WHAT THE HECK HAS BEEN HAPPENING?

Well, “Hi folks!”  It’s been a long time since we’ve updated the website but we’ve been busy, but not the cruising type of busy.  Some of you may know already, if you’ve been reading the For Sale Ads in yachting.com and the Nordhavn site, but for those that don’t know yet ….The Knotty Dog is sold.  Yep, it’s a shock, but it was time.  We feel like we’ve practically circumnavigated the whole shoreline of North America except of course for the upper northern regions and felt enough was enough.   Unlike some of our other more adventurous Nordhavn friends and acquaintances who decide to cruise the world, we thought we had done what we wanted to do and wanted to try something else and if it didn’t invole some major cruising we felt you just can’t leave a boat like Knotty Dog sittin’ at a dock not doing something exciting.  It’s like tying up a stallion on the rail and not letting them get some exercise and she needs to be out on the seas.  So we thought someone else should have the opportunity to live the dream again with her. 

She showed us so many wonderful things and places and we learned from her, not just to run a boat and go different and sometimes strange places, but she gave us a new understanding of life and courage to do things we never thought were possible.  We have some wonderful experiences that we will always cherish and look back on but hey, it’s not over as we’re just beginning a new phase. 

BIG CHANGE

And, did I say change?  Well…..as it turns out, the change was more than what I ever imagined.  We have our house up for sale in Santa Barbara and bought a beautiful house on San Juan Island in Washington overlooking Haro Strait and in the distance views of Vancouver Island and the Olympia Mountains.  Just yards away from our living room is an eagle’s nest and just below us, a few hundred feet, is the mighty ocean gently lapping at the cliff that we are perched on and still close enough to hear and see the blows of many an orcas that will surely pass us by.  We feel like we died and have gone to heaven, well, not yet as we aren’t in yet…still have to sell this one but we will be there soon.

It’s going to be a different lifestyle from what we are used to in Santa Barbara but one we are so looking forward to.  We have always loved the island and its lifestyle, and especially the people of the Pacific Northwest so we feel like we will be very happy there, a perfect fit for us.  So, instead of all these years of wondering what it would be like to like to live there, we decided to throw fears to the the wind and go for it. 

WHAT’S THE NEXT BOAT?

Soooo, the next decision immediate decision was what kind of boat?  We decided we just had to have a boat up there as the thought of being stuck on an island only accessible by an hour to hour and a half ferry ride or a 45 minute flight by small plane from Seattle, was too confining, and with all those wonderful nearby islands and destinations to get to, we needed a boat, a fast little boat, just to get around.    With all the future work of moving and getting settled into our new house this summer, we didn’t want the burden of another demanding, but wonderful boat, like the 57 Nordhavn, we decided we needed something that would provide quick safe transportation and before you know it we found what think will be a really fun boat and a complete extreme from what the Knotty Dog was…..the new boat is a 28 foot Protector.  

THE INTERIM BOAT 

The Protector is made in New Zealand and built for and used by the New Zealand Coast Guard.  They are fast, swift and safe. We drove up to the Alameda Naval base in San Francisco last week for a look see and took a demo ride with Mark from the Protector company to see if we liked it.  He took us out for an amazing ride in some very choppy seas in San Francisco Bay and we were immediately sold by its stealthlike abilities and smooth quiet ride.  We think it’s going to be a great fun boat for the summer and will take us places quickly, dryly and safely.  It will be the perfect boat for us until we until we get settled and decide what the next cruising boat will be.  If you want to check it out go to their website and see: 

http://www.protectorboats.com/boats-rec/targa/

LOTS OF OPTIONS

So if you are interested in how the summer goes and how the new boat performs keep checking the website, as you know us, we’ll let you know how it performs and functions for the Pacific Northwest.  The boat is small enough to be trailered and loaded on the the ferries where we can also unload and launch her in more northern areas that distance normally would make it more challenging.  We’re thinking we can zip over very quickly to places we want to see and if we want to anchor for a night some where, well, we’ll just bring some gear to make a camp fire on shore and cook some weenies.  I think it’s going to open up a whole new lifestyle for us.  It will let us get into and up close to places that we could never go with the large Knotty Dog as the draft is only something like 18” imagine that.  It boasts up to speeds as fast as 60 miles per hour but that’s way beyond how we’ll be using it.  I’m glad that it’s a quiet ride and leaves no noticeable wake.  We’ve even contemplated, trailering it this winter across country and thinking it could be possible to take run it to the Bahamas, staying in hotels on the islands but using it as a day boat to get around to all the fun places in the Bahamas.  Hey, the ideas are endless as we’re just beginning to think about them.

So we’ll let you know what it’s like when it arrives.  It arrives in Alameda late May, takes three weeks to outfit her and then Mark will trailer her up to the island.  We’ll probably have her early June.

STILL UPDATING THE WEBSITE WITH PAST AND RECENT TRAVELS

We will still be updating the website soon.  We’ve got some stories to post about some of the local cruising experiences we’ve had here in Santa Barbara and still need to finish up our first trip to Alaska.  So as soon as we get some free moments, we’ll start posting again.  Right now though, we’ve got our hands full as you can imagine.  Oh yes, and I’m really excited as Larry has ideas about installing a Video Cam or whatever you call them on the roof of our new house to watch and post on the web the activity of the resident eagles and the goings on out on Haro Strait.  I hope he can get it figured out as it sounds pretty interesting to me.   So take care all.