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Us and our new "dream boat"
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We were convinced that fate had knocked us upside the head. We thought for sure we’d found the perfect 29’ steel sloop to carry us anywhere. We convinced ourselves not to let the little problems set us back, that we could fix them. We believed we did the right thing.
We were wrong. We’d just been knocked upside the head.
It all happened when we found out that the little 29’ steel Amazon
we had almost looked at two years ago just before buying Jenny P was once again on the market. We drove up to Vancouver B.C. to take a look at her. From the outside she wasn’t a bad sight, with new rigging and topside paint. Inside she didn’t look bad either, if you ignored her rusting and oily bilges. Perhaps it was Michael’s experience with his parents’ Amazon 37, or maybe it was the thought that we could pay cash for this boat and sail south this fall. This was the only Amazon 29 ever built...one of a kind! The nostalgia took over and we ignored other things, like her 20 gallon water tank, broken pilothouse window, and her v-berth that was just too short for anyone over 5’ tall.
No matter, we’d fix her up and sail her everywhere. We put down a deposit, hired a surveyor and ultrasound tester. When the reports came back good, we paid our cash and set sail from Vancouver to Seattle.
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A great delivery through the San
Juans
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Our first day out we had a blast, her strong motor pushed us along until we found some light winds, rolled out the sails and then sped along at 6 knots through the San Juan Islands. Really a fun sailor, we were delighted with our new boat. We spent the night in Friday Harbor, untangling ourselves in the v-berth all night. No matter; we’d add an extension. Sunday found us in Admiralty inlet, back in the sound. As soon as we got behind Whidbey island, we were greeted with 3-4’ wind waves, and what seemed like 30 knots on the nose.
For the next eight hours, we crashed into these waves, the Amazon pounding relentlessly, green water crashing on the pilothouse windows and into the cockpit. We were loving the inside steering. But then we noticed the saltwater dribbling steadily down from the hull portlights. We’d have to rebed those. Then our windshield wiper went out and we kicked ourselves for laughing at it earlier. I steered and Michael went up to check out the bow, which seem to reverberate like thunder each time we flew off a wave. He watched the steel flexing madly. Clearly, we’d have to add some reinforcements here…. After what seemed like days of pounding and crashing at 2 knots boatspeed, we made it to Shilshole and pulled her into her guest slip, tied her up and snuck back to Jenny P.
Continue to Part II...
-sdj-
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