The beginning of our winter

If you can believe it, we started our winter moorage three weeks ago. Three weeks of us having all the luxuries of being tied to a dock. The stationary life was welcomed after the final month on the cold and windy waters of the Puget Sound. With electricity comes the warmth of hot water and an electric heater to chase the chill away overnight. It has been nice being civilized again after six months “at sea”.

Meriwether (center-right) with the sister Tayana 37 (center-left) as neighbor

Port Townsend is easily our favorite town in the north west, if not the entire USA. We were happy to book our winter here earlier in the year, but when newly befriended sailing buddies booked a slip as well, we knew the winter was going to be even better. We do not even have to leave our boat to be able to socialize as they are directly next door to Meriwether.

An evening beach fire allowed for some easily distanced socializing with our Tayana neighbors, Sean and Stephanie (right) as well as another neighbor in the marina, Paul (left)

Said new friends informed us of the ability to rent work space at the Northwest Maritime Center, literally on the other side of the marina from us, so we jumped on it to accomplish some projects in the comfort of indoors for a change. This would prove extremely helpful almost immediately as the boat’s hatch decided to break leaving us unable to use it. Upon removal of the hatch cover (necessary to remove to hatch), and saw the level of rot in the plywood, it was promptly tore apart to begin the rebuild process. The cover was also repaired so we can at least get in and out of our boat.

With the work space and tons of wood working tools at my disposal, the list of wood-jobs to complete during this winter exploded. What little chance I had of a restful winter is now gone, but at least we can accomplish some of these tasks that would be far out of reach without the Maritime Center.

Only two and a half more months until our 2021 sailing season begins