Luck and a promise for starboard bunk

This morning two busy women in the trades, one a shipwright with another boat on deadline and the other an expert on interior cushions with 4 other boats in line for Festival projects, are meeting me at Pax to decide if it's remotely feasible to finish the starboard bunk in time for festival. Boat projects, like house projects, are always a maze of details and design, deadlines and delays. Tear that out or leave that in to make the measurement so an order can be made? Experience makes a might difference and each project on the boat, like the Oklahoma house last year, got closer to reality, budget and otherwise. Thankfully, I've got no one depending on this outcome but me. There's enough complete already so to have a comfortable place for folks to sit for festival and a significant progress made on the interior that the answers this morning aren't under pressure. Sure, I'd love to get the mahogany on and varnished, the new ply seat with hatches complete and installed AND get the new 5" foam and cushions finished. But this timeline for all 3 of us is extremely tight. For it to all happen well, all 3 of us will have to be smart in detailing the steps, meet our part of the deadline, be lucky with other projects in our lives, basically be totally in-sync. Sometimes that happens. Touch wood!

Spidsgatter Pax: Best Haul Out Ever

When a travel lift opening at Boat Haven came up suddenly and my fav woman shipwright, Diana Talley said "come on, the space right next to our shop is open!" I had no idea how incredibly my life as a wooden boat owner would change. Yes, change! In the past when I've hauled boats, Pax included, I wanted the boat most convenient for me and in Port Townsend, that always meant Point Hudson. Boat Haven was the "big boat" work yard, the place where fishermen and 6 figure haulouts were managed by the "big shops," all way out of my league. The chance to set my 28 foot double ender in a corner, by a fence with grass on one side and asphalt beneath us. Luxurious enough, but then add a brew pub, coffee roaster and the best brunch in the boatyard and it's hard to imagine anything better. The first day, we set up the scaffolding and the next day, 2 young gals (one a boat school grad and the other the daughter of a shipwright) joined me and Diana and Moose, a corker best known for his work on fish boats, got to work at 8. In a week, I got more done than I'd ever experienced during a haulout so I quickly pulled a few items off the wish list, put them on the To Do list and in a second week, they were done! Hauling out immediately next to a shipwright, with tools, power, water, work benches, secure storage for the paints, supplies and an easy way to leave today's progress ready for tomorrow's was absolute heaven. Beyond the blessing to my soul, it likely saved me 40% on the budget for the same list done somewhere else AND we got to laugh more, use our muscles for productive tasks instead of hauling and daily setup/tear down and I got to work side-by-side with professionals, learning every step of the way.

When a Cowgirl Goes to Sea

This is the story of how Kaci Cronkhite, an Oklahoma cowgirl, four generations from the ocean, found her way to sea, then sailed around the world. More than just a trip about one sailing circumnavigation, this book tells the story of how life on a windy cattle ranch in middle America spurred a young woman from decades on horses to decades on boats. At times poetic and humorous, often salty and detailed, When A Cowgirl Goes to Sea illustrates the paradoxical connections of rural ranch life and a life at sea. In the wind, you'll recognize the raw smell of fear while facing pirates or the death of a parent. You'll feel the nightmare pounding of your guts during a Tasman storm or on a runaway tractor. You'll wake to hear a tornado or the scream of winds at a Cape or the sound of electricity arcing and your mother's ankles popping. You'll laugh when your boat becomes a "birdie bed & breakfast" and cry when the smoke that causes it, chokes you and forces you to a terrifying all-night dodge in the busiest shipping lane in the world. Progress on this book continues into 2012.

Pax moves to "Cool" Dock, Boat Haven Marina

Pax is now moored on C Dock, aka "cool" dock at Boat Haven Shipyard in Port Townsend. The move was due to a Port Commission request that all charter boats moored in Point Hudson guarantee 40 trips a year with paying customers. Gulping, I, like other small charter boats knew that wasn't possible so I took a slip they offered at the other end of town. Working full time and watching the charter business from my desk the past 8 years, I know that's not feasible, but hey.. now I'm out of Cupola House too. Can't help but wonder if there's a connection. No worries, though, as I'll just wish Suva and Pleaides and Bryony luck and head on down to the cool dock. Update: October 2011 By end of the summer, Bryony left the marina to anchor out then sold to his son who moved it to lower Hadlock Bay. Pleaides sat idle while Jeff worked in Lousianna on the oil spill and Suva, well despite Lloyd's best efforts the past two years, he's selling the boat. Am I glad to be at Boat Haven? You bet!!

Custom Interior Cushions: Gwendolyn Tracey

PAX has new main cabin cushions thanks to Port Townsend interior designer, Gwendolyn Tracy with Fine Yacht Interiors. Gwendolyn has been sewing since she was in her teens, and it shows. Her custom canvas shop above the Blue Moose Cafe in Port Townsend's "big boat" shipyard is organized with that mix of artistic verve and production room stations neatly sequenced from her decades of experience. Fabric rolls, cushion materials, sample and swatch books are snuggly tucked into functional spaces around the center piece, the giant cutting table. Sewing machines are at one end, where she can see the road the 300 ton haulout takes as it brings her often very large clients to and from their work sites with one of a variety of boatbuilder or repair businessses. Townsend Bay Marine is next door, as is Haven Boatworks. Gwendolyn designs cushions, interiors, covers, you name it. She has done huge projects like the latest mega yacht from TBM to major historic boat restorations done by a variety of shipwright shops in Puget Sound. In between the big boat and big budget projects, she manages to squeeze in smaller projects like PAX. We needed custom settee cushions, forpeak bedding, and some creative seat pillows for the bulkhead transition. The transition pieces will expand comfortable seating options in the main cabin when we're doing tours aboard the boat, seminars and charters. For a look at the first phase of the project, the Port settee seats, take a look at the photo galley. Gwendolyn can be reached at 360-379-0661.