Sand, Varnish, Repeat

My last days here in Port Townsend have been filled with work and more work to get the boat ready for offshore!! We have started tackling some big projects but also trying to knock off some of the smaller ones. 

As of yesterday, Robert finished installing the water maker (takes salt and desalinizes it) and we successfully made water! Yipeeeeeeee!! 

The High Frequency Radio has been installed and is working. We can even listen to what they are saying in Hawaii! 

Our small boat, Ryder, has been sanded, primed and gotten a fresh coat of white paint outside and we flipped her over today to the inside. Her oars were also sanded, varnished and painted to make things nice and shiny once again! 

The combing rail in the cockpit has been repaired of its wounds and is ready for the big sand and varnish once the fog lifts and the rain clears!

The forestaysail and jib have been bent on and with a little love here and there, are flying wonderfully. I spent yesterday at the sail loft with Holly and we working getting a bag for the storm trisail figured out (plus put Martha's race number on, 226!), built the mid-ships bimney, and made covers for the kayaks. 

With only 2 days left here in PT, the coming year is becoming more and more real. It sinks in a little bit more everyday. I truly can't wait for what the next is going to bring. I know that it is going to include adventure, experience, and whole lot of laughter, maybe some tears to. Anyhow, it is going to be AWESOME. 

Can't to share this experience with you all :)

love always, Meryl

P.S. Here is a great article about Martha's upcoming year from the PT Leader! http://www.ptleader.com/news/schooner-martha-is-bound-for-transpac/article_820d984a-227b-11e4-9fb6-001a4bcf6878.html

My parents surprised me!

The 28th started out as any old turn around day filled with laundry, grocery shopping, and cleaning. Until there was a knock on the boat that turned out to be my parents surprising me! They kept is a secret for months, I don't know how they did it honestly, and the rest of the family knew to. 

July 29th-

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! Now it is a little late, but hope it was a great one, wish I could be there to celebrate with you. We started out with a very exciting sail across the straights into a big fog bank. We tested the stomachs of all on board. We headed up Rosario St. bound for Spencer Spit. In the southern end of Lopez Sound we found Adventurous (a fellow schooner) and played around with them a little bit, racing back and forth across the sound. Sailing is great and all, but its fun when you can play around with other boats, especially schooners :).

July 30th- 

While went for a hike, I hung out on the beach with the girls and we played around and made a driftwood fort! It was pretty awesome (if I do say so myself). We set sail early in hopes to make it to Sucia (another new place for me!) and anchor up in Echo Bay and we did! It was a long sail, but totally worth it, it is an amazingly beautiful place. Just as we were sitting down to dinner, someone came up and asked if we had any tools to help another boat. Turns out that a small sailing vessel has hit the reef while trying to get out of a tide rip and had been demasted. The rigging brake on one side and the mast and sails went under. However, the rigging was still attached on one said with the mast lodged under the reef and stuck.  Robert went over with the fellow and was able to work with the elderly couple to break the boat free from the rig and move the boat away from the shoal and moor them safely to the Coast Guard Buoy. It is a good lesson for all that you always need to be paying attention to what is happening around you and to not rely on just one piece of equipment. In the end, they were both ok, just a little shaken and were able to motor home the next day, and we finally ate down to a cold dinner, but delicious either way!

July 31st-
We had an early breakfast and then went ashore on Sucia for some exploring and with every intention of a hike, but the beach/rocks proved much more interesting. I'm still a little mountain goat at heart. We found a big log on the beach and rolled into the water with every intention of riding it to the rocks and making a bridge, but as you can imagine, that didn't happen! We happily got wet and played around for a couple hours building bridges and riding the currents down between rocks. There was absolutely no fun had today :). We headed to Deer Harbor for ice cream and fuel and then onto a friend of Robert and Holly's to moor up for a couple hours to visit and play in the water (which was much warmer than usual). We took the small boat out for a sail with no wind, which always proves to be interesting. We had dinner and then a lovely evening sail/motor to Fish Creek for the night. 

Aug 1st- 
After an extremely relaxing morning of pancakes and bacon, we headed out to hike Mt. Finlayson and then out to Cattle Pt. Which was beautiful per usual, and Mary hike the whole thing only a week after getting out of her cast. YAY!! While motoring out to the straights, we came across some quite beefy sea lions lounging on Whale Rocks, those things are HUGE! And we were able to sail onto the hook in Watmough (which has very quickly become my favorite place). 

Aug 2nd- 
We hiked up the cliff for the AWESOME (yes, it is still just as great as the first time) rope swing. Swung high and soared free. Last day is always the hardest, but we sailed beautifully off the hook. 

With this being the last trip and having finalized a few things I can now make this public. I have been invited to join Martha and the rest of the core for their entire offshore year!! And of course I said yes. We are going to be heading down the coast to California for the fall doing races here and there. Onto Mexico for the winter to work on the boat and play and then back up to California in the spring to do more races and then Transpac starts in July! After Transpac, we will head back to Victoria for the Wooden Boat Festival and then home to PT! If you are interested in more information or want to see me before I leave, the week of aug 25th is your time! I will continue my blog and posting pictures so you can keep track of where I am :)

<3 Meryl

Driftwood fort. I will always be a kid at heart. 

My parents having fun at the rope swing on Watmough. 

This view never gets old!! 

Just to give you an idea of the crazy amounts of water moving around here. 

A basic idea of the year! You can also find it here http://www.schoonermartha.org/schedule/ if you have trouble reading that. 

Wooden Boat Foundation Trip

July 25th- 
The Wooden Boat Foundation Auction Winners boarded today and we set sail for the Straights. We made it up Rosario with the flood and all the way up the east side of Cypress Island to anchor at Pelican Beach (new place for me!). It is a more exposed place to anchor so we have to time when there are not going to be big tidal differences. 

July26th-
We hiked up to Eagle Point in the morning for an amazing view as well as some very intense fog banks rolling off the water and up the land, very very cool(see pictures). We then tried hard to fight our way down the west side of Cypress against a very strong flood but started to go backwards so we turned the motor on and made it to Lopez Sound for some great sailing and then out again to anchor in Watmough for the second evening. 

July 27th- 
Once again hiked up the side of Watmough for the rope swing and view. No matter how many times I do that hike, it is special every time. There is something about Watmough that just pulls you and makes you feel special, it is a magical place that you really can't describe to someone, you just have to be there and feel it. We had a blast on the rope swing, I swung so high I went horizontal! I just love that swing, maybe a little to much.

The three couples that we had the pleasure of sharing the trip with were a blast. They jumped right in and started hauling on lines and tying knots. They even jumped in the water with us! Thanks for a great trip, wish it was longer.

Very cool bug we found! 

Purple starfish!! My favorite :)

I have been working very hard out here, just in case you had any doubts.