May 22, 2000 - Goodbye Seattle!
Whew.
We finally made it out of Seattle. We didn't think it would happen at several points over the past few extremely hectic weeks. Our last day at work was a huge milestone on April 26th, and we knew that our trip to Juneau was really going to happen. Our wedding was the following weekend at the North Head Lighthouse in Ilwaco, Washington with our close family and friends. It was simply a marvelous celebration.
Of course, the beginning of our last week of work, we pulled Jenny P into the boatyard to have her bottom painted and replace the packing material in the shaft. However, when Michael got down in the lazerette to inspect the shaft, he found the cutlass bearing loose and the shaft pitted. After some debate we decided to have the shaft and cutlass bearing replaced by the yard since we were already hauled out and didn't want to risk any problems in the wilderness up north.
The week following the wedding we took a road trip to California through the Sierras, down to Lake Tahoe, through Camino where Michael grew up, and through San Francisco. It was a whirlwind tour of Northern California, but we got in touch with some good friends and family members and it was really enjoyable.
Upon our return, we had expected to find the work completed on Jenny P, but were disappointed to find chips in the gelcoat around the prop remaining, and not so minor -- the steering quadrant had been put on upside down. So we spent the next four days monitoring Seaview boatyard in getting the boat back together correctly. When we finally did put Jenny P back in the water, as Michael started to steer out of the slings Jenny P began drifting to starboard. As Michael cranked the wheel to port, she only drifted to starboard more until we found ourselves perpendicular to the haul out slip. The boatyard had wired the steering backyards. Once again, we tied up and had the boatyard working on the steering again.
The next two weeks flew by with boat project after boat project -- redoing the steering ourselves (right!), varnishing, cleaning the black stains off from the boatyard, cleaning out our storage unit, buying supplies and spare parts, organizing, repairs, repairs, repairs, saying good-byes to friends. Before we knew it, the day before our departure was here and off we flew to Costco to buy a carload of groceries. We had most of everything packed away on the boat on Sunday night when we realized that Xena, our cat, was missing. We walked all over the marina calling for her, but heard no familiar cries in response.
We spent our last night in Seattle worrying about out little cat. She must have been freaked out from all the visitors, the boat being all disorganized and darted off. We wondered how long we would stay to look for her.... Gladly we found her the next morning shivering on a powerboat several docks down. A few showers and loads of laundry, diesel tanks full we set off -- only a few hours behind schedule. The wind was marvelous as we sailed north out of Seattle to Camano Island where we were to spend our next two nights.
This morning, we woke up swinging on our hook, sunlight streaming through our portholes, on our journey at last.
-sdj-
