Pictures from last 2 weeks in PNW

Somehow, colorful corn fascinates me.

We’ve returned to Singapore and thought its time to close the chapter on our 2013 adventures.

farm fare in Gig Harbor

I was driving from Federal Way to Port Townsend, and was looking to get some food that I can bring with me that would feed us over the weekend. So I exited at Gig Harbor and chance upon a “farm”fare. Seems like this happens a lot in fall.

Its the weekend of Halloween!

Altho I didnt find anything that was ready to eat, and no ingredients that I knew what to do with, I was happy to have stopped at this fare and enjoy looking at pumpkins and ornamental corn.

Squashes? No idea what to do with them…

I am so fascinated with the colors on the corn, and I decided that I am going to plant my own corn patch … let see if it grows okay in Singapore. I got the seeds, and as of now, have 3 stalks growing…

Sure we would like living in one of those waterfront houses…

As we cross off work items from our winterizing Calliste list, we found some time to take in the sunset at North shore beach in Port Townsend.

Rocky beach at North shore, PT

Somewhere on this pebbly beach is a beautiful rock… I proclaim it Lang’s rock! 🙂  … can I buy this rock and move it to my property…?  yeah right… dream on.

Calliste made it!

From the time that she was unloaded from CGM La Scala, to the time that we 1st get to see her at yard of UMF transport services at Port of Seattle, was a awful 6 days of frantic phone calls and payments etc.

Calliste at the United Motor Freight . Fresh off the flat rack.

Calliste sat at the couriers storage holding area for 5 days, and us on pins and needles! Why! And we had to set a cheque of US$400, plus US$35 overnight courier on the last day before she was released. Apparently it was customs holding it and then our trucking guys from UMF couldnt get her out before the 3pm curfew for oversized loads. We did all we can to make this transition as smooth as possible, but still! Well, one can say that paying only $1350 customs broker fee and an unexpected $435 is good fortune actually. There had been stories of much more delays and heftier price to pay.

Calliste going over the Tacoma Narrows bridge…

Anyhow, we were so happy to see her again, and no apparent damage whatsoever. For the next leg, we engaged Associated Yacht Transport to haul her to Baystore Storage… as the  name suggest, they specialize in yacht transport, and they are expensive, but they claim to be able to put her down from their specially designed custom trailer for yachts.

Calliste and truck that moved her to Bayshore Storage.

We like how their nice and shiny their truck looks. We would never know the problems we’ll run into later… yep, letting on that all is not easy until she is set on firm ground, but what a story. 🙂 … sigh…

On our way, we tailed the truck and got this picture of Calliste going over the Tacoma Narrows bridge… hee hee hee, how many boats go over the bridge? In the US, it seems very common, almost every day.

The amazing things we do to rental cars

It was a uneventful 2hr journey with one snack stop at a gas station. Got a nice sandwich to tide me over. No telling how much longer this is going to take. Was a good thing that we got the snack, cos the guys were unable to get it off the trailer. Something about the cradle being in the way and flexing when the hydraulics tried to lift. .. We’ll have to wait for the yard owner, Sam to come operate the travel lift to get it off. And so I had to talk to the AYT dispatch that they could not do the job and they agreed to charge what the UMF quote was. From $1400, we paid $900, and they had to leave the trailer until Sam was able to come and get it off the next day.

… well, at least she made it there …

Next day, we went to Home Depot at Sequin to get this 12ft ladder… needed it to be able to board the boat when after she is unloaded. Yep, we drove 30 miles hauling this ladder… as you see it. 🙂 . We are very good at converting Ford cars into Ford trucks … 😛 … And we never left any evidence that those rental co can come after us.

Freshly in place, travel lift left over her as it was stuck in mud.

Anyway, by the time we got there, it was almost noon, and we found Calliste is detached from the trailer! Hooray! See thats the empty trailer, and Calliste is tucked in her spot a little further down.

We couldnt wait to get inside, actually a little apprehensive of how things may be thrown around. Doug is amazed, nothing moved! Not a single little bit of damage inside, everything remained as it was when we left it. Therefore, the results are in, everything we did to prepare her for this journey worked! So pleased 🙂

In the following 5 weekends, we set out to prepare her for winter. It took some time to take things out of those crates and move them into the 40ft storage container that we also rented from Bayshore. Its cheap and convenient! Doug is very pleased. So it seems, everything is on the up as soon as Calliste is back on ground.

We decked out the container with LED lighting, mounted on recycled wood from our crates. Bought new industrial duty metal shelves, saw horses, hook up electrics… we did quite a bit to get settled in.

The triumphant dance!

Couldnt resist showing this picture of Doug and how he moved the mast into storage 🙂 . He is so happy that he even did a little dance on the way over.

Calliste at Bayshore.

We had a good mild Autumn that is not typical of Washington state. Blue skies and sunlight instead of the cold and dreary days that everyone was telling us about.

I think Calliste likes her spot, Doug is so happy with the outcome, thats all that matters to me. Nevermind that we did spend US$27,000 (total) to ship her, and US$8000 for our hotel, cars and food for being there 75 days. I am putting out these figures so that anyone considering to ship their boats can use these as a reference.

 

We’ve decided….

Old buildings like this are built and maintained with love, by people to wants to preserve the culture.

I heard so much about life in Port Townsend. Doug’s been there at the Wooden Boat show of 96, and once also on delivery of a friend’s boat. He loved the place, the atmosphere, the people and that everything revolve around yachting. I think… only think… that I will love this place too. So we have to check it out, or at least I have to find out for myself if this is going to be our next base camp.

This is where sailmakers and riggers work, and its right in front of the Point Hudson marina.

Almost every weekend, we drive up to Port Townsend, getting to know the place, the curio shops… and checking out where we would put up Calliste for winter while we stay warm over in Singapore.

And I too fell in love with this rustic old town. Quite head over heels, really. Immediately I decided I like to make this our base camp, Doug agrees too… but a lot depends on fate. Who knows how things work out, not ahead of time anyway.

Then things just fell into place. We found the perfect place for storing Calliste over winter, at Bayshore Storage just outside of PT. .. That is we can work out how to transport Calliste from the port to Bayshore… Doug have some reservations trucking, but we cant just splash her from the port and drive over… so we’ll have to sleep over it, make lots of phone calls and see what can be done.

In the meantime, Calliste is on her way on board CGM La Scala.

Visiting the Locks

Sneak view of the Ballard Locks… The locks are still operating, but the gardens is not.

Unfortunately we got to PNW just after the right season (summer to early fall) for visiting the Locks. .. and besides that, we were there on the day that the Locks’ park was closed due to federal workers furlough… Of course we didn’t know ahead of time… and so too many people who were there. Well, this is the only picture that I could get of the locks.

This colourful hut attracted us to find out what it is.

So what do we do after driving for 30 mins from Federal Way to Ballards and walking another 20 mins from the free parking area to the Locks? Well, time for lunch eh.. 🙂

At 1st, we were looking for fish and chips. .. We think there must be a great fish and chip wherever there is a fishing port, and this is it right… But we didn’t want to eat in just any restaurant and pay exorbitant prices for a simple street food. … Then we stumble upon this colourful building. We decided to check it out… and what a pleasant surprise.

Inside the Totem Mill house. The plastic chairs seem out of place.

I dunno what this is, but I will call it a Indian hut. Love the Totem pole, made the building stand out from its surroundings. … and in it is a boutique burger diner. Best fishwich we ever had! And I like my bacon and beef burger too! At least something, so our day at the Ballard Locks wasn’t all wasted.

My very good bacon burger…

Plus we stopped by at the Ballard Smoke shop looking for a friend of Erja’s, but she works the night shift on weekends. So we got a drink and was soon gone back for a afternoon nap. Short exploration day.

Settling into life in PNW…

We are expecting Calliste to arrive in about 3 weeks, so in the meantime, we’ll make ourselves comfy around our temporary dwelling.

As I mentioned in the last post, we are staying at ESA Federal Way. This turned out well. We enjoyed having a kitchenette, the view was great, enjoyed the very nice 42″ flat screen TV and cable TV…. and the best part is, walkable distance to my temporary office… 25 mins in nice cool weather 🙂 … but who am I kidding… I drive to work everyday… so that I can drive back to the room for lunch 🙂

Only occasionally do we eat out. .. For lunch, I very much prefer to be back in the room eating leftovers or even cooking up a “out of this world” instant noodles 🙂 … and then watch some TV while eating. To me, this is more nutritional, cheaper and enjoyable than a quick meal at some loud lunch corner… unless its with some colleagues and we are bouncing ideas or gossiping 🙂

The beginning of a clam chowder in our little kitchenette.

So where do I get ingredients and spices for my kind of cooking? Mostly Ranch 99! They have a amazing selection of fresh vegs, meat and seafood for very reasonable price. … and even frozen “Dodo” fishballs from Singapore! All ingredients for Chinese cooking is available and a great selection of instant noodle from every noodle eating Asian country! They don’t sell any of the cheap American junk noodle… if that’s what you were looking for… 😛

My Kway Tiao … cooked in our little kitchenette with ingredients from Ranch 99.

Being here at PNW, seafood is abundantly available … but we like to get ours at the supermarkets 🙂 … maybe next time we’ll get the fishing license. .. but really… do we want to mess with fish flopping on deck? Fighting crabs with raised claws? …

Quite unbelievable to me, fresh “hor fun” (rice flour noodle) is available at Ranch 99! Its well made, really like back in Asian… Check out my soy sauce fried hor fun. Its not as good as Char Kway Tiao back home, but its just me that I dun use enuf oil and heat in frying. … well, its the healthy version… passable to my own taste. With practice it should get better..