I'm on a boat!

It's dirty, smelly, rusty, leaky, engine-less, and old.

And I'm loving it.

On Monday it arrived at Delta Marine shipyard where Christian and I were waiting in the pouring rain, and within a few hours we had the boat in the water, mast rigged, sails on, and dodger up. Around 2pm we fired up the 15hp Honda outboard (for sale, if anyone is interested...) and took off down the Duwamish waterway to stir up chaos and confusion at every bridge we encountered along the way. After much gnashing of teeth (over the lack of sailing, on Christian's part), we pulled up to the Safari Explorer around 6pm (fully in the dark), much to my relief. We first saw this boat on the 20th of December, and until 6pm on Monday night (January 11th), I have not been mentally stable. : ) I spent hours upon hours, day after day, looking up individual expenditures that would be involved, talking with surveyors/yards/shippers/marinas/insurers/family/friends, and finally I got to look out my bedroom window and shout "That! That is MY boat out there!"

Now, a few days later, my boat no longer sits outside my window, but rather surrounded peacefully at 1900 Westlake Ave by 3 houseboats, a stone's throw away from the "Sleepless in Seattle" houseboat. On Tuesday morning Christian and I craned the old, dead Sabb (not Saab) 2-cylinder diesel out of the boat (quite seamlessly, and without incident) using the back-deck crane on the Explorer, then took the boat to her slip on Lake Union - but only after an hour or so of sailing to satiate Christian's appetite for heeling angle. : )

Since then I've removed the outboard, cleaned out the engine bed (yucky), emptied the lazerette/propane locker, removed four SUPER heavy 6-volt batteries from inside, stripped and washed all of the interior cushions, made two FULL Pimp Wagon loads to the storage unit (anchors, rode, sails, junk, etc), and have created a growing, glowing list of "Danny-do's" and "To Purchase" items. They say a boat is like a black hole you throw money into: I say suck it - I love this stuff! There are also other things that are said of men, ships, and the sea - but I know not of such things, but only of my own desire to drink of the lavish insanity that is "Cruising" and to never regret a thing.
So we'll see how that goes. : )

In other news, I've got until the last day of the month to get my 4Runner out and running! Which means I'm going to have to bust-balls (pardon my AYV - American Youth Vernacular) on that particular project starting...last week! On the list are welding a fuel cell, re-securing the wiring harnesses, fixing drive-line issues, installing the instrumentation and packing up all of my tools once she's done! Much of the interior electronics will be done once the truck is out of the garage, as time allows - but I'm sure my desire for good tunes will take care of that in a timely manner.

Also, I just signed Aimee and I up for our Open Water Diver Certification course at Seattle Scuba, which just happens to be located less than 100 yards from my boat's new slip! So yay for diving! In addition to dive training, I'll be taking a 4-day captain's license course in Portland, Oregon in February which will give me a green light for "legally" being the "Captain" on ANY of our ASC/ISD vessels.

Oh, and if anyone happens to have boat stuff they don't want, like:
-An inboard 20-30hp diesel engine, with either standard or V-drive transmission
-Large 12v solar panels, Furuno 1715 radar, Isotemp Square hot water heater, or a 12v marine refrigeration system
-Electric windlass with manual over-ride and chain/rode gypsy
-Interior lights, especially LED's, and a 30amp galvanic isolator
-A dripless shaft seal, cutless bearing, Spurs, 1" stainless shaft and a 3-blade Autoprop
-A spinaker that is sized for a boat my size-ish (34') with a dousing sock
-Flares, nice life jackets, Splash-zone
-A wooden ship replica.......actually, no, really, seriously....I don't want one...please.....no....keep it away...

Feel free to let me know! I'm on the prowl, and the boater's swap meet is only a couple months away (and I might miss it when I'm in Baja! nooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

So now for some pictures...if I can get them off my darn iPhone.

Cheers,

Danny