Below is a short film documenting my visit to this year’s Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. I lived up to my promise to Stamps-With-Foot again this year and did not buy a wooden sailboat, but there was 2-3 in my price range (and about 100 waaayyy out of it…) that made me drool.
Tag: Sailboat
A Weekend On and Around Puget Sound
I spent this past weekend ignoring my grass, projects in the house, and garage organization/completion and took to the road.
Saturday afternoon found me at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. There were no puppies allowed at the show, so Stamps-With-Foot stayed at home for a grueling round of puppy sitting/reading in the sunshine duty. Despite a serious and prolonged case of Wooden Boat Lust, I succeeded in not buying a wooden sailboat at the show. It was the ONE thing that my wife made me promise before leaving the house, which means that since I was able to fight off the boat-buying minor demon on my shoulder, am staying married.
While packing/planning the night before going to the festival, I decided it was a fine venue to work on a short YouTube film ( which will be uploaded by Friday), so I took a couple of GoPros, camera mounts, my drone, four extra SD cards, and a bunch of batteries. The weather kind of sucked, but between pockets of rain/mist I shot the whole festival and some of the boats out on the water from the sky as well as the dock-side happenings.
There were so many cool boats and interesting folks in for the weekend! My favorite trailer-sailor, OPUS, was there and the museum boat PIRATE from the Seattle CWB made it. I really enjoyed talking to Tim Lemon, the owner of a Devlin Sloop named MR. MALLARD. His sculling prowess on a sailboat is impressive. Designer and builder Graham Byrnes, of the cat ketch CARLITA was probably my favorite builder that I talked to. I would definitely buy a boat from him if not for the above mentioned promise to my wife… Pygmy Boats has a stitch&glue wineglass wherry rowboat that I would love to spend part of the winter building and I MAY be putting some funds back to do just that. Howard Rice and his Scamp SOUTHERN CROSS had a fantastic story story to tell about adventures in Terra del Fuego. Really enjoyed the Festival and love Port Townsend! Stamps-With-Foot is definitely coming next year.
Side note: If Lee Bjorklund & Larry Goerss ever decide to sell OPUS, my wife has given me permission to buy her. She is the only wooden sailboat that I am “allowed” to purchase. Just saying is case Lee and Larry and hankering to move on…
Sunday afternoon was spent on Vashion Island and both my bride and the furry monsters puppies came with. We really like the island and the coffee produced by Vashion Island Roasters. After a short ferry ride, we went over, drove a round a little, took in the sites, had lunch near the marina, and bought 10lbs of Guatemalan medium-roast coffee. We sampled the goods while there, played a little chess, and split a cinnamon roll before heading back to the ferry and back home for dinner.
Film Friday – Lincoln Park in West Seattle, Washington
OK, so it is not Friday, but I started working on this video Friday night… Does that count?
Lincoln Park in West Seattle is one of my favorite spaces in all of the Seattle metro area. It is a phenomenal urban space: Stamps-With-Foot and I go there all the time just to hang out, I used to run there along the beach and through the trees in the mornings, it was my first outing after hip surgery, our monsters puppies love it there, it is romantic, great for picnics, strolling hand and hand along the beach, a fine hour+ long hike after work, a protected kayak launching point, good fishing spot when the salmon are running (the pink run started earlier this week…), there is a public pool, bald eagles nest in the trees along the shore, and sometimes I go and watch the sunset from on e of the many benches when I have had a bad day. I hope this little film captures part of the magic of the place.
Film Friday – Sailing Video Adventures
I follow the YouTube feed/adventures of three around the world sailors. Thought I would share:
New Summer Vacation Plans
My summer plans have been changed for me. I had planned out another summer vacation spent with The Ruminator, but he is 16 now and has decided that he wants to stay home in Arkansas and be a lifeguard for the summer. I get it, I am his boring dad and it is hard for me to compete with ladies in swimsuits for the summer. I had pigeon-holed some time off and funds for sailing lessons/trip, diver certification for him, some diving, and ending the summer with a rock climbing road trip all the way down the west coast. While all that sounds cool to me, I am not a handsome young man facing all the unsaid possibilities of tanned ladies in my close proximity, hanging on my every word for 2.5 months.
I now I find myself, for the first time in 14+ years, in a place where my yearly vacation time is my own and I can spend some time/money taking my wife and myself someplace where it will be just be just the two of us – cue the romantic accommodations, bubbling hot tub, chilled champagne, soft candle light, and put Barry White on the turntable. As an aside, my wife felt super sorry for me over the canceled summer plans and after a glass of wine, she has agreed that I can buy a sailboat to soothe my wounded heart. I almost fell over stone cold dead from the shock of her statement and recorded her saying it a second time for legal reasons 🙂
I flew down to San Diego last week and took a look at a 33’ sloop-rigged blue water boat for sale in the marina. It has way too many issue that need to be addressed to make any serious passages and I am not willing to spend the time covered in fiberglass bits, retrofitting a 15 year old toilet, huffing hull paint, and wading in stagnate bilge water. While a steal of a deal for what the boat is/could be, I will keep looking.
Right now though, I am thinking of starting the summer with a little road trip to see her family in Oregon, wine tasting in the Willamette Valley, and a couple of days taking advantage of my friend Dr. G’s house and hospitality in Northern California. There will be a long weekend in the Bay Area and Napa with friends and family. We are also going to make a good part of the local Washington/Oregon festival circuit this summer.