Bill is Making Progress!!!

See all the red heater hose?  That is just part of what Bill has been up to this past week!  The hose system is pretty well done.  We are waiting on heater units, so when he returns in April they will be installed and all the wiring will have to be run.    I am sure he knows what he is doing, but it is all a mystery to me (Alice)!

The apparatus mounted on the wooden board, left of center is the newheat exchanger that is part of the diesel furnace system Bill has been working on for weeks now.  We look forward to being toasty warm while we are out on anchor, whether it is around Puget Sound, in British Columbia, or in Southeastern Alaska this coming summer.  Our electric heaters do just fine while we are in port, but they are too expensive to try to run while we are traveling.  According to the guidebook, the new furnace system will use only 1/10th of a gallon of diesel an hour once the furnace water has heated up!

Prepping for Alaska~

We arrived in Tacoma on January 26, just in time for the Seattle Boat Show.  Bill was hoping to get a good deal on a diesel furnace for Grey Wolf, as we plan on heading north to Alaska this summer!  No super deals to be had, but we did get the equipment ordered. Our every-present mountain is now really covered with snow, since there was a snowstorm and ice storm just before we arrived!

This diagram shows how the Webasto furnace system works.  We decided to have outlets in the pilot house, the salon, and the stateroom, so it is similar to a central heating system in a house.  The red lines indicate how the hot water will flow from area to area.  Bill is working on installing over 140 feet of heater hose!

On a clear, cold (40) day in February Bill decided it was time to install the hoses that run to the overflow in the recess where our old A/C unit had been.  After a week of rain it was a blessing to be able to go out on top of the boat to take care of that project.  Alice shot this view of our marina from that vantage point.

Busy Bill has been putting in long days with this major project.  In the process he is also saving thousands of dollars!  This photo shows him in the old A/C recess as he checks the heater hoses he had just installed.  Alice is SO proud of him for all the hard work he is putting in~ what a guy!

Another Great Grandchild Arrives!

Travis James Tveito arrived on January 12, 2012, born to J.D. and Michelle Tveito. J.D. is Bill's grandson.  Travis is the first child in this family, so he is going to be 'breaking them in' in the months ahead!  Too bad his grandmother, Jamie, has moved to Arizona... I am sure the freeway will have increased traffic as she visits with this darling little boy in California.

Quilting Legacy Lives On...

After Bill's mother died in 2005, we found one finished quilt and four hand-pieced quilt tops amongst her belongings.  Alice decided that she would like to preserve these special pieces by quilting and finishing each one.  As you can see above, each is unique in its design and color.  Once completed, she suggested that they be given to Bill's four daughters.  Right after Thanksgiving we made a trip to the Phoenix area with Alice's daughter Margaret and her husband Jeff.  While we were there we attended a family gathering in our honor.  As you can see, the girls were thrilled with their gifts of love!

Our Fall Foliage Road Trip

Just after returning home from the reunion, we packed our trusty little Prius and hit the road, eventually traveling 7,000 miles on an Autumn road trip that was a walk down Memory Lane.  Stops included Arches National Park in Utah, Omaha, Nebraska, Nauvoo, Illinois, the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky, Alice's Martin Family Reunion in Allegre, KY, a six day visit with Alice's college friend Carol, with red scarf in photo above (lady on left was our Toronto city guide), Niagara Falls, and a four day stay with daughter Margaret and her family in Troy, Ohio.  We saw so many gorgeous trees, ablaze in the typical fall colors!
Turning south, we then went to see Alice's sister and her family in Graysville, TN, stopped to do a tour of Elvis' home, Graceland, in Memphis, and then visited with two of Bill's longtime friends in Arkansas.  A stay with his cousin Gloria in Ft. Smith, AR and a visit with both Douglas and Dorothy in Oklahoma, his helpers on the trip to Puget Sound, rounded out our travels.  We did spend one night in the Phoenix area and were able to see many of Bill's children and some of his grand and great grandchildren there! A month to the day we left we returned home, tired but happy for the safe and pleasant trip... whew... and Bill drove every bit of the trip- what a guy!

Alice's 50th High School Reunion!

Bill and Alice left GreyWolf in Tacoma and headed south in mid-September so they could attend Alice's 50th high school reunion in Chula Vista, CA.  We stayed two nights with Owen and Melinda in San Diego.  Hilltop High School combined with Chula Vista High School for this event, which was attended by over 200!  We had a great time and Alice was surprised at how many people she remembered!

The World in Our Marina...

We decided not to buy fishing/ crabbing licenses this year since they are expensive for visitors to the state.  We have been fortunate to enjoy crab several times, thanks to others!  Our friends Carla and Robert have shared with us and even cooked the crabs...  The other day Bill helped a fellow tie down and in turn was given a nice-sized Dungeness crab, at right, which we promptly cooked and Bill cleaned. Robert couldn't believe that Bill didn't know how to clean crab, but now he does!

Gooey duck clams, shown at left, are an expensive Asian delicacy.  They are native to coastal Washington state and are a big business in this area.  The gooey duck boats dock in our marina and the catch is loaded right into refrigerated trucks which deliver to Seatac airport and within two days these are on dinner plates in Japan and China.  These clams must have the world's largest valves, extending far beyond their shells.  Both the valve and the clam itself is eaten.  These rest in a milk crate, so you can see how large they are!

Hylebos Channel runs right beside Grey Wolf, since she is side- tied at the end of the furthest dock in Chinook Landing Marina.  We get the full effect of the commerical traffic which comes by 24/7.  Most of the large vessels enter or exit with tugboat power.  This day the load was unusual, as it amounted to three large 'flats' of raw logs, headed for either the lumber mill up channel or to simply be loaded onto a freighter and shipped out.  This load of logs was about 600 feet long and was shepherded by three smaller tugs.  The U.S. flag in the photo is ours...

Another commerical venture in 'our' channel is a huge metal recycling business.  We have seen several barges piled high with crushed vehicles pass close by us.  There is quite an art to the process used to fill these gigantic barges.  It is difficult to see in this photo, but there is always a  pile of miscellaneous smaller pieces of scrap metal layered on top of all the vehicles, almost like a  layer cake with an icing on top!  Hmm, I must be watching way too much Cooking Channel...

We have no idea what this vessel carried, but it was undoubtedly loaded and ready to head out to sea.  With a tug towing in front and another at the stern acting as the rudder, it slowly came by our boat and our marina.  On a clear day we can see Mt. Rainier to the southeast.  It seems so near, but from Tacoma it is probably close to a hundred miles away.  Covered with snow earlier in the year, it is still deep in snow for the most part.  Our weather is finally beautiful in mid-August, with some days as hot as 80 degrees!  If we are ever bored, we can just check out the action in the Hylebos Channel... it won't be long until SOMETHING comes by... Canada geese, seals...

You really 'otter' be here!

The flora and fauna are definitely different up in these here parts... the river otters posing for Alice just one example.  One morning this mother and her twins were foraging under our dock, so out came the camera- with the telephoto lens- and the results were pretty amazing.  Mother climbed onto the dock, followed by the two young ones, one of which had a small fish dangling from its mouth!  The downside to having otters on your dock is that they use it as a potty... oh, well, WE have intruded into their territory, so that is what we get!  The Hylebos Waterway where our marina is located is a manmade extension of the Hylebos River, hence we have river otters here, as opposed to the more well-known sea otters that lie on their backs and crack open shells with rocks.

Our First Raft-Up!

In late July we decided to head to Gig Harbor for a couple of days with our friends Ted and Carolyn.  We were hoping for free space on the Public Dock, but no such luck.  So Bill and Ted took the leap and rafted our two boats together.  We had already anchored when they arrived, so Ted had to manuever into place so we could walk from boat to boat!  Between plenty of fenders and plenty of ties, it worked fine.  We always enjoy going to Gig Harbor... with a beading store, a quilting store, a marine store, and lots of other interesting places to shop, it's a good thing we don't live there!!!

The Wonders of Nature Abound

On a clear day, we can see Mt. Rainier from our boat in Chinook Landing Marina, Tacoma, WA.  It is odd to drive down the street and see Volcano Evacuation Route signs, but after the incident with Mt. Saint Helens it is a real concern.  With the unusually cold winter and spring this year, this summer is running about 15 degrees cooler than normal.... brrr. 

After we left Bellingham we headed west to the San Juan Islands, the American part of the numerous islands between the mainland and Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  We anchored out for three nights and then headed back 'home' again, knowing that we would be back to explore some more.  While we were anchored off Sucia Island, Alice saw this bald eagle in flight and followed it to the uppermost branches of this evergreen tree... a nest? Who knows, but a rest perch, for sure!

There were NO harbor seals on the breakwater during the 4th of July celebrations (300 boats in the bay plus three full marinas) but when we returned to Poulsbo recently the seals were numerous.  There were several babies and this appeared to be the very newest of the bunch.  It appears the poor thing is chained down, but, actually, the chains hold huge logs together and this is where they love to lie out in the sun.  In some areas they are considered nuisances, since they catch and eat salmon trying to return to spawn.