled).

·        And that is only the main list (and of course Clarice continues to clean and buff and organize). Perhaps some real recognition is due here as Clarice really has been the main patcher, painter, sewer (seemstresser??) of organizers, and creator of shelves and other woodwork that has really turned a “dreary fiberglass interior” into something usable.

So after about a thousand trips up and down the ladder to get on and off of the boat while it was on the trailer in the side yard we finally felt ready to test her in Puget Sound. 

The plan was to get to the ramp by 08:30 as the tide would be going out but we felt it would still be high enough at that point to make our first launching less stressful.  The morning started out with an inauspicious moment when the fancy tire pressure monitor on the truck suggested a slow leak in our front tire.  Believing it to be a slow leak I pumped up the tire and hooked up the trailer and we were off to the ramp.  On arrival the tire pressure had dropped enough to be of concern so while we prepped the trailer I used a little air compressor we carry to refill the tire.  The launching went well and was done with great care.  Clarice and a friend who lives on their boat very near the ramp checked everywhere there might be a leak before we released from the trailer.  They announced that there was seepage we would rather not see and that the shaft seal was dripping a bit fast but that it was all acceptable for launching.  We then slipped the boat off the trailer and roped it over to the finger pier where we started the engine and for the first time since we have owned the boat confirmed it would go into forward and reverse gears.  Once that was established we drove the boat to the guest dock and tied it up while Clarice and our friends (both with years of boating experience) double checked everything.  I walked back up to park the truck only to find that the front tire was flat as a pancake so I spent the next bit of time changing to the spare tire.  As previously planned I pulled the trailer to a local powder coating company (dropping the tire off on the way for repair) so they could see the trailer empty and begin an estimate of what it would cost to sandblast the paint away and powdercoat it as it is expected to spend the next part of its life doing salt water launches.

Hyacinth awaiting her inaugural voyage from Swantown Marina Olympia Washington

Video underway from Olympia to Jarrell Cove.

On arrival back at the marina Clarice was comfortable with that the boat was ready for her shakedown cruise.  Our goal if all went well was to motor to Jarrell Cove State Park and stay on the dock for the night.  All was going very well and I decided to see how the boat handled at higher engine RPMs when the engine quit.  It just coughed and quit.  Classic behavior of a diesel with a fuel issue. We drained some the of liquid from the bottom of the fuel filter and it was clearly more water than diesel and we didn’t have any clean filters on-board.  That and recognition that as much water as was present likely meant that the whole fuel system was likely contaminated and needed to be cleaned or damage to the engine might result led to a call to the Coast Guard asking for a “marine assistance request call” (a request for another boater to help us out as a kind gesture) . They called but their simply weren’t any other boats in the area so we ended up requesting they contact a commercial tow company.  After drifting at one knot with the tide for some time (in the right direction and under a bridge without hitting it) our tow arrived which was a 1927 wooden mini-tugboat.  Since his homeport was easy to get to by road from Olympia where our friends were based who were already heading to our garage to gather filters and other supplies we just had him pull us back to Boston Harbor East of Olympia. 

Getting towed.

Somehow getting towed by a 1927 wooden tugboat just seemed to make it a little better.

Teredo

We consulted a diesel mechanic friend by phone and she confirmed that my cleaning plan was sound and added the idea that we use a temporary source of diesel to get home so we didn’t pull any more water into the system.  Stephanie arrived with filters and a 5 gallon jerry can of fresh fuel.  We set it all aside and ate dinner and went to bed knowing that we were too tired to do a good job at that point.

Morning arrived and we drained every hose and changed every filter then putting the supply and return fuel lines in a tank of fresh fuel we cranked the engine.  It was a bit grouchy about starting but once it tasted fresh diesel it smoothed out and we were able to head home under our own power. We arrived back at the ramp in Olympia just at low tide so we had a picnic lunch, did some adjustments on the trailer and then once the water had risen a bit loaded the boat back on for its ride back to Lacey.  All in all it qualified as a very successful shakedown run with a number of problems discovered that need to be addressed but the overall health of the boat was confirmed and we are looking forward to our next outing (after we clean the fuel tank!).

What we drained from our filters and hoses.  The dark stuff is very dirty water.

Clean hoses, clean filters, and clean fuel from a jury rigged tank set up and we had no problem motoring back to the boat ramp a few miles away.

We believe that our efforts to check for contaminated fuel by running the engine for some time while it was on the trailer in our yard were thwarted by the angle of the boat on the trailer vs its natural angle on the water.  Once it was launched the water hiding at the front of the fuel tank moved to the aft end of the tank where it was picked up and sent into the system serving the engine.

We also had a bit of a house project going on to give us an occasional break from the boat (but not from climbing ladders).  When we purchased the house it had an original wood burning zero clearance fireplace that had been “upgraded” with a gas fire log set.  We quickly learned that the gas log installation led to soot on the wall above the fireplace and not a lot of heat output.  We decided that we really wanted a functional gas fireplace so we planned to replace it before fall.  Also, I decided I had done enough house construction projects and would pay someone to do the swap out.  Going to a couple of fireplace shops locally we learned that lead time from order to installation could be expected to be quite long again relating to the pandemic caused supply chain issues.  We did pay someone to come and give us a formal detailed estimate and my resolve to have someone else do the work quickly faded when I looked at the labor costs in it.  Needless to say we turned to the internet where we found a company who would deliver everything we would need to our house and they even had fireplaces in stock.  We went ahead and ordered a unit before we headed off to Michigan to get the boat with the agreement it would be shipped for arrival after our return.

The fireplace arrived and we quickly noted that it had freight damage.  I sent a photo to the vendor and within hours they had a new unit on its way to us and told us they didn’t want the original unit back.  On the arrival of the second new fireplace we got a friend to help us pull the old one out of its alcove in the wall and the original chimney out through the roof hole.  The next steps involved rebuilding the false chimney so it was sealed from the weather and reframing the hole so the new fireplace could be installed. Which brings us to one of our “This Old House” mysteries.

After we moved into the house we noted a number of very poorly done sheetrock patch jobs on the walls.  I finally put the pieces together and correctly guessed that the house had been originally heated with baseboard heat (it has a central gas furnace now) and that the patches were from where the heater supply wires were pushed back into the walls. The first patches we broke open were on both sides of the fireplace opening and sure enough the wires are there (but I never have found the other end of them).  What was really interesting was that the wall patches had been made by stuffing a backing of Asian (Korean??) language newspapers into the wall and then covering them with plaster.  In our sleuthing we also found several electrical boxes with live wires that had been plastered over (a situation now brought up to code with blank access covers) including one that was apparently designed for a switch for a fireplace fan that was never installed (which was handy as we needed power and a switch for the new fireplace in that location).

The second new fireplace was installed with little problem and then the sheetrock around it was repaired.  The final installation step was trying to match the wall texture to make our patches disappear.  After several YouTube videos and some practice runs, Clarice did a pretty masterful job so the fireplace looks like it has been there since the house was built.

New fireplace is in place and tested

Clarice tries out her texture matching skills

We like it!

The final cleanup step was to pass the first new fireplace to someone who could/would do the very minimal repair it needed from the shipping damage and use it so a perfectly fine appliance wouldn’t end up in a landfill.  Clarice let the word out on a neighborhood free gift group and within an hour we had several inquiries.  It ended up being gifted to a woman (likely a single mom) who had taken out a wood burning fireplace 6 months prior and then ordered the wrong replacement only to learn the correct replacement was outside of her budget.  Her young daughter was very excited that their hole in the wall would finally be filled.

As to how our family is: We are both exhausted with the work we have been doing around here.  I’m really feeling nerve pain in my legs likely going back to a tumor in my spine many years ago which seems to be especially set off by climbing ladders and working in convoluted positions.  I feel guilty that this means Clarice has to do her part and then some but it’s hard for her to stop when she sees unfinished projects and cleaning yet to be done. Jarvis’ diabetes induced cataracts are continuing to worsen as is his overall endurance so it is good that he has a place where he knows the yard and house in detail.  He sleeps a lot but only after asking if we will take him for a walk on his leash.  The engine in the boat is the same model that we had as our emergency engine in Salish Aire and he is just as unhappy when it runs as he was with that one.  We assume it is a vibration that they have that he doesn’t like. He does seem to get used to it with time and cuddling. 

We are also getting more involved with our new community and church as well as keeping up with our boating community.  The cul-de-sac we are in was built with starter homes but they are now turning into ender homes as the last family with children moved out recently.  Our Hispanic neighbors really keep a close eye on the house when we are gone and make sure we have good Mexican food periodically.

Norman’s mother continues to carry on and is now back among the hearing with new hearing aids that seem to work much better.  It is good that we are now within a ½ hour drive of her apartment so that we can see her pretty often and she can visit us without an overly exhausting ride in the car.

We had a great bit of fun last Saturday when we babysat Hyacinth the granddaughter for a day.  She was quite intrigued with everything about our house especially Jarvis and the Tupperware cupboard.  She is cute as a bug and rapidly developing language skills enough so she can understand and make herself understood.

Final photos:

Norman is active with the local Ham radio club.  We spent a day repairing a repeater antenna on one of these towers on Capital Peak.

Jarvis was given a new bed to try out - He likes it!

Jarvis getting fitted for a new winter jacket.

Parting shot of Hyacinth at the dock in Olympia.

 

Settling into life on land

 

Chapter 1

It’s been a very very busy summer with moving into a new house and selling Salish Aire.  The beginning of the summer can be reviewed in our last post at Our Salish Aire .  We have now settled in a bit to our new house and as I write this are heading through the North Dakota oil fields on highway 2 towing our new-to-us boat back to our home in Lacey where it will reside in a side yard next to the Airstream.

Lives of everyone around the globe still are being affected by the Delta variant of the Covid 19 virus (Covid V2 as I refer to it).  It’s so very frustrating for us as those who have been vaccinated may get the infected with the Delta variant we will typically be asymptomatic or have a mild response whereas the unvaccinated are needing hospitalization and dying in droves while still contending that they are safer not getting the vaccine (the vaccine has proven very safe after millions of doses have been given and is widely available in the USA).  The power of misinformation is simply amazing. I add this note so that readers in the future will understand that events that should have been simple such as our daughter’s family visit was a big deal as it involved waiting for the US<>Canadian border to open and multiple tests to prove they were virus free both coming south and going north. 

With that thought perhaps its best to continue with our daughter’s family visit.  An aside to further show the disruption of normal supply chains and life in general is the story of our minivan. We decided to look into renting a car or minivan once Erin firmed up the date they would fly from Toronto to Seattle as our truck only holds 5 passengers and with her family we would need space for 7.  We expected this would be a relatively inexpensive proposition but quickly learned that the rental car market had gone a bit wonky.  During Covid V1 so many folks had avoided travel that the rental companies found themselves with a huge overstock of vehicles so they sold off much of their fleets.  Once V1 settled down people started to return to normal and there was a lot of pent up demand for things with computer chips (everything from phones to cars) and travel.  Well cars were in short supply as the supplies of computer chips from China have been disrupted so the rental companies could not quickly replenish their fleets and folks wanted to rent them so supply and demand directed the prices dramatically upward.  We looked at the potential price and decided it might be more cost effective to buy a used minivan so to make a long story short we purchased a Honda Odyssey with 175,000 miles on it.  It’s in relatively good shape but does need minor repair so after a 7 year hiatus I am back to climbing under cars.  We have about $4200 invested and our basic plan is to resell it after Erin’s family visits again for the winter holidays but we may decide we are a 2 car family again as it is handy to have around.

The minivan.

Erin had booked her flight direct from Toronto to Seattle via Air Canada rather than her usual routing of having her in-laws drive the family across the border to Buffalo New York and then flying via Southwest Airlines to Seattle.  It ended up that the ticket on Air Canada was cheaper and while her family has US passports and thus can drive across the border that the border was still closed to Canadians traveling south for pleasure so she would need to pay to park her car in Buffalo for 3 weeks if she came that way. By flying out of Toronto her in-laws (who only have Canadian passports) could drive her to the airport where there is a US customs facility that would clear their passports and Covid vaccination and tests status then they would land in Seattle and be ready to go.  I watched them on FlightTracker and laughed when I realized that Toronto is at virtually the same latitude at Seattle so almost all of their flight was over US territory. We picked them up with no problem at the Seattle airport in the minivan (even Jarvis was able to ride along) and introduced them to our house in Lacey about 90 minutes later.

While they were in Washington Erin’s family visited with family, attended my niece’s wedding with us, and visited with friends.  One of their friends offered that if her family would do a test stay at their new vacation rental property which turned out to be a huge mansion on 20 acres.  Our grandkids had a great time swimming in the indoor pool and watching a black bear eat pears off the tree in the back yard.  While they were with us our son brought his new daughter up and Erin’s family got to meet her for the first time which is again what happens when a child is born during a pandemic and movement is restricted.

This is the first time our family including children and grandchildren have been 

in one place since the birth of Hyacinth.

Valerie and Henri at Narada Falls on Mt. Rainier (Valerie went back to the campground with Clarice in the car while Henri and I walked the 4 miles through the forest - he was a very happy hiker!)

Henri wanted to keep walking up the mountain (through the mist) until he got above the clouds.  We didn't make it that far but he was totally enthralled with the scenery along the trail.

We walked around the trails above Paradise on Mt. Rainier.  The flowers were not in full glory but they were beautiful anyway.  I was amazed at how much the trees have grown since I was young and understood them to be a mature forest.  The rangers surmised that I was still seeing the results of a history of controlled burns by the Native Americans so that the blueberry fields would be most productive.

Henri and Valerie wanted to walk to a snow patch.  We didn't make it as the snow has 

retreated higher on the mountain than I have ever seen with global warming.

Henri wanted to get a good look at a glacier so we walked to an overlook of the Nisqually Glacier. It has retreated far up the mountain from where it was when I was a child but is still huge.

More flowers!

Another stream!

Mt. Rainier above the historic Paradise buildings.

Henri and Clarice at Paradise Meadows, Mt. Rainier.

Reflection Lake, Mt. Rainier.

Henri floating in the Deschutes river near our house.

Henri at Reflection Lake, Mt. Rainier.

We did take Henri and Valerie to Mt. Rainier to go camping which was a big deal for me since I haven’t camped up there for a number of years.  Valerie was content for the first day but the rainy second day took some of her enthusiasm away.  Henri was totally enthralled with the scenery and kept asking if we could walk up further on the trails.

After 3 weeks they had managed to arrange for free Covid tests that were acceptable to the Canadian government and after being proven free of infection they flew home back to Ontario.

Other events of the summer included a record heat wave with Seattle reaching 107 degrees F for the first time in recorded history.

We were concerned about my 94 year old mother getting too hot in her apartment so we 

jury-rigged an AC unit provided by my niece and her fiancé (now husband).

Etienne, our oldest grandchild graduated (with honors and a big scholarship!) this summer.  It was hard to talk him into having photos taken without his mask as he felt that avoiding contracting Covid 19 had been a defining part of his high school years.

Etienne with his dad and baby sister after the graduation ceremony.

The outdoor graduation ceremony stressed protecting each other from spreading the Covid virus.

Etienne with his mother.

Etienne showing off his diploma  (and hedgehog the technology school he attended 's mascot).

A really pitsy job we needed to do on the house was renew the crawlspace.  This involved removing damaged insulation, removing rodent droppings, removing deteriorated plastic ground barrier, putting in a new 6 mil plastic barrier and putting up new insulation. We were really pleased with ourselves that we completed this job before Erin arrived.

Before shot of the house crawlspace.

After shot of the house crawlspace.

It didn’t take too many photos of our friends boating in Mexico and Alaska before we started feeling pretty landlocked without a boat. (OK, we were drooling with envy!) While we were house hunting we looked for a place that included space enough to park the Airstream and a potential trailered boat so we would be ready if we chose to break down and purchase something that would float.

Our goal was to get a boat that would be very fuel efficient, was sea worthy enough for the Inside Passage, could be lived on for 2 – 3 months and could be easily trailered behind our current truck.  These requirements quickly narrowed the field to a boat with an 8’6” beam (the maximum allowed on highways without a special use permit), a displacement hull (for maximum fuel efficiency), preferably an inboard diesel engine, and a cabin with a heater.  Many years ago we had looked into Albin 25 boats made in Sweden during the 1970’s and 80’s but had decided that they were too slow for us while we could only go boating when we had time off from work.  Since we no longer have to rush from place to place and are used to traveling at 6-7 knots Clarice thought we should reconsider them.  We joined the Albin online groups and quickly realized that while owners loved the boats they didn’t come on the market often.  The first Albin we found for sale was a 27 ft model with a 9’ 6” beam that wasn’t too far away near Portland Oregon.  We went and looked at it including a ride on it on the Willamette River and very seriously considered buying it except it didn’t fit our desire to have a highway legal boat and we were very concerned about our ability to tow it long distances if we wanted to go to Mexico or the Mississippi River. Before we walked away from it we had a chance to tour an Albin 25 that wasn’t far from our home.  After that tour we recognized that the smaller version was really what we wanted so we notified the owner of the 27’ boat we would not be buying it.

We did find a similar boat that looked like a real possibility located in Wisconsin.  There was a high enough chance that we would buy it that we drove back to view it camping in the back of the truck on the way which is a bit cozy as the truck has a 5’ 6” bed and I am 5’ 8” tall.  We did have a good adventure with the exception of the night in Eastern Montana when we awoke to Jarvis snapping at mosquitoes which is when we discovered that the screen on one of the canopy windows had popped loose in one corner.   We were impressed with the condition of the boat that hadn’t moved from a barn for 10 years where the current owner parked it and realized he wasn’t a sailor.  On second look we realized it was more of a sailboat than a trawler with a deep enough keel that ramp launching it would be a major chore.  In other words it wasn’t the boat for us.  This excursion took place about 2 weeks before Erin’s family were slated to arrive.  On the way home we decided that perhaps getting a boat at this time was just not meant to be and we should cool our jets for a while – until we got home and I heard about an Albin that was available in Michigan.

We phoned the owner and confirmed that the boat was what we were looking for. He had purchased it 10 months prior and hauled it home from Maine but his mother’s illness made it clear that it would only continue to sit in his barn if he didn’t resell it.  We decided that with some airline ticket credits we had sitting from before Covid V1 we could afford to go look at it and get back home before Erin’s family arrived.  We arranged with the owner that if we decided to buy it we would hand him a check and he would have the titles of the boat and trailer ready to sign over and he would store the boat until we could drive back once Erin’s family left.  We spent one night in Owosoo Michigan and made the deal after viewing the boat. So that’s where we are now having driven back across the country to Michigan sleeping in the back of the truck, picking up the boat and trailer and after doing some quick trailer repairs while visiting my extended family, we are driving west across Montana using the boat as a camper along the way.

This was taken on our inspection / purchase trip back to Michigan.

Now that we own a boat (still sitting in Michigan) it will need a home to come to so we 

revised the RV parking on the side of the house to accommodate two vehicles.

The new gates are done (and (in the words of Q) "I'm especially proud of them").

There has also been tragedy along the way.  Our son and his family were planning to travel to Hawaii for a long planned vacation. They were planning to take their nanny and her husband with them both so they could have couple time without the baby and because the couple had become part of their extended family.  When the couple didn’t show for the planned joint ride to the airport Bryan worked to track them down and learned that they had both been stabbed repeatedly in bed in the early morning hours. Travis died at the scene and Jamilyn is recovering at home after being hospitalized with 19 stab wounds. At this writing no details about the attacker have been released but it must be a very evil person to have attacked with such violence.

There is also fear but joy for the moment that will be celebrated.  Our dear friends from Mexico who also hail from Western Washington and most recently Olympia learned that despite a life as a non-smoker and marathon runner she has developed stage 4 lung cancer at age 42.  She learned this while working as a nurse to rebuild their sailing kitty while her husband and two daughters (ages 10 and 12) were waiting for her return in LaPaz Mexico.  The joyful moment is that she has responded to a miracle drug (as a cancer nurse of long ago I have NEVER used this term before!) that is targeted at her very specific, random, genetic mutation and her tumor has shrunk by 80% in just over a month with minimal side effects.  With help from friends and strangers via a GoFundMe account they were able to have their home (boat) shipped into the Salish Sea and it is now moored in Olympia.  To see the family playing catch in our back yard the day before we headed back to Michigan was wonderful.  The fear remains in that the expectation is that at some unknown date the mutation will mutate again and the tumor will grow again but in the mean time she and her family (and friends) are celebrating every living moment she has.  (She writes her story quite poignantly in their blog at SailingXpression).

Michelle and Autumn join us for a camping trip (and putt putt golf game) after returning

 to the Pacific Northwest and seeing that their mother was doing OK.

To change the mood a bit we both realized something the other day.  On September 11^th a few years ago we were crossing the country with a boat we had purchased in Florida along with a truck to pull it. We were in the center of the country trying to figure out why the flags were at half mast when someone pointed out the date.  We looked at each other and I formally gave Clarice the boat for her wedding anniversary present and she formally gave me the truck for my present.  So here we are a week before our 45^th wedding anniversary and towing another boat across the country.  I did order Clarice an anniversary present that only she would get excited about; a composting toilet for the boat!  (I can hear the stunned silence from the folks who don’t know Clarice well and the laughter and “yup that’s her” from the folks that do.)

Clarice's "dream" toilet (do you think I should put a rose in it before giving it to her for our 45th wedding anniversary?) (BTW: I would love it if someone sends me flowers.)

So we are in the process of our 4^th crossing between Olympia Washington to the Midwest by land and while that may seem like quite a chore it is also a chance for discovery.  We purposefully seldom plan where we will end the day’s driving so that we can give ourselves permission to stop early if we need rest or press on if we really want to get somewhere.  There is always the chance that this practice will lead to camping in a rest area or store parking lot but the reality is that we seem to always find someplace interesting if we start looking about 2 hours before we need to stop.  We have taken advantage of one favorite stop along the way for 3 of the crossings as our good friends Frank and Jan own a B&B in Spokane and always seem to have an empty bed and good company when we are passing their way.

A fishing access campground in Montana.

Sunset at a Montana state park.

Sunset over the Yellowstone River Montana.

Clarice tries pasties, a Michigan Upper Peninsula staple my aunt used to cook. 

An out-of-the-way campground near the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

The Mississippi River near its headwaters.

Once we picked up the boat we started back from Eastern Michigan to Western Michigan where most of my extended family live just south of the Mackinac Bridge; yes I am a troll from under the bridge as one of my Yooper students used to remind me frequently. We did have a bit of a problem along the way as we had confirmed that the trailer brakes would activate but we didn’t confirm they would release – they wouldn’t so 45 miles into our crossing of the state we pulled into a lovely campground with all grass on Michigan sand sites. Since there were few other campers it seemed like a good place to troubleshoot the brake issue except that Michigan sand won’t support a trailer jack even if it has a block under it.  After working for some time we were able to get a tire back on that we had removed between jack failures.  We went to bed frustrated but woke up with new ideas.  I asked the campground management if I could move the trailer to a concrete pad and they very nicely offered their shop floor.  In the shop I decided that the parts I had were not going to work so I deactivated the brakes and we drove very carefully across the rest of the very flat state until we arrived at my aunt’s house.  Along the way we ordered new parts from etrailer.com (I mention them by name because the parts arrived a day earlier than expected which really helped!) The parts were installed and tested on Wednesday and we had lunch with my cousins on Thursday and left in time to get across The Bridge and find a campsite on the Upper Peninsula before the Labor Day rush.

Aunt Mary's house - I knew where everything was since it hadn't changed since my childhood.

My cousins and my sister and brother and I used to cross this field to get to the woods beyond it. In the winter the snow was knee deep and in the summer there was a resident bull we needed to avoid.

I believe that the concrete in the center right of the photo is all that is left of my 

grandfather's barn on the original Gregory homestead

Gregory Road, such as it is, ran through the original Gregory homestead.

Perhaps a good ending is to tell about Jarvis, our great hunting dog, arriving at tonight’s campsite.  We are pulled off the road in a game preserve area (“boondocking” in camping parlance) along a tributary of the Missouri River.  Driving in we noted a sign that the field was prime pheasant habitat and Clarice joked that she wasn’t planning to catch a pheasant for dinner.  I replied that perhaps Jarvis would catch one.  We got to the site and within minutes Jarvis the hunter had found a fully cooked hotdog and was gulping it down.  I doubt that he will ever go hungry between his “I’m so hungry” look whenever someone is eating to his ultrasensitive nose, he will find something.

 Final photos:

With Jarvis at the Lacey house.

All 5 grandchildren in one place at one time.

Our church (St. Benedict's Episcopal in Lacey) was build with a plane round window over the altar. At some point a parishioner made and hung a stained glass dove in the window.  At a later date the trees blocking the morning sun from the window where cut down leading to the "summer solstice mystery".

On the Sunday closest to the summer solstice while the parishioners are walking down the isle to receive communion the dove joins them in the center of the isle.

Jarvis seems to have adapted to his new house.

Hyacinth decided that feeding tiny pieces of cheese to the doggy was very fun.