Into the Mystic

Normal people are making gift lists and shopping lists and ingredient lists for their favorite recipes, all getting ready for the holidays.  Connie and I... we're  making lists of boat projects... because we're hauling our boat out for the holidays. We're doing " Haul-i-days!!!   Ha!


Instead of wrapping presents like most people, we're going to haul old Traveler out of the water and wrap HER in plastic.  We'll fire up propane heaters instead of yule logs so we can patch the scrapes on her keel and repaint her pretty round bottom.  These last couple of weeks after moving into Connie's rental house in Tumwater, we've been carting stuff off the boat, down the dock, up the ramp and into our little pickup truck to haul over to the house.

Somehow or another over the last five years we've been able to pack enough stuff into the tiny little cubby holes and gargantuan lockers on Traveler to fill up a 1,300 square foot house.  Every time we go to the boat we unearth more treasures. As these items come off the boat, the waterline (stripe on the side of the boat where boat meets water) rises.  She's sitting so high out of the water now that I'll have to remeasure the mast height to see if I can still pass under the Agate Pass bridge without knocking off the VHF radio antennae.

Connie has this cute little rental house in Tumwater where we have set up residence for the winter.  We bought a bed and a dining room table and that's about it.  Coming off the boat, this house, while only 1350 square feet, seems huge.  We find ourselves using only three rooms, the head, the master cabin, and the galley.   Because we've spent the last seven years sharing a 53 inch wide bed, we went whole hog and ordered a California King bed from Tuft & Needle. After shoehorning it into the bedroom (master cabin) we find ourselves drifting around the big bed searching for each other through the night.  From the master cabin we dash through two totally unnecessary rooms named "living" and "dining" to find the kitchen where we've recreated Traveler's galley with the addition of a tiny table (settee) and a stand up heater.  The bathroom (head) is totally out of proportion with a tub big enough to submerge a small crew member.  Try as we might we can't stop putting TP into the trash can instead of the commode.  As you see, it's difficult to adjust to life on the hard.

We got the news this week from Sarah Krill at Swantown Boatworks that she's found a place in the yard for us to put the boat for three months.  November 30, two hours before high tide, we'll haul her out($388.50), give her beautiful bottom a good scrubbing ($126), and block her up in the yard where she can be until the end of February (at $325.50 per month).  Somehow or another we've got to motivate ourselves to be creative with tarps and get some deck work and painting done over the winter.

Folding up the big genoa

Here is the honey-do list:
Patch and prime the keel

Sand and paint the hull
Remove the broken anchor windless and put in a new one or fix the old one

Sand and paint the freeboard
Rip up the rest of the teak decking
Glass and paint the decks
Hunt down a couple of leaks and put a stop to that nonsense
Replace the propeller shaft
Do quite a bit of varnishing down below
Replace headliners where they are drooping

The only problem I can see with our proposed location in the yard is that it's awfully close to the area where they put the old derelict boats that are slated for destruction. The southwest corner of the yard is where old boats go to die. We've seen these old gems get pulled out onto the pavement where a backhoe can get at them, jaws snapping, hydraulic fluid dripping.  With three big dumpster/coffins ready, the executioner breaks up the vessels and loads the splintered wood and fiberglass into the containers destined for burial in the landfill. Sad.

We'll be just a few feet from that last resting place of so much nautical history.  I just hope the backhoe operator/executioner doesn't mistake our dear Traveler for a poor old boat who's moorage bills were in arrears.

You might be thinking that the title of this post, "Into the Mystic" is referring to the ascent, or decent, of old vessels into the beyond.  But no.

We, that is Connie and I and Traveler and monkey, are embarking on a journey into the mystic which is Mystic Journeys, our new charter business. Rick and Ada have finished up the 2017 charter season on their boat Clara June and what a season it was, with record business and countless great reviews.  Talk about going out with a bang!  We will be switching lives with those two.  While we move into a house, they will be moving out of theirs.  While we have moved out of Traveler, they will be moving into Clara June.  We go to work.  They go to play.  They are off to the wilds of Canada and we're navigating the muddy channels of East Bay downtown Swantown.

The next two boats headed for the wrecking yard

We've gotta figure out how to start a Limited Liability Company, take over a web site, setup accounting procedures, get a reservation system started, score a marina slip with curb appeal, and order matching nautical outfits with our logo and company colors.

We will offer.....
Day sails of 2 to 6 hour duration in Bud Bay and beyond.
Overnight cruises to picturesque islands and remote moorings.
Multi-day adventures in south, central, and north Salish Sea.
Dinners aboard, music, kayaking, crabbing, mast climbing, barnacle scraping, galley cleaning, dodging rain showers and tidal rapids, and white knuckle bouts at the helm when the squalls roar in from the south.

If you wanna be part of the action, give us a call and we can book you on a relaxed summer cruise next June, July, August or September.   Until then, we'll be down here in the boatyard, scraping and painting away.  You are welcome to join in on the fun either way