This was our evening out on the water last night ~ lovely skyline, great sunset, just a marvelous time really. It was a bit of a whim; when I got home from work, I simply suggested “Hey, let’s take the boat out.” My childrens’ only concern? “Will we have internet access?”

One can only hope that they’ll look back with fond memories, whether or not they know it now! I suppose that’s true of all children, isn’t it?

Natalie was a true blue helper again, assisting me in cleaning off the roof above the aft deck. It gets all these weird black spots on it ~ I don’t think it’s mildew, but I have no clue what it actually might be. It needs to be wiped down regularly and is rather tedious, so I was glad of her help.

And of course, Dread Pirate. This time I sunk Stewbie, but it wasn’t my fault. He attacked me in a skirmish first ~ I just happened to win…

We rode the S.L.U.T. the other night over to Gameworks ~ it’s such an odd phrase to hear coming from your 12 year old daughter. It was fun exploring a bit of Seattle. Dada is doing fine after his surgery and we’re visiting him daily.

We also got to move Queen’s Launch to Everett for her summer run as the Jetty Island Ferry. Actually the kids and I just helped Brock through the locks. The small locks has trouble with one of the pintle bearings, so they’re primarily using the large locks for all vessels which means longer waits for everybody and more line management through the locking. Then he dropped us in Shilshole and we ran off to play some tennis.

Which we’re going to go do more of right now. Have a great day!

Two little swallows were trying to take up residence on the boat last week. They were actually very cute and I was inclined to let them stay despite Brock’s practicality (bird poop is not good for varnish).

But the dilemma solved itself when we moved the boat from Everett to Seattle a couple of night ago. They stayed with us until we anchored in Kingston, but when morning arrived, they decided to go make their nest on a non-moving target.

It’s been on the list of things to do since I got the boat: mark the anchor chain in sensible increments, so that you know how much you have out when anchoring. We anchored out in Kingston the other night on the way down to Seattle again and realized it’s just a useful thing, so it was finally time to get it done.

There was only one mark on the whole thing and I thought it was at about 90′, but that was the only clue you had. So Brock and I pulled all the chain onto the dock today and marked it in 50′ sections. There’s about 270′ of chain and it looks like about another 200′ of cable as well. We didn’t unwrap the cable as it was perfectly neat on the winch drum and there’s NO way to ever get it back that good ~ I doubt it’s ever been used. I was all proud of my little marking system (one link painted white for every 50′, so 2 links at the 100′ mark, 3 links at 150′, etc.) Then I realized that means I have to do math when I’m anchoring…ah well.

We also added a safety mark here because when you’re bringing the anchor up on KJ, if you don’t pay attention to the flukes and the way they lay, you could do some damage. This red mark now gives you the heads up that the anchor is at the water line and you’d better slow it down.

All was going fine up until we were putting the chain in the water so that we would have some tension on the winch as we raised anchor again. Problem was that we were kinda tearing up the wood on the dock as the chain slid over. So we got some plywood to place under the chain and grabbed the 4′ metal bar we normally use to guide the chain back onto the winch to help feed the chain over the plywood. Brock was guiding and I was basically the winch as I pulled the chain to the edge for a controlled lowering. As we got to the last 50′ (so most of it was in the water already), we decided to just let it slide down on it’s own, despite that nagging little “Safety Officer” voice in my head saying “that’s really bone-headed, Lang.” Man, that stuff can FLY when it gets going…and in the interest of protecting toes and fingers ~ BLOOP, there went the bar.

In two years of living aboard, I’ve never lost anything into the water, so it was a little sad to break that streak, even if it was inevitable (especially now that we’re using the boat so much). I think I’m also kicking myself because I KNOW BETTER than to do stupid stuff. Now we’re on to solving the problem of retrieving the bar. Magnet? Dive gear? Underwater camera and clever rope work? Just get a new bar?

I walked into work today, only to find that one of my clients had dropped this off for me. She was cleaning her place and just couldn’t think of any use for this until she remembered my boat. I have the best clients in the world! Thanks, Diane!