Books

 

I just finished reading Dove by Robin Lee Graham. Go read it yourself. It is an inspiring story that brings dreams down to earth. 

Let me climb up onto my tall bike and cast some judgment upon thee. The writing is prosaic, but the simplicity is almost soothing. There are no flashy plot devices or interesting thematic ideas. It is a simple account of the circumnavigation of Dove. While it does not make for challenging reading, it is still engaging, simply by the merits of it's subject matter. Denotation is enough for this piece, intended connotations are basically absent, or evaded me completely. 

I would recommend reading it, but it isn't a book that you can read over and over again. 

Lee sailed around the marble in the Lapworth 24.

Sailing stories

Long Ago:
I entered the Chittenden locks aboard my fine craft, tired, hungry, poorer, and late for class. This proved to be a good combination, in that it made my comically small outboard (Mercury Mariner 2hp) no reason for concern. I motored at about one tenth of a knot into the small lock. Eventually, I made it between the lock doors, to the relief of the lockmasters. The rest of the ship canal slipped by peacefully, interrupted only by a series of 5 stoccato horn blasts and "If you want to go under the bridge you need to go faster." Fremont bridge operators have such a great sense of humor.

June 19, 2009:
I exited the Chittenden locks aboard my fine craft excited, motorless, and fueled by a couple of bottles of liquid optimism. A broken shear pin was no issue, after all, who needs a motor when a storm is mounting! I managed to get a tow upwind beyond the lee shore of West Point, and set sail just as the Puget Sound began acting all bothered and vengeful.

September 24, 2009
I entered the Chittenden locks aboard my fine craft excited to return home, I backed down the outboard into reverse, and it stayed there.It was at this point in time that the shift handle had learned a dance that's humorous nature has yet to dawn on me. It is a continous, smooth pirouette three hundred and sixty degrees, no longer tied down by the confines of the shift linkage.

Aboard Gusto

Her name is Gusto and she is a fine craft. Her name is not beautiful, clever, or eloquent, but we don't go changing peoples names when we meet them do we? She is an
Islander Bahama 24, built in 1968, she was basically derelict when I bought her, but I didn't know! The first thing I did was sail her from Everett Marina to Slater's landing on Eastlake.

Sneakaboard

Looking for creative and legal ways to avoid high rent in Seattle, I came upon the idea of living aboard a sailboat. I toyed with the idea for a while, thinking I would need $3000 for a 25 foot or larger boat in bad condition. In a fit of rash decision making, I bought a boat on craigslist for $1350. It was small, a 22' Balboa sloop, designed for trailer sailing. I knew nothing about it, and did not get a survey. After that, I asked the dock manager about living aboard. He said no. Then I messaged many marinas about it, they too, replied with an emphatic no.



So I had a boat, but no place to keep it. I found a slip for $200 a month that did not allow liveaboards, and, in a fit of desperation, decided to just sneak aboard. From November until March, I avoided being noticed, blacked out the ports on my boat, and basically acted very sneaky in my marina that included less than ten slips. I got away with it surprisingly well, until about mid-February, when the liveaboard in the slip next to me asked if I had been living on my boat...




Of course I denied this...



and started searching for a new slip!

Day 6

Winthrop to Okanogan 29.8 miles

Today was a nice ride. Got a little sunburned, but it was OK. Made some sandwiches from the store in Twisp, there were hundreds of bikers in town for a criterium there. I considered entering actually.

Turns out loup-loup pass is a legitimate pass, hillbillies and everything! Riding down the back side of loup loup was so fun, probably the steepest descent in the whole trip, wouldn't be surprised if I was going sixty, and it was windy too!
The view from the top

I slept in a hotel that night with my mom and my step dad... it was luxurious.

Misty Mountain Hop

Diablo to Winthrop. more than 9,000 miles.

Day 5 was hell. I spent the night before not sleeping in a freezing thunderstorm. I started sleeping as the sun came up, and woke up around 11 in a late morning mist. Immediately upon rising I realized that some sort of critter had made my breakfast into it's breakfast. Fresh picked mountain strawberries and white rice. I sure hope they enjoyed it.

Let's face it. I wouldn't remember that particular breakfast if they hadn't eaten it. I ended up eating some oatmeal with cinnamon.(blech).
Oddly enough, this campsite had no running water. I found this strange as it was less than a mile from the Seattle City Light town of Diablo.



So I got some water out of the river, and added one iodine tablet to it. This is about half of the recommended amount... however, it proved to be too much for me.

I started riding uphill, figuring there would be a roadside stop with water. After three turnouts, this proved not to be the case.

It started to rain once I got past the dams. My jacket was not really waterproof, and my pants definitely were not, nor my shoes. I considered going back to my last campsite to try again the next day, but decided to try to get over the mountains.



The road was this steep the entire way. Eventually my toes got so cold that I stopped at a trailhead, stole a trash bag liner and wrapped it around my freezing wet toes. It was disgusting.

I kept going up, eating my disgusting oatmeal and drinking my burning water. (Iodine sterilizes your tongue too.)

I eventually made it to rainy pass, and was so happy that I was over the hill.



Actually I had to go up a few thousand more feet, but they didn't seem long at all after knowing it was over, it had stopped raining by this point too, which was quite nice. Even though I was still wet with snow everywhere, I felt warm because I was going uphill in the sun.

Then I saw a Marmot! Made it all worth it.


I eventually made it down the mountain... by the bottom I was miserable again, I slept that night right on the river in downtown Winthrop. one of the best campsites all summer.

Day 4

Concrete to Diablo 40 miles uphill.

The Skagit runs right through Concrete.





Dead Farm Society.


Typical tunnel. Typical redneck.

This days ride was unduly extended by the inadvertent unloading of my groceries about a skip, hop, jaunt, peice, and bit down the road from my campsite.

I had to ride back through that stupid tunnel.