Our life after living on a boat.

We started blogging in earnest when we decided to sell our houses and move onto a boat. We had many wonderful adventures aboard our Nordhavn 46 named Salish Aire . Seven years have passed and we have sold Salish Aire, purchased a house near the southern tip of the Salish Sea and often travel around North America towing Salish Airstream. It seems a good time to start a new blog about our further adventures but leave our boating blog intact for those who want to refer to our adventures on the boat. (http://salishaire.blogspot.com)

Sunday, January 16, 2022

Holidays of 2021 and into the New Year

 

Chapter 3

Our last chapter ended in October with us working like crazy hoping to get Hyacinth the Boat ready to try out on the water before bad weather hit.  In that chapter we described our first outing where we had to get towed back to port which was followed by a later outing where everything worked very well. Then the weather did hit with first torrential rain and then record breaking snowfall so very little outdoor work has been done on the boat since.  On the flip side after looking into having stainless arches made that will provide a frame for a cockpit surround (AKA “cover”) and learning that the shops that do that kind of work are booked months ahead because of fallout from the pandemic and that even the raw materials were VERY hard to come by and VERY expensive because of supply chain issues (again related to the pandemic) we decided to try making them ourselves.  This meant that I needed to buy a welder that would weld stainless, finding 316 stainless tubing (hopefully at a reasonable price), finding 316 stainless flat bar, and developing my skills on a new type of welder.  Ideally I would have purchased a TIG welder which I have used a bit in the past and made very pretty welds that would have taken very little grinding work but TIG welders cost a pretty penny so instead I opted for a wire feed welder of a respected commercial brand which does provide the option of using a gas shield.  I will just say that the work is “acceptable” as to appearance and very strong.  We found a place in Seattle that could provide the tubing after they shipped it from a warehouse in San Diego and would have charged us $12/ft plus shipping and other fees, we took a big gulp and started checking as far away as Portland Oregon and finally found a commercial pipe supplier in Vancouver Washington who had 6 – 20 ft “sticks” in stock for $7/ft.  We jumped in the truck and drove about 250 miles round trip but we were glad to get the material.  As to the bar stock we had a good friend in Everett that owns a machine shop order what we needed and when we showed up at his business we were allowed/encouraged to cut the pieces to size on his commercial saw which saved us considerable time and frustration. After making the arches in the garage we were able to mount them on the boat between rain showers and are pleased with how the project is proceeding.  Also because we purchased extra tubing “just in case” we had enough left over to make railings for the stern of the boat that are still waiting to be installed.

I dove into the task with my new welding machine!

The rear arch is ready to be installed.

Both arches are installed.  The upper rear arch and the front arch are designed 
to carry loads such as a kayak.  The lower rear arch will support the fabric of
the cockpit cover (the front end attaches to the fiberglass pilot house). 
The front arch also replaces the oak truss previously used to hold the pilot house 
roof in proper position.

For Thanksgiving we had Bryan and his family up from Beaverton, my mom down from Tacoma, and Bryan’s wife’s family over as they live close to us. After not having a family Thanksgiving for several years while we travelled on Salish Aire and Salish Airstream it was good to take a break from the pandemic and have a big family celebration (thank you God and scientists for making vaccines available!!)

Bryan's family and my mom.

Thanksgiving dinner.

Hyacinth inherited two dolls from Great Grandma.

We had a couple of weeks and then Erin’s family arrived from Ontario, Canada for a planned 2 week visit over Christmas.  We had a wonderful time with them but were limited in outdoor activities by the rain.  Christmas came and Bryan’s family again came north despite the forecasts for snow.  Those who aren’t from Seattle may not know that white Christmas’s in Seattle are virtually unknown but this year the snow started falling by late Christmas day and we ended up with about 10 inches total in our yard.  Next we have a lack of plows and other equipment to deal with snow because the frequency of snowfall in the Puget Sound lowlands doesn’t justify the cost of maintaining the equipment and operators so our roads remained very slick for some time. Finally the snow continued in the passes over the Cascade mountains in record amounts and thus the passes were closed for days at a time (rather than hours at a time which is common).  

To top off Erin's family's visit, Canada required a negative Covid test (PCR type only) within 72 hours of arrival at the border which created its own challenges.  Erin and Paul had scheduled a test at a University of Washington site where it would be free (as opposed to paying up to $200 per person at some sites) that was in the Seattle area with the plan they would visit friends north of Seattle on the same outing. The first bad news was a text from the friends saying one of their children had just tested positive for Covid so don’t come.  The next bad news was a text from the testing site saying they were closed because of the snow.  This was followed by a warning from the airline that they were likely to be snowed in or out of Denver by a forecasted storm and would they be willing to reschedule at no extra cost.  After much muttering and driving around trying to find an open testing site the plan became: 1) delay leaving by one day and instead route through Chicago, 2) since their arrival in Canada was now delayed they could get Covid tests a day later than they planned – but all sites in Western Washington were booked out several weeks for non-emergency test, 3) drive to Yakima in Eastern Washington over White Pass (which is a bit higher so it was having fewer problems with slides at that point in time) get the family tested and drive home.  The drive to Yakima was on a rare clear sunny day and went without a hitch so they were able to fly home on Sunday January 2nd with few problems (other than arriving and learning that schools were closed to in-person teaching as Covid was sweeping through Ontario with a vengeance).

8 inches of snow and more to come.

Carter made the frozen Airstream into his boy cave during the visit.

Clarice decorates our first full sized Christmas tree in 8 years.

Valerie and Hyacinth check out the ornaments.

Hyacinth is now old enough to explore her own stocking from Santa.

Henri checks out his gifts.

Paul and Carter watch the Christmas morning stocking openings.

Great Grandma gets some time with Hyacinth.

So we drove Erin and family to the airport leaving at 3:30 AM on Sunday.  At 5 PM Sunday our friends the Hegwalds that live on a boat here in Olympia came to dinner and to buy our minivan and to prepare to house and dog sit while we took a trip to Hawaii. This had all been planned for some time except for Erin leaving the same day we needed to do final packing and set the Hegwalds up in the house but it all worked out.  We had decided to go to Hawaii on a bit of a whim when Erin offered that she had extra vouchers that we could use if we finished our trip before February 4th.  Costs for lodging and rental cars is currently very high in Hawaii but with the plane fare covered it all became possible and in the end we had a wonderful break from the weather and scenery of Olympia.  So at 3:30 AM on Monday Stephanie drove us to the airport in their minivan (our old minivan) and off we went.  Despite the challenges of getting into Hawaii with current Covid prevention restrictions the trip went pretty smoothly.

Sunrise as we flew over Oregon on our way to Oakland CA in route to Maui

We arrived just in time to walk to the beach on Maui and watch the sunset (in shorts and T shirts).

We rented a condo here for the week.

We wanted a good look at turtles so this was a treat when he swam
by us when we snorkeled.  He is about 3 ft long and was only a couple feet from us!

Observatories at the top of Haleakala.

Looking from Haleakala at the snow topped peaks on the Island of Hawaii.

At the summit of Haleakala.

Summit crater of Haleakala.

Beach on the road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii.

Beach on the road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii.

Blue marlin fish and chips caught the day before for lunch at Hana.

Botanical garden and largest known Polynesian ruins.



Wave near Hana.

Waterfall on the road to Hana.

Jungle growth on the road to Hana.

Haleakala National Park lower section.

Circling back from Hana towards our condo in Kihei.

Now we are trying to get back to a bit of a routine with doctor visits (I’m working with my PCP to better control nerve pain in my legs and treat ongoing respiratory problems), hearing aid replacement visits for me and contact lens visits for Clarice, working with a local charity on a showers for homeless folk trailer, church stuff and babysitting our granddaughter periodically.  Our current plan is to finish up some house projects, get the cockpit cover for the boat in place, and prep Salish Airstream for a trip to the southwest which should start shortly after we make a pilgrimage to the Seattle Boat Show the first week of February.

Other photos:

Clarice got a good deal on wild caught salmon so she smoked then canned them. 
Here the fillets have been brined and the brine is drying.

The salmon is cold smoked using a small burner full of smoldering wood
pellets in the BBQ.

Pressure canned for over an hour the salmon is ready for storing then eating.

Nancy Chambers is the wife of a friend in our HAM radio club who 
made these sculptures in a local park.  Hyacinth gives one a "high five".

The Hegwald girls enjoyed having access to movies they can't watch on 
their boat/home while they house / dog sat for us.  Jarvis looks pretty well
cared for!

A nice photo of us was taken for the church directory.

I recruited Paul to help our church secretary and myself shovel walkways and 
parking spots.  Paul asked when the city plow would arrive.... I laughed.


 

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