The story of the boat

A post with nothing to do about babys.

I'm a boat nut. I love boats. Years ago, I bought a coronado 15' sailboat, Sunshine Daydream, that we've had a lot of fun with. I started racing it in the evening races here in Port Orchard a few years ago, and one of my first races, I talked a friend of mine, Cody, into coming along who'd never sailed before. The first thing he said when we were lining up for the start, and the 30' and 35' foot boats dwarfed us, was "We need a bigger boat". Cody found a San Juan 7.7 (26' long) on craigslist that had been sitting neglected in Liberty bay, and bought it. Over the past two years, he's done quite a bit of work to it, and we've been racing in the West Sound Sailing Series as well as many other club races. She's been a fun boat.

During the last race, last season (end of june), we were nearing the start, and got hit by another boat. We were on the right of way tack, but should have seen the other guy coming. The guy who we hit is a friend of ours, so everything was cool. Both boats were insured, so no big deal. The damage to Cody's boat was moderate, but nothing that couldn't be fixed... when I'd bought Sunshine Daydream, she was in sad shape, so over the years, I've gotten pretty good at doing fiberglass repairs. Functional repairs... not nessecarily pretty ones. So long story short, he got paid for his boat by the insurance company since professional fiberglass is really expensive, and we put an ugly, but functional patch on it. Over the summer, he's decided one again, he needs a bigger boat, this time something he can actually stand up inside of, and was ready to get rid of the San Juan. Since it wasn't in perfect shape, he said, I can have it if I want it.

Owning a boat on this side of the state is expensive. Moorage isn't cheap, and with salt water, the boat is in a constant state of decay, so maintenance takes a lot of time. It's always been a dream of mine and my uncle Chads to have a 26' boat on lake chelan, where it's fresh water, and much drier during the winter. We realized we couldn't pass up the opportunity. The logistics were pretty challenging seeing as how winter is closing in for a trip over the pass, we had to do it cheap, had no trailer, or a place to park the boat on the lake in the winter when the lake level drops. And on top of it all, Cammy was due with baby any day.

But as with everything in life, sometimes you've just got to "seize the day" and go for it.

On Monday Chad found a trailer in Chelan he could borrow for a few days, via a community radio program. He's planned to take the whole week off anyway, so the timing was good. Tuesday, I took the day off, motored the boat from Brownsville to Port Orchard, where it was hauled out, and placed on the trailer. In a few hours, we had the mast stepped, and she was ready for a trip across the pass. A tire failure on Tiger Mountain and repair in North Bend later, and the boat safely arrived in Chelan, where Chad got her re-rigged and in the water. On saturday, he even found a place to moor her over the winter via his insurance agent, who just happens to also be the president of a private marina. Since most people pull their boats out in the winter, they were happy to work out a deal with us!

Yeah, it's been a great week. A beautiful baby girl and a sailboat on Lake Chelan... what more could a Daddy possibly ask for!