Biology of the River


There are those who will think this is a sick post, but I find the things that float by on the river to be simply fascinating. I think this is a grebe, but won’t swear to it. We’ve seen trees, birds, gobs of unidentifiable stuff, moss, twigs…there is always something floating by. Usually, the incoming tide brings the most unusual stuff. My apologies if this one was weird, but hey, it’s my blog ~
Jamie

First Rainy Day

Yes, I was awakened by a drip of water on my head at around 3 am. And no, even that did not deter me from loving every minute of being aboard so far! According to Greg, every wood boat in the universe is going to have a drip from time to time (something about the deck planks shrinking in the summer and then swelling again when the rains come – it all sounds very reasonable when he goes on about it). I think he’s just trying to placate me, but as long as he’s willing to switch sides of the bed, that’s OK.

Dunlap Towing seems to have the market on the slough; they’re constantly moving log rafts up the river. I love watching them; it’s like a dance as they move the tug and the logs past the railroad bridge and the two Highway 529 bridges. All the bridges swing open, so they time it just perfectly to keep the train and car standstills to a minimum. The guy in the picture is amazing to watch – he leaps from tug to logs and back again as though it’s nothing.

Week One Onboard

Natalie’s new favorite spot for reading books. She loves to put the chairs together and make a little nest out on the aft deck. There’s always something to watch in the river – flotsam and jetsam of all sorts. We’re getting attuned to the rhythm of the tides. In the morning when the tide is low, it’s a mountain climb up the dock ramp. Natalie observed that it was nearly vertical the first day we left for school. Nothing like it to get your blood pumping in the morning! We have already learned to time our grocery shopping around high tide, when the ramp is level.
Sunsets are magnificent and remind me of why we’re doing this. There’s still a bunch of chaos in getting the house ready to be sold and trying to find places for everything on the boat. All 4 of us have been a bit stressed with all of the changes, but I keep reminding myself that it goes with every move. When we’re done, it will be worth it 100 times over. Our garage sale went well and we are down to the bare minimum of stuff.
Dad’s favorite heron out fishing yesterday afternoon. When I went out at 7:00am on a cold, foggy morning and saw him standing in the presumably frigid water, I was deeply grateful that I’m not a heron.

Onboard At Last!


Dock carts at the ready, we loaded up everything in Anacortes that we would need for our trip to Steamboat Slough near Everett. Greg and Natalie handled the heavy lifting, as my back was still on the questionable side. Carolyn and Julie (Greg’s mom and cousin) were our able crew for this first venture on our own.

Natalie started the day by making spiced apple cider for everyone and we watched the marina come to life from the back deck. It seemed as though everyone on the dock came by and admired KJ; while that was fun for the first several encounters, we were all ready to head out of the marina fairly soon.

Our route took us down the Swinomish Channel through the town of La Conner. The Rainbow Bridge is visible in the background. We saw plenty of wildlife ~ river otters, sea lions, harbor seals, herons, osprey.


The trip took several hours and we finished up by anchoring just off Jetty Island while we waited for the railroad bridge tender to open the bridge. Another round of cider was served and most of us took naps and relaxed in the sunshine.


How many 10 year olds can say that they’ve piloted a 66 Ton ship? Natalie took the helm for a significant part of the trip and as you can see from the photo, she takes her job quite seriously. She did an awesome job ~ I was quite a proud mama.

We’re living aboard completely now and getting everything out of the house. Further updates as events warrant!

The Big Day Arrives

It’s really just the first of many looming Big Days, but…She’s officially ours! All minor snarls out of the way, we now are the owners of Katherine Jane. Which means we really need to get on track with everything that has to happen before the move onboard. The current plan is to bring her down to Steamboat Slough this coming weekend.

We almost went up to Anacortes and actually see her today, but luckily Greg remembered that Natalie has her first volleyball practice this evening. I’ll attach a photo of that later if I get a chance.

I’m feeling somewhat better after 2 days of bedrest and a chiropractic visit this morning. I threw my back out on Sunday and realized how incredibly valuable the simple ability to MOVE really is. On the other hand, bedrest has meant some serious quality snuggling time with the kiddos, so there’s always that silver lining. Plus the kids got to see how a chiropractor works (they thought it was pretty cool that he gets paid for twisting people into pretzels and jumping on them).