So it has been a soggy start to our 2020 boating season. Our State had a record January rainfall of 15.5 inches and so far February has been pretty wet as well. The rain doesn’t typically stop us from boating but it sure made for some unusual boating conditions. For the first time ever, we had to navigate through so much debris in Commencement Bay into our channel that we thought perhaps a log boom had come loose! As it turned out it was just hoards of logs and trees from the Puyallup River flooding. Despite these conditions we managed to get out for a few boating trips to the Foss Harbor Seaport with our Selene boating buddies, the Mackeys. We attended a Tacoma Power Squadron rendezvous in Gig Harbor and spent an evening at the the Tacoma Yacht Club.

In those three short weeks we had several boating maintenance items arise. At the TPS rendezvous while having our vessel safety check, we discovered our fairly new LED anchor light was barely alit and at 13ft high from the boat deck, its not a light that is easily replaced. That same weekend, our Hurricane diesel heater went out and we have yet to figure out what is wrong but the compressor is currently the number one suspect. Thank goodness for redundant systems, our heat pumps kept us toasty until our 30 amp shore power breaker went out too. Of course all of this has prompted a plethora of Amazon purchases for climbing ladders, harnesses, breakers and more to make the upcoming repairs.

On a more relaxing note, we experienced some really good times. During our Seaport weekend we had a really good meal at The Fish Peddler. Fish and Chips is always delicious there and the atmosphere is cozy and relaxed. We learned they did away with their seafood counter and now have a bar area. It seemed to be pretty popular and you can still order seafood through them. During our Gig Harbor visit we discovered a new little walking trail, visited the new Lucky Dog Outfitter store where we always spoil the doggos’ and we had new friends over for dinner onboard. At TYC (Tacoma Yacht Club) we were pleasantly surprised by the new pilings with navigation markers along with a new breakwater. We were able to break out our new puzzle caddy, designed to hold a 1000 piece puzzle and test it out. It worked great and was a very relaxing addition to boating in inclement weather. The Labradoodle’s tested out their new Canada Pooch slush suits which did a great job at keeping the majority of their bodies dry and clean.

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We set a few new goals for our 2020 boating, some which have not been so relaxing. The first is learning to Vlog! Since we have a drone and GoPro we decided we should try and put them to good use to capture our boating memories. I will say I’m so impressed with those folks that can do this well because its not easy. Talking on camera is a little intimidating and capturing footage is a learning experience, not too mention putting it all together in a cohesive video. We are definitely in the infancy stage and hope to improve! So until we get there, pardon our shared attempts!

The other big goal is for me (first mate) to learn to captain the boat better with the short term goal of eventually piloting R Lil’ Ship single handed from Tacoma to Seattle. Our long term goal of making our way to Iceland will require I can do this so I need to start now. So far I have successfully taken the boat out of the dock a few times, once without having to use the thrusters! I have docked R Lil’ Ship several times and put it back in the slip and I am s-l-o-w-l-y becoming more comfortable. Thank you to Doug Cochran for his wonderful instructional pivot videos! I still have a bunch to learn and having your spouse as teacher can sometimes lead to tense marital moments but I’m working on it.