The Beauties and The BeastLings

Beauties in our lives are on all fronts.

My dear "daughter", Maria and granddaughter, Lia, joined us with a friend for Spring Break. A shop-till-you-drop experience brought on by the lack of malls in downtown Manson. We are proud to announce that Lia got her driver's license on the first try and is qualified to be her mother's lackey!

We spend as much time as we can with Jan's cousin, Wendy, and her sweet girls. At Payton's birthday party we were lucky to meet Kuzi's parents and his sister as well asvisit with Wendy's Mom, Dar, again. It was a lovely party and the girls were gorgeous. We are blessed to be Aunt Jan and Uncle Doug to such beautiful children!

More Beauties are coming. Doug's daughter, Shari and her handsome husband, Ryan, are expecting in July. The gender of the baby will be a surprise to everyone but Beavers come in boys and girls!

My nephew, Seth, and his beautiful wife, Meghan, are expecting identical twin girls in a couple of weeks. Ah, the become a Greatest Aunt Jan and Greatest Uncle Doug. "Ant" Jan has been knitting!

And then there are the Ling Cod Beasts. It took us 15 minutes to catch our daily limit of one each. Good eating but certainly not beauties.

Season to Season Part 2 (Mexico)

Somehow I don't think that we have things quite right. When the weather is beautiful in Washington we head north to Canada. When the drizzles of November and the snows of December come we hunker down in Olympia. It is just not right. This year we got a bit smarter and spent a month in Mexico. We had no issues and things in Puerto Vallarta were fine.

Our biggest fear was being unwilling participants in the Puerto Vallarta 500 which is held daily courtesy of the public bus drivers who pull up to stop lights only to find that their testosterone had gone wild. Revving their engines and slyly watching one another they bolt out of the intersection at break neck speed. Pedestrians beware.

Our friends, Jerry and Mary Lee, were delayed and so we headed to a funky little town named Yelapa which was a 60's haven for draft dodger and musicians. Our bungalow had three walls and a curtain looking out over the river. We were treated to a morning show by the Pale Billed woodpecker which is a close relative of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

Back in Puerto Vallarta we met Jerry and Mary Lee and new friends, Gale and Dana who live most of the year in PV. We ate wonderful food, enjoyed the botanical gardens and were treated to a wonderful night of Karoke in which Mary Lee was the star. We took a quick trip to Manzanillo aboard the Sea Story. We enjoyed turtles and whales in route and like Manzanillo.

It was a nice break that ended the last day of March. We came back to low land snow. Our ticket for next fall is one way - we will call for a weather report before returning!

Season to Season Part 1

I have been remiss in my blogging - we have been having too much fun. Last September we watched a pair of charming grizzly cubs for days and then headed south to Victoria. We stayed at the Canadian Sailing Club and played in a nearby bridge tournament. Each evening we stopped in for a beer and a visit with the Old Salts.

We did well at the tournament and met several new Canadian friends. We enjoyed an Emily Carr exhibit and had our Canadian Beer picture taken. After a quick trip to Chelan and lunch with dear friends we headed to Florida and an East Coast Road trip that lasted six weeks. We drove to Indianapolis and enjoyed a visit with Doug's daughter, Shari, and her husband Ryan. Savannah and Charleston are as charming as usual.

By March we were wondering what we were doing in the northwest rain and snow and headed for Mexico.

A Salute to Our Captain

The SnowHawke is returned to her berth in Olympia and our 2010 season has ended. We safely traveled over 3000 adventure- filled nautical miles between May and September and it is timely to salute our Captain for a journey well skippered.

Early in the season, our friend, Heidi, asked Doug how many engines he had on the boat. For a moment he looked a bit perplexed and said, "Do you mean engines or motors?" After a brief clarification of the difference between an engine and a motor, Heidi answered, "Both!" And we counted. At first count we tallied up 19 systems that had an engine or a motor. To maintain and troubleshot each of those systems requires a variety of skills all of which Captain Doug possesses. He continually monitors all systems. What is this 5 degree increase in temperature on the starboard engine really telling me? Why would the generator pressure suddenly drop? Does the dinghy engine sound a bit rough to you? And so he goes day by day. And when he encounters a problem that he can not figure out, he knows who to call. If it is an engine problem, he has Erath in his speed dial. If it is the micro-commander that would be Ted. The Onan technical support people know his name and love to have him call because he understands what they are telling him. Captain Doug maintains systems and knows where to get expert help when he needs it.

When we decided to boat, Doug enrolled in a Captain's course and obtained his Coast Guard Captain's certification. Many of the skills he was taught seemed a bit archaic to me. Do you really need to be able to plot set and drift when you have that brand new Garmin system on board? Do you really need those paper charts when you have electronic charts? I thought not until we headed out of Blunden Harbour to pick up Shari and Ryan for a week on the boat with us. The Garmin didn't light up. Checked the connections. Moved it to the downstairs port. Called Garmin. Oh, no, the little Garmin brain had fried itself. The only good news was that the warranty wasn't up for two days. But that did not get us 17 nautical miles across the Queen Charlotte Strait to Port McNeill in the fog. All of the sudden the Captain's ability to plot a course of compass headings was mighty important.

Our Garmin dealer over-nighted us a new system which Shari and Ryan brought up. A kind boater who was flying out mailed our system to Garmin and there was hardly a blip on the radar screen. Once again our Captain came through.

The more we boat, the more thankful I am that our Captain can keep me and our guests safe and fishing. Hats off to Doug!

How Engineers Have Fun

Do not Let it be said that engineers do not know how to have fun.

Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of Doug and Gerry sitting on the couch reading operation manuals. But I do have other telling photos that are living proof that the stories about dull engineers are false or perhaps Gerry and Doug are exceptions....



Our time with Gerry and Carly began at Heriot Bay Marina which is a funky marina owned and managed by six old hippies. There is a band in the bar, great food in the dining room and gentle souls around.

Our first stop was Bute Inlet where we were treated to better bears than last year. Our first sighting was a very dark mature bear who came out of the brush. While we were admiring her she was joined by twin cubs whose antics amused us greatly. We were a little concerned when a large brown grizzly emerged. Male grizzlies will kill cubs if given the opportunity. Fortunately, this turned out to be Aunt Grizzly and all was well.

We feared that we had jinxed our catching with our failure to provide memorial photographs of our fish. Such was the case with salmon but not with bottom fish. Gerry is featured with our ling catch and a nice yellow eye. Carly is the prawn princess.

Shortly, there will be a blog on grizzlies including a video but I could not resist a few photos. The cubs are just too cute to not show you now.

Debra's Pride

It came as a surprise what thrilled Doug's sister, Debra, the most. Pay no heed to the trophy salmon, the "big" halibut or a prawn pull of 13 pounds. Instead savor the excitement of being able to land the smallest fish ever to be hooked by a SnowHawke guest. Excellent job, Debra! Ralph was proud of his two salmon but his excitement did not rival that of his wife.

Such fun we had with the Wilhelmi branch of the family. The trip from Olympia to Port McNeill is 14 hours (two videos and a nap). We arrived late after provisioning in Campbell River. At morning's first light we headed out for the Nakwakto Rapids where we spent several days before trying salmon fishing at Jeannette Island and Blackfish Sound. We fished at Well's Passage but caught nothing. For a week we laughed, celebrated each fishing success, played bridge, caught more prawns than we could eat and enjoyed some spectacular sunsets at beautiful anchorages.

We never tire of the beauty and variety of the Canadian waters, the company of friends and family and excitement of living off the sea with style and laughter.

We Are So Blessed

We are so blessed to have such wonderful young adults in our lives. Doug's daughter, Shari, and her delightful husband, Ryan, are among the best. Having them on the boat was pure joy. Shari is so much like her father and Ryan really gets my sense of humor. What great kids!

Ir was such fun to watch Doug as the time drew near for their arrival. First, he checked the clock every few minutes and then he pulled on his coat and stepped out into the rainy night to wait for them at the head of the dock. Before he was forced to seek warmth in the half dark laundromat, they arrived and the fun began.

The first stop was a little salmon fishing off of Jeanette where Ryan caught a nice 19 lb salmon before the wind started kicking up. We headed for the Nakwakto Rapids where we were greeted by a huge pod of dolphins who decided to play with us. They talked loudly as they jumped and guided us toward SnowHawke Cove North. Doug got a fantastic photo of their antics and we laughed at Shari and Ryan's delight in watching them ride the bow.

After two days of prawning (great success) we headed out for more fishing. Before we could start to fish we were treated to watching big whales hunting. What a treat! Shari's salmon nearly matched Ryan's for size. Shari also managed to catch a small halibut before the wind came up.

Our time on the boat ended far too quickly.


PS Can you look at Shari''s natural blond beautiful hair and guess what Doug was nicknamed in his logging days?


That's right GOLDLOCKS!