Hey everyone! Once again so sorry for the long delay we have been just having way to much fun and the weather has been to die for!! OK so this blog is written most by me ( Shannon) but Jon wrote a little too, sorry if its confusing.
Once we made it back to Tacoma we had a week to get a lot of projects done before Jon headed out for his next shoot, and then the family comes to visit. We didn’t realize how tired the last 2 weeks had made us, and we found our selves sleeping in, and taking out time getting started during the day. Finishing about one project a day at a very slow pace, the week was coming to an end. All we had really gotten done was taking apart the wind vane and started to polish that, I finished stripping the varnish in the cockpit, and little random jobs here and there.The day before Jon had to leave we woke up at 6 am and cranked out some projects. The main ones were to get the rear stateroom all finished and to re-run all the wires coming out the back of the boat. We worked all day only to stopping for a quick lunch.
While Jon was designing, measuring and cutting the frame and cover panel to hide all the wring, I was tackling the wire mess and plethora of random and un-needed holes on the back of our boat. In order to do this we had to take down the radar post, disconnect the wiring and re-run them the way they should have been ran in the first place. We consolidated all the random holes into 2 holes with all the wires leading aft coming out of them. With a quick tape job and some epoxy and filler, I had the holes thought the fiberglass filled and sanded down looks like almost new. ( I still need to bung the holes that are in the teak cap-rail) Running the wire this time though the pole just not zip-tied to the outside, I was able to reconnect the radar, plug in the wirie and the GPS antenna. The VHF wire had been damaged at some point in its life and also was not long enough to run it the way we wanted to have it, so we one clicked it. (amazon. com is the best). We finished the projects and started to put the boat back together. We called it a night around 1 am.
Jon needed to be at the airport by 9am and let it be known the boat was still a mess! A few days before I had gotten an email from some friends who were in Washington and wanted to come by and see the boat. Bruce and Dawn are also sailors and happen to be very fond of the Hans Christian 33. They told me that they were going to call to let me know there ETA. I had just finished getting the outside looking good again and moved to the inside. About 5 minutes into it I get a call from Dawn, ” We are in front of Johnny’s Dock” I looked around cursed to myself. I told them to park under the over pass and then to follow the path till they were in front of the glass museum. I have10 minutes, so I got to work… Boat pick up at light speed! I finished just in time and met them at the museum. I gave them the grand tour of Prism showing them every cool nook n’ cranny! They have a 31′ Independence and were blown away with how much larger this boat was compared to their own even though it is only 2 feet longer. We had amazing visit, it was so great to see them and have them as our first guest aboard! I waved good bye to my friends Monday afternoon and decided that I would get to working on the boat the next morning.
During the next week I worked on completing some of the projects that Jon had left for me to do. I finished sanding the caulking on the teak decks, polished (using never dull) the wind vane, plugged a few more holes in the cockpit with 2 new 12v plug-ins, installed the trim piece to the mushroom vent in the aft cabin after I put a new coat of white paint on the ceiling and I started to sand the vertical teak slats in the cockpit. There might have been something else but to be honest I feel like all the projects are mushing into one. By the time Saturday night was here I slept like a baby knowing that my boat was very clean inside and out and was ready to show off to the family!
I picked up Mom and Chris at 8 am on Sunday morning. We had breakfast and went to fisheries to pick up some parts that Jon and i had ordered. I took them to the first REI to kill some time before we had to pick up Jon later in the evening. However Mom and Chris were pooped and waked to just relax after we got some lunch. Our cousin Mikkia had gotten hold of me to let us know she was passing though and would be in Tacoma just in time for lunch. We had an amazing lunch filled with lots of laughs! I am so happy I finally got to meet the lovely woman in person! She hit the road while mom Chris and I headed back to the boat. We rested and played some card games to pass the time till Jon got in.
-Shannon
I have been in Arkansas shooting a two motion episodes. My Mom a and brother decided to come visit us before they leave on a Europe trip that they have been planning for the last year. They had yet to see the boat in person. Shannon and the gang met me at the airport at 7pm and we all drove back down to Tacoma. The Fallowing day I had a few projects I had to finish before we could depart on our first “real” Sail.
Up to this point all we had done on Prism is motor her up from Olympia and take her on a sea trial. Before we left I had to install my new gypsy on our current windlass. The Chain that was on the boat was 5/16” BBB and We wanted to get the strength of the G43 chain. The old chain had been spliced so we decided we needed to make the change to new chain earlier than I originally wanted to. After $900 of chain and $720 for a gypsy we are running again. Shannon and Mom also ran a new Coax and finished reinstalling our gps system. We woke up late Tuesday and started out motoring to our first destination; Gig Harbor. We had a slight hick up when unfurling the jib a halyard got its self rapped up and twisted. Mom took the helm while Shannon and I Sent Chris up the mast.
Lucky there was really no wind so this did not take to long and soon we were on our way again. We Did get to sail for about 30 minutes but then the wind really died. We motored our way into Gig Harbor and it was like threading a needle to get inside. Took us two tries to like our anchor position. The new Spade anchor gripped down immediately but our scope put us a little too close to a neighboring boat that was anchored. Upon retrieving the chain my windlass was jamming between chain, gypsy and base. The little finger that pops off the chain when retrieving was not high enough to do its job. A little fiddling with a piece of metal and I managed to get all 100′ back in. Upon our second try we stuck it and all was well with the world. We then decided to go ashore to see what the famous Gig Harbor had to offer. We only had the tandem kayak so we elected my 15 year old brother to be our mule to drop us all off. I was first so I wondered towards some live music playing. What we didn’t know was that we nailed the timing and that afternoon the Band “The Beatnicks” where playing a bunch of fun cover songs in the middle of the little park next to the the public dock. People where dancing, kids playing and people swimming all over the place.
-Jon
I was the last one to be picked up by the “mule” and once we were all on shore we headed to the nearest ice cream shop. We were not the only ones to be thinking that some ice cream was needed at the time cause the small cafe was packed! We walked over to enjoy the music and were getting a kick out of the show the drummer was putting on, very entertaining! We stayed and listened for a while then wanted to head back to the boat cause it was to crowded to find a seat anywhere in the park area. We were very happy to know that we could still hear the music clearly once we were back on the boat. As the sun started to set we were all bundled up at the front of the boat ( i must say that i am loving the wide open spot on the doghouse more and more every day) enjoying wine and the music. We made taco salad for dinner and played some card games till we could no longer keep our eyes open. Chris had set up camp out on the doghouse, he said he slept great till the sun came out and it got hot and bright all too quick.
Mom and I kayaked over to the little store and on our way back we got to play with a baby harbor seal and the momma. SO CUTE! Mom and I were so in our element! Baby animals are just way to precious. Once we got back to the boat we headed out o our next stop. When we made it through Dalco Pass we hoisted the sails and had amazing sail in Commencement Bay. We can not believe how fast Prism is! At one point there was about a 8knt wind and we were moving at 6knts! We even had her up to 7knts with the wind at about 10 knts. Not to shabby if you ask me. We sailed for the rest of the afternoon and then headed to Burton for the night. Burton was very calm and we had the whole place to our selves. Jon went swimming while dodging the jellies that were EVERYWHERE! ( little did we know that they are they kind that do not sting you). We had dinner in the cockpit and watched the moon come out. It was a clear night and the moon was yellow! Made for some cool shots!
We all woke up the next morning with the idea to sail up to Blake Island for lunch. We had some good wind coming out of Quatermaster Harbor, with a lot of short tacks and crab pot dodging we made it back out into the bay, and then the wind died. We all did not feel like motoring up to Blake so we headed back to Tacoma with all sails up and making way at about 1knt.
Back at the dock we just relaxed for the rest of the day, went for a walk though downtown stopping to get our caffeine fix at Starbucks and to hide from the heat for a while. We made some dinner and settled in for our last night together playing cards and liars dice.
Dropping off mom and Chris was tough. We had such a great time this week and didn’t want it to end! But they had to head home to start their next vacation ( lucky ducks!) and Jon had to get back to work. Me, I get to start on more projects or maybe even finish some!
Yesterday Jon and I worked on 3 main projects that we wanted to have done before the family got here but we did not have enough time, so we knocked them out.
1. The Wind Vane is back in action and looks shiny and new on the back of the boat. The power boat that is in the slip next to us is out cursing for a few weeks so we have a lot of room to work and even enough room to turn prism sideways in the slip. A very different way to keep our boat moored but really helped out when we started on our next project
2. Putting some armor on our bowsprit to stop the anchor from taking out chunks of wood when it comes up.
3. Install speakers and radio. The hardest part during this project was where to place the speakers in the inside. Once we found a spot that looked good and we could hide the wire we went for it! We ran the speaker wire but the power has not be ran yet, that is part of my projects to do in the next week.
Jon left this morning, driving our subaru back to cali then fly to a job from there, then back up here in a week. When he gets back out next wave of family is coming to visit for a few day. I can not wait for Tess ( Jon’s sister) her husband Jason and their son Troy to hang with us. The fun is just never ending!
-Shannon