Before and After

Way back in Dec of 2008 Maggi and I started haunting the local marinas looking at boats and trying to figure out what was up with the whole sailboat scene in the depths of a snowy and cold winter which only got snowyier and colder as the year changed numbers. We found out there are a lot of fuckt up sailboats about and some lazy-ass owners with unrealistic delusions about the worth of said algae collecting hulks.
This one Columbia 21 down at Westport had 3 feet of water in the moldy cabin and the tiller was rotten like black cheddar cheese and the guy got offended when I noticed how utterly abandoned and denuded and hopeless this worthless pile had become. And there was worse.

you can't hardly tell this is a foot and a half of water in the area below the cockpit and in the cabin it was twice as deep. It's snowmelt the owner just walked away and left this little boat to fend for itself. What an asshole.

The tiller in question once again clear snowmelt water six inches deep. I don't know how the rotten tiller turns black, maybe it was oak and reacted to the iron in the cheapass rudder bearing under the water

                                    

See what I mean? just run up on the bank and abandoned this place was like the Hell of boats

We got pretty tired of all the depressing shit people destroy in their personal lives and boats deserve better,

Finally in February we went out to Scappoose to look at an Ericson 27 which was kind of fuckt up but not too bad and moldy but not very moldy and nothing worked  and it was just cluttered and lonely and lost and I fell in love with this thing the very first time I saw it and we sneaked onboard and looked around and I felt right at home.

Then one day towards the end of January this is what we saw that day in Scappoose. Parked backwards like the power boat guys do it and the motor up in the garage. Lonesome.

 I rooted up all my fugitive money and cashed checks on credit and I gave the guy what he was asking which if I knew what I know now was still a grand too much but then it was my problem because the paperwork went through and my name on the title.

I never watched the borrowed TV behind me there so I gave it back I just mostly read books and work on the gear

I still feel utterly at home on the boat and I have a great life there and I am competent and resourceful and patient and creative when I am  there, and I feel connected to something elemental.

You can see all the differences if you hold control key and run the mouse wheel and blow it up go ahead theres plenty of pixels.

 This is how I feel about a wonderful part of my life and I never really got hurt or fucked anything up and I fixed up everything that was wrong with  Felicity Jane and I put in a fortune in equipment and rigging and all that marlinspike bosun's work.
She's for sale.
Somebody is going to get a nice place to start.
I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead.