I knew from a young age that i wanted to sail away. There is something about staring at the smallest inlet of Ocean water, and knowing it can lead you around the world. Its like the greatest highway man didn't even have to make! The dream of pulling into exotic ports, like Portland, and Los Angeles are dreams I can remember having as early as age 10. The ports may have gotten a little more exotic since then, with my dreams of Easter Island and Vietnam heading up my current list, but that excitement and thrill feels the same. How many dreams from our childhood still feel so real and the desire for them stay so strong?
Finding the person that would do that with me was very special. I can say that i hit the power ball when i met Marnee. I mean, who else can tell their girlfriend: "I found a boat I really want to buy, but it means spending the money I was saving up for your engagement ring, what do you think?"
Well o.k.... there are a lot of guys out there who would say that... but how many woman would say "Go for it!!!"?
maybe a handful... on the planet?
And if I was to further tell you that this would actually be the second boat we had bought, the first one still a hull-k of itself rotting away in our driveway, an everyday constant reminder of our failed first attempt at boat ownership, how many woman would jump in the car with you and say "lets go see it!"
Only one. My wife.
So rewind a little bit with me here.
We bought our first boat before we were married, This would turn out to be (to date) the biggest financial mistake of our lives. It would, in the end, teach us a lot about boat ownership, what and why we wanted a boat, and further more that some people were not meant to tow things behind a vehicle.
In June of 2006 we bought a 26 foot Bayliner 2655 Cierra. we were so excited!!! What we were not was knowledgeable! we slapped down the money pulled up with our Dodge Durango... and wait... There are different size ball hitches? We ran back into the store we had just spent $12000.00 dollars in and spent another $150.00 for ball and hitch! sweet! we hooked up and... really... the light plug on the boat did not match the light plug on the truck... another $50.00 and i was about to tow something for the first time.
Not just anything mind you, but a 9000 pound, over sized load, 14 foot tall beast on a trailer. I will save you the anticipation, we made it to the lake. How? I do not know.
Finding the person that would do that with me was very special. I can say that i hit the power ball when i met Marnee. I mean, who else can tell their girlfriend: "I found a boat I really want to buy, but it means spending the money I was saving up for your engagement ring, what do you think?"
Well o.k.... there are a lot of guys out there who would say that... but how many woman would say "Go for it!!!"?
maybe a handful... on the planet?
And if I was to further tell you that this would actually be the second boat we had bought, the first one still a hull-k of itself rotting away in our driveway, an everyday constant reminder of our failed first attempt at boat ownership, how many woman would jump in the car with you and say "lets go see it!"
Only one. My wife.
So rewind a little bit with me here.
We bought our first boat before we were married, This would turn out to be (to date) the biggest financial mistake of our lives. It would, in the end, teach us a lot about boat ownership, what and why we wanted a boat, and further more that some people were not meant to tow things behind a vehicle.
In June of 2006 we bought a 26 foot Bayliner 2655 Cierra. we were so excited!!! What we were not was knowledgeable! we slapped down the money pulled up with our Dodge Durango... and wait... There are different size ball hitches? We ran back into the store we had just spent $12000.00 dollars in and spent another $150.00 for ball and hitch! sweet! we hooked up and... really... the light plug on the boat did not match the light plug on the truck... another $50.00 and i was about to tow something for the first time.
Not just anything mind you, but a 9000 pound, over sized load, 14 foot tall beast on a trailer. I will save you the anticipation, we made it to the lake. How? I do not know.
This is her in all of her glory...
We got out on the lake and we were ecstatic. Fired up the engines and took friends and family on tours around banks lake for hours. I mean we didn't even care that it cost us $220 to fill its 70 gallon tank, we were boating!!!
That night we parked the boat on the dock and slept in style, dreaming of the day we were at anchor off the coast of Mexico. The next day however I had to go to work and I left Marnee on the boat and rushed away. it was maybe 3 hours later i received the call.
"Blaine, the boat is taking on water and is starting to sink."
The feeling of knowing this and knowing that i could not leave work for another 3 hours was a grueling form of torture not experienced outside of a hospital. When i was able to make it to the lake i see my lovely wife sitting on the dock calm as can be reading a book, while our boat sat really low in the water. A quick jump aboard would show a water level over two feet high in the cabin covering everything. I ran up and grabbed the truck and trailer and came back down to the dock praying that i could get it out of the water.
I will pause here and give you a first real lesson for boating, One that in my experience is global. It starts with a new vocabulary term:
Vocab term 1
Dock-Squawk-Box
Noun
Any form of male human, (always male) who knows everything about the art of boating, regardless of the type, style, or disposition of said boat, who will sit on the dock and squawk instructions on what you "should be doing" from the safety of their beer induced coma. These individuals will most often not even have a boat of their own, but if they do, they will be the ones living on a boat in the marina that has not moved in at least 3 to 4 years.
So now that you know the proper terms here is boating lesson number one according to us Gnomes:
Communicate with your crew.
Most decisions, in our opinion do not need to be made with lightning speed.Take the time to talk through the whats, whys and hows. Be honest about your feelings and say why you feel this way. It will help to get everyone on board and to practice those things you both might be uncomfortable with.
Even in this situation, where our boat is sinking, we have never once tried to get the boat on its trailer, and we had no less than 6 squawk Boxes chirping away at us; we took the time to evaluate the situation, discuss who felt comfortable doing what, who was in charge of each step and then we executed. Man i will tell you, we may have sunk our boat, on the first trip we ever took, but we can trailer like champs! If there was an Olympic event for boat trailing...
So we got the boat out of the water, on the trailer and immediately went into inspecting the boat. Did we hit a rock or underwater tree? was the hull cracked? The problem was apparent right away. In the back of the boat right beside the out drive was a one inch wide hole. From the hole poured a steady stream of once contained cabin water. I was dumbfounded, how did i manage to put a hole in my boat there? A perfectly round hole? A polished machine cut manufactured looking hole?
Vocab term 2
Boat plug
Noun
A round metal and rubber device that is made to fit in the hole that was drilled into the boat for sheer purpose of holding said plug.
Yep years later as i write this, the horror stories of a boat plugs are out there everywhere and as i read each and everyone of them i am filled with one thought.
The purpose of the boat plug, is to drain any water that may have inadvertently entered the boat while you are engaged in the wonderful world of boating. However the only stories i have ever read, where this plug has been a factor at all are those stories where the boat owner did not in fact have his boat plug and there for inadvertently allowed water to enter the boat. I think the manufactures of said boats should save the time money and effort into making this hole and plug relationship and should just sell their boats with a small bucket or recycled Tupperware container. And leave the darn hull solid.
With this trip over we made it home with our boat and were still the happy boat owners that were excited for the next trip. After heated words with the boat store where the boat was purchased, we digressed into the world of knowing we were responsible for not having a boat plug and decided to purchase one of these cool little dry cabin devices. We actually bought 2 of them and have one on a key chain. It seems to keep the keys dry even in the Pacific Northwest.
We made one more trip with this boat. A small little run to Sun Lake with family. Nothing noteworthy and a lot of fun except that stagnant lake water smell that had gotten into every nook, cranny and cushion.
But winter was coming, the demands of parenthood and employment saw us park the boat and decide on a complete overhaul of the interior. Take it down to bare fiberglass and rebuild it from the ground up. Design it 'our way'. We started stripping and cutting and tearing and ripping. and well then due to work reasons I got moved 290 miles away. stripped down to her birthday suit we backed up the new 2500 Chevy we had bought to tow it with and headed out to our new home on the ocean!
I made it 3 miles out of town before the boat ended up in front of the truck a hail of storage totes raining down on the freeway and a boat and a truck facing each other on the side of the highway.
Vocab term 3
Towing
Verb
1. The act of trying to stay in front of the vehicle larger than you, that you have intentionally placed behind you to ride your butt while driving.
2. the act of dragging something that does the opposite of what you want it to do, or the opposite of what you need it to do.
3. The art of checking your mirrors more than you look through your windshield.
The 'Bayliner' as she is called still sits, with its bent trailer, gutted cabin, and miscellaneous hull damage. She could still be fixable but she has become that ex girlfriend you just cant stand looking at anymore. The one that causes you to leave Safeway when you see her shopping. She did not detour us from our dream, nor sour us on the concept of boat ownership. We just plain soured on her. In this situation we treat it as a "its you not me" break up.
Even though inside we all know it was our fault.
Carpe Vitam
In June of 2011 after 3 more moves, we found ourselves in yet another port town with the desire to own a boat again. Oh come on let me be real with you, the truth is, the reality that we and the 'Bayliner'; were never getting back together set in, and we decided it was time to hit the clubs and start flirting with the idea of putting ourselves back on the market. We had learned a lot about boats on the internet by then and thought we would like to sail instead of power boat it.
We drove down to the tiny little Marina in Olympia called Boston Harbor, and listened intently as the owner told us all about the wonderful features of the boat. Well let me put this straight. The person who sold us the boat didn't actually own it. He had a payment plan with person B to buy said boat for the last year and was behind on his payments as well as his moorage. This little hickup almost caused us to not buy the boat as the name on the tittle did not match the name of the seller. A series of phone calls later a quick car ride, a check of the ID and $2900.00 later we owned a boat.
So what do you look for when you are buying a boat? Do you walk around kick the fenders? fire up the motor? Raise the sails? well, in truth i knew less than 1% of nothing about sail boats or what to look for in a boat. However i did ask about the boat plug and was assured the boat did not have one.
We know own a boat with less than a week to move it from Olympia to Port Orchard and neither of us had ever sailed before. Ok ok, neither of us had ever driven a boat on an ocean before. But that shouldn't matter right, i mean we got drunk one night and passed our boaters safety education card thingy the state made us do. Besides it wasn't that far of a drive.... er sail.. er motoring.
We got out on the lake and we were ecstatic. Fired up the engines and took friends and family on tours around banks lake for hours. I mean we didn't even care that it cost us $220 to fill its 70 gallon tank, we were boating!!!
That night we parked the boat on the dock and slept in style, dreaming of the day we were at anchor off the coast of Mexico. The next day however I had to go to work and I left Marnee on the boat and rushed away. it was maybe 3 hours later i received the call.
"Blaine, the boat is taking on water and is starting to sink."
The feeling of knowing this and knowing that i could not leave work for another 3 hours was a grueling form of torture not experienced outside of a hospital. When i was able to make it to the lake i see my lovely wife sitting on the dock calm as can be reading a book, while our boat sat really low in the water. A quick jump aboard would show a water level over two feet high in the cabin covering everything. I ran up and grabbed the truck and trailer and came back down to the dock praying that i could get it out of the water.
I will pause here and give you a first real lesson for boating, One that in my experience is global. It starts with a new vocabulary term:
Vocab term 1
Dock-Squawk-Box
Noun
Any form of male human, (always male) who knows everything about the art of boating, regardless of the type, style, or disposition of said boat, who will sit on the dock and squawk instructions on what you "should be doing" from the safety of their beer induced coma. These individuals will most often not even have a boat of their own, but if they do, they will be the ones living on a boat in the marina that has not moved in at least 3 to 4 years.
So now that you know the proper terms here is boating lesson number one according to us Gnomes:
Communicate with your crew.
Most decisions, in our opinion do not need to be made with lightning speed.Take the time to talk through the whats, whys and hows. Be honest about your feelings and say why you feel this way. It will help to get everyone on board and to practice those things you both might be uncomfortable with.
Even in this situation, where our boat is sinking, we have never once tried to get the boat on its trailer, and we had no less than 6 squawk Boxes chirping away at us; we took the time to evaluate the situation, discuss who felt comfortable doing what, who was in charge of each step and then we executed. Man i will tell you, we may have sunk our boat, on the first trip we ever took, but we can trailer like champs! If there was an Olympic event for boat trailing...
So we got the boat out of the water, on the trailer and immediately went into inspecting the boat. Did we hit a rock or underwater tree? was the hull cracked? The problem was apparent right away. In the back of the boat right beside the out drive was a one inch wide hole. From the hole poured a steady stream of once contained cabin water. I was dumbfounded, how did i manage to put a hole in my boat there? A perfectly round hole? A polished machine cut manufactured looking hole?
Vocab term 2
Boat plug
Noun
A round metal and rubber device that is made to fit in the hole that was drilled into the boat for sheer purpose of holding said plug.
Yep years later as i write this, the horror stories of a boat plugs are out there everywhere and as i read each and everyone of them i am filled with one thought.
The purpose of the boat plug, is to drain any water that may have inadvertently entered the boat while you are engaged in the wonderful world of boating. However the only stories i have ever read, where this plug has been a factor at all are those stories where the boat owner did not in fact have his boat plug and there for inadvertently allowed water to enter the boat. I think the manufactures of said boats should save the time money and effort into making this hole and plug relationship and should just sell their boats with a small bucket or recycled Tupperware container. And leave the darn hull solid.
With this trip over we made it home with our boat and were still the happy boat owners that were excited for the next trip. After heated words with the boat store where the boat was purchased, we digressed into the world of knowing we were responsible for not having a boat plug and decided to purchase one of these cool little dry cabin devices. We actually bought 2 of them and have one on a key chain. It seems to keep the keys dry even in the Pacific Northwest.
We made one more trip with this boat. A small little run to Sun Lake with family. Nothing noteworthy and a lot of fun except that stagnant lake water smell that had gotten into every nook, cranny and cushion.
But winter was coming, the demands of parenthood and employment saw us park the boat and decide on a complete overhaul of the interior. Take it down to bare fiberglass and rebuild it from the ground up. Design it 'our way'. We started stripping and cutting and tearing and ripping. and well then due to work reasons I got moved 290 miles away. stripped down to her birthday suit we backed up the new 2500 Chevy we had bought to tow it with and headed out to our new home on the ocean!
I made it 3 miles out of town before the boat ended up in front of the truck a hail of storage totes raining down on the freeway and a boat and a truck facing each other on the side of the highway.
Vocab term 3
Towing
Verb
1. The act of trying to stay in front of the vehicle larger than you, that you have intentionally placed behind you to ride your butt while driving.
2. the act of dragging something that does the opposite of what you want it to do, or the opposite of what you need it to do.
3. The art of checking your mirrors more than you look through your windshield.
The 'Bayliner' as she is called still sits, with its bent trailer, gutted cabin, and miscellaneous hull damage. She could still be fixable but she has become that ex girlfriend you just cant stand looking at anymore. The one that causes you to leave Safeway when you see her shopping. She did not detour us from our dream, nor sour us on the concept of boat ownership. We just plain soured on her. In this situation we treat it as a "its you not me" break up.
Even though inside we all know it was our fault.
Carpe Vitam
In June of 2011 after 3 more moves, we found ourselves in yet another port town with the desire to own a boat again. Oh come on let me be real with you, the truth is, the reality that we and the 'Bayliner'; were never getting back together set in, and we decided it was time to hit the clubs and start flirting with the idea of putting ourselves back on the market. We had learned a lot about boats on the internet by then and thought we would like to sail instead of power boat it.
We drove down to the tiny little Marina in Olympia called Boston Harbor, and listened intently as the owner told us all about the wonderful features of the boat. Well let me put this straight. The person who sold us the boat didn't actually own it. He had a payment plan with person B to buy said boat for the last year and was behind on his payments as well as his moorage. This little hickup almost caused us to not buy the boat as the name on the tittle did not match the name of the seller. A series of phone calls later a quick car ride, a check of the ID and $2900.00 later we owned a boat.
So what do you look for when you are buying a boat? Do you walk around kick the fenders? fire up the motor? Raise the sails? well, in truth i knew less than 1% of nothing about sail boats or what to look for in a boat. However i did ask about the boat plug and was assured the boat did not have one.
We know own a boat with less than a week to move it from Olympia to Port Orchard and neither of us had ever sailed before. Ok ok, neither of us had ever driven a boat on an ocean before. But that shouldn't matter right, i mean we got drunk one night and passed our boaters safety education card thingy the state made us do. Besides it wasn't that far of a drive.... er sail.. er motoring.
Sooo in case you are that one person reading this who we don't know, who has never been to the Pacific northwest this is the wonderful short route we took. Google maps has it just over 50 Nautical miles. I did some quick math and decided it would be best to be safe and break this trip down into two parts. We researched marinas along the way and had alternate stops picked along the way just in case, but our goal was to reach Breakwater Marina by the end of the first day.
We did what any sensible rookies would do when they decide to do for the first time and decided to bring along an expert for our first trip. Realizing rather fast that neither of us knew any experts we called my buddy who knew less about boats than we did. Misery loves company right?
So we set sail with 3 subway sandwiches two gas cans and a case of diet Pepsi hell bent on the greatest trip of our lives.
What I can say is we got exactly what we wanted. Our trip started with a Dolphin jumping 5 feet from the stern of our boat within 2 or 3 minutes of leaving the dock. and we were escorted out of the harbor by two sea otters. The sun was out the sky was blue and everything was going great. Soooo great in fact we decided to raise the mainsail right about the time we started going past Harstine Island. We hooked on the halyard and hoisted away.
We did what any sensible rookies would do when they decide to do for the first time and decided to bring along an expert for our first trip. Realizing rather fast that neither of us knew any experts we called my buddy who knew less about boats than we did. Misery loves company right?
So we set sail with 3 subway sandwiches two gas cans and a case of diet Pepsi hell bent on the greatest trip of our lives.
What I can say is we got exactly what we wanted. Our trip started with a Dolphin jumping 5 feet from the stern of our boat within 2 or 3 minutes of leaving the dock. and we were escorted out of the harbor by two sea otters. The sun was out the sky was blue and everything was going great. Soooo great in fact we decided to raise the mainsail right about the time we started going past Harstine Island. We hooked on the halyard and hoisted away.