Clutter

If nothing else about a boat, you can say that it has a finite amount of space! It has the capacity to hold only so much ‘stuff’ before the stuff begins to take over your life. Since this is my 4th boat I tried to take this into account when I rebuilt her and included over 110 different storage places. Alas, I should have built even more for stuff seems to be creeping out at night and invading our lives. Mostly this is because Anna and I have two different approaches to life on board and each approach is valid it's own way.
I believe that if you are done for now with something put it away and Anna believes that until you are done with something don’t put it away. This issues is the one area of disagreement that creates the most tension between us. So, as with most people, we have agreed to disagree and now have two different modes of clutter on the Snow Goose, Sailing mode & Harbor mode,,, and, as you can see, we are definitely in Harbor mode.

Wind

The noises that you hear when you live on a boat soon become a back ground rhythm in your life. Everything from the slapping of the waves against the hull or the slow creak of the anchor rope as it stretches with each gust of the wind. The sound of dinghies motoring by or the occasional call of “Snow Goose… anyone home"? These are typical background sounds of life. There's one sound that's harder to get use to, it’s the sound of the wind when it’s blowing hard and for the last 2 days the wind has been doing just that. It’s been about 15 to 20 MPH with higher gusts. The wind sways the boat back and forth and tugs at the dinghy on the rear cleat. It sounds alive as it moans in the rigging with its “whoooo’s” and sighs. In stronger gusts the wind begins to roar like an angry beast or a train passing in the night. You awake in the night and are taunted buy the wind you as you try to get back to sleep. It rattles the wire on the spinnaker pole or bangs the mast with a loose halyard. At times it shakes the rigging with its strength. This is why, when I’m lying there awake and the wind is roaring in the rigging I recall the best lesson that the wind has taught me…that a secure mooring or a well dug in second anchor is the best remedy for wind blown insomnia on a boat.

Shuttle

For two nights I have gotten up, dressed warm and sat in the cockpit. No, it’s not insomnia, it’s the space shuttle. The space center is about 250 miles away but I had heard that you could see the launch even from here. The first night the launch was scrubbed because of high winds but last night, at 4:14 AM it was a go! There in the distance, a red streak appeared, it looked like a red flare shot into the night as it rose above the lights of the city. Within a minute, the twin boosters separated and a new star rose into the night sky. How cool.

PS. Our new telefoto lens. (Hee,Hee)

PPS. OK, the pict. was lifted from the NASA website.

Bugs

One of the great things about being out on the hook is the lack of any bugs. Seldom do you see a mosquito or fly. Well, that all came to an end last night when the wind died away and the no-seeum came out for dinner. Being from the north I had never dealt with this flying set of teeth. Even though I have camped and hiked many places I had never been eaten up by something that I could barely see. They are nothing but a black speck that you could easily confuse for a bit of dirt until you feel that BITE! About the size of a large grain of salt these pint size pests will drive you crazy. The worst thing is that you have to close up the boat just when you want everything as wide open as possible to catch every stray breeze. Here is a picture I took of one of these winged piranhas as it settled on my leg for his evening meal. (Just to give you an idea of their size). The next day, Anna and I were covered with small welts from our dinner guests.

New Dinghy

A week or so ago I attempted to make the dinghy last a bit longer I decided to stop the leaks in the bottom by covering the old sun eaten rubber with a bit of black urethane-rubber from a calking tube that I had purchased at the big box store. This product is equivalent to 3M's 4200 and has worked for me over many years and several different boats. I’ve even used it to seal up the holes in my sea boats! And after a day to set up, it worked, no more leaks in the dinghy bottom.
Breaking News....
Well, Good news!!! We have a REAL dinghy!!! On the VHF morning radio net someone announced that they had a dinghy for sale and we bought it! It’s not exactly what I wanted but it's a great step up from what we had. Now, to replace the 12 lb wonder.

Activities

Wed. is pot luck night. It’s designed to get the “new” boaters in the harbor to come out and greet people. When we arrived it looked like half of the harbor was there! Afterwards there was music under the Tiki hut. As the songs came and went different people would join in to sing or play music. A great night of new friends, talk and song.
We were assigned a mooring yesterday and will be moving to our new home this morning, # M10. If you’re in the harbor stop by!

Lotus-eaters

In the tale of the Odyssey, Odysseus and his crew landed on the island of the Lotus-eaters. Once there, many of his men ate of the lotus plant and fell under a spell. They stopped caring about leaving or even getting back to their land of Ithaca. All they wanted was to stay in the land of the Lotus-eaters. Marathon is like the mythical land of the Lotus-eaters.
The harbor at Marathon is well protected and efficiently run by the city and the harbor has room for those who want to anchor out too. The amenities provided by the city are excellent and the price is good! Your days start cool then become sunny and warm filled with lots of entertainment that a busy harbor can provide. The people and businesses of Marathon are boater friendly and almost everything that you might need is within walking distant. They have a pot-luck on Wed. an impromptu musical get together down by the water under the tiki hut on Sat. The morning cruiser net gives information to anyone who wants to listen. The water is filled with every type of boat from derelict boat bums to 60foot gold plated beauties and all seem to get along well. To top it off, they are dog friendly, and encourage you to stay for a day, a month or a year. I’m trying hard not to eat of the Lotus plant but,,,Edie and I both think that a taste couldn't hurt!