Dickinson Newport solid fuel stove

the fireplace installation -
steve and i mounted the unit on the starboard teak bulkhead in the main cabin with a sheet of stainless steel behind it -

there's a three inch steel stove pipe threaded through a 4 1/4 inch hole in the deck, the balsa core is epoxied and sealed against the rain - a teak winch mount was installed to keep the chimney top level in regards to the slope and curve of the deck, the medieval looking flue cap should keep out the backdraft
-
so far so good, many warm fires ahead

Huge Day for the Captains Log

that is shala in the upper left corner out sailing last summer, she is featured in the Underway section of "Latitude and Attitudes", which is the creme de la creme of the 'pirate/Jimmy Buffet' genre of sailing publications, so ya know...

my boat is finally on the express trains to complete stardom

very exciting

pink salmon running off Meadow Point

humback whale in Barkley Sound

We had a couple of nice encounters with humpback whales and Orcas in and around Barkley Sound.

None of these moments were captured on film.
This tiny clip is all we had.

Unless Newman has more footage? Newman...talk to me.

good wind in the West Entrance of the Straight of Juan de Fuca

I would never speak poorly of my crew, they are the lifeblood of each successful voyage in the Alizé. But, if I could change one component of the crew's behavior - it would be the amount of drinks they spill.

It is one thing to get your sea legs, but it is another thing to get your sea hands - this takes weeks.

taking out the dingy

I don't know much about comedy, but for my money, nothing is funnier than 2 guys in a little boat - especially when Kitson is wearing his Miami beach outfit.

Thank goodness Captain has his own private kayak.

autohelm

the good news is that this mechanical autohelm works, the bad news is the amount of duct tape I used to get it to work -

back to the safe waters of Friday Harbor in the San Juans

sometimes houses like to get out on the water as well.

what are you kidding me?

I'm not saying it was like this every day, but we had our moments of plenty.

we put this one back

shipwrecks in Barkley Sound

Navigating the Broken Islands was a challenge. There are many partially submerged rocks and neither my paper charts nor chartplotter had high resolution data of the area.

So, Newman and I had to be on point as we set headings and tack lines. The numerous shipwrecks served as ominous canaries in the sentinel coalmine, there but for the grace of canary warning, red flag god goes I.