For those who are new to the music of my friend Pat from the band Explone, here is a primer.

Holidays are here!

The holidays begin each year in earnest on the 23rd of December. That was the day that my son was born. I have always had a pretty relaxed Christmas tradition growing up. the family had things we did but there was little stress around it. These days there are all kinds of things we do and they take place all over the country. After my Julians birthday here in Seattle we are going to a party in Bellevue and then we all get on a plane to go to Louisville. talk about going a long way to see our family. We are scheduled to be in Kentucky on Christmas day. I hope we get there then as there is supposed to be a blizzard in our connection city that day but either way I will be happy Just to see folks.

Our Christmas this year will be chock full of friends and family with Riley being the big reason for our trip. Finally Julian and Riley will be able to hang out in Louisville for the holiday. I am really excited. We have several plans while we are there that I can't talk about yet in case the kids are reading. All of this will culminate in Riley's birthday one the 30th. After that, New years will be a small deal by comparison. I hear there will be roller skating and some kind of pizza or something like that!

We here on the Clarion wish all of you the best for a happy holiday. Spend your time meeting new people and enjoying company no matter where you are and who you are with.

Cheers!

Back home

Well the last time I went to the airport was the best. That was when I got to pick up my wife and our friend Harley and bring her back to the boat. It is interesting to me that there are people for whom the liveaboard life is just natural. It is for me and it is for her. I am so very thankful to have found someone that could get me thinking about doing this so easily. It has been a life change that is most welcome.

Now that carrie is back with us on the Clarion, it seems that things are "Back to normal." It feels like the boat is breathing easily again. Good feeling.

A day at Deception Pass

I created this piece as another test of the D300s but also because the day was just too beautiful at the park. This contains the full length song "I love the rain the most" by Joe Purdy. A great song for a beautiful day as the summer gave way to fall.

At the dock

At the dock from Thor Radford on Vimeo.

Here is a new video testing out the Nikon D300s that I shot yesterday. I rather like the way the camera shoots but I need a lot more time to get used to it to make good video. I figure it goes here since I shot all of the footage on dock 4 where the Clarion is moored. It is all about the place around my home.

The video of Carrie's and my trip to Japan for the eclipse of the century. This is nothing more than a glorified "How I spent me summer vacation" thing but enjoy nonetheless.

Yesterday on Lake Washington

Richard, Garth Bonnie and I got out on the lake again yesterday and had a fantastic day of sailing. Great day and great company. If only Carrie had been here it would have been perfect. Enjoy the short video. I sure enjoyed making it.

Brightwork starts anew...

It is August. A time when most sane people are using their boats and running all around the lakes and sound on them. I am not doing that. Well, OK I am, but I also have to do the dirty work that comes with being a boat owner. That means brightwork. Those who are unfamiliar with the term be warned it is not the most fun thing to do in the mid summer heat. Taping. Sanding. Varnishing. Not fun at all.

The boat has her ways of telling you that she needs you though, and ours did so yesterday when I looked down at the grab rails I finished just a few short months ago to find that they were starting to rub clean of the varnish I so lovingly applied. No time to lose! I had to get going. So now I am out there in the afternoons working on the woodwork when I could be swimming... Oh well, that's the life of a sailor.

And that is fine with me.

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

It was time for me to let the girls go this morning. I know that Riley has been very excited to get bak to her dads house in Louisville and I understand that but I also know there will be a really big, girl-shaped hole in a lot of people's lives here in Seattle with her leaving. I miss her already.

Carrie is also away for a fairly long time. She will be off the boat for a month and a half staying with Riley and getting her ready for the coming school year. I know that I am not the only one who will miss her too.

For now I have the chance to do some projects that I couldn't do with the family here but those jobs are little comfort when compared to the hours of quiet that used to be filled with the fun times with Carrie and Riley.

Family is what you make it

This has been a great summer on the SV Clarion. We have been treated to the company of many friends and family onboard. Many of those that Carrie and I are now counting as our family did not start out that way but have in a short time graduated to that lofty status. We had a great time this year with our next door (boat) neighbor, Richard as well as the rather recently found friend Alan "Harley." These, along with the host of friends who have already been afforded family status like the illustrious Sam from Louisville, have rewritten what we thought we knew about what and who family was.

Last night as the girls were preparing to get on todays plane and fly back to Louisville we had an impromptu family reunion to say goodbye. Richard was there (He's actually ALWAYS there but it was more than that at the time) and we were also joined by Harley. It turned out to be a great night. If it weren't for the fact that Carrie and I had to leave to get her finicky iPhone synced in an hourlong marathon session on my computer at work I think we would have all been singing "Kumbaya" by the end of the evening. As it went the boys took watch over the sleeping Riley (whom they claim as their own anyway) and we got to do the update on our own schedule.

I know that I have talked about some of these new family members at some length in this blog but I think it is remarkable the degree to which they have become so nicely woven into the life Carrie and I have on the boat and in the rest of it all too.

I feel that I have seriously gotten the big piece of chicken with these folks. From Sam, the fierce and amazing friend to Harley who can do anything and has, to Richard who, among other things is a dyn-o-mite skating rink king, they are all people who will and have changed our lives for the better.

Onward!

Riley goes into the swimming biz

One of the things that we usually try to avoid here in the pacific northwest is going into the water. This year however, there is this strange orb in the sky that is drying things out and making things very warm. This orb has made it very hot and uncomfortable to be on deck. Riley decided that she had had enough and escaped into the water! Look at her go!

A Duck!

So there are now a bevy of new faces around the marina. They are young, spry, and full of energy. I am talking about ducks. The new crop is in and they are very cute. Carrie and I were eating on the back deck when she spied one of these wandering hoards and started tossing small tidbits in their direction. Soon the whole mob was on us. In the video below you can see the little tykes. I am very fond of ducks, having grown up with them always in the yard. It was almost like living on a farm. I loved growing up with them and I found that I still love having them around.

Dishes etc.

Sometimes it is the little things that can tell you the most about how you will react to living aboard a boat. Carrie is used to it. Tiny spaces are like old home to her. She thrives there. I am happy in them but my use of them is not as natural. Case in point. Dishes.

Both Carrie and I do the dishes on the SV Clarion. I do them when I am in the galley, She does them often when I cook, which is often.

When I do the dishes I do them in a way that is familiar to me from having a bigger space. I put everything in the sinks and clean in small batches to clear space in the drying sink for the clean items. When there is a lot of stuff to clean, I can get pretty buried.

Carrie, on the other hand, uses all of the space in the galley. The companionway steps included. I would never have thought of this. It keeps the counters clean for drying excess and allows more storage of the dirty stuff. her way is clearly better.

These are the differences that make a job easier on a boat. They are small but they are powerful.

I am happy to have such a good teacher.

Here are some videos to make you feel like you've been here

Yes. Nothing tells a story about something like moving pictures. Here are a few I have shot from my new phone. They give you a small idea of what it is like aboard the Clarion. We are indeed very lucky to be here.

This first is the belowdecks area:



This is the video of the abovedecks area:



And finally here is the neighborhood we live in:



Hope you like them!

Getting an incomplete...

This time it is not me that is getting an incomplete on my homework, it is my contractors.

I currently have two jobs that are in the operational phases of the process and have been for weeks and weeks. I started the canvas project and the furnace repair projects on nearly the same day just after Carrie left for 7 weeks. Now, not only is she BACK but she has been for two weeks and there is still no progress on either of these. I have nearly given up on the canvas guy and I think the boatyard (Lake Union Yacht Center) has totally given up on me. I don't think I can recommend either of these outfits for future work based on this current timeline. If you are thinking about hiring these guys I would say don't bother.

Updates from the last month or so

It has been brought to my attention that there are some people who are actively encouraging me to blog more. I like this. It means that there are more than one of us who likes to hear me talk. I thought I was the only one! Finding that there are others is like discovering a gold bearing oil field in your back yard. (As I have no back yard, that analogy still doesn't quite work for me but you get the gist...) Anyhow. Onwards!

There has actually been a ton of stuff going on aboard the SV Clarion over the past few months. I will try to sum up as well as I can remember all of the projects.

Furnace is being repaired.

It is always being repaired so this is not news. The fact that it broke down when it was not actually needed is. Actually, the people at the yard came and took away the furnace the day before my last post. They said it would take a week. It has been nearly two months. I have heard nothing. I will pay nothing till I find out what they did. (if anything) The fact that I have to call the yard to get anything done on the time scale that they promised is also not news. Sadly that seems to be the way of things with my yard. Perhaps I will try to find another yard...

The canvas came off and is all being replaced!

This is not being done by me but it is going to make the boat look and feel like new and I can't wait for it to be done. The guy who is handling it is Mike Straub from Freestyle Canvas. He is very inexpensive and the quality is great the only downsides are his odd hours and the fact that we are now around 3 weeks overdue for a job that was expected to be over in less than a week. As the old adage goes: you can have it cheap, good, and fast. Pick two. Cheap and good I like. Fast is a "nice to have."

The brightwork is nearly all stripped and revarnished!

I cannot tell you how much of a difference that makes on a boat with such a tiny amount of wood showing. It looks fantastic. This I did do myself. It took a pretty good amount of time even though there was not too much of it, mostly due to the weather. I had to wait to get through the rainy parts of April and early May. Looks like a million bucks now though. Captains Spar FTW!

New deck hardware for the halyards!

I spent the late part of last evening at the marine store (WARNING! WARNING!!!) looking for and eventually buying a new deck organizer and two new blocks for the base of the mast to run the halyards. It was quite an installation, but now that it's done, I feel that the running rigging is in good enough shape to go for a good while longer. I was running into end-of-life issues with the older blocks. We had one explode on us while we were attempting to lower the mainsail a few weeks ago and I have since looked over the replaced blocks and found that they are nearly all near failure. Whew!

Now, there's girls on the boat!

Yes after all of my boat bachelorhood, my honey has returned. This time she brought along our little girl to boot! I am thrilled to have a little bit more girly-ness on the boat these days. It just seems a bit more like home than it did with nothing but smelly guys on board. Riley and Carrie have been loving the boat as well and adding to the overall shipshape quality of the belowdecks. It looks fantastic down there! Riley is a deck swabbie from the old school. She is never as happy as when she is scrubbing the decks of the boat. I don't even have to suggest it. She ASKS to do it! What more can a skipper want?

I still have a few things to get done above before we start to get some rain this year. There are a few dings that need filling so we don't get de-lamination of the glass, but these are things that may be very easy especially with the help of our next door (boat) neighbor, Richard. He is a guy who seems to know how to do everything having to do in any way with boats. I am always thankful for his assistance in my various projects.

That brings me to this... Richard may be shipping out to Alaska to work on a charter fishing boat for the summer! Alas! I am in many ways hoping he does not go as he has definitely become a very big part of the family but on the other hand I wish him well up there if he does go, as he will be able to pay off the small debts he has to the marina and still come out way ahead. He would be missed if he goes. Both Carrie and I are conflicted about his leaving, but wish him well whatever.

So that's it. Update made. Hope you all are having a great late spring. Enjoy the weather and just remember that you can always contact me if you want to come sailing. Comment here and we can set something up!

Brightwork season...

It is now starting to warm up and you know what that means. Yes, it is the beginning of the brightwork season! The time of year that seafaring folk break out the sandpaper, steel wool, turpentine and varnish and go to town on the wooden bits of their boats that are left in the weather all year long.

Luckily for us the SV Clarion has very little in the way of exposed wood, but I still have to do all of the requisite things to be sure that she looks like a well cared for boat. To that end I have begun taping off sections of the hand rails and rubrails on the cabin top. I have applied eco friendly stripping product and will soon be applying a very large amount of elbow grease to get the stubborn varnish of years of use off the rails so I can sand and apply more and newer varnishes to them. It is a labor of love that is, still, in essence, labor.

Since the first day I had my first boat at ten years old, the need to keep it up has been my (grudging) responsibility. My dad told me in no uncertain terms that if I ever wanted to get out on the water in that cool boat I had first to remove and sand every wooden bit by hand, varnish them well, reassemble them and have them checked out by his expert eye. Needless to say I was not hot on the idea. Not much has changed. I still would rather do nearly anything than sand rubrails but duty calls and I can't have my boat looking shabby so off I go.

In a little while I will post some of the pics I have taken of the ongoing project. The taping is first and probably the most important part followed by stripping and sanding which is going on now. Next I will have to bleach out some of the wooden rails that have darkened too much from the weather, and finally I get to begin recoating the wood to bring out the old fire and make it look like new. I am looking forward to seeing the results. I have been looking at the blackened and scruffy looking wood for a while now and want it to look better. I want to learn magic to do it, however.

If anyone out there knows of a simple way to get the job done that does not involve giving lots of money to a boatyard to do it for you let me know. I may not have a lot of wood but I still want it to look great.

Curry and sailing

Long ago, when I was a little boy, my dad was a big believer in curry. He loved it and every once in a while my mother would make him curry dishes. "Eeeeww!" would be my reaction. I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. To me it tasted like too many spices all put together. It was foul.

During those times, my dad was sailing a lot with his friends. He was a racer and loved to have the curry's spicy goodness when he would come home from a cold day of sailing on the sound or the lake near our house.

Today I am beginning to understand. I have been having cravings for that that I used to find so offensive. To be sure, my tastes had changed many years ago as I was introduced to East Indian cuisine but recent developments have really given me a great appreciation for the art of fine curry.

The biggest development was moving next door to the "Bad Haggis," a vessel owned by my liveaboard next door (boat) neighbor Richard. He has some serious chops in the galley and his tastes lean heavily to curries. He has been making, and inspiring me to make some truly great curry dishes recently. There are lentils and chicken, potatoes and carrots and other fantastic combinations of vegetables all mixed with great quantities of coriander and cardamom. It is a very welcome set of flavors after a great day of sailing. Something seems to be a nice balance between the two. Something like history.

Lately the weather has been warming and the boaters are returning to the docks. I know that soon the curry will be flowing out of our respective galleys. I can't wait to try all of the new creations we are making. There is even a thought toward a curry cookoff around the dock as we have discovered that nearly everyone there is a fan. Nothing like a great community meal to get things going.

I can't wait.

THATS your problem, right there!

The last two times I have been out driving the boat (both of those times has been with the next door (boat) neighbor, Richard) I have run into a distressing problem where the engine has run very hot. On the first voyage there was an alarm and I had to drop the RPMs very quickly to keep the heat from seriously damaging the engine. After I did, it came back to normal and I was able to get home (however slowly to keep the heat down.)

The second time out we just had gone to the fuel dock "across the street" but I decided to test the cooling system and drove around the lake for a few minutes. Needless to say, It ran toward overheating fairly soon and we turned back early for home.

In talking with Richard, a life long sailor, he suggested that there were a few issues that would lead to this problem. The leading possibility was that the impeller for the sea water pump was faulty. Well, he was RIGHT!

The photo above is what was left of the impeller when I got the pump housing open. Nasty! It so happened that there were several replacements aboard that the previous owner had graciously left for me. I was able to replace the faulty one with a new version and the engine is running smooth as you could ever ask for.

THis is my first foray into small engine repair. As I see it this is a total success and I feel empowered to take on other projects. So far the whole boat ownership and liveaboard thing has been a fun bunch of challenges. I have felt that I could deal with most if not all of them. I feel like I am becoming a sailor in small steps. It is a good feeling.

Cool Runnings...

The rain on the cabin top.

There is a sincerely amazing quality to being on boats in the rain. The way the sounds are carried through the hull. The slap of the waves driven by the breeze. The heavy pounding or the lightest drip on the roof. It all creates a feeling of being so close to the water. That there is a single environment. A place of refuge from the storm. In Hawaii they have a name for that o'hana. For us who live here it is a very welcoming place indeed. I am blessed to be able to do this.