Why Are You Guys Still Here?

Our home for the last several weeks.

The title says it all:  Why are we still at the dock at Peakes?  I could go into all sorts of existentialistic reasons,  but essentially we are still waiting for the water pump motor to arrive . . . and something else broke.

Well not really, but after having the cutlass bearing go out after just three years I felt it would be wise to have the engine alignment checked. If the engine isn't in perfect alignment with the propellor shaft, the shaft will vibrate. If the shaft vibrates, the cutlass bearing will wear. See, so simple.

To realign the engine you essentially undo the coupling between the engine and the transmission, then see how the shaft lines up with the engine. If it doesn't you loosen the nuts on the four engine motor mounts and gently adjust the attitude of the engine with the propeller shaft.  Unfortunately in our case, the motor mounts had no more adjustment left in them. The rubber that makes up the mounts was compressed as far as it could be, meaning  no adjustability and no vibration dampening as it was rock hard with age.  The good news was I was due to repaint the mounts since they were so rusty and I had been putting off it because it's a dirty, messy, and difficult job. So there.

Our trusty mechanic Falco has managed to find some motor mounts at about double the price in the U.S. (at one point I was going to have Meryl fly to Houston to pick up four new mounts) and will replace them this Tuesday. It involves putting a jack under the engine, and under the assumption that he can loosen the old bolts, then jacking up the engine, replacing the mounts, then aligning them to the shaft. Not fun given the very limited space in the engine room. But what's another $1,500 at this point?

We've escaped from boat captivity and venture out into the real world at West Mall.

With most of our boat jobs completed, we decided to take our first day off in three weeks and head to the mall.  After hiking out to the main highway in a pouring down rain, we flagged down a MaxiTaxi and for $.90 each rode about 25 minutes to the very modern West Mall.

I was actually very impressed, not Bellevue Square but not bad.  We found a computer store and replaced a dead mouse and a pharmacy where we asked everyone about mineral oil (it's used as a laxative down here so I'm sure people thought there was some urgency to our request). After several drug stores we found they call it Liquid Paraffin B.P.  We needed it to coat Meryl's cutting board which I recently refinished. So now you can understand the sense of urgency.

We went to the Food Court (with the omnipresent KFC and McDonalds) and had a good local lunch, found a clothing store to get Meryl an early birthday present, and a supermarket to finish out our provisioning.

The supermarkets, when you can find them, are interesting. Very similar to those in the U.S. but stocked with foods from around the world.  Some of the good deals were the incredibly tasty KerryGold butter from Ireland, Anchor cheddar cheese from New Zealand, Danish cookies, and my favorite, Cadbury King Size chocolate bars (but Meryl wouldn't let me buy one).  They had a great selection of spices, but on the other hand, U.S. goods such as Woolite and Resolve were almost twice the price as in the U.S.

Since a tropical wave was passing over the island, we hustled out of the grocery store and back to the highway where, amazingly, the same MaxiTaxi pulled up just as we got there.  For an extra dollar he drove us all the way back through Peakes Boatyard to the guest dock, 100 ft from our boat. Given the pouring rain that was a real plus.

Getting on the boat was another issue, however, since waves from the storm were crashing into the dock and the bow of our boat was raising and falling with each passing wave. To get on the boat we had to wait until the bow went way down, then we made a jump for the anchor hanging off the front and tried to pull ourselves up to the bow pulpit as the boat raised in the air. It was like jumping on to a bucking bronco. Getting the heavy grocery bags on was another matter, but somehow everything made it to the foredeck in one piece. Once the groceries were stored I had to jump in the swimming pool (the dingy was full of water almost to the top) and bail it out.

As you might image, it felt good to finally get back into the boat and realize no mater how much it rained, we'd still float on top of it all. Of course I was still stewing over the Cadbury's bar. A chunk of chocolate would have tasted really good about then.

The Boatyard -- Refitting Flying Cloud

My wife will hate this post. I think she thinks (how many men have uttered that phrase?) that we should focus on just the positives and the travel brochure aspects of cruising. I’m more of a “tell it like it is” type of guy. I read a lot of cruising blogs and the ones I appreciated the most talk about both the positive and negative aspects of this crazy lifestyle. This post is about the negative.

As I mentioned earlier, I abhorred the idea of returning to Trinidad to work on the boat for two or three weeks. Trinidad is somewhat of a necessary evil. It’s one of the easiest places to get work done. Many times you’ll call a repair guy and he’ll be on your boat within an hour. Try that in Seattle sometime. There are good chanderlies (albeit at high prices) and most anything you need repaired can be fixed down here. The downsides are the heat, the torrential afternoon rains, and the likelihood of any simple repair becoming complex and expensive. In addition, when you haul out you lose boat systems that depend on water:  1) air conditioning, 2) sinks and showers draining, 3) heads working, etc. Try living in your house for two weeks with no heat/AC, sinks, showers, or bathrooms. Not fun.

This Excel ToDo List goes on and on and on.

Back to the projects. Like any respective anal-retentive I’d been keeping an Excel spreadsheet of everything that needed to be fixed once we got to Trinidad. The list showed exponential growth as projects beget projects. That’s even before we started taking covers off things and exploring.

Sailing to Trinidad I essentially had six projects in mind:  1) new bottom paint, 2) new anchor chain, 3) a whisker pole, 4) fitting a used Code Zero gennaker, 5) replacing the cutlass bearing, and 6) commissioning a survey of the condition of the boat for insurance purposes.  Not too intimidating at first glance.

Life in the boat yard. You could walk from deck to deck, the boat were that tightly packed.

Our savior, after three days of sweltering in the boat sauna, was this portable air conditioner that they rent out at the yard.

First, we had the boatyard (at $375 labor) clean, sand, and apply new bottom paint. The Ameron ABC3 paint worked well for us last year and sells for about $800 for 4 gallons. It’s a hot, messy job and best left to the yard workers at that price. We also commissioned our old Rastafarian friend, Mellow, to clean and polish the sides of the boat. At $250, still a deal given the heat. As long as we were polishing the hull, we hired Mellow’s fellow Rasti, Corwin, to repair the numerous dings and scratches in the fiberglass all over the boat. Still a good deal.

Think of untangling a 200 lb slinky.

Brand new 10mm Maggi chain in our now clean anchor locker.

My first job was to get the old, rusty anchor chain out of the anchor locker and onto the ground. I then crawled into the locker (remember no AC at this point) and used oxalic acid to dissolve the rust stains coating the inside of the anchor locker. This was not fun and breathing was a challenge.
We then had the new 10mm 220 ft. Maggi chain from Italy delivered in a pick-up truck. It was on a spool, but ironically was mis-wrapped so the worker had to kick the spool apart and try to untangle around 200 lbs of chain. It took a while to hoist it aboard using the anchor windlass (we also had to replace the windlass chain wheel as the cogs were badly worn causing the chain to skip). Because the chain is purchased duty-free, he had a female Customs Officer watch the installation. She was not a happy camper.

I then tried to attach the anchor to the chain using new high tensile Crosby shackles I’d laboriously searched out in Seattle. Turns out a ⅜” shackle won’t fit a 10mm chain even though 10mm is slightly bigger. After several trips to the various chandleries I found out there were no 10mm shackles in Trinidad. Ended up using a rotating anchor connector left over from my C36. Should work fine.

One problem I noticed was the motor on the anchor windlass was rusting fairly bad. That meant dismounting the very heavy motor from inside the locker, wire brushing (I had just bought a Makita industrial die grinder fitted with a brass wire brush, so that worked great) the rust off, and painting it with zinc primer and industrial enamel. Can’t have this puppy ever fail.

While in the anchor locker I fitted two three-foot pieces of teak with line holders mounted so we can store various lengths of smaller line in the otherwise unused forward locker space. That worked great, except my idea of combining quick dry epoxy with the slow drying 5200 mounting adhesive didn’t work as well as planned and the boards, with all the wet 5200 goop, started sliding down the sides of the locker.  I had to hand hold them until the epoxy took hold, then clean the 5200 off the walls. You don’t want to ever do this, especially in a hot compartment. A lesson learned.

Jonas, our stoic Swedish rigger, getting ready to remove the over sized main halyard.

Jonas' assistant rigs the control lines for the new whisker pole that will mount on the front of the mast.

I finally got the rigger on the boat to talk about mounting the whisker pole and the Code Zero gennaker. The whisker pole was fairly straight forward, although we did have to machine a Selden end fitting to fit into a Forespar sliding car on the mast. Metric meets imperial. When will the US ever shift to the much easier metric system?

The new reinforcement plate for the Code Zero gennaker eye strap. The cracks found by the surveyor were at the base of the two vertical stantions.

I had originally assumed we’d mount the base for the Code Zero sail by through-bolting a fitting on the deck between the forestay and the anchor windlass.  After looking at the rig, the rigger said it would be problematic to fly the gennaker in that position since it would get caught with other halyards at the top. He suggested moving it to the forward-most point of the boat on the bow pulpit step. That was great except the load was up to two tons, which meant we’d have to weld a ¼” stainless reinforcing plate to the pulpit and through bolt the stem piece. Ugh. That meant I'd have to make a pattern and find a welder who is authorized to work in the yard.

Now here’s a bit of good luck (sort of). When the surveyor was inspecting the boat (with a magnifying glass) he noticed two hairline cracks in the bow pulpit, ironically inches away from where my welder would be mounting the plate. For a little bit extra he welded the cracks, saving someone from imminent death when the bow pulpit failed and they fell in the water in the middle of the night in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (that would be me). The other issue was the plastic electrical wire for the forward running lights ran through the stainless tubing that was soon to be red hot from the welder. Normally you’d just attach some line and pull it back out of the way, but most line would melt at those temperatures. I thought about this for several days and came up with a good solution. I found some braided steel fishing leader (it has to be flexible to make it around all the corners) and crimped it to the wire and then had Meryl pull it back into the boat where it would be safe from the heat. The braided wire should survive the heat OK.

Actually the most difficult part of the project was removing the teak step that I had just put 8 coats of varnish on. I first had to tear out the teak bungs hiding the screws. Doing that without damaging the edges of the hole is difficult at best. The ten screws simply didn’t want to come out and I didn’t want to ruin the expensive piece of teak (which was heavily bedded to the tubing). After much trial and error I hit upon a removal method, as inelegant as it was. I ended up re-tapping the holes and buying new mounting screws, so the re installation wasn’t too back. Unfortunately the stainless steel backing plate I had custom made in Seattle (which I assumed would be mounted under the deck) needed to be recut to fit under the new stainless plate. All in all the welder (Mitchell at West Coast Welders) did a great job and the attachment point is now rock solid.

With the mounting plate installed, I had a sail maker come on board to measure the luff length of the gennaker so he could modify the sail (it was designed for a 50 ft sailboat). That will take about a week to complete.

A single strand is all that is holding this genoa halyard together.

When the rigger went up the mast to take measurements, he noticed the genoa halyard (which we never take down since it’s roller furling) was literally holding on by a single strand of the 24 strands that make up the line. Amazing it hadn’t failed (resulting in the sail blowing out) yet. Looking at the staysail he noticed the same thing, but not quite as bad. It turns out all the halyards were oversized, and as such, were rubbing on the sides of the exit sheaves. We couldn’t re splice them since the line was too old, and anything we did would result in the same wear pattern. In addition, especially on the main halyard, it was the wrong type of line. The surveyor (who used to be a rigger) noticed it when I hoisted him up and he was bouncing up on down on the springy line.

Luckily the rigger had some spools of a German made Dynema line called Liros that he gave us for a fairly good price (translated to outrageously expensive compared to the States) so we opted to replace them now with the much stronger and smaller diameter (12mm) Dynema. The splice on a Dynema line is very small, meaning it shouldn’t rub on the exit sheaves. Love those surprises when you’re fixing one thing and two others pop up. The option of loosing both sails in a heavy blow out in the middle of the ocean made the decision fairly easy.

The most beautiful stainless polisher in the world.

During most of this work Meryl was diligently polishing all the stainless steel on the boat, a huge task. She’d try to work a couple of hours in the morning before it got too hot, then a couple of hours right before sunset when it cooled off a little.

This brigantine was rigged with several square-cut sails.

How this couple maintains this huge wooden boat is beyond me. I got tired just watching them.

As an aside, a 65 ft. brigantine was brought into the yard right next to us for a week. It was a huge, very complex boat with a young Dutch couple and their 5-year-old son.  They worked 14 hours a day sanding and scraping the bottom, then painting the bottom and hull sides. I’d never seen anyone work so hard. Half the time she was in a bikini top covered with red bottom paint dust from hair to toes. Don’t know how they maintain and handle that big a boat. The kid was very cute and helped out at times and the rest of the time played in the large mud puddles. The only bad thing was their young dog fell off the deck 25 ft down to the dirt and landed on his head. Amazingly he seems OK. Oh, the robustness of youth.

Now back to the bottom of the boat. Before they do the bottom painted (usually a couple of days before you go into the water) you have to clean all the underwater metal (propeller, shaft, strut, and thru hull covers). This is a messy job but made easier using the electric die grinder with the brass wire brush. Before we had just painted the bare metal with bottom paint, but I noticed it seemed to come off faster than the bottom paint on the fiberglass. I contact my buddy, Steve d’Antonio, the expert of all experts in boating repair, and he recommended an acid etcher followed an epoxy-based primer.  Meryl had to walk about two miles up the road to get the acid etcher ($45 for a quart) while I went the other way to another paint store to buy the Ameron epoxy primer ($125 quart). It’s nasty stuff but the application went fairly well and will ensure the bottom paint stays stuck to the underwater metal. The only negative was I carefully removed the small pins from the drop down doors of the through hulls and carefully lined them up on the wooden support of the keel for exact replacement. Naturally when the yard workers came their high pressure hose knocked these (and their cotter rings) in the mud surrounding the boat (remember the torrential rains every day?). Amazing I found all of them, but have no clue which goes where. Next time I bag and label them and store them on the boat.

New cutlass bearing and PropSped coated prop.

A couple of days before we launched we had to re coat the propeller shaft with a product called PropSpeed. We did this three years ago and it did a fairly good job of keeping marine growth off the shaft and prop. When it fails stuff grows fairly quickly on the prop, and it’s a pain to keep diving and scrubbing it clean. PropSpeed is getting hard to find, especially down here.  We scored the second to last can (a pint at $200) and carefully read the installation instructions and planned the application. You need to sand the shaft and prop right before you apply the PropSpeed, otherwise the shaft will start oxidizing fairly quickly.  It had been raining fairly lightly but seemed like it was stopping so I mixed up the two-part acid etch and began coating the shaft. Naturally a full out deluge hit and soon everything was coated with water. I was pissed and felt stupid for going ahead, but you never know when it will rain down here.  Luckily the acid etch had a 8-hour pot life (I thought we’d have to find another can at $200 and was aware it may be out of stock, thereby delaying the launch of the boat. Another problem is that once the bottom is painted, you need to launch within a few days. Once it stopped raining I managed to wire brush the gunk off the shaft and as I painted the new acid etch on (it dries very fast in this heat), Meryl followed with the Clear Coat, which had jelled a little but was still OK. We dodged a big bullet on that one.

This diesel powered tug moves boats back and forth to the Travellift.

I'm praying the straps hold for just a few more minutes.

I won’t bore you with the myriad of other small fixes and repairs, but we were ecstatic to finally be back in the water on Sept. 15th. The dock master, Ragnor, to whom we’d donated our 240 ft of old chain, moved some boats and got us a great location on the inside of Peakes dock with electricity and water. Peakes gives you five free days after your haul out, so it’s a good deal for us. Naturally the AC on the boat didn’t work initially, but we finally got the air bubbles out of the feed line and now it’s working like a champ, along with the pressure water, showers, and heads.

Meryl is getting very adept at sail and canvas repairs with her Sailrite industrial machine. Here she's sewing through several layers of Sunbrella and leather protective strips.

We spent the next few days just getting all the tools and junk put away and cleaning the boat. Naturally, while cleaning our moldy white bimini, I managed to put a six-inch rip in a section that was especially threadbare. Off came the bimini and out came the sewing machine. Luckily the guy who had recovered our seat cushions was delivering them that day and brought Meryl a piece of white Sunbrella, so she’s repairing the rip and reinforcing some other sections of wear. It’s unbelievable the damage that the combination of sun and salt water does to everything on a boat. Our surveyor commented that your boat is trying to commit suicide every day, and it’s your job to keep her alive.

To add insult to injury, our domestic water pump (that supplies water pressure to the sink and showers) decided to die the next day. It’s a very expensive pump (a Paragon Jr. at about $1400) and one I worry about on a daily basis. We had Mark at Dynamite Services come right over and remove it. At the shop they found the motor was toast, so we'll try to order one from the States and have it air shipped. The motor is $200 and the air shipping is another $250 and will take a week at the shortest. Then we have to get it through Customs. Looks like we'll be here longer than we thought. Luckily we’re hooked up to domestic water at the dock so everything still works on the boat.

Another day, another dollar, the exotic life of a cruiser.

Traveling to the Tranquility of Trinidad -- NOT

After two short months in the Pacific Northwest it was time to prepare for the trip back to Trinidad. Normally we’d be excited to get back to the boat, but this time we knew how much work was waiting for us, plus the heat and humidity we’d live in until the work was done.

We’d waited until the last week to do our major provisioning, not a good idea.  I was off to Fisheries Supply to buy a variety of boating items, including one $375 120 ft. length of rope. Isn’t there something in Greek mythology about ropes of gold? Well, this was about as close as you get. Super high-strength Dynema is the new thing:  lighter, smaller in diameter, and as strong as steel. We needed it for our new Code Zero gennaker, and it would cost at least double in Trinidad (where they add a 15% VAT on top of every purchase).

Meryl did the usual route of Trader Joe’s, Fred Meyer, QFC, and, of course, Costco. Back at Jim and Chris Berry’s we spread out our booty, covering their living room floor. Jim just shakes his head. No commentary is needed.

As a (former) airline employee, we can take two 70 lb. bags in addition to our carry-ons.  With Jim’s help we packed two large duffels and three large cardboard boxes.  We had everything weighed (we put Jim on the bathroom scale and he lifted the 70 lb. boxes up to his waist while I laid on the ground with a flashlight trying to read the weight.  Getting all this stuff into our little Honda rental car was a challenge. It reminded me of when Jim would help us load our cars after camping trips.

Leaving at 3:30 am, and allowing plenty of time, we filled two baggage carts to the hilt at Sea-Tac and tried to balance leaving the car unattended versus leaving the bags unattended at the check-in counter. Someone always yells at us no matter what.

I took the car back to the rental car facility hoping the best. Sure enough I got a call with Meryl in a panic saying United wanted $1100 for the excess baggage fees. Meryl then opened some of the boxes and rearranged weights and went back. Next quote was $800. She got another agent who figured it at $500, and finally a third rather frazzled agent who quoted $300 (which is what the computer said when we checked in online). We swallowed hard, handed over the credit card and then ran for the plane. Luckily TSA Pre was wide open and we whizzed through and raced to the plane, where amazingly, we got the last two seats. We even got to sit together, a rarity these days.

When we flew through Houston last year the connecting flight was at the other end of the airport and we didn’t make it. This time the departing flight was at the same gate so we got a snack and relaxed a little. On the flight a nice Trinidadian lady switched seats so we could sit together and we had a enjoyable flight, but still wondering whether our bags had made it because of the all the delays during SeaTac checking-in.

Landing in the familiar heat and humidity of Port of Spain at 8:30 p.m. we had to get some special paper work to clear Marine Customs at Chaguaramus Bay, about one hour away.  Since it was now after 10:00 pm we had to pay a surcharge for the taxi, but he was a nice guy and waited for us at Marine Customs as the agent made me open each box and show him the contents. By law goods brought in for a “yacht in transit” are duty free, but that is very loosely interpreted by Customs. The agent wasn’t in a great mood by let us go with no extra fees. We had reserved a room at the modest hotel at Peakes Boatyard, and hauling all those boxes from the cab to the hotel room left me and cab driver soaked in sweat, but it was good to finally be there with all the boxes in one piece.

The boxes, duffels, and suitcases all survived the trip, barely.

The next day we enlisted our buddy Ragnor, the Trinidadian with blonde dreadlocks who looks Norwegian, to help with the boxes. I thought we’d use the motor hoist to lift them up, but he just put them on his shoulders and climbed up the 10-ft ladder to the boat. I gave him a $10 tip which he seem embarrassed to take, but he certainly earned it. Naturally the boxes were on the verge of self destruction as they sat in the cockpit, I'm always amazed they survive the trip.

The boat seemed to survived OK, a little musty and with some mold, but not too bad given the time away. The one huge bummer was that we were supposed to have a portable air conditioner installed, but ours was on some super yacht that was supposed to have launched but was now on a rolling delay. It was around 94 degrees inside the boat and all the fans simply circulated the hot air more efficiently.

Welcome to the Taswell 44 sauna.

The Last Days of Summer

Aug. 19th

Returning from Colorado we were generously hosted by our old friends, Jim and Mary Ann Sanders, at their beautiful home on Beaver Lake in Sammamish, WA. Jim used to crew for me when I had my 26 ft. Thunderbird sailboat, Phoenix. He is probably one of the smartest sailors/tacticians I'd ever sailed with.

Unfortunately, about a month before we arrived Jim took a rather bad fall off a ladder and cracked a number of bones. By the time we got back we was fairly mobile, rolling back and forth in house with help of a walker.  His spirit and sense of humor were still intact and he took injuries in stride.

Mary Ann, always the consummate hostess, made us feel at home and cooked some great meals. Most of the time we just enjoyed sitting on their deck and getting caught up with each other's lives. We took Jim's canoe out for a spin on the lake to get a little exercise and see how the other half lives. What an incredible place to live.  We also got a chance to talk with their daughter, Megan, who now works with our son at Concur Technologies.

Maya leading the way.

We then spent a few days dog-sitting Maya at our son's house in Sammamish while they were gone to a wedding. We miss having a dog and enjoyed taking long walks in the near by Hazel Wolf Wetlands Park. At night we finished off the season of House of Cards. Can't wait for the next season.

Anita, Marilyn, and Meryl

 We also had a chance to get caught up with two of Meryl's high school girl friends, Marilyn and Anita. They are all fairly statuesque and gorgeous. I imagine they were somewhat intimidating to boys in high school (including those of us who are vertically challenged). It was fun to get caught up with everyone's careers, retirements, and families.

We also had dinner with Patsy (former Pan Am) and Steve, and Steve's sister Georgia and her friend John. Fun to go out to a hip Queen Anne area restaurant and have a great meal and conversation.

Lena, Meryl, and Liz.

Rounding out our visit home, Meryl met her former Pan Am stewardess (that's what they called them then) friends during lunch before we left. Even though we had two months this year it seemed there just wasn't enough time to touch base with everyone. That's one of the most difficult aspects of our cruising lifestyle.

In a couple more days we head back to Trinidad, which we're not looking forward to given all the work we need to do. This is coupled with the joy of living on a boat (on the hard in a boatyard) without use of our sink, toilet, air conditioning, or refrigeration. Should be fun.

Aspen, Breck and Fairplay

Aug 13th

We learned that even on a bright summer day it can be cool at 12,095 feet.

In keeping with our new fitness regime, Tryg drove us over Independence Pass on our way to Aspen.  Approaching the outskirts of Aspen, we marveled at the affluence as we drove by one mountain mansion after another on our way to the bus pick up for the Maroon Bells hike.

A short 20 minute drive, including an ongoing commentary by the driver of everything that's happened in the valley since the beginning of time, and we were dropped off at the Visitors Center. A lot has changed since Scott McRae and I did this hike back in the 70s, but still as spectacular as ever.

Hikers at Maroon Lake with the Maroon Bells in the background.

Along with hordes of the other people, we hiked the short distance up to Maroon Lake, then continued on the longer trail to Crater Lake. The Maroon Bells are one of the most photographed mountains in the U.S., and it's easy to understand why. Although the light was rather flat the day we hiked, the Bells are normally a brilliant red color from the oxides in the rock and soil.

Some mention should be made of the terrorist chipmunks in the area. Watch your nuts.

After a short snack and rest we hiked back enjoying the beautiful scenery all the way. We headed into Aspen and walked around the downtown area, finally finding a a great lunch place called The Big Wrap. Even managed to find a frozen yogurt on the way back to the car.

Aug. 14th -- Breckenridge and Fairplay

There's a wonderful river that comes right through the village of Breckenridge.

This crepes stand was packed at all hours whenever we drove through the town.

On the next day we drove south of Frisco to the mega resort of Breckenridge, called Breck by the locals and wanna be locals.  It's a great town with lots of shops and great restaurants. We got caught in a nasty thunderstorm and waited it out in a little bakery with good hot chocolate.

Must have been amazing to have lived in Colorado during the gold rush days.

While this is actually a restaurant, it's an accurate replica of a gold dredging rig.

While played-out mines dot the hillsides, a lot of the valley floors in this area were extensively mined by massive dredging boats that were literally winched up the shallow river beds leaving large hills of river rock in their wake. There is a good mining museum in Breck (there, I'm sounding like a local) that provided a lot of info on the history of the area.

The Fairplay Hotel, which has been recently remodeled.

From there we continued down the mountain to the funky town of Fairplay. An old mining town, Annie's mom had once owned the historic Fairplay Hotel, which looks like it hadn't changed much since its heyday.

After a long ride home and one of Annie's delicious dinners we all retired to the couches to continue our serial viewing of The House of Cards. Kevin Spacy's portrayal of the House Whip brings new meaning to the word "sinister." One wonders how far from the truth the movie's plot is to everyday Washington politics.

High and Dry in Frisco

Aug 11th

Having recuperated from three weeks with our ever energetic grandchildren, we flew to Denver for some R&R with old friends Annie and Trygve Johnson. They had just purchased a mountain cabin in Frisco and we were interested in seeing the progress on their remodel.  It was a wonderful three story, ski resort type house just two blocks from beautiful downtown Frisco. 

Three weeks after I shot this photo Tryg repainted the house, which must look brand new now.

The house is nestled at the base of towering mountain peaks and the air is alive with the smell of mountain spruce. We all slept in the basement, as the top floor was down to studs and plumbing. Every once in a while something would come crashing down from the ceiling as the contractor knocked out a wall upstairs.

One of the traditions when staying with Annie and Tryg is taking advantage of Annie’s extensive DVD collection. In this case we used Netflix to start watching a series Annie raved about, House of Cards. Even though A & T had watched the first season, they were interested in viewing with us to help figure out the somewhat complicated plot line.  After one night, Meryl and I were totally hooked.

That first evening we walked the short distance to town and enjoyed some of the best sausage and micro-beer I’ve ever had at Prost, a small restaurant on main street.

An easy hike around the lake near Lower Cataract Falls.

The obligatory "three hikers on the fallen log bridge" photo.

Amazing we're still hiking after all these years.

Meryl and I had been bemoaning the lack of aerobic exercise on the boat. Well, Tryg took had a solution for that problem. He had scheduled a full day for us on the 12th, starting with a hike up to Lower Cataract Falls. Given that you are hiking at 9,000 to 10,000 feet, we were glad our first day was a relatively easy hike. Not to be shortchanged, Tryg took us on a short bike ride to the marina on Lake Dillion near downtown Frisco.

While this photo is a little out of sequence, it does show some of the great bike trails around Frisco.

 The amazing thing about Frisco is the plethora of great, and I do mean great, biking trails.  I thought we’d be doing an Alp d’Huez type climb, but there is a whole system of bike trails featuring paved surfaces that follow the valleys and are perfect for road bikes. These trails link most of the towns and ski areas in a 20 — 30 mile circumference from Frisco. You can literally ride to Vail, Breckinridge or Copper Mountain viewing some of the most spectacular scenery in the US along the way.

The 12th was Annie and Tryg’s wedding anniversary and they invited us to a great little restaurant called the Blue Spruce Inn. The food was excellent, especially the Colorado Goat Cheese Chicken (as quoted from their menu: Marinated and grilled chicken breast with Colorado Goat Cheese, sun dried tomatoes and basil Beurre Blanc).

It was wonderful to share such a special evening with such good friends.

World Wing's by the Sea

It has been over three years since I attended a World Wings meeting so I put it on our calendar early to be sure we could attend.  For those of you who don’t know about World Wings, it is a charitable organization of former Pan American Flight Attendants with over 35 chapters worldwide primarily raising money for CARE International and local charities in each chapters area.  I have been a part of this group for over 20 years and a board member serving as VP of Charities for seven years in the Seattle Chapter.

Every year a different chapter sponsors a convention in their area alternating between a US Chapter and an International Chapter. This year's convention takes place in Bangkok in October and between 200 to 300 people usually attend.  A good time is always had and lots of money is raised to help support CARE’S programs around the world.  I am still a member so I get notifications of meetings and hear what is going on, but I miss seeing all my dear flying friends.

Left to right, Diane Mathers, Meryl, Sherry Crawford, and Walter.

President Monique filling us in on some up coming events.

Alda Halldorsson-Duin our computer guru that keeps us all in touch.

This summer’s picnic was at Joni Warmington’s summer cottage on the western shore just past the Tulalip Indian Reservation.  It’s a darling cottage  from the 1950’s with many antiques throughout.  Everyone brings a dish and enjoys visiting and finding out what everyone has been up to.  Spouses are always welcome and Walter is a regular attendee and looks forward to seeing everyone. Usually there is a larger turn out but for some reason we are a smaller group this year which allowed us to get in longer visits.

Meryl,  Irmela Koehler (from Germany),  Reidun Decker (from Norway)

Sarah Berger, Joni Warmington, Monique Rounsavelle

Getting ready to walk the beach with Walter, me, Randy and Monique.

Ironically, next door a party for an Alaska Airlines flight attendant was going on with 20 - 30 year olds in tiny bikinis taking in the sun.  Someone in our group jokingly said, "this may be you in 35 years!" Brought a smile to my face.