S/V Adventurer

Any time a happy couple says “we have big news to share”, the immediate reaction is generally “you're pregnant!” Well, unless Dr. Snip didn't snip the right parts, our big news has nothing to do with a bun in the oven. Trust me when I say that Dr. Snip snipped something, it was torturous, and I'm glad I never have to go through that again. Our big news has to do with some excitement that is coming our way pretty quickly. As you probably know by now, when we make a plan, there are pretty good odds that the plan isn't going to stick. In the last episode of my usual rambling, I made mention of our intentions of sailing around the Northwest for the rest of the summer until the weather didn't want us here anymore. I had talked about hopping in the RV and heading out on the open road by way of Banff, Glacier NP, Rocky Mountain NP, Washington DC, the Everglades, etc... I knew I should have kept my mouth shut on all of that stuff because it looks like the major...

Before I get into this little update, I want to respond to a couple of questions that keep popping up in my email's inbox. I have heard from various people in the past year and a half that they can't seem to figure out how to leave a comment on the blog. Well, the bad news is that I have no idea how to do it either. We've tried to leave a comment of our own just to see if it can be done, and we've tried to respond to the comments that other people who are smarter than us have left, but for some reason, we can't figure it out. It just doesn't seem to work when coming from our computer. I've been told it has something to do with our security software, but really, I don't know what that means or how to fix it???  We do however love to hear from those of you who have figured it out so feel free to comment all you want and please don't be offended when we don't respond...we don't know how. The second order of business that we should...

Every once in a while someone has a terrible idea. Generally that idea comes from me and I do my best to convince everyone around me that my idea was great. My convincing doesn't usually work because the only person around me is more often than not Brenda, and as she will tell you, this isn't her first rodeo. I'm pretty sure it's not her first rodeo because she grew up near Spokane in eastern Washington and I think all they do out there is wear cowboy boots and ten gallon hats, tip over cows, and then rope them...you know, rodeo stuff. Well this terrible idea that I am going to tell you about is luckily from someone else. I may have had a very slight contribution to the idea, but really, my contribution had a few degrees of separation. If you have been following along this blog or if you know me well, you probably know that I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I'm not going to lie or try to hide it because it's true and if you are fully aware of it...

I honestly have no idea who is reading this nonsense. My assumption is that the majority of you are not boaters. Since that is my assumption and no one is speaking up to tell me otherwise, I am going to give you a quick lesson on what could be the 2 greatest things about boating in the Northwest. The first of these 2 greatest things is the “Raft-Up”. The official definition of the “Raft-Up” has never made it into Webster's Dictionary for some odd reason, so it has become my duty as a Northwest sailor to enlighten the rest of the world. Here you go...and remember, this is an official definition from me, not Webster's. Raft-Up: to anchor multiple boats in a calm bay, tying them together, whereby making a raft. Yep, that about sums it up. There are some nuances that aren't made very clear in the official definition so this has also become my duty to enlighten the rest of the world on some very important facts that make a successful raft-up. Firs...

Every once in a while my meager brain has a hard time remembering things. You might be surprised by this because I probably seem overly brilliant. It's true, I am. But even with my brilliance, I sometimes forget simple words. Usually when such a word is forgotten, my brain digs into it's built in thesaurus and comes up with another equally fitting word to describe whatever it is I'm talking about and all in the world seems right again. Sometimes in our family, the new word that was just used becomes the permanent way to describe whatever I was trying to describe in the first place. Case in point...connectors. There is a body part that is smack dab between your foot and your shin. Right now I am pointing to it, so if you were here, you would know exactly what I am talking about. You may not need the finger pointing to deduce that what I am talking about is an ankle. About 12 months ago, during one of our marathon hikes, I was so exhausted that I couldn...

About a week ago, I mistakenly requested a little excitement. I had mentioned that this bit of sailing through the San Juan's that we were doing was just a little too easy. I think that I had mentioned the weather was mostly benign, so we really don't have to even check the reports. I think I even went so far as to ask for someone to send up a little squall to liven things up for us. Whoever sent up the wind and the waves, I take it back. I'm sorry. It was a joke. Enough already. Maybe you could leave us some of the wind and waves but take a good solid 20 knots off the top and we'll call things great. Or better yet, if you feel like you want to leave us with the wind and the waves, just leave them for daylight hours. Take them back at night and for God Sake's, let us sleep. Right after I had asked for that glorious little bit of excitement, we got it. There is a mysterious phenomenon that I have never understood. When out on a large body of water,...

Twas the night before Thursday, and all through the boat, not a creature was stirring, not even a goat. It was half past midnight, when all came undone, the lack of sleeping that was happening, was nowhere close to fun. Up through the rigging, came a whiz and a whir, that woke this girl and boy from sleeping, it caused quite a stir. We sprang from our beds, we dashed out to see, still dizzy from slumber, what oh what could it be. Of course the panties were off, the clothes didn't matter, we looked around to see, if we should haul up the anchor and scatter. The anchor was holding, our neighbors were still there, we took a peek through the binoculars, but didn't spot a bear. We decided to wait, till the sun it was shining, to leave our little bay, because for now I was whining. “Oh why oh why, would you wake me from dreaming?”, this little storm in the night, it had me screaming. The wind and the waves, they got bigger and badder, the wind and the...