Too Tall Tom- My Boating Buddy

I wanted everyone who has grown to love the antics of Too Tall Tom, that he developed some problems in his fuel lines to his main fuel pump and had to have surgery to have them repaired.

What I meant to say, he had to have an emergency quadruple by-pass graft to his coronary arteries. I am most happy to report he is home, recovering and making lots of progress.

Since his sale of his 16 ft Arima last summer, he has purchased a travel trailer, named Willie and hopefully he will "be on the road again", this summer.

Blessings to you and thank you for supporting so many of my projects.

Peter Puget Memorial Project is Officially Underway

My new year is busy with jury duty and yesterday I had a wonderful tour of the Capitol in Olympia with a friend, Skip Dreps who is my project adjutant for our joint effort in creating monuments along Lt. Peter Puget's route in the southern waters of Puget Sound. He is very familiar with the Capitol and its legislative process, so I was in good hands.Our first stop was to deliver a letter to the office of the Land Commissioner.
He will give us the go-ahead or permission to put our monuments on the state  lands of Blake and Cutts Islands. Once that is secured, then we will proceed to gaining permission of the Olympia Port/Plaza Commissioner for the third site.

Our next stop was to visit with a colleague of Skips at the Lt Governor's Office, who was most generous with his time, sharing thoughts on our project and offering ideas for us to consider. All of this took place in the Senate Chamber. Skip and I stood under the Washington State Flag at the Rostrum for a photo op. Talk about a powerful setting to do some project planning. We have received the highest blessings for this project.

Then we toured the many Memorials along the Capitol Campus which were so beautifully done. Afterwards, we headed back down to the Port and had lunch at Anthony's overlooking our proposed site for the 3rd Puget Memorial. Wow, what a day. Thanks Skip, I am  in very good hands.

47 degrees 3 minutes

Back to Researching Captain Vancouver

Happy New Year to All My Blog Readers

It is because of all of you that I can find myself at 0030 hrs on this new year day of 1 January 2013. The fireworks have ceased near my condo complex nestled near the Puyallup River about 8 miles east of I -5 Tacoma. I am sitting at my command module pouring over books, comparing and contrasting their authors interpretations of Captain Vancouver's own exploration of the southern waters. If one is vague on knowing that Peter Puget explored the southern waters, then you will be clueless to the fact that Captain  Vancouver ventured south, as well after he explored Browns Point and Commencement Bay of Tacoma. Vancouver took the Discovery's yawl and the Chatham's cutter.

His Lieutenant Puget was overdue so he headed south taking the continental shore to port and landed on Long or Ketron Island to camp for the night. It is here that he sees the Puget Party returning on a darkened northerly course. They fire off some muskets, but they go unnoticed by Puget. Puget did, however see the fire on shore but assumed it to belonged to Indians. Captain Vancouver now knowing his explorers are safe, continues south for some strange reason and duplicates some of Puget's route.

I have now obtained Vancouver's Log in addition to Edmond S. Meany's interpretation which is easier to read. However, both are very difficult to decipher, but I have made a big break though today locating some abstract positions and routes. In trying to map several locations that Vancouver was speaking about I could not figure out where they were. After at least 50 readings in several days I finally figured it out by the grace of God and a small miracle. I was looking at them entering an inlet and he was describing the view as they were exiting the inlet !! Then it all made perfect sense. It is easy to see how there are so many variations in their routes when we are all trying to interpret what the explorers are describing. Some are certainly more eloquent and have a deeper depth to their observations skills than others.   How they had time to write anything down with all the weather changes, open boats, on the routes from 4 in the morning until dark in the evening.  I  have gained so much respect and have so much admiration for who they were and how they accomplished all that they did.

I have since re-visited some of my own interpretations with the added information of these 2 books and have
discovered new insights into the Blake Island/Restoration Point anchorages. I will be clarifying these in future postings. Right now, I just wanted to take a few moments to wish you all a wonderful boating season 2013 and to thank you for all your support in my Adventures of Shatoosh and Pashmina.