Winter fun with the Viking Yacht Club

 

One of the winter Viking Yacht Club events was a glassblowing experience in Tacoma.  Several of us attended the workshop, learning firsthand how difficult it is to blow glass!  You can see Alice turning her piece in the fiercely hot kiln. We had a LOT of help in making our pieces...  Several options were on display and we could choose both the item and the color combination.  Alice chose to make a heart shaped bowl with red and white accents.


After the items had cooled, Bob picked up all the items and we got together at his home for pizza and a glass viewing!  From left, Robert, Bob, Alice and Carla display their works of art.

The Babies are growing!

   We were at our Indio home for Easter 2013.  Five of Alice's six children with their families were there!  A September entry showed Jack, left, and Oliver on Grandma Johnson's lap. just a few weeks old.  Now they are 5 1/2 months old and growing like weeds...
   

Grandpa Johnson enjoyed playing with Oliver for a while.  He is a very happy baby and warms up to everyone quickly.
Jack had open heart surgery on April 5.  He is still in the PICU at the hospital in Long Beach, but will be home soon.  He has been quite the trooper through it all.

Haulout Time in Tacoma...

One dirty rudder and propellor on Grey Wolf

Bill and Alice arrived in Tacoma on January 24 and  checked in with Citadel Marine Service the next week, wanting information on hauling out Grey Wolf and getting a fresh paint job done.  They were not very busy and we soon found ourselves staying on our friends' boat, with Grey Wolf in dry dock!

More damage done to the keel than we thought....

Bill knew he had run up on a rock formation the very last morning we were in Alaska, but with no leakage we trusted that the fiberglass hull had withstood the assault quite well!  Well, she did, but

he was shocked to see the extent of the damage upon inspection.  Repairs of this little incident    

added to our bill, but it was a lesson well-learned.  Brown shadows on the water of our anchorage

looked like seaweed, but indeed were not! 

A newly balanced prop all painted and pretty~

Between the workmen putting on the first coat of paint and Bill putting on the second and third

coats, the job was done in about one week.  Bill also installed some new thruhulls and a new transducer, so we should be in good shape for a while.  A survey was also done for insurance.

This was a cozy place to work on cold winter days!

The weather had been in the twenties, but while Grey Wolf was out it was in the thirties and forties: still too cold to work outside.  Citadel set her up inside and this made for a much better work space.

Boat paint has to be at a certain temperature and so do the workers!

Ahoy, Captain~  time to go back in the water...

Most times we have been pulled out by a huge sling apparatus called a Travel Lift.  This facility

uses a Sea Lift instead, and it works by remote control!  A worker with a control panel walked along beside it and remotely turned the wheels to guide it back into the water~ very cool!!