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!