This
would turn out to be one very, very long day.
It started with a 6:00 a.m. flight out of Houston, with a layover in
Phoenix. In order to avoid potential
hassles with checked bags, I shipped a package of stuff to myself care of
Anacortes Yacht Charters a couple of weeks ago.
That worked well! All flights were
on time, and nobody missed their flight.
As our flight descended into SeaTac, we
could clearly see all of the major peaks of the Cascades, including Mt. Shasta
(in California), Hood (in Oregon), Adams, St. Helens, Rainier, and several
major rivers. (Side note: St. Helens erupted when we lived here, back
in 1980.) Actually, Joan was the one rattling off all these geographic
landmarks. She impressed me greatly with
her 30-plus-year recollection of all these places. And already this was one very picturesque adventure.
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| Mt. Rainier, from the air |
At the airport, Joan, Mitch, & I met
up with Robert & Michelle, and got our rental minivan. Then we picked up Emily & Caroline in
Seattle. Now seven crewman had
successfully converged from all over the country, and finally we were all together. Onward to Anacortes!
Mt. Baker revealed itself as we drove
northward on I-5. In the coming days, we
would be seeing lots of this majestic peak, located just 40 miles east of
Anacortes.
Our skipper orientation session with
Anacortes Yacht Charters (AYC) was to begin promptly at 4:00 pm, with several
other groups beginning their charters today. Emily, Mitch, and I would attend that. But we could not take possession of our boat
and start loading up until this was complete.
So the rest of the crew, and all these piles of gear, bags, and
groceries had to wait ....
Finally, an hour-and-a-half later, we all
went down the dock to slip# E-59 to meet our boat Escape, and George, her owner.
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| Meet Escape |
Wow - she is a beauty! Escape
is a 36-ft Bavaria, which is a German boat-maker. She has two queen-sized cabins astern (under
the cockpit), a double V-berth cabin up in the forepeak, head (bathroom which
doubled as a shower stall), and a nice & roomy salon and galley with refrigerator,
water pump, water heater, and lots & lots of storage space. I've been aboard many monohulls this size,
but this one amazed me with how well the designers used space so that the
galley didn't feel cramped. And it was all in immaculate condition!
The exterior featured a dodger with
transparent front and side panels, four self-tailing winches, and a 145% genoa on a roller-furler. For the dinghy, there was a motor-mount on
the stern rail and a davit. The
cockpit's design had one aspect, however, that I do not particularly agree
with: NONE of the control lines led back
to the helm, which means it would be impossible to sail her
single-handedly. I don't exactly know
why boat designers do this.
Our boat orientation with George went for
nearly three hours, and included some actual docking maneuvers with me at the
helm. He was friendly, professional, and
clearly very proud of his well-maintained vessel. And I was impressed with Escape's nimbleness!
Bareboat charters are tons of fun and a
relatively inexpensive way to enjoy the cruising lifestyle for a limited time
period without the hassles of boat ownership.
But the hard part is having to cram all the things that a boat owner
would do over a period of weeks, or months, into just a few hours. This includes: knowing all the boat's systems, including
engine, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, sail controls, ect, plus docking and
handling and sail controls. Then you
gotta get moved in, get all your stuff organized and stowed, and know where
everything is. Oh, and there's some
paperwork, too.
Once the boat orientation was complete and we
bade him farewell, the sun was going down.
But there was still lots of organizing down below to get done. But I and the crew were exhausted, brain
dead, and starving. A lot of it would
just have to wait till morning. Yet, our
diligent and capable Galley Queens still managed to prepare for us all a
wonderful concoction to quell our needful tummies.
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| In Escape's cockpit at sunset. From left: Emily, Caroline, Michelle |
After supper, Emily and Caroline decided
to take a dinghy tour of the marina.
They hopped in and fired it up - but didn't get far before the motor
started spewing fuel, died, and would not re-start. Major problem - but it would have to wait for
tomorrow.
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| Joan in the cockpit at sunset |
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