Sunday, January 29, 2012

A Break in the Weather

After snow, ice, wind and rain storms have pelted the Pacific Northwest in the last few weeks, I take a trip south to visit Shatoosh and Pashmina. The sky is blue, but the temperature is in the high 30's. All the marina dredging has been completed that started this month. This project has been 7 years in the works, so I am certain the owners are happy to get this project checked off their list. I also see some new metal pilings that have been placed at the north side.

I had purchased a new  IPhone 4 so I have been busy leaning how to operate it. I learned that all my old ipod  Mini chargers(house, boat and car) will function with the phone, so I don't have to buy new chargers, which is a relief. I remove all my old phone chargers, belt clips to bring them home for recycling. John, in Georgia, who is building his hardtop for Ms Bettencourt has asked for some new measurements on grab bars and radar mount. This will give me a good opportunity to test out the phone-camera. Today I had enough signal to send emails from the slip to John. Things are looking up.




 My radar is a small JRC 1000, which is no longer made. I bought the mount from West Marine in 2003. It is a Power Tower made by Scan Strut, Universal, 5 inch forward leaning and is thru bolted into the eyebrow of the hardtop. This means it is outside of the helm station and the radar cable is then run along the underside of the hardtop and enters the cabin  on the starboard side. The excess cable is stored in the storage area beneath the helm station flooring.

I start the engine and the diesel heater and get the boat nice and warm to take some inventories of supplies, and to check things out. I keep a list of spare parts/numbers, clothes on board and keep them in the note section on the phone. That way I always know what is on board and can buy the right item when I am at the marine stores.

After all items done, I call a friend who lives nearby in a retirement community and pay her a visit. She is 86 and very spry, but she needs helps getting a bookcase into her car from the local store. We head out to take care of that, but I find in the car port an older couple taking groceries out of their car. She is all bent over hobbling on a cane and he is wrestling a recalcitrant cart. He looses his footing and I watch in slow motion as he topples over and hear the sound of "crack" as his head hits the asphalt. He is alert, oriented and refuses to have 911 called. I get the bleeding stopped on his head and assess that nothing is broken. His wife has recently had a stroke, my friend probably weighs 90 pounds, so between the old man and me, we are able to get him up and he walks into the house. I encourage him to get checked out medically and later learn his daughter gets him to the ER and he is fine. This could have been a very serious injury. I get my friend to the store and get her bookcase unboxed and set up for her. Life after 85 is not easy, so they tell me.

Monday, January 16, 2012

My Big World Gets Smaller

Kristi and Al live aboard their wooden Monk designed, MV Viking Star, and are spending the winter in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island. I check into their wonderful blog http://mvvikingstar.blogspot.com regularly since meeting them this summer. This was Kristi's post the other day, which shows the boating world with blogging and boat forums, that we are just one big boating family. It is so nice to be able to read other boating blogs, which I routinely encourage new blogs to be written by my fellow Albin owners, but I am always surprised to read about me and my boats. Thanks Kristi and its great you and Al are enjoying Friday Harbor so much this winter.

"Saturday, January 14, 2012


It's a Small World!

Last summer we introduced ourselves to Hira by knocking on her boat Shatoosh and announcing 'We follow your blog!"  She invited us aboard and she told us stories of her FBR's as she calls them -- Faceless Blog Readers.

We suspect that we have a few too -- people who check out our blog, occasionally OR regularly, without going through the rigamarole of signing up to be an official Follower.

Well, today, we had OUR first knock on the boat with the words, 'I found your blog!'  It was Amy and her dog out for a morning walk.  She had seen our boat name, and looked us up.  I turned to Al and said 'I'll have to let Hira know we have our first FBR's!'  Amy didn't recognize when I said that we followed 'The Adventures of Shatoosh and Pashmina'.  http://shatooshandpashmina.blogspot.com

She and her husband had brought their  boat over last night to see 'The Muppets', held over at the Palace Movie Theater here in Friday Harbor.  They live on Orcas Island, on the other side of Mt. Constitution.  Turns out, their boat is an Albin, just the kind that Hira skippers.  She told us that they meet at Roche Harbor the second weekend in September, and we said that Shatoosh had been there last summer!  She asked again what Hira's name was, and then said 'Well, I know Hira!'"
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Speaking of interesting blogs, 2 tandem Albin 27's are cruising in Florida and have crossed the state via Lake Okeechobee and will be heading south along the west coast of Florida to the Keys. They have had their fair share of troubleshooting problems. See my link below to Carol and Jim's blog: Always an Adventure..In Slow Motion.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Winter Projects: Mine and Others

Albin owners are busy with their winter projects and since returning from Texas I have made one trip to Shatoosh and Pashmina. They have weathered my long absence well, but needed a good scrubbing. The marina is getting a good, but overdue dredging, so boats and docks have been moved about and hopefully, I can make an outing within the next few days, as the weather looks promising.

I have been helping some Albin boaters with their projects; John in Georgia is now well into building his hardtop, which is looking good, Anton is re-powering his engine with a Volvo MD2030 B, like Shatoosh's, so I was photographing  the engine the other day, and today I sent off a tracing of my swim platform for Nick in Illinois.

I will need to get Pashmina's Impresa to the graphic guy in Olympia, so she can have a new look. There is a lot of routine maintenance on the upcoming docket, all of which will keep me busy.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

My Last Day in Texas

My Favorite
The sun is out, the sky is blue, so with our stomachs full of our last enchiladas, we head north on the back road to the upper valley to find a very unique old Mexican door warehouse. We could hang out here for hours, rummaging through the vast array of doors, saddles, hinges, benches and chuck wagons. This place is like nothing I have seen. What a fun afternoon.

Second Favorite

Too Tall was looking for a small land yacht and we
thought this might be a good fixer upper for him, now that he is in Texas.

I decide to rope this hombre

Still a cowgirl at heart

Not much agua in this canteen

Glad I don't have to ride this saddle

Maybe this has some Corona in the keg.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2012 Happy New Year

One of my favorite presents I got for Christmas was a new ditty bag for Pashmina 2 that has her impresa on it. I can't wait to go out and put it to use.









I'm still in the Texas desert and getting ready to return home to Washington state. I have abandoned my dock shoes for boots and have been to all places Texican and New Mexican to eat my fill of tacos and to make some dinero at the local casinos/racetrack.
Leave Your Boots At The Door










Travels this Christmas















Hira and Jean at Old Mesilla, NM

The Plaza at Old Mesilla











Modern Indian Artwork
Inn of the Mountain Gods
 Apache Indian Reservation

Approaching Snow Storm
El Paso, Tx
The Plaza El Paso

San Jacinta Plaza El Paso, Texas