Six Pack / OUPV Captains Training

We are drinking champagne this afternoon because I've just now completed my week long training class to get my US Coast Guard captain's license.  It was a tough week, lots of paying attention and studying in the evenings, but it's an (almost) done deal.  Just gotta wait for the drug screen ( should be clean ) and the feds to come back with the OK that I'm not in bed with the Russians or something.

I can now take out six passengers for hire on our boat, or any other uninspected boat for that matter, and get paid for doing so.  It's tough at my age to get thrust back into a learning environment where I have to be perky at 08:00 each morning and sustain my attention until late afternoon.  Skip and Jan at Flagship Maritime run a great class here on the Tacoma working waterfront.  Without them, I'd be struggling to absorb and regurgitate all that information and then amass all that paperwork to send into the Coast Guard to be considered for a captain's license.

Anyhow, happy times for myself and fellow students Scott Tobiason and Steve Neidhardt. There we are with our certificates and gull poop.  While we were toasting, a gull flew overhead and shat on us for luck.

Tomorrow we leave Tacoma and sail Traveler to Blake Island, a half day north of here.  Then on Thursday we'll negotiate the Ballard Locks and a series of draw bridges to make our way to the UW docks where we'll be participating in the Washington Yacht Club's twice a year sailing and drinking fest called Snooze and Cruise.



Saturday morning We'll take on eight passengers at the UW docks and take them all the way out into Puget Sound to Blake Island where we'll have a big steak/salmon feast and a bonfire.  The crew will camp there on the Island then the next day after a pancake breakfast we'll all sail back to the UW.  This is an event I've attended in the past and I've always been a passenger.  This time I'll be Captain of my own ship.  It's the completion of a big circle for me and a time to pay it backward, so to speak.

River otters at the dock

For those of you in the Seattle area, Traveler will be near there over the next two weeks or so and we'd love to have you out on the boat.  So please get in touch and we can rendezvous on the water, say Kingston, or Bainbridge Island, or Shilshole Bay.

In the meantime, congratulate me please, and Connie too for helping me through this tough learning week.  I'm a captain now, don't even think of messing with me. :)
 

Traveler at Foss Harbor Marina