Winter 2006 We arrived home from Edmonton, AB, Canada on December 28, 2005; memorable day in many, not so funny ways. We arose in the dark early morning hours (never a good start to a day) to drive to the airport for our flight to Seattle. Once in Seattle, we decided to stop in at Delta Marine to see when they could accommodate Infinity in the yard for a bottom job and to check the props and prop shafts. In a typical display of her inherent lack of coordination, Gail fell walking across the street, twisting her ankle and bruising her pride (and her knee). On the positive side, the yard told us they could accommodate our haul-out in May.
We arrived home in the early afternoon and, rather than go to sleep, both Dwight and Gail went to work on their computers. At one point, on a cell phone call with a client, Gail looked back to the dining table where she had been sitting, and noticed that the ceiling was bulging. A lot. After alerting Dwight and explaining the situation to the client, Gail and Dwight started to drain the ceiling. We have no good estimates for how much water was in the ceiling, but we were both soaked to the skin and had saturated six bath sheets and assorted other towels before we were done. We have since identified and corrected the source of the water (at least the problem has not recurred), but have been unable to restore the ceiling to its former glory. We'll have that taken care of at Delta Marine in May.
January 2006 was a rainy blur. For all the rainfall we received, Seattle was deprived of a new record for continuous days of rain (I think we ended at 28 days and the record was 33 days, or something like that). Now February is almost gone, and a very cold one it was. Let's just say that there have not been many days when we have wanted to cruise. We did start "Introduction to Social Ballroom Dancing" in early February. Dwight, as most of you know, is an accomplished dancer. Even if you don't know Gail, you can gather from the aforementioned fall that she's, well, not. Dwight is being a good sport about it, and is helping Gail to overcome her genetically-driven lack of coordination to learn some basic dance steps. And, despite her lack of grace, Gail did manage to bowl a 232 pin game in league bowling. Yes, in one game. While pleased for Gail, Dwight is sad to see his 222 score retired from the refrigerator door, joining Gail's prior high score of 193 in the cupboard with the XM radio.
And, finally, the news you've all waited for: Isabelle is doing just fine. She really enjoyed her trip to see "Grandma" Janey in Edmonton, who spoiled her to no end. She also visited "cousin" Casey, (Dwight's sister and brother-in-law's dog). Connie and Bob tried to spoil her, too. Since returning home Isabelle has made it clear that she expects a heightened level of attention from both Dwight and Gail. On a less positive note, we have concluded that the knee surgery on her left back leg was not successful, and we will be headed back to the vet's to see what else can be done to make her more comfortable. One solution, of course, is to have more company so that her feet never hit the floor, but Gail's a little sensitive about the way the ceiling looks, so surgery is probably the more likely solution to Isabelle's immediate problem.
April 2006 Spring is finally starting to emerge from the dark, cold, dampness that is Seattle in the winter. Isabelle is once again permitted to run around on deck, and the central heat has been turned off and replaced with random space heaters. We are now gearing up for summer and a new round of construction at the marina. Amazingly, in a rather brash move, the Port decided to increase our moorage rate by 5%, effective May 1, 2006. We are, to say the least, unhappy. It's not that we don't enjoy living at Shilshole - the location is wonderful for cruising - but asking us to endure life in a construction zone and increasing our moorage rates beyond the last year's rate of inflation is criminal. Gail had agreed to refrain from complaining about the construction, but this has sent her over the edge. She sent a letter of complaint to the marina management, received what can only be described as a "non-response," and has sent yet another request for real information about what's going on with raising our rates.
Sometime this month we will learn when we can take Infinity into Delta Marine in May to clean the bottom and add a coat of bottom paint. While there, we will have them replace the damaged headliner in the dining room (see Ship's Log, Winter 2006 for details), fix the lights over the island in the galley, stuff the packing glands (I think that's right), and fit ceiling panels for the master stateroom closet/laundry room. We spent every weekend in March putting up cedar panels on the walls so Mike and/or Bruce would have finished walls to work from when they built the ceiling panels. We probably have a couple of weekends or more to go before we are finished. Dwight was just excited about the new compound miter saw (with laser guide), pneumatic nailer, jigsaw, and router that we got to do this project. Given the time we've put into it, the savings more than justify the tool purchases.
We are also progressing with the ballroom dancing lessons we started in February. Due to Gail's travel schedule, we only completed foxtrot, waltz, and rumba in February. In addition to the fact that Gail's progress was steady yet modest, we opted to repeat the classes in March. Much to everyone's surprise (especially Gail), she did much better the second time around, and we even learned East Coast Single Swing on our fourth lesson in March. This month it's four American Smooth Waltz lessons, so we can hopefully put some polish on Gail's box step. In the meantime, Dwight is simply the most popular lead in the class. ;-)
We are probably headed into the yard in early May, and we plan to finish our work in early June so that we can attend TrawlerFest in Poulsbo, WA June 7 - 9, 2006. TrawlerFest offers educational seminars, the opportunity to go aboard a variety of boats (an event known as the "Trawler Crawl") and meet lots of nice people. Gail is excited to be presenting this year on the topic of The Vermin Exclusion and Inherent Vice: What Does Your Marine Insurance Policy Really Cover? Dwight is in charge of her PowerPoint® presentation (Gail always thought the A/V guys were hot), and in charge of doing a better docking job than he did last year. Not that we begrudge the bottle of wine we gave to the owner of our neighboring vessel to ease his level of anxiety.... We are planning to be accompanied by Gail's folks (Seward and Carol) and second-cousin-by-marriage, Patty, and her husband, Ray. Isabelle is looking forward to walks around town.
May 2006 Well, we are now back in the yard, high and dry at Delta Marine. We went into the yard the afternoon of May 9th and immediately pledged to never cruise without antifoulant paint ever again. We scraped for several hours, removing algae, barnacles, mussels, scallops, and even one baby starfish. Dwight resumed scraping the following morning, when Gail happily went to work at her office. The yard pressure washed the bottom, and the experts decreed that we will likely have to sand the entire bottom before we apply the anti-foulant. Yay.
The insides are going much better. Bruce reinstalled the salon ceiling that we took down in December, built ceiling panels for the walk-in closet/laundry room, replaced a ceiling panel in the galley, and various other essential repairs. We covered the ceiling panels ourselves, using the same Majilite fabric that we used for headliner throughout the boat, and we must say that it looks pretty darn good to have the closet finally finished. Dwight is working to replace the heating/AC unit in the Master Stateroom, and has also run the wires to Gail's XM radio inside the headliner in the galley (instead of stringing them across the ceiling). All this work, of course, brings new playmates to the boat for Isabelle. Her newest effort to gain attention is to take her squeaky-toy to the aft boarding gate, and drop it over the side hoping someone will retrieve it for her. This is a long-standing ploy of hers inside the boat, where she pushes it onto the stateroom steps and waits for us to bring it up to her. As long as only the toy goes overboard, she should be okay....
As some of you may also recall, we had an incident at Rosario Resort last October where our port-side propeller and hull came into contact with some rather large and unforgiving rocks. Despite Dwight's proclamation of victory over the rocks ("we didn't sink, did we?"), we were worried about possible propeller shaft damage. As of today, it had appeared that we really did win. The propeller was damaged on one blade, even though it struck the rocks with sufficient force to stall the engine. The stomach-churning scrapes we heard when the hull went onto the rocks didn't even penetrate the bottom paint (CeRam-Kote). And, after testing the port-side prop shaft, the yard declared it "as good as new." The irony, of course, is that the shaft that was not even involved in the "Rosario Incident" is out of true. A prior owner (who shall remain nameless) reportedly had an unfortunate incident with a sea wall in Florida.... We are hopeful that this work will be done in time to make TrawlerFest in Poulsbo.
30 May 2006 Just a brief update. Dwight is now in the process of applying the anti-foulant to the bottom (photos have been added to the Photo Gallery page for this month). We started this particular part of our to-do list believing we had two days to get three coats of paint on - one red coat, followed by two black coats (it's "ablative" paint so when the black paint sloughs off over time and we see red paint again, we'll know it's time to go back into the yard). Despite the bright, sunny background to the new photos, we are expecting rain again tomorrow. Dwight managed to get nearly half of the boat painted red in just about an hour and a half, so he may manage to get it done before the rain starts. Once that's completed and we get our prop shaft and second propeller back from the shop we'll be set to go back into the water. We need to be back in the water by next Tuesday, June 6th, so wish us luck!
June 2006 Infinity left Delta Marine on Wednesday, June 7th with a new coat of anti-foulant, a newly lathed propeller shaft on the starboard side, newly reconditioned propellers on both sides, a completed “punch-list” of small items left over from the refit, a new ceiling in the laundry room/master stateroom closet, and a new dining room table and chairs.
Thus began our first post-maintenance cruise to Pouslbo, WA for the annual TrawlerFest event. Traveling with us were Gail’s folks, Seward & Carol, Carol’s cousin Patty, her husband Ray, and Isabelle, of course. We arrived in Poulsbo to find that we didn’t have an end-tie. We were eventually assigned to two adjoining 25’ slips. We docked stern-in, and had less than a one foot clearance on each side of the boat, and extended 50' into the harbor and to keep the hull off the corners of the piers, we dropped an anchor off the bow. We're reasonably certain the float planes didn't appreciate having to go around our bow. The benefit to docking stern in, though, was that Isabelle had an uninterrupted view of people passing by the boat. As we did last year, we participated in the Trawler Crawl, and Isabelle proved invaluable in attracting visitors to tour the boat. Our thanks to everyone aboard who made up their staterooms each day, kept the house clean, and assisted with the tours.
On Thursday, Dwight attended sessions and Gail worked on her presentation, “The Vermin Exclusion and Inherent Vice: What Does Your Marine Insurance Policy Really Cover?” We enjoyed the camaraderie of our fellow cruisers at lunch and dinner, and entertaining anyone who showed any interest in seeing Infinity’s interior (and many who were initially reluctant to do so). On Friday, Gail gave her presentation, and we treated our onboard guests to dinner with the TrawlerFest attendees at the Sons of Norway hall. Saturday’s highlight was the awards dinner where Dwight received an “Early Bird Award” for being the second person to register for TrawerFest in Poulsbo (he’s gunning for first this year), and we enthusiastically accepted the “Peoples’ Choice Award” for the favorite boat in the Trawler Crawl. It’s rewarding to know that our hard work has paid off, and that others appreciate her almost as much as we do. Our thanks to everyone who voted for Infinity, and for allowing us to share her with you.
In late June, Gail’s law school friend Julia and her husband Tim arrived from Kentucky for a three-day cruise of Puget Sound. We stayed at Shilshole the first night, and made the obligatory sweep of the Seattle waterfront on our way to Gig Harbor the next day. We had a very relaxing afternoon and evening there, and would definitely go back. Day 2 we cruised north to Port Orchard and, after being unable to resolve shore power issues, we were assigned a slip on the outer face dock and ran on generator power until bedtime. Time for an inverter, I guess. The next day we cruised around the west side of Bainbridge Island, and returned to Shilshole. We then trooped to the Chittendon Locks where we (and hundreds of others) watched the 4th of July Weekend melee that consumed both the large and small locks. Witnessing several near collisions and allisions made us grateful for our decision to home port on the cruising side of the locks
July 2006 After the two trips in June, July was much more relaxed. We attempted to gain some ground on varnishing the caprails, and made some good progress. We also made the first of two LeGros Firm Cruises with Gail’s co-workers on July 21st. The company of our guests, the weather and the sunset were all spectacular.
August 2006 Our cruising plans were abruptly interrupted when we received word in very early August that Dwight’s mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Dwight spent the first half of the month in Edmonton, AB, while Isabelle and Gail kept the boat afloat. He returned just in time to captain the second LeGros Firm Cruise on Puget Sound on August 18th but not before Isabelle decided to roll around in a large quantity of heron poop. An instant bath was performed without the usual division of labor between Gail & Dwight...
Dwight spent nearly all of the ensuing weekends in Edmonton with his mother. He cared for her during those times, and provided much-needed respite for his brother Ron (who provided her primary care after Dwight returned to Seattle). Isabelle accompanied both of us for a visit with “Grandma Janey” the weekend of August 25th. To clear customs and immigration, Isabelle needed a certificate of good health. We had also noticed over the course of the summer that Isabelle was using her left back leg less and less, and we knew she needed to be evaluated for another surgery (her third) to correct her luxated patella. Her favorite vet, Jeff Mayo, DVM, had sold his practice in Lynnwood and was practicing part time at the Animal Hospital of Renton (“AHR”). We met with him on August 21st.
When Gail & Isabelle arrived at AHR, they were shown to an examination room. Gail noticed a small, smoked Plexiglas dome in the corner of the ceiling. Since there had been surveillance warnings outside the building, she assumed it was a video camera to detect intruders after hours. During the course of the examination, however, Dr. Mayo indicated that not only were the cameras active, the system also recorded conversations. When she asked where the notice to patients was located, he showed her a small posting over the top of the examination room door. Angry at the uninvited and unwarranted intrusion – but with Isabelle needing surgery – surgery was scheduled for August 29th.
After surgery, Isabelle was uncharacteristically snippy. We finally deduced that the pain medication supplied by the clinic was not controlling her pain. Isabelle had some pain medication left from her previous surgeries, and Gail gave her one of those. The change was dramatic. Gail immediately called AHR to obtain a current prescription. After waiting most of the day to hear back, she called that afternoon only to be told that the medication (which Isabelle had taken successfully on two prior occasions) was not appropriate for her. Eventually, AHR acceded to Gail’s demands and filled the prescription. We picked it up on our way to take Dwight to the airport for his trip to Edmonton over Labor Day weekend. The medication (Rimadyl) worked beautifully, Isabelle was much more comfortable, and she was much less snippy. She has now recovered nicely and is using her left leg when she runs down the dock in search of heron poop. And, while we will watch to see if Dr. Mayo moves to another clinic, we will not be returning to AHR.
September 2006 With Dwight in Edmonton over Labor Day weekend, Gail did her yearly sojourn to Bumbershoot, but only for one day. She traveled to Kentucky a few days later to attend the Kentucky Law Update, and had some wonderful visits with Pete Cohron, Don Bromagen, Lynn & Jim Furness, Tim & Julia Costich, and especially with Ron & Georgia Bacquet, Susan Brock and Amanda. The next weekend, September 15th, we again traveled to Edmonton and spent some quality time with Dwight's mom. Our thanks to Sarah & Nate for taking the Friday shift with Isabelle, and to Brian Jankanish for taking the Saturday shift. As Isabelle was still recovering from surgery, she was unable to make the trip to Edmonton with us….
We left for a long-planned and well-earned vacation to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico on September 23rd, with a planned return date of September 30th. We had a delightful couple of days on the beach, reading, and eating with Carol & Seward, Mike & Wendy, and Rusty & Janet before Dwight’s mom passed away the evening of September 26th. We returned to Seattle the next day, and then traveled on to Edmonton. Our thanks to Alaska Airlines for accommodating our unexpected change in travel plans with sensitivity. Gail returned to Seattle after the funeral on October 3rd, and Dwight followed on October 8th.
We would be remiss if we did not take this opportunity to extend our boundless gratitude to our friend Patrick Jankanish. Patrick only agreed to stay on the boat with Isabelle while we were in Mexico. He rose early the morning of our departure to take us to the airport, retrieved us when we returned on the 27th, took us back to the airport early on the 28th, stayed an additional three days on the boat beyond our original return date, and picked Gail up from the airport on October 3rd. He placed his own life on hold and took care of us (and Isabelle) when we needed help the most. Thanks, Pat.
We did not travel through the winter of 2006-2007, and hope to catch up on our 2007 cruising season soon. Watch the “What’s New” page as well as the cruising guide, and always feel free to send an email.