Sunday, April 22, 2012

Finally.

The first time off the dock for the year is a milestone. The boat, which for months has been nothing but a small teak-lined apartment with funny-shaped rooms, finally comes alive, becomes a magic carpet that can carry us almost literally anywhere. Its a milestone for us too. We feel like the fetters have been removed; we are free again.

We are having a stretch of unseasonably warm weather here in Seattle - its even considerably above "normal" (a rare occurrence here in Woebegone). When we looked at the forecast, we dropped everything, changed our plans mid-stream and made ready to cast off. Freedom!

But there was a hitch. Jane knowingly suggested that we check to see if the anchor windlass still worked after 6 (?) months of neglect. Good thing she did.

It turned out that the relay inside the windlass had failed. It cost us two hours, and several cuts on my fingers, to install the spare relay.

Nevertheless, here we are, at anchor in Port Madison, free.

Ahhh...
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7 comments:

robwrongshoes said...

Makes me wonder if our winch is okay. Suppose I should have covered it for the winter.

Courtney said...

Ah! Congratulations. Peace, quiet, freedom, the water all around you. Summer is here!

Robert Salnick said...

Rob:
Sometimes a cover serves to hold in moisture. It's hard to know what to do...

Robert Salnick said...

Peace, indeed.
Thanks, Courtney.

Chuck and Jackie on SV Aria said...

We got out Saturday for a trip to the sunny east side of Blake Island. On the way back we crossed behind a small pod of Orcas about a mile east of Tillicum village. They put on their usual show for about 3 - 5 minutes before disappearing. It looked like they were headed for Colvos Passage.

Robert Salnick said...

Chuck/Jackie -

Even the Orcas are celebrating the wonderful weather!

Chuck and Jackie on SV Aria said...

Minor corrections:

Sunny side of Blake Island = West side.

Usual show = showing their very large dorsal fin, spouting through their blowhole, porpoising. There was 1 very large individual 20+ ft and an unknown number of smaller whales in the pod. We were well over the requisite 300 yard distance but saw them clearly much to the delight of all.

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