The sailing adventures of SV Meriwether and her crew
Our first full week living at sea was spent only a few miles from our launch point. Inati Bay was an ideal location to shakedown the whole living on a boat in the wild thing. It was small, surrounded by nature, offered good protection, and most importantly only an hour’s sail (or motor) from a major marina if we found...
In my last post I mentioned another boat – a tug type – already in the cove when we arrived to Inati Bay. He was anchored directly in the center of the bay on only a bow anchor. This is a well known place. It is well documented. Many people come out from nearby places to relax or play in...
Friday afternoon, with only hours left on our slip rental, we untied from the docks and slid out of the marina into open waters. By this time in our sailing life we were feeling like this act was routine – the motor out of the marina – but once the sails went up everything changed. This would mark the first...
Only a few miles away from our marina in Bellingham is Lummi Island. On Lummi is a small anchorage – Inati Bay – that Kerri and I have wanted to explore for weeks. I’ve mentioned it a few times in previous posts, but we had yet to get out there. This time we were going to do it no matter...
My son (also a Tim) flew out from Colorado the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend. He and I spent much of the week a few hours south, visiting with my Mother while Kerri stayed on Meriwether by herself. I am not sure what she does in her alone-time but I think it has something to do with cocktails...
In our land based travels we did all that we could to stay away from established RV parks and their crowded and over priced lifestyle. Marinas are the equivalent in the boating world, so obviously we hope to spend most of our time outside of them. What is known as “boondocking” on land is referred to as “gunkholing” on the...
Following our third ever sail of Meriwether, and nailing the docking that day, our confidence the following weekend was high enough to attempt a late afternoon sail with an evening anchoring to watch the sun set while on the water. With the boat packed up and our checklist complete, we pulled out of our slip and started motoring out of...
It has been six weeks since arriving in Bellingham. Six weeks is an extremely long time for us to be stationary – matching the longest time in our four years together; six weeks during the van rebuild back in late 2017. During these weeks neither of us have taken any time off – just hammering through as much work as...
Following last week’s rough docking we really needed a confidence booster, so we took Meriwether out once again – getting back on the horse and all. I had rebuilt the winch that was not working properly during our last sail and were both anxious to try it out as well. Our route was basically the same triangle path with a...
The legend goes that if you change the name of your boat, you risk angering the sea and wind gods, and your boat will take on bad luck if you don’t appease them. There’s a big long name-changing ceremony meant to purge those salty records from the depths that has about as many versions as there are boaters, but all...
