Category Archives: Pondering

Buying a Boat: daunting, but fabulous

Let’s see, where do I start to tell this tale of how I came to own a boat. Not just any boat, but a big one. My first would be a 47 foot, 25 foot beam, 71 foot mast catamaran. It began with romance as many good tales do. I met Michael in 2010, several years after I lost my husband, Mike, to cancer. As my grief faded, I began to say yes to life again.

Michael lived in a townhouse with a boat dock, a Cape Dory 30 and a charming cat, Max. Now, I am a 4th generation California girl, love the water, swimming, the mystery and allure of the ocean, but had been sailing less than one hand worth. Not long in (perhaps 2nd date) Michael shared with me his lifelong dream of going cruising. Wow, I never heard of this, didn’t know people did this sort of thing. I cheered him on. I’m all for dreams and going for it— or at least cheering on others to do so. Not knowing where our relationship would go yet, I still encouraged this dream of his. As our courtship blossomed, the dream of a cruising adventure became mine too, still barely knowing what a halyard did. Next thing I know, I’m taking sailing lessons, with bruises to prove it, in the “slot”; my vacation days revolved around visits to marinas, walking on potential cruising vessels found on Yacht World (yachts are for the rich & famous, no?). I’m intrigued and excited. Sharing this adventure captured me. I am a romantic, but still I had fearful moments of Whoa- I don’t know how to sail, what am I doing? my god, I took my first sailing lesson on a dingy with a sail on Lake Merritt in Oakland. Michael was impressed with my initiative, but I cautioned, “Lake Merritt is not the South Pacific”. But, we all start somewhere, even at 50.

Fast forward – we were in love, engaged to marry, we settled on Catamarans versus Monohulls, we found New Moon after another deal fell through. We flew to Tacoma to meet her and the owners, Dean & Deanna, and were charmed by both. I slept restlessly, before the sea trial. New Moon was big and I’m not. There were so many ropes labeled in French; the brokers, the owners, Michael, all were talking and I was swirling amidst the boat linguistics. Deanna, well meaning, was talking about how to water the batteries and how to flush the toilet and how to manage the big ball fender when docking – and I’m thinking -WHAAAT, while smiling confidently -“yes, of course.” I’m sure I looked as shell shocked as I felt, as much as I tried to fake it. Still,I knew that I wanted this boat and the adventure and believed that it would work out. I believed in saying yes to this, when perhaps logic would have said, I don’t think so. Soon, my shell shocked gaze was replaced with a knowing grin. She’s now called Footloose and me too. We are cutting the dock lines on August 1 2016. Let’s go.

SuciaLisa2

The Sea Lions of Astoria

Leave a reply

Sea lion deterrent

We arrived in Astoria, Oregon on the first of September to a harbor infested with sea lions. Several of the docks are sinking under the weight of thousands of huge animals. The first order of business was to build a visual deterrent to keep the beasties off the boat.

When we arrived a large sailboat, a few slips down, had three sea lions on her coach roof which was sagging under their weight. They had climbed from the dock onto the boat.
The sea lions bark constantly, 24/7, the only way to sleep on your boat is with construction earplugs. Lying awake you can almost hear the words. Their voices seem to consist of about 6 notes, the notes are “barked” in a series of up to about 5. In my mind the notes are letters and each series of barks a word. I imagine the conversation to be something like. Hey you are lying on me fatso. I was here first. Make room. I’m bigger than you. Arp aarp urp. They make up for content with constancy.
Imagine the shock of finding a 5 foot tall sea lion standing in your path on the head float at night. Intimidating to say the least. They do eventually give way by jumping into the water. Interestingly a barrier of construction ribbon on a wooden stake about 18 inches high was enough to keep a thousand pound sea lion from coming onto the dock. As soon as a stake is knocked over however, all bets are off and they scramble to make themselves comfortable.
The sea lions are a hot topic in Astoria. There is a Sea Lion Preservation committee that wants the port to abandon the Marina to the creatures. They post “observers” on the causeway every day to watch for wrong doing against the sea lions. On weekends depending on the weather, as many as 100 tourists come to view the sea lions. The port tries to charge them $5.00 for parking, but most do not pay.
Pro sea lion forces want the port to abandon the marina including its est. $100M sea wall. They claim that any damage to the fishery is more than offset by the vast increase in tourist revenue brought by the sea lion “attraction.”
Anti-sea lion forces claim that sea lions have decimated the salmon runs killing salmon by biting out just the belly of the fish, apparently the best part. A man who dove on our boat to inspect our zincs told me he used to be a commercial fisher and had enjoyed killing “hundreds” of sea lions, sometimes leaving them draped on navigation buoys where they had hauled out.
Both sides of the issue are rabid in their beliefs. Meanwhile the government brands the sea lions as they appear and have a program to cull the greedy ones. Pro sea lion forces claim a relentless slaughter but I read somewhere that the program had killed a total of 50 sea lions in the life of the program….years.

Big ones are Stellars, Sleek ones are California

The tide never gets us if we sleep on a dock

My Dock

The Journey Begins

5 Replies

Mom and Dad, on Shearwater

I have been wanting to go cruising my whole life. My dad spoke of building a ferrocement boat and sailing the south pacific. His words, when I was 15, gave me a life long desire to make this journey. At times, the possibility seemed dim with seasick partners, the struggles of a small business, the world seemed to conspire to make this already difficult goal impossible to obtain.

Years after the death of my first wife Sandy, I met Lisa who is open to the adventure and promise of this journey. We slowly set about putting the plan in action. We sold my wonderful Cape Dory “Shearwater” and began the search for an appropriate cruising vessel. We spent 2 years visiting monohulls up and down the coast in California with our agent, and friend, Allison Lehman. During one stop, we check out a multihull “Mantra”, a huge boat in less than pristine condition. We offer, but the deal falls through because the seller’s broker wanted both halves of the deal and pulls a buyer out of his back pocket. We look at a beautiful Catana 472, but I am too tall to stand in front of the stove…I love to cook.

After that visit we spend two hours talking to the broker in the cockpit, (we call it the porch.) We talk about cruising and multihull design. As Lisa and I walk away we realize how comfortable the porch was. The elevated view of the surrounding marina, the protection afforded by the bimini overhead. We realize a Catana is the way to go.

We visit Santosha in Ventura and offer. Santosha is a 471 with the same great deck layout as a 472 but I can stand in front of the stove! We offer, but the Seller seems to be conflicted. He obstructs every step. In the end, after a 3000 dollar survey, we abandon the deal. In our view, the seller is completely unreasonable or perhaps just not ready to part ways with his boat.

After a “cooling off” period, we offer on a 471 in Seattle. We get the deal in November 2013. The boat sits in the brokers slip while I sell my optometry practice. Two weeks after the sale, I’m off to start working on the boat. We finally found her, and later christened her Footloose!