Sunset from the Cockpit of CAPAZ

It all started with a chance meeting of our neighbors and fellow live-aboard family on Thursday morning on the way up the ramp to school. They bounced the idea off of us for a dock party which we would not be able to attend and thought maybe Friday would be an alternative. The rain at dawn was not promising, however, the wind that followed blew out the clouds and by about 2:00 things were looking good. It turns out that Bryce is most excited about a dock party. He took the initiative to give our neighbor a call and see if there was a plan only to find out that the northerly was still blowing pretty steady at Shilshole. That left the plan to play it by ear. The first thing that Bryce did upon arrival back at the boat from work, was to turn on our instruments and check the wind speed which was down to 9 knots (still a little chilly for standing around the end of G-dock this time of year). Finally, around 6:00 Bryce went down to the end of G-dock and invited his friends to come and play and their parents to join us for a glass of wine. Angela called to confirm the 10-year old's invitation and all of the sudden we were having a cockpit party. The kids picked up another kid and her parents on the way back to the boat. Meanwhile, I realized that this was the first time I was getting to enjoy a nice sunny evening in the cockpit of CAPAZ. The way we are pulled into the slip, our dodger does a pretty good job of protecting us from the northerly. We pulled together some hotdogs and brauts, beer and wine, a few munchies as well as some sweet potato fries with Angela's chipolte dipping sauce and had ourselves a nice little evening. Thanks to Scott for running the BBQ and everyone for sticking it out through that chill that came on at sunset to celebrate enjoying our first sunset evening from the cockpit of CAPAZ. By the way: yes, there have been other sunsets, but weather and the crazy schedule we have been leading have both conspired to keep us from taking the few minutes required to enjoy this facet of being a live-aboard. I am hoping that this is the first of a long string of such moments!!!

The Re-Homing of the Kitties

Any cubby open must be explored ~ Tasha

What is re-homing? This a term was developed by a friend and you probably soon be seeing it in Wikipedia. It refers to the process of finding a good, new home for animals who cannot go cruising with you. We have been spreading the word for months that we were looking for a new home (or homes) for our two cats, Sammy and Tasha. Over dinner one night, Brad's aunt and uncle mentioned that they had been catless for awhile. That comment later morphed into an offer of taking our cats while we are cruising. So as to make sure that the new situation is a good fit for both humans and felines, we decided that we would shoot for early spring to make the transfer.
The original plan was to take some time during Spring Break to mini-cruise around the close area ending up in Port Townsend at some point to drop off the cats. Business conspired against us, picking up and requiring to work rather take time off and go sailing. As it turned out, we managed to get away for the two nicest days of the whole break. (Truthfully, we had to add Monday onto our Spring Break to make it happen, but the boys didn't seem to mind missing a day of school.)
The cats did well en route, probably because the winds and seas were pretty calm. Once in Port Townsend, we loaded up all the feline gear and proceeded up to Carrie and Rex's house. There was a plan ready for acclimatization to their new surroundings which was enacted while we ate lunch. After lunch, phase two went into effect during which time Tasha explored and Sammy found hiding places. Evidently, Tasha also found a hiding place where she retired to right after we left. She remained there until the next morning, totally worrying her new caregivers. However, the next report was that she had found her buddy, Sammy and they were curled up together in the position we call "Yin-Yang Kitties".
Everyone is still adjusting, but we are hopeful that it will all work out. A big thank you to Carrie and Rex for giving this endeavor your best efforts!!

Yin~Yang Kitties

Solo - Well Almost

Today there was a milestone for the Capaz Crew: The boat left the dock without Brad. I wasn't quite solo or single handing, I had my acting first mate, Bryce and temporary second mate, Austin. Let's not forget our the cabingirls, or maybe "cabinkitties" is better, Tasha and Sammy.
After working a good chunk of the day, the boys and I headed home to Shilshole. We cleared the cockpit, lashing the bikes to the stern rail and securing the still folded main and mizzen sails. There wasn't much wind and it was a pretty darn nice afternoon. We started up the engine and went down our departure checklist (OK there isn't one, but there will be soon - it's on the LIST). Since the marina was pretty calm, I was able to walk the boat out of the slip while Bryce manned the helm. Our neighbor kept a careful watch from her boat as to how close we were to "Golduster" cheering us on once we looked well on our way.
As Austin commented, "Mom, we made it out of the slip!" we waved to our other neighbors and pointed CAPAZ towards Port Madison. Bryce and I followed the directions given to us last night on how to fire up the Coastal Navigator (AIS system), but alas it was not working. This was later diagnosed by Brad to be a disconnected cable - nothing we did wrong. We weren't all that worried since I have even driven CAPAZ into Port Madison a couple of times. My biggest concern is depth at low tide (which it was) and the depth sounder chose to cooperate and function (not its choice on Thursday evening).
As we came around elbow where the Port Madison outstation sits, Brad arrived by taxi and scoped out a slip for us (per my preference, it was a double with no one in either berth). It was pretty much slack tide and the wind was very light - perfect conditions for my first attempt at docking without Brad ON the boat. I had both boys positioned with the bow line and the spring line, but unfortunately forgot to put down the fenders. Brad noticed in plenty of time and after deploying them, eased CAPAZ into the slip with no further ado. PHEW!!!
Then, it was on to the routine things for the dinner and a shower, fishing for the boys. Brad set to work on getting the main and stack pack set up. As of a few minutes ago, we now have a main sail, but alas I have been informed that in order to sail, there needs to be one more trip up the mast to secure the spreader tips and final tuning of the rig. Oh well, we are here, not at the dock in Shilshole. Last night, I swear I dreamed about every docking scenario that could happen except the one that actually did: a safe, easy one.
I had an interesting thought after we rounded the breakwater at Shilshole and headed across Puget Sound. It was about whether or not I had locked the door at the house. I laughed out loud and explained to Bryce how ironic it was because we were aboard our "house" with everything we needed. I can only imagine that there will be plenty more of those moments to come. Tomorrow, the cats will be re-homed. We will head up to Port Townsend to drop them off at their new residence.

April Fools

Well, the joke was on us here in Seattle. At least, that's where I thought I still lived. Yesterday, the weather forecasters were saying that the temperature today should be around 50*. Yet, this morning woke up to snow, yes I said, SNOW! It was mixed with rain, but until about noon we had snow here at sea level. Now, I know they can have it up on the tops of the hills because as Cliff Mass routinely points out, we are right at the edge: sea level gets 34* rain and the tops of the hills get snow - but this is usually more of a January type pattern, not April. Seriously, this is the eighth time we have had snow at sea level this Winter. Yes, I am still calling it "winter" even though the calendar actually says "spring", because it only snows ever so often in Seattle in the WINTER!!! I often tell people who our Seattle gray days drive crazy that it is not the gray that is setting their sanity on edge, but the chill of the many varieties of precipitation that we experience in the 36*- 42* range. It is a damp cold that just goes right through whatever layers were donned that morning. Well, as a true Seattle native, I have pretty much had with this SNOW thing. At least with the aforementioned gray and wet cold of winter, it is over by now and we are on to spring which at least includes sun breaks in between arguably warmer rainy days. Also those days are getting noticeably longer so we should have even more chance to see the sun. Thankfully, our boat has a great diesel heater, so we are surviving that part of the out of character weather just fine. OK - maybe I do wear socks to bed, but we are not freezing.

The LIST

We have successfully lived on our boat for 3 months now. It has definitely become our home. We are very ready to be relieved of the responsibility of our house!!! Though we do miss our neighbors, we have new neighbors who are great. There is a real sense of community on the dock and it is shared by all.
But I digress, the original purpose of this post was the LIST. In about 5 months, we should be headed South. As you can imagine, there is a significant amount of preparation involved in undertaking an adventure like this. In my life, pretty much anytime there is more than 3 things for me to remember I must write them down. Well, preparing the boat and ourselves has a few more than 3 things to do in preparation, so we started a list.
Ready or not, Brad had the advantage (or disadvantage) of delivering the boat home to Seattle from Hawaii last summer. The Cordill's had sailed it north from New Zealand, so Brad figured, CAPAZ had come that far, she could probably make it the rest of the way. Fortunately, he was correct and got quite a little shake cruise on which he was able to identify many things to which attention should be paid before we take off.
We sat down one afternoon in August with an Excel spreadsheet created a list and categorized and prioritized all the items. Thus, the LIST was born. The good news is that in the intervening 7 months we have made significant progress o most of the major items. There are two fairly major items left (three if you ask me) and a couple that are in process and just need to be finished. This winter's financial crisis did slow us down a little, but Brad has been good about focusing on smaller, time- (not money-) intensive items.
When we made the LIST, the sky was the limit. We put everything we could think of on it. Some of the non-essential wish things have fallen to the very bottom of the list and may never get marked off.
Being able to focus on just work and the boat once our house sells should speed up the progress of things being completed on the LIST. There are also things on the LIST that can and will probably be completed en route. You know the old saying: Cruising is just routine maintenance is exotic location. Whatever "they" say, I can hardly wait!
Next thing to work on from the LIST: Get the mainsail and mizzen back on the boat. One more item to check off!!!!

Live-Aboard Exercise

Scooter Kids

Talking to Mr. Blue Heron

One question we get is about living aboard is how we get exercise. Well, first of all, the car is NOT parked in the driveway. I would say that we get a bit more exercise walking up the dock to the parking lot. Even with the weather being less than conducive to being outside, when it is nice like yesterday, we are ready to take advantage of it.
As we drove down the road above Golden Gardens on the way home from school, the boys lobbied for a "scooter" down to the beach. We called our dock neighbors who also have scooters to see if they were game. Of course, they too, were ready to take advantage of the beautiful afternoon. After a quick stop by the boat to grab scooters and for Mom to change her shoes, we met up with the Ghostsailors and headed for the bike trail. The kids used more than a little energy cruising those scooters to Golden Gardens while the moms got in a nice brisk walk.

Finding Critters

Once at the beach at low tide, the kids couldn't help but find all the critters they could: crabs, eels and snails. The sun went behind a cloud on its way down and suddenly, it was much too cold to be playing in the water. We scootered back to the boat and warmed the kids up with some hot chocolate. I think we all got a pretty good a pretty good workout and maybe even a little marine biology, too!

Beach JOY!!!
Brought to you by
Bryce
Austin
Ellie
and
Zak

Capaz Crew Cooking

First flip

The Capaz crew worked hard in the galley today.

It started this morning with Bryce making breakfast for us all. There were directions to be read and improved upon and a new stove to learn how to use. (Bryce figured out Grammy-Sue's stove in Portland last week.) I think Bryce has been secretly studying his G-pa's technique for years. Anyway, he prepared scrumptious blueberry pancakes and grapefruit halves getting Brad out the hatch in plenty of time to make his 10 am showing this morning. Bryce has discovered that the flipping thing might be easier than it looks, but he is willing to try again to get more practice. This could work out well for the parents who actually love to sleep in.

Austin enjoys pancakes

Careful chopping

After a quick laundry run to the house I made it back home in time to take enjoy Austin's tuna salad sandwiches at lunch time. It is his favorite meal and he feels that it just doesn't come his way often enough. So today, he took matters into his own hands. He located the ingredients and so carefully (for his mother's sanity) chopped up the celery and onions using the really big sharp knife. Austin served up everyone a semi-custom order (Mom likes a pickle slice on the side, Bryce likes only the barest of minimums of mayo and Dad eats pretty much anything you put in front of him). Austin even made himself and Brad seconds on the sandwiches. I can tell now that the boys are going to be great helpers when we are cruising.

The last meal of the day was cooked by Mom. Nothing new there, but I sure appreciated that I didn't have to really go into the galley (except for a little advice, when asked here and there) until almost 6:00PM!

Chowing down on tuna salad