July's Log
July 1, 2002
I awake in Tom and Laurie’s house. This waking in other’s houses is confusing.
The view is great and I can see an eagle from the bedroom window. I am moving
slow and procrastinating in going to the doctor for my elbow. I slip into the
hot tub and eventually make it down the road. After the doctor I am armed with
more anti-inflammatory and antibiotics drug for an elbow with Bursitis and
infection. I head to Bellevue and pick up the first electronics to be repaired,
the SSB and tuner. I head for Sandra’s home where we have dinner and great talk.
During the previous six years Sandra would come to dinner in our house in
Ballard and the three of us would talk for hours.
July 2, 2002
Liz was at her parents and I am in Seattle staying with Sandra. Liz’s parents
are celebrating their 47th wedding anniversary tonight. Liz’s mom gets Liz’s
birthday (June 2, 1956) and her wedding day (July 2, 1955) mixed up and once a
priest was quite shocked.
I head to M&I Systems where Dick the owner and I talk about the lightning and
look at the multi-meter results I that I took on the boat from each of the
breakers. There are 10 LED lights that are burned out but they can’t be fixed
from the boat. I purchase 10 breakers and head to Seattle Fabrics. At the fabric
store I purchase a bunch of webbing to replace our lifeline straps and wide
stuff for sewing a new boat cover. I return Tom’s truck that he was very
gracious to allow me drive it, and Sandra picks me up at Microsoft. Sandra and I
head off to do her work and eventually we meet up for a great Tai dinner and
have a beer with Pete Huddelson and his friends.
July 3, 2002
Liz arrives at Sandra’s house and we load up and head to Portland, Oregon. We
are driving a mini-van and the vehicle makes Liz drive like a senior citizen. We
first stop at Rodger’s Marine where we had purchased our modem that allows us to
send emails and receive weather charts. Marty Kirk the electronics guru tests
our modem and we believe that it is fine. This would be the only electronic
piece that survived the lightning strike that wasn’t in a Pelican Box. We head
to Sandy’s where we reacquaint ourselves with Riley our dog. Riley is very very
shy around us and looks to Sandy for reassurance. Later in the evening she warms
to us but won’t sleep with us.
July 4, 2002
The morning finds us in another house and we are eventually heading to Scott and
Marisa’s for a Fourth of July party. This party last year was the last time we
saw most of our Portland friends. It was a great get together, many more
children than usual. The salmon and flank steak was great. Scott tried to catch
the lawn on fire with the fireworks and all of the kids, both under and over 20
enjoy the show.
July 5, 2002
Liz and I are entrenched back in civilization. We went to Costco. This is a
great place to watch our culture and people and of course we find the inevitable
tube steak. Even in Acapulco when we went to a Costco-like store they offered
the hotdog. The shopping is incredible as opposed to our open-air markets that
we’ve enjoyed for the past 7 months. Lynn and Dale Williams (last seen in Barra,
Mexico, all so known as the Warman’s mules for bringing many parts down to
Mexico) are coming to dinner and we have salmon, pasta, and wine. Liz and I are
seeing our many conveniences with different eyes. Looking at the huge mounds of
purchases, the incredible sources of packaging, and all the new cars in the
parking lot.
July 6, 2002
We got going early as we need to be at our friends Ron and Dana around noon. Ron
and Dana are hosting a party for us this evening. We spent 2 hours just catching
up. Ron and Dana will be leaving to go cruising next year. We went down a list
of items that we should have done and things that we did and didn’t need. Of
course our dinghy was at the top of the list of things we would of done
different. The four of headed to their boat, Anthea, a Tayana 37. We put on
their brand new mainsail and headed for their home.
Just before the party began we talked to Dominique and Julia on the phone. They
are the friends that introduced us to Ron and Dana and were totally helpful when
we stayed in San Diego, Chula Vista Marina this past November as we headed into
Mexico. The party was super and there were 19 folks that eat Bqed chicken,
everyone’s salads, and other side-dishes and drank wine. We are lucky to have
some many special friends with neat lives. It was great to catch up. After the
party Ron, Dana, Liz and I just unwound and stayed up past 2 am. Going to bed at
2 am was a new record for us during the past 10 months. In the morning we paid
for it.
July 7, 2002
Again we woke in another home. The four of us moved slowly and had a great
breakfast. We left and headed to Chip and Kit’s. Chip was our marina surveyor
for our sailboat and the fours of us became friends. Chip had traveled to Mexico
in January of 1996 with us to survey the boat and he even met “Hose-Clamp, the
previous owner. Chip was an integral part in educating, purchasing and helping
us fix certain problems that we have had with Slainte. Chip and Kit had been at
the party the night before, but had the good sense to leave early. They told us
that in August they were taking off for a year and traveling Spain, England and
South America. I tried to talk Kit into sailing our boat home in August 2003.
They had sailed their boat on the same route that we have taken 27 years
earlier. We compared notes and experiences. I believe that things and
accommodations have changed, but there are still exceptional experiences that
are possible, not counting the lightning. The Pardy’s, a cruising couple that
left California in the 70’s and sailed (they had no engine) south and through
the Panama Canal had experiences that occur when your one of the first to
experience new landings. During the past 30 plus years tourism and development
has changed the experiences for the cruisers but many of today’s cruisers can
really have many of the same challenges and experiences as new countries open
up, as in El Salvador. Cruising is what we make of it.
July 8, 2002
Today we are calling to determine where, and the state of our electronics are
and to repair the fish sling. Lunch will be with our friends, Bad and Melinda
and dinner with Todd and Debbie.
July 9, 2002
Breakfast with Sandy and Patricia. We said goodbye to Riley again and hopes that
we’ll be back to say another good-bye. This is hard on Liz. The drive to
Cashmere was easy and I played computer games.
July 10, 2002
Great dinner with master chef Jeff orchestrating the dinner. We nearly ran out
of red wine.
July 11, 2002
Great dinner with Mom and later went to Jeff and picked cherries.
July 12, 2002
Breakfast with Mom and Jeff.
Arrive in Spokane at 4 pm
Great dinner with Jean, Leigh, Dale, and Lyn
July 13, 2002
Nice dinner
Lunch with Lyn and Dale at the Onion
July 14, 2002
Nice breakfast on the deck
Easy day with a trip to Fairchild AFB
July 15, 2002
Last night I received a call from Steven Gram, District Manager from West
Marine. We chatted about my email and he was hoping to help in any way possible.
July 16, 2002
This morning I received an email from another District Manager. He also offered
assistance and apologized for the customer service. I call Missy the Seattle
West Marine store manager and she tells me that all of the equipment is
un-repairable. That seems a bit convenient for West Marine, especially when all
of the other electronics, 9 items, were fixable. So we order the equipment from
West Marine’s Portland, Oregon store.
Liz and I said goodbye to Leigh and Jean and headed to Cashmere, my mother’s
place. Liz and I were chatting about this process of leaving for the second
time. We feel we have renewed our selves by seeing our friends and family. This
will help in completing our second year of cruising. The leaving is tough,
painful because you’ll not see our friends and family for another year. This
trip has been very positive by staying connected and catching up on their lives.
We have talked about the changes that we may adopt once we have the boat up and
running. Less motoring, more interdependence on our selves and trying to explore
new opportunities will be our motto. We only have a year left to go, so we’d
better get started.
Both of us are marveled by the ease and availability of products; food,
equipment and services available in our country. We hope that those that go
cruising realize the changes when cruising and hope that those with land jobs
realize the risk less and convenient aspects of their lives here in Canada and
the USA. I believe we have read cruisers before us saying the same thoughts.
Paradigms of our all of our present situations are difficult to change
especially when we have easy, riskless and rapid services available.
We have a lot of work left to be finished. We must pick up in Seattle, a new VHF
antenna and spreader bulbs, the inverter, a book on Panama for Wet Bar and other
stuff being shipped to Sandra Waugh’s house. We need to travel to Portland’s
West Marine’s store and pick up the radar, VHF, depth sounder and knot meter and
other supplies. We must say goodbye to Portland friends, Sandy and Patricia and
Riley. We have a party with Sandra and finally we need to deliver Nancy’s car
and get our stuff back on the airplane. Wish us luck.
We made the drive to Cashmere and had dinner with Jeff and my Mom. We drove to
the The Windmill and all of us had steaks. Beef is good cuz in a little while we
will be back eating just chicken.
July 17, 2002
From the 17th to the 30th Liz and I worked especially with West Marine to gather
our equipment. We were surprised at the lack of customer service that West
Marine showed. The remainder of our time was spent with family and friends.
Thank you to all of you for the hospitality and love.
July 30, 2002
We are on our way, beginning at boarding the plane to Houston and then to El
Salvador. We left the ground at 12:25 am and arrived in Houston at 4:30 am
(really 6:30 Houston tome). We saw our luggage on the loading carts and really
hope it will be in El Salvador at the same time we are.
