Life: Seattle Christmas Ships

Each year, leading up to Christmas, a flotilla of private and commercial ships bedeck themselves in Christmas lights and cruise the waters around Seattle, both in Puget Sound and on Lake Washington.

Since the Jenny G is on the ship canal for winter, The Admiral and I took the opportunity to view the ships one evening from our boat. Taking photos and videos in the dark on a moving craft is pretty tricky, but check out the YouTube video below for a brief glimpse into the scenery.

Remember that you will need to view the video from the m/v Jenny G Website because it won't show up in the Cap'n Will email.

Marina: Poulsbo

This post is a little bit about boating and a little bit about technology because...well...the weather is so bad that the Cap'n is wasting time on the computer instead of wasting time on the boat.

First, let's talk about the really fun part: boating. The town of Poulsbo, on the Kitsap Peninsula, is our absolute favorite fall boating destination. Like Gig Harbor, Langley, Port Ludlow, and others, Poulsbo offers a great marina, the Port of Poulsbo, which has immediate walking access to shops, restaurants, and strolls down neighborhood side streets that make accessing land by water so much better than accessing land from land. Our routine is fairly evolved at this point

• Saturday: Arrive mid-afternoon on a Saturday, check out the shops, eat dinner at Mor Mor, then watch a DVD on the boat.
• Sunday: Make a leisurely bacon-'n-eggs breakfast, then head to Sluys Bakery for pastries that we'll eat at Hot Shots Java. The Admiral will go to the bead shop and I'll go to Cargo Hold, then we'll rendezvous back at the boat and begrudgingly leave around 2 or 3 pm.

Second, let's talk technology. Again, out of boredom, I recently joined Facebook and am only lukewarm toward its purpose, which seems to be spewing your stream of conscious thoughts onto a Web page for your poor friends to endure. I suppose a select few humans are so interesting that what they're thinking is worth you consuming real-time, but I don't have the DNA for that so I don't expect it from my friends.



However, this started to get interesting when I realized that you can link accounts like, say, YouTube. So I created a YouTube account and, if all was successful - which means you clicked the play button (little triangle) in the middle of the picture above, you just viewed a short clip of the Jenny G crossing the bow of a very large China Shipping Lines container carrier ship. Viva la Web!

Life: Leaving Edmonds

Dear Boaters,

Well, the end of an era has come: We are leaving the Edmonds marina after three years. The combination of missing fall boating due to maintenance logistics and a seasonal forecast for a "wet and cold" winter in the Pacific Northwest has caused us to choose a new home for the Jenny G. This was not about the Port and we highly recommend it to everyone!

She will now be on the ship canal, where we hope to do more day cruising on the protected waters between Shilshole and Lake Washington. We are hoping to get out this weekend; hopefully I will have a new post for you next week.

Cap'n Will

Maintenance: Hydraulic Steering Woes

We loved keeping the boat at the Port of Anacortes this year, but unfortunately the slip next to ours was often occupied by transients. We think that one of those transients hit our outboard when docking, which damaged the Jenny G's hydraulic steering.

(c) Teleflex Marine

Having found a seal that was out of place, I ordered a replacement part and had it installed by a trusted mechanic. However, on our return voyage "down South" for the winter, I realized that this wasn't the sole problem and we still have a leak.

So, the Jenny G is at another repair yard on the Lake Washington Ship Canal awaiting diagnosis. Stay tuned for more info.

Anchorage: De Courcy Island, BC

Ever hear of a stern-tie? You use this when the depth requires a scope that creates more swing room than is possible. In Gulf Island anchorages, which are often deep coves between underwater rock ridges, stern ties are a way to allow more boats into a small cove than would otherwise be possible. They do it by sinking eye bolts into the rock walls of the cove so that boaters can run a line from their stern to the eye, which stabilizes the boat in one position, reducing the need for a large scope. We were able to try several stern-ties this year but Pirate's Cove was the first.

And of course first tries are always ugly. Conveniently for me, I've chosen a photo that makes me look as close to a C. C. Filson model as I'm ever going to get and prevents you from figuring out exactly which profanity I'm spewing at the moment.

Nevertheless, on a warm, lazy boating afternoon, all things eventually get done and we were tucked into a pocket in the cliffs for the evening. Except for the sweat beads leaping upward and outward from me like a sprinkler. So, for the third time in my life, I went swimming in Canada.

There is a phenomenon in mountaineering called altitude memory, where spending time at a given altitude creates a physical "memory" that supposedly makes the climber more able to return to that altitude in the future. I have no idea if that's true, but my only real-life experience was in having an easier time climbing Mount Shasta (14,179') about a year after reaching the summit of Mount Rainier (14,411'). I wonder if the same phenomenon exists for cold-water swimming. I actually enjoyed swimming the 64 degree water in Pirate's Cove this year, without a flotation vest. Last year's Montague Bay swim was about the achievement of swimming in Canada, but not the fun of 62 degree water.

And finally, my mother would agree that Lastly, no vacation is complete without a tacky photograph of someone standing in front of the sign that says where you are. This one is for you, Mom.