Ghostsailor's Monthly Update

Picture Album

Our new puppy, Fathom adjusted to boat life quite well.  A couple days after getting her, we headed out on the boat to Liberty Bay (Poulsbo) to celebrate the 4th of July weekend.  We arrived into Liberty Bay with only maybe 10 boats in the bay.  Over the next couple of days hundreds more arrived.  Fathom bonded with the kids quite well:

Ellie was a little bummed that she slept so much.  The next morning we headed into town for some yummy pastries at Sluys and Fathom took her first dinghy ride.  She wasn't so sure of her life jacket, but she sure looked cute:

We did a great hike to the kids park and Fathom started getting used to the leash.  Of course she crashed as soon as we got back to the boat.  Zak started fishing and caught this huge flounder:

Fathom found it quite interesting, too:

The weather was a little off and on for the couple days leading up to the 3rd of July, but turned out quite nice for the 3rd and 4th.  We had our friends Curtis and Cynthia aboard Winddancer and Rich and Echo aboard Ve Ja Du raft up with us.  A longboat with Vikings always come around and start water fights.  The kids and Scott and Curtis were ready for them:

They said that was the wettest they've ever been. We also took a dinghy ride around the bay to say "hi" to some friends and Fathom seemed to like the dinghy a bit more:

The fireworks were good, but as soon as they started Fathom freaked out a bit, so I wasn't able to see them.  The kids and Scott enjoyed them.  On the night of the 4th, we headed to Ve ja du for a big game of Mexican Train.  It was a great time.

On the 5th we headed out to meet up with our friends from Pearl. We tried to get into Blake Island marina with no luck, and decided to go to Blakely Harbor instead.  Here's a picture of Ghost Scott took while the kids and I waited for him to check for a spot at Blake Island marina:

It was beautiful and calm there with only a couple of boats sharing the harbor with us.  The kids set off in the kayaks and we all went to the little park at the head of the harbor:

At around dinner time our friends, Bob, Shari, Sydney, Annie and Salty aboard S/V Pearl showed up to raft up with us.  It had been awhile since we had some good, quality time with our friends and it was so nice to spend the evening together:

Sydney was wonderful with Fathom and took care of her the entire time they were with us:

Annie and Zak went out kayaking and had a great time together:

Fathom met their dog, Salty, and I know they are going to be great buds. It was definitely a short visit, but so good to see them.  They headed to our slip at Shilshole so Bob could head to work before heading up to the San Juans and we headed to Blake Island.  Luckily we were able to squeeze into a spot at the dock and decided it would be a perfect place to spend the rest of our vacation.

Fathom had her first beach experience and loved it.  There were all kinds of things that she decided to taste which I don't know if that was a good thing or bad:

We also went on some pretty long hikes and she was a complete trooper:

The kids found some huckleberries on the island:

We saw a ton of wildlife like always:

The coolest were the owl:

And the huge moth:

We had such a great time and when we pulled into the dock yesterday at 9:30 a.m. everyone was ready for another great day.  We all put our crab pots down, went kayaking, lounged on the dock and later enjoyed an amazing feast of crab, sides, key lime pie, cheesecake, and Margaritas.  It was a dock party for the history books:

Fathom did great:

She met quite a few of the dogs on the dock, picked up all the bits of crabmeat people dropped, and also fell off the dock for the first time.  The last she didn't like too much, but loved everything else.  Now we have a couple weeks at home and then we'll be heading up to the San Juans for August.  Can't wait

Posted by sailormomma at 01:08 PM | Permalink

Pictures from June 2010

June went by so fast.  It was an extremely busy month.  The kids had their school carnival and some other activities.  We put the mizzen mast back up on Ghost.  It's so nice seeing Ghost "whole" again:

We also put on our first ever "Sea Life with Zak & Ellie".  For the school auction we sold this event for 6 kids to come down to the dock and learn about sealife from Zak & Ellie:

They also were able to drive the dinghy and our friends came down to dive beneath the dock to find some cool things:

It ended up being a pretty cool thing. 

Father's Day was spent at Scott's brothers house and his Dad was there as well.  It was great for the Brosius family to be together:

Our next big adventure was our 2nd Annual Weekend at Blake Island with the BIG G (Blake Island Gourmet Group).  Last year we had such a great time, so we decided to do it again.  This year Scott and I left Friday morning to try to get a spot at the dock.  We arrived at the Blake Island marina with 2 boats waiting for spots in front of us.  Check out time was a couple hours away, so we decided to tie up to some pilings to wait for a spot.  We didn't have to wait too long and pulled into a tight slip at the dock:

Our friends were coming in later that evening.  Luckily they found another spot on the dock next to us, so rafted together there:

We spent that evening chatting (is it really summertime?):

Beth and Chad made a delicious Halibut and Steak dinner that was amazing.  We all sat on the dock and enjoyed their wonderful mojitos, as well:

We ended the evening with smores at the shelter.  We had to try to mega campfire marshmellows:

I don't think we'll buy those again.  It kind of takes away from the smore.  The next morning some other friends showed up in their new boat.  It was great seeing the McDonalds and can't wait to have more excursions with them.  We had to head out early to meet Scott's parents for the kids to head out for a couple of days with them while we went to Billings to get our new puppy, Fathom:

She has adjusted pretty well to boat life.  She met the kids today and although they love her a ton, Ellie is a little bummed that she sleeps so much.  There will definitely be a few adjustments, but she has been amazing so far. 

Posted by sailormomma at 07:05 PM | Permalink

O.K. if you haven't already read the previous posts for the month, they are probably down below.  I was trying something new and don't like it.  So if it's a bit out of order, next month, I'll go back to the old way of doing it with one Update for the whole month.  O.k., so here's what else has happened this month:

Blake Island Argosy Cruise

Pictures from the Cruise

Another item that we bought from the School Auction was a trip on an Argosy Ship to our favorite island.  There were 300 tickets for anyone in our school to take the trip to Blake Island.  So we knew most of the families on the cruise.  It was absolutely wonderful.  We had 3 hours on the island to do whatever we wanted to.  We also celebrated one of Ellie's friend's birthday:

The kids had so much fun exploring:

I had fun exploring, too.  I also found some great beach glass.

Our New Puppy, Fathom

So, we finally caved in and decided that we were going to have a new addition to our family.  It took a while for Scott and I to decide what kind of dog we wanted, but found something that we think we will love.  We loved Retrievers, but wanted something a bit smaller.  We decided on a Miniature Golden Retriver.  Ours is 62% Golden Retriver and 38% Cocker Spaniel.  She was born on May 2nd and we chose which one would be ours last week.  Her name is going to be Fathom.  We tried so hard to find something that was Nautical, Ghosty, and Girly.  Not too many options out there.  We receive pictures each week and here on the ones we have received so far:

Here's Mom with her pups:

Fathom at a couples days old:

At two weeks:

and at 3 weeks:

We can't wait to get her in 3-4 weeks.

Memorial Weekend/Penrose Point State Park

Pictures from the weekend

This past weekend we spent some time with our great friends aboard the S/V Pearl down in South Sound.  We met them at Penrose Point State Park and stayed on their boat for the weekend.  The weather didn't really cooperate, but we still had a wonderful time:

The kids had so much fun, and YES, that IS sunshine!!!  The last night there we enjoyed a beautiful evening.

Posted by sailormomma at 05:24 PM | Permalink

Pictures from the Beer Tasting

For our school auction this year, Scty and I decided to purchase something fun.  We decided on a beer tasting party, put on by some great friends of ours.  It was a fantastic night and we learned so much about different types of beer:

Bob and Ingrid were amazing hosts and I was so impressed by how much Bob knows about beer:

I think we might have to make this an annual event.  It was such a wonderful time.

Posted by sailormomma at 04:49 PM | Permalink

Pictures of Family and home life for May 2010

The first part of May was spent visiting with Scott's family who arrived in their RV from a winter of traveling in the warmer parts of our country.  They live full time in their RV and spend their winters south and summers up here in the Pacific Northwest.  You can check out their blog here:

http://tininthewind.com/blog/

With them they brought along Scott's Grandma:

It was great seeing her.  It's been too long and was a wonderful visit.  While spending time at Scott's brother's house, the kids enjoyed their beautiful backyard.  Ellie and her cousin, Maddie, enjoyed making more Fairy Houses:

The boys enjoyed playing soccer in the yard:

On the home front, our neighbors Bob & Jane hoisted their flag for their new grandaughter's arrival.  It was wonderful to be involved in their excitement:

And last for this post would be the wonderful sunset on the 5th of May:

This month, we've had so many things happening, I broke the posts up to keep it simple.  Let me know which you prefer, small posts or our long detailed Monthly post.

Posted by sailormomma at 04:39 PM | Permalink

So, last fall I was gazing upward and noticed what looked like "rot" on the starboard side of our mizzen mast. Bummer. It was near an unused radar mount.

We unstepped the mast and set it on the deck. My plan was that if it was down, I could work on it slowly and have it all fixed up before the summer season arrived. I didn't quite have a grasp on what "slowly" was going to mean. Life gets in the way and things moved along at a slugs pace.

First I had to dig out the rotted spruce. I ended up with a section that was about 7 feet long. It was oddly shaped but that would make the scarfed in spruce stronger. 

 I sanded down all the loose paint and did some smaller repairs here and there. The foot of the mast had a ferw soft spots that were easy to fix.

I finally got everything sanded and after several coats of primer, I am getting ready to start painting.

I will be adding a VHF antenna, and an alternate anchor light to the mast head. When the mast was built, they included a tube running through the mast, but did NOT have an exit hole at the masthead. I had to do some experimental drilling to find a good place for the exit. The tube only went near the top, so I can access it easily.

Like all older Formosa's, the mizzen was slowly sinking into the aft cabin top. I decided to re-enforce the mast support under the aft cabin top. This will allow me to properly tune my mizzen rigging finally!

I am concidering a hard top for the aft deck. I am just in the planning stage now, but I will need to raise the mizzen boom to accomodate the hard top, and me standing at the helm. I will need to do some concept testing to see if this will even work. Standby for more on that project.

During all of this, I also ripped out the old 3rd generation galley counter top. I had origanally used a hardwood butcherblock from Ikea. It did not last long in the marine environment. Then I got the crazy idea to make a countertop imbedded with beachglass. Very cool, but the stuff I used to cover it allowed water in and it failed...sooo, now we have a proper tiled countertop that will last and it looks way better. We also installed a new, larger sink. Much better!

Posted by Scott at 10:33 AM | Permalink