Give 'Em the Slip

We've one week left before we vacate our slip in Everett Marina, casting our lot with the scurvy dogs of the world. Considering I've been one year (this week) in Seattle, the timing seems appropriate.

From the first of September, we'll be vagabonds cruising the Puget Sound, awaiting the arrival in Seattle of our third crew member, my father. He took a little convincing (perhaps he was unsure as to whether he should entrust his safety and mental well-being into the hands of two youngish, foolhardy sailors), but he has agreed to make the Seattle to San Diego run with us. His company and experience will be welcome. I hope he likes rice and beans and thirty-foot swells.

His September 11^th arrival sets our departure from Seattle for the 12^th. If I had a calendar, I'd mark it. Perhaps you can do so in my stead.

Happy Sails!

It's gotta be Top Pot time somewhere.

We're gorging ourselves for one of the last times at local Top Pot donuts near the U-district. Mmm, the chocolate raspberry cakes will be sorely missed, the finest of the hand forged donuts in my honest but not so humble opinion. Since this will be my only internet access for awhile, I'm gonna throw up some photos of the baby momma and her little seal that have been hanging around our slip in the marina. The mother looked pretty damned tired, and was trying to demonstrate for her newborn how to pop out of the water onto the docks for a nap. He wasn't catching on all too quickly. It's amazing how something so tiny can be so agile and independent so soon after being born.

I've been doing some reading as well...

I've just finished In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, a true account of the sinking of the Essex by a giant sperm whale.

After 90+ days at sea in open boats and with few provisions, five men of twenty original survivors were rescued (with three more rescued on an island a bit later), but not before suffering to the limits of human endurance and resorting to cannibalism for survival.

Honestly, I hope our adventures mirror Mr. Barnesworth's literary choices more than my own.

Dig IT.

I've been reading through On the Road in mental preparation for what's about to come, and a passage grabbed me that I felt fitting to the spirit of the journey.

"Oh, man! man! man! moaned Dean. "And it's not even the beginning of it - and now here we are at last going east together, we've never gone east together, Sal, think of it, we'll dig Denver together and see what everybody's doing although that matters little to us, the point being that we know what IT is and we know TIME and we know that everything is really FINE." The he whispered, clutching my sleeve, sweating, "Now you just dig them in front. They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there - and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see. But they need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end. Listen! Listen!" He was poking me furiously in the ribs to understand. I tried my wildest best. Bing, Bang, it was all Yes! Yes! Yes! in the back seat and the people up front were mopping their brows with fright and wishing they'd never picked us up at the travel bureau. It was only the beginning, too.
Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me.

Thanks Jack.