Mischief Managed Afloat: Next Generation

Strap in, guys. This post is a long one.  If you haven't read the last post, shame on you. (Not really, I'm desperate for attention and I'm thrilled anyone is reading this at all.) We left off departing Port Townsend and heading north towards the San Juan Islands. But first, we had to go through the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  After that crossing though, I'm about ready to call it the "Strait of Juan de F*ck Ya." We left Port Townsend refreshed, excited, full of hope and delicious food. It was a clear day with a light wind. And for once, both of our weather apps agreed. "You'll be fine," the apps said. "This crossing will be a breeze. Ha, get it? Breeze?" Nobody was laughing. We were all busy trying to keep our lunches down.  The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a large body of water that connects Puget Sound to the Atlantic Ocean, so it has some very bizarre wind and current conditions that are difficult to predict.  I stole this map from the in...

 We made it to Port Townsend for our haul-out with a whopping 20 minutes to spare. For those of you who made good choices in your life and don't spend an inordinate amount of time in and around boats, a "haul-out" means your boat is lifted out of the water and placed precariously on land so that you or (if you're rich) someone else can do repairs on the boat that are impossible in the water. This isn't the first time we've hauled a boat out, and it probably won't be the last. Our previous two boats lived in freshwater, which freezes in the winter, so a seasonal haul-out was a requirement. Here in saltwater Puget Sound, however, you can go years without a haul-out.  But eventually, the travel lift comes for us all.  The travel lift is an enormous remote-controlled cube that lifts boats out of the water and drives them and deposits them on land. It's fascinating to watch, unless of course you're three or four years old. If you're three, it's ...

 We're baaaaack!  After a 5-year hiatus, we are tackling the seas again! But this time, we have a few changes.  Change #1: New boat. It's big, it's blue, it's also called Mischief Managed because Justin registered it with the Coast Guard before I could convince him to name it something different.  Change #2: New coast. We bought this boat even though it was in Washington State and decided to sell everything in Buffalo and move out west. Instead of the Erie Canal and Intercoastal Waterway, we'll be exploring Puget Sound and the Inside Passage between Seattle and Alaska. Change #3: New crew members. Abigail joined our crew in 2021, Morgan in 2022. Now that they're 3 and 4 and done with diapers, we're ready to head out to sea again! Change #4: New pants. This is much less exciting.  For the last five years, Justin has been working hard to turn this boat into a full-time home for us. We've been in Port Orchard, Washington, sometimes renting a house on land, ...

2020 Trip Itinerary: 1. Leave Buffalo  2. Go through Erie Canal 3. Now what? We've been on the Erie Canal for so long, it was hard to imagine taking Dumbledore anywhere else. But everyone was excited to move on and see what other places we could swim, walk, and explore.  Our first stop was in Troy, just outside of Albany, where we were very abruptly reintroduced to the concept of tides. Troy is on the Hudson River, which, unlike the Erie Canal, has a drastic change in water level at different times of the day as the tides come in and out. It also didn't help that when we pulled up to the Troy town wall, the public floating dock was under construction. The wall loomed above Dumbledore's bimini, and the low tide left Dumbledore  far below the edge of land.  Dumbledore was feeling particularly short In order to get onto land, Justin had to vault us up and we flopped onto the wall like seals.  She made it! We continued our way down the Hudson River, and our next sto...