Walking down the dock in the dark, I noticed something moving in the water—a school of fish swimming together in a perfectly round circle. Marty and I watched, transfixed, as what appeared to be a shrimp descended on the group and seized on two of the tiny fish, which lit up like lightbulbs as they were [...]

It’s often struck me that owning a boat is a bit of a rollercoaster ride, only less predictable. This past week is a prime example. Marty and I have been working madly on the boat to get it ready for its first outing, a trip to Blake Island with our friends Aaron and Nicole this [...]

It’s hard to feel like a boat is yours when it’s still named after someone you’ve never met. So it was a time for a much-anticipated exorcism of sorts, a small but symbolically important event. It was time to officially get rid of Iola Anne. No holy water or priest was required, just a tin [...]

For the past couple of weeks I’ve felt like I’m living inside a car wash. Even for Seattle, it’s been relentlessly soggy.  Saturday’s rain foiled our plans to paint the boat, so we instead spent the day emptying out the aft cabin of sails, lines, cockpit cushions, a barbecue, solar panels and myriad other items [...]

Having the settee cushions recovered should be about the easiest of the numerous boat projects we have to do, right? You choose the fabric, hire some sewing wizard and call it good. You would think. I wish I could say that the work turned out splendid and that I’m overjoyed about the revamped cushions. But it’s [...]

Other people celebrated Christmas a couple of weeks ago. For us, it arrived yesterday morning around 8:30, when a big truck came rolling into CSR Marine’s boatyard, carrying our Island Packet 38 from San Carlos, Mexico. This was the day we’ve waited for since the end of July, when we first saw the boat in [...]

It’s been a week and a half since we returned to Seattle from San Carlos, where we spent a couple of weeks decommissioning our new boat for its road trip to Seattle. And I’m a little surprised to find myself missing the place. Truth be told, we didn’t think much of San Carlos when we first [...]