Sundown Sailing Adventures

What we hope to see in Alaska!

After returning from the Seattle area where we sold and shipped some unused sailing gear that came with Sundown but we decided not to use, we hung out in Deer Harbor on Orcas Island for over a week. While there, we accomplished a lot.

Clay sanded and put two more coats of varnish on the cap rail. I cleaned Sundown’s butt of diesel exhaust residue (we probably need to replace an injector) and her boot stripe of algae. I also polished some rusting stainless stanchions and the push-pit railing with my awesome Norwex Cleaning Paste. (It contains marble flour, natural soap and coconut oil, and is amazing for cleaning and polishing stainless, especially when used in combination with the Norwex window/polishing cloth. AND neither harm the environment, which makes me feel good, since we love our seal and porpoise and orcas friends. (If you want to try some, let me know. I’m a closet Norwex distributor and can hook you up!)

Captain Joseph and his new hat

Then Clay helped our friend, Joseph, take his 61-foot wooden motor yacht, Orina, to Bellingham for some work. While he was there, I weighed anchor and docked Sundown in Orina’s place…by myself! (It’s one thing to dock with my partner nearby if I should need help or moral support. It’s totally another when I’m flying solo…like really solo on the boat.)

I thought Clay’s time away would allow me at least one whole day of solid work time, it didn’t. Rather, I found myself hitching a ride to the ferry and then to the emergency room in Friday Harbor (F.H.) so I could have a couple of my fingers evaluated. They’re swollen with red splotches that itch and are painful if I hit them against something. Definitley NOT an emergency, but our Kaiser insurance would only allow me to go to an ER or urgent care facility. The latter wasn’t available in F.H. The diagnosis? “Dermatitis”…or the doc doesn’t really know, but had to call it something. He said I probably have a marine-related infection that only time will heal. He gave me a scrip for a stronger-than-hydrocortisone topical treatment and sent me on my way.

OH, one funny side note. The ER receptionist handed me a clipboard with a form on it to fill out. The top quarter of it was written in English/Spanish. The remainder of the form was only in Spanish. I thought, “Wow! This place really expects a lot of people by thinking we can interpret the information they want.” But I didn’t want to be one of THOSE patients, so quietly muddled through, completing the form to the end. My nurse glanced over at the board when I said I was finished and asked, “What are you doing?” Hesitantly, I gave her the board and said I was just filling out the form. She laughed and said I was given the wrong one…the Spanish one…and took it back to the receptionist. Then that nice lady came back and profusely apologized for giving me the wrong clipboard, but said I filled it out perfectly. I guess my very limited understanding of Spanish (or at least Latin roots) paid off.

Sandy modeling her slouch hat

I also knitted a hat for Joseph, (he’d been wanting one for awhile), took a photo of our friend Sandy wearing the hat I made for her, worked, ran, did laundry, finalized our taxes and more. Productivity didn’t elude us. But upon Clay’s arrival back in D.H. Thursday afternoon, we both felt it was time to leave for the north land, so we did.

As we were motoring out of the harbor, REO Speedwagon’s “Time for Me to Fly” was running through my head. It was the song that propelled my sister-friend Shauna (McKnight) Marcy out of Golden, Colo., to CSU in Fort Collins, Colo. when we left for college. Funny how it kind of felt the same…the beginning of a new chapter.

SOOO, Clay and I checked into Canada Friday (April 15) and are beginning our journey north in earnest. As we meander through the Inside Passage, we’ll keep you posted.