Fashion? On a Boat?

Just a warning to the guys:  This is a girlie rant.

This living on a boat is starting to cramp my style.  Now, I have never been a big follower of fashion, but a girl still likes to look good.

I have two drawers that hold my entire -- year around -- wardrobe.  I just recently unloaded everything and evaluated.  Half a re-usable shopping bag was filled to take to the re-sale store when we get to Friday Harbor.  That gives me just a little room to make some replacements.  Geez, most everything in there is YEARS old!  And the two pair of jeans I bought last fall are showing the wear.  The new Clarks clogs I got last fall are worn out.  Most of my sweaters were purchased while I was working -- is that three years ago now, or four?

What's holding me back?

Access to shopping, for one thing.  It's hard enough to find a real grocery store in our move-from-here-to-there life.  Malls are NEVER within walking distance!  And then there's the fact that my husband can find perfectly fitting jeans for $12.99 at Bi-Mart, making him absolutely abhorrant of my desire to buy the Not Your Daughter's Jeans I found at Macy's in Seattle for $120, no matter they fit me wonderfully.

I am looking for a replacement for those Clarks, too.  I visited two shoes stores here in Olympia's downtown.  I just couldn't see spending $200 for shoes clearly marked 'Made in China'.  I was much happier with the quality (real leather!) in the other store, but still the average price of the styles I liked was $200.

I suppose I could order some things online, but I won't be in a place to receive packages until November, or pick up mail at my daughter's house until December.

I think it's the feeling of the seasons turning that has me fussing about this.  In the summer, on a boat, everyone kind of expects you to wear shorts and tank tops -- they never go out of style.  But my sweaters are the oldest items in my wardrobe.  My dressiest pants are black jeans that are fading.

And my hair is another thing.  The grey is really getting thick!  I think the long, all-one-length, is the way to go for a boat style.  I have only had 5 haircuts since moving on the boat!  I often say I would like it better straight-er, or curly-er -- naturally.  My efforts to MAKE it curlier always go flat, within minutes, no matter the method used.  I guess I like straighter best anyway -- I think it is a little 'younger' look, even with the shine of the silver coming through.  It's just become a little -- boring, I guess.

I'm just frustrated.  Grrrr.

Canoe Journey Mural

When we were in Olympia in early July, we had a front row seat of these guys.  There are several murals around town, and we wondered if there was any special significance to this one.

 We are back in Olympia, in our favored spot.  And we can now see the completed work, AND the answer of the significance.  I will let the pictures speak to you:

FBR

Faceless Blog Reader, as fellow boater/blogger Hira calls them.

We had our first REAL one yesterday!  This is what we did to Hira last Fall.  And yesterday -- I am so sorry, he introduced himself, but I can't for the life of me remember what his name was -- came to the boat and said "We've followed your blog, and I had to come and say Hello!"

Unfortunately, Al was occupied with a work call, and our FBR had to get back to work himself, but I invited him to say HI on the blog sometime!  Our short conversation was very pleasant.  He and his wife have a new boat, and have essentially moved aboard while hoping to sell their house. And he said he hopes to come meet Al before we leave.  If you are reading -- stop by Sunday afternoon/evening, or maybe we could have coffee Monday morning?  I believe our email is on the profile page...

A quick update on our location and activities -- we pulled anchor in Oro Bay on Tuesday.  Another reason to love that place -- the chain came up clean!  I piloted the boat most of the way to Joemma State Park, and rarely saw another boat!  We arrived, figured out there were only two spots that could possibly accommodate us on the dock, due to the pole placement.  And after we got settled, found that we could not receive the Fox network there.  This will not do!  Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef were on that night -- the only two summer shows we have been following -- and I mistakenly thought it was finale night.

So, even though Al liked Joemma (plentiful blackberries played into that, I am sure), we moved on to Hope Island.

The weather was so fine, I wore swimsuits for two days and recharged my tan!  Shorts and a tank top were more appropriate for going to the city of Olympia, however.  Here is a picture shot while we filled the water tank, and sent to a friend's home-schooled kindergartener for a maps / social studies project, where she will look up where her friends and family live.

Bird Party!!!!!

OR 'Views Through the Window'?

First, a photo Al took when he was up from about 2AM til 7AM.  It is his reward for being up at those hours.  I am glad he thought to capture it to share with me, and also with you!

Now, you know I love my birdies!  This morning when I woke, I could hear them twittering, and see their shadows flitting by the window, and I knew we were once again host to a bird party!  I believe this is the greatest number we have seen on the boat.  Another 'view through the window':

I love their many expressions and poses.  Several times, while shooting an inordinate amount of photos, I must exclaim 'They are just so cute!"  I love them long and sleek, or puffed up and chubby!  And their shiny black eyes seem so full of curiosity.

And now, as with most parties, it's time to clean up the aftermath...

Poulsbo to Oro Bay

We had been looking forward to Poulsbo for a long time!  We had been told we would love it, it is a cute town, the bakery is wonderful, etc., etc.  It was all true!  We spent two lovely days here.  Al enjoyed a walk through the marine store.  We approved of the coffee at Cups Espresso - twice, where the owner told us to go ahead to Sluys Bakery and bring our goodies back to have with our coffee. We had an excellent dinner at Mor Mor, from appetizer to bottle of wine, to salad, entree and dessert -- I have not felt so stuffed in a long time.

I had heard so many pronunciations of this town's name, that I asked the barista what was proper.  'Paul's Bow'  is more correct than the 'Pools Bow' that I had been using.

Sunday morning we pulled anchor, and Al is once again motivated to install a wash-down pump -- sooner rather than later.  At least it is better than the wormy mud of Henderson Inlet, but Al's feet are all wet and his shoulders are aching from the many buckets it takes to rinse the goo from 150 feet of chain.

Al had been looking forward to visiting the submarine museum at Keyport.  That was our destination for Sunday, with plan to stop again at Illahee State Park for the night.  However, the guest dock at Keyport was occupied.  We WILL come back again on our way north, late September or early October.

It's only 11:00, so on we go past Illahee.  We usually just like to travel no more than 4 hours when we are on the move, so we had talked about several stops on our way south to Olympia  -- Illahee on Sunday, Blake Island on Monday (expecting turnover), perhaps Gig Harbor, then Eagle Island.  BUT, it was way too early to stop at Illahee, and Al didn't want to be at that dock with the parade of boats going by, and Blake was FULL.

I checked the tides and currents and saw that it would be favorable for us to go through the Tacoma Narrows if we chose to do so.  Al said 'Let's do it!'  I wondered, since we would be passing through near the 'max flood', whether we might exceed 10 knots.  The book said max flood would be a 3.8 knot current, added to our normal cruising speed of about 6 knots.  It would be close, but Al was doubtful....watch our SOG (Speed Over Ground) grow!

ELEVEN POINT ONE!  (It actually reached 11.2, but dropped too quickly for me to capture a photo).  This is the fastest Viking Star has ever traveled.  We had previously been to 10 knots  with the spring runoff below the Bonneville Dam.  WHEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee!

We took a peek at Eagle Island through the binoculars, but the east buoy was taken, so we went on to Oro Bay.  We like it here, and the sunset helped to reinforce this opinion.  Since we covered three days' worth of travel in only one day, we will remain at anchor here for another night, at least.  

Illahee State Park, and Poulsbo

We took over half of the available inside dock space at Illahee State Park, but hey, only one other boat came there the whole three days we were there, and he only picked up/dropped off.  There was, however, a  LARGE number of people who came to the dock to fish/squid jig/crab.

We walked up to the main campground and learned about Yew trees!

One night, a group of divers came down the dock, posted the 'diver down' flag, jumped in, and emerged some time later between the dock and the shore.  It was easy to mark their progress, following the bubbles...

Friday morning of the Labor Day weekend, things got to rocking and rolling on the dock!  We cast off, and joined the parade of boats up and down the passage.  Our destination was Poulsbo, and we enjoyed Sluys Bakery, Cups Espresso, and Mor Mor restaurant.  The night BEFORE the full, blue moon yielded the best photo...

Cost to Cruise - August

August came and went so fast, too fast in my mind.  But even so we spent money.  We are still on the higher side of our 2-3K/mo goal, but still within it!   This month had two notable activities impact costs:

• Travel (again) to Portland - Transportation, Moorage, and Dining Out reflect that.
• Purchased bottom paint in preparation for hauling out - Maintenance.

Actives also impacted the number of hours we used the Hurricane Heater.  During our two weeks of hosting at Blake we had access to (free - that is part of the Hosting Gig) electricity - so we mostly used the electric water heater.  And that week we were away in Portland, we also did not use the Hurricane.  I think this lack of motion is also reflected in the low number of main motor hours.

We continue to not need to fire up the Generator as the Solar Panels are working great.  In fact, the 157Ah/day average is above the predicted results for August.  But then in August there was NO RAIN - a 1st ever recorded in this part of the world - well, Ever being "Ever" if one only looks back 121 years :-)

In September we can look forward to another trip to Portland - plus the hauling of Viking Star at the end of the month. Days are getting shorter so we can likely see hours starting to creak up on the Hurricane heater -  plus I am sure there will come a cross over point where the Solar Panels no longer cover our needs.  Modeling predicts September to be only 99Ah/day, while October is only 50.