Airship – Riveted

Catching Up | Seattle Boat Show, Snowpocalypse, and the Grammys

Laura Domela — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 21:32:39 +0000

We’ve been busy! (New) Airship was out of the water for two months getting new floors, new upholstery, new electronics, and a handful of other fun upgrades (if you want to take a look at some before and after photos, click here). We finally got her back in the water just in time to cruise down to the Seattle Boat Show.

We got a nice view of the Super Blood Wolf Moon from Airship in Anacortes before we headed south

We took two days making our way down to Seattle, stopping in Oak Harbor for (cheap) fuel and staying overnight in Langley. It’s so nice to finally be on the water in our new boat!

Airship at Bell Harbor Marina

Kevin presenting “WiFi in the Wilderness” at the Seattle Boat Show

Our Slowboat seminars all went great and were well-attended–another successful boat show in the books!

A few weeks back, we learned that Kevin’s brother, Craig (a classical trumpet player) was nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Instrumental Classical Solo Performance” category, for his solo trumpet recording “Glass: 3 Pieces in the Shape of a Square” of music by composer Philip Glass. We were super excited about his nomination for this album, and then just as we were heading to Seattle, he told us he’d been invited to perform at the Grammy Premiere show, and he was inviting us to come join him! We quickly scheduled ourselves a little shopping party in Seattle to find something to wear, and planned a trip to Los Angeles!

Leaving Seattle

We stopped in Langley again on our way back north. The weather was supposed to get nasty (35-45mph winds, more snow) so we stayed two nights and let the wind pass.

We woke the next morning to snow-covered docks, and spent most of the day cozy inside

It was windy enough to blow a bunch up snow up against the cockpit door, even!

Icicles on the scuppers!

When we got back to Portland, there was a bit of snow as well, and the forecast was for it to dump more starting the night before our flight to L.A., so we opted to stay in a hotel at the airport to ensure a higher likelihood of catching our flight. In the morning it had snowed a bit more, but there were probably only 3-4 inches. Our house is at about 1000 feet and we normally get a bit more snow than the lower elevations, making our steep driveway not so much fun, so we were glad for the easy commute!

View from our hotel

Flights were all on time with no issues.

Portland Airport

We arrived at LAX and grabbed a Lyft to our hotel. I found us a cool hotel online without knowing anything about it, and it was even better in person! We stayed at the Mayfair, not far from Staples Center. I chose the hotel because it was convenient, and because it looked like a boutique hotel with some fun L.A. style. We were pleasantly surprised and would definitely stay here again if, for instance, someone was nominated for another Grammy and invited us to come back.

View from our room

One interesting thing about this hotel that I learned after I’d booked our room was that they had a fantastic art and music program:

“Artist-in-Residence, internationally renowned artist Kelly “RISK” Graval has curated a multi-million-dollar collection that beautifully reflects L.A.’s vibrant and invigorating contemporary art scene. The extraordinary art collection on display at The Mayfair was curated by legendary artist and illustrator RISK, in collaboration with artists Shepard Fairey, Geoff Melville, Richard Mirando, and more. From his early days as a USC Fine Arts student and pioneering graffiti artist, to his celebrated gallery and museum showcases around the world, RISK has left an indelible mark on the contemporary art world and become a hometown hero of the Los Angeles art scene.” [from the Mayfair website]

The really cool thing about this is that I know RISK’s work from back when I lived in Long Beach and Los Angeles in my 20s, and in fact for a number of years there was a large 4×4 foot piece of RISK’s work hanging over my sofa in the house I shared with my then-boyfriend. Said then-boyfriend was a director and he’d done a short segment on RISK for a television show, and RISK had given him/us the colorful, spray-painted 4×4 ft piece of plexiglass he’d made during the filming of the show. I drilled holes in the corners, bolted it a few inches off a piece of painted black plywood, and hung it in our living room. Of course when we broke up, then-boyfriend kept the artwork (as he should have), but I was happy to learn RISK was still working and thriving in the Los Angeles art scene.

Artwork in the lobby by RISK (Kelly Graval)

As we checked into our room and I posted the photo below on Instagram, up came a little pop-up notice on my phone that there was a “RISK Pop-Up Print Sale: Out of the Vault” going on downstairs. Craig had invited us to go to this Grammy rehearsal with him, and we only had about 10 minutes before we needed to be in the lobby, but we hustled down to the gallery and in less than 5 minutes I found find a print I liked, purchased said print, and took it back to our room. Total score!

Lobby of the Mayfair hotel

And off we went to Grammy rehearsal!

Craig and Federico going over their music

The piece from Craig’s album that the Grammy committee wanted him to play was the most complicated piece (of course), and is actually a duet where Craig recorded both parts. Easy to do on an album, but much more difficult to perform in person — so he sought accompaniment from his student and TA at University of Miami, a talented trumpet player named Federico Montes, originally from Columbia. Federico is a wonderful trumpet player and a super nice guy, and they made a great team.

Setting up the music stands, all twelve of them, in the shape of a square

Craig and Federico getting mic’d up

Empty stage with lighting

Rehearsal went great! Craig and Federico played through the piece three times, and they were both extremely pleased with how it sounded! You can hear Craig’s original recording here, if you’re interested. We think it’s pretty cool!

Teleprompter

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Teleprompter in mostly empty theatre

On Sunday morning we arrived early for the Premiere show and hung out in Craig’s dressing room (next door to the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ dressing room) until it was time to be seated. The Premiere show was great, and Craig and Federico’s performance was fantastic. What a treat to be able to experience this with him!

Audience, with Craig and Federico on the big screen as they made their way around the square of music stands, playing as they went

Craig did not win the Grammy, but having the opportunity to perform was a pretty big deal, and I doubt this will be his only nomination.

As the Grammy Premiere show was wrapping up, we were driven (via black SUV) over to the red carpet for the telecast show at Staples Center.

Waiting in line with all the other black vehicles

Attendants with mirrors checked underneath the cars for bombs (really)…

…and police officers with canine help kept a nose out for drugs.

Red carpet chaos

Craig and Federico live-streaming the red carpet

Photographers work hard to get J-Lo’s attention

Don’t let Ashanti’s dress touch the ground!

Don’t let St. Vincent’s dress touch the ground either!

The red carpet was enormously fun to get to do. Somehow (probably because we had credentials that said “Talent” on them) we were able to walk through with Craig, and it was a blast. We saw a ton of musicians and actors we recognized (Fred Armisen and Natasha Lyonne, Cardi B., a Kardashian or two, St. Vincent, Ashanti, Jennifer Lopez, etc.), and I’m sure many others we should have recognized but didn’t.

Once inside, Craig and his wife Karen went to their seats on the floor (down there by the circular stage) and we went to ours (see view from our seats, below). When you aren’t nominated for a Grammy, your seats are not quite as good, but no matter…we had a blast.

One benefit of seats up high — we could see down into both performance areas as they were preparing/building the stages for each performance! That’s the stage for Janelle Monae being set up on the right.

After the show, we wandered next door to the official Grammy after party (our tickets got us into both shows and the after party).

“Transforming the LA Convention Center into “Grammy Land,” which emulated the spirit of the classic children’s game, “Candy Land,” oversized candy displays, enchanting water features, and grandiose design elements were brought to life by a troupe of live entertainers, dancers, acrobats, and aerialists to amplify the visual projections. Equating to over three football fields in size, the official Grammy After Party encompassed more than 600 catering and service staff, 400 production team members, 60 dancers and acrobats, and four live performances as it hosted over 5,000 attended guests.” [source]

We had some food, some drinks, and socialized a bit, taking it all in, and then headed back to our hotel to change (SHOES!!!!) and then wandered down to a local bar for a nightcap and some quieter conversation. What a fun night!!

We’re back at home now and after one more business trip we’ll head back up to Airship for some more projects. We need to get the dinghy off the top deck (and decide if we want to keep the Boston Whaler or sell it and get a RIB), finalize the stern davit installation, clean out and organize some lockers, and just generally start getting ready for the summer of cruising to SE Alaska. May isn’t that far away, and we still have a lot to do!

Here are a few photos of Airship in the snow that our friend Glen sent. Sounds like they eventually had about 8 inches up there, but here in Portland, we have zero.

Ten Days in Yelapa, Our Shower Iguana, and a Bigger Airship

Laura Domela — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 02:15:39 +0000

A lot has happened since I last posted (in May!) We lead the first flotilla from the San Juan Islands to Juneau, Alaska, then met our next flotilla in Port McNeill and headed down the west side of Vancouver Island, then made one full flotilla circle around Vancouver Island starting in Roche Harbor and ending in Victoria, BC. We had a blast, and we have five more flotillas planned for the summer of 2019.

Toward the end of our last flotilla (while on the outside of Vancouver Island), we learned of a Nordic Tug 42 for sale out of Sidney, BC. Photos looked good, specs sounded good, and to make a long story short, we sold smaller Airship (our Nordic Tug 34) and have now moved up to a 42! If you want more details and photos, here they are.

We sold the airplane before we left for Alaska, and we’ll be selling the Airstream any day now (2010 27’FB International CCD with a ton of upgrades — let us know if you’re interested…it’s not listed yet but will be soon). So we’re putting all our eggs into the boat basket, since it has proven to be the vessel of choice these days. We spent over 900 nights aboard Airship/34 in the four years we had her, and I know we’ll keep up the trend on the new Airship, so why not streamline?

But right now, we’re back in Yelapa, Jalisco, Mexico, enjoying the sun and sea (and tequila). Our friends Tiffani and Deke met us in Puerto Vallarta about a week ago and we water taxi’d to Yelapa where they spent a week with us (left yesterday, sad face). We’ll spend four more days before heading back to Portland and then up to the boat to help with upgrade projects that are happening now!

For Thanksgiving, we had the cooks from a local cafe (Cafe Eclipse) come to our casa and cook dinner for us: homemade guacamole and salsa, margaritas, carne asada, grilled fish, veggies, homemade tortillas, and coconut and chocolate pie from the Yelapa pie lady. It was delicious, and we even watched two humpbacks breaching out in the bay right from the dinner table. Pretty great!

Here are some photos from the past week:

Leaving Puerto Vallarta by water taxi

The view from Casa Pericos

After getting settled, we headed into town to grab dinner at one of our favorite eateries–Taqueria Los Abuelos. Tiffani and I had tacos (very good), and Kevin and Deke both ordered the special, which was a Chile Relleno con Camarones. It was extra delicious, and I wish it was on their permanent menu!

Sunset from Casa Pericos, first night in Yelapa

Path through town as it crosses the river

Local signage

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Local signage

We picked up a few things at the market for breakfasts and snacks (eggs, chorizo, stuff to make salsa, coffee, tortillas and chips), as well as a bottle of the locally made raicilla to try (which comes in this fancy bottle):

Raicilla is made from the agave plant, but is less of a mezcal or tequila, and more of a local “moonshine” specific to this area of Jalisco. Until recently, buying it here from the locals is the only way to get it, but there is now one distiller, La Venenosa, that has started to market a legal brand of raicilla. It got an interesting flavor and some definite similarities to mezcal, but it’s for sure its own thing (and there’s no way we’ll be able to really even dent this bottle we bought, so we’ll find someone to pass it on to before we leave).

Tuesday was the first of our two charter outings with Garcia Charters.

We trolled for about five minutes before we caught our first fish (a bonito). Today brought in 3 bonito, and about 30 skipjack. (We kept one skipjack that Juan Carlos made ceviche with, and threw the rest back.)

The lighthouse at the southernmost tip of Banderas Bay.

Back at Casa Pericos, we learned that we had a shower iguana (he’s still here).

The next day we thought we’d wander over to La Playa (the more touristy area of Yelapa). The moon is nearly full so the tides have been high, which means shoes off to wade across this area to the beach.

Heading to La Playa

We sat at a table and had some lunch, while this big iguana came a little too close to Tiffani’s shoes

Back at Casa Pericos, Tiffani and Deke heading out for a paddle (photo taken from our room).

We went out again with Garcia Charters on Friday after Thanksgiving: fishing first, then a stop out at Islas Marietas

Geared up and ready to swim through the sea cave/tunnel into “Playa del Amor” — a white sand beach inside a crater! Tiffani and Deke on the left, and one of our charter guides, Jonas, on the right.

This is such a cool thing to do from Yelapa (or Puerto Vallarta). Next time we may spend the first part of our charter snorkeling at the islands instead of fishing, since there’s much to see out here, but today we just had a quick swim into the crater with a great view of the local blue-footed boobies. (Two of them were positioned right at the sea cave opening, showing off their bright blue feet, just like Disney would have designed if this was a ride!) If you want to get a good overview of what this place looks like, check out this image search result.

Late morning view from Casa Pericos

On Saturday, we headed back over to La Playa and the far side of town. Deke decided that since Tiffani had never parasailed, today was going to be her day.

Making our way through town. We rarely get lost now after a few days navigating the winding cobblestone paths.

Looking down into the village/bay from the path above town

Local foliage

When we arrived at the spot to cross the river, it was WAY higher than it was the previous time, so we walked further on the path up river and crossed at the bridge.

Looking up river, taken from the bridge

The bridge across the river

Love this cool structure

Wood slat details

Kevin, Deke, and Tiffani

We arrived at La Playa and found the parasail guy, who he quickly got Tiffani ready, called the boat, and made it all happen!

Getting instructions for take off

There she is, flying over Yelapa

Coming in for a landing

Tiffani said she was super scared at the beginning, but that after she relaxed into a little bit that it was really fun and the view was amazing.

We had such a nice time with Tiffani and Deke, and we’re enjoying the last few days here just relaxing and cooking and watching the sea life from our balcony–the other day we watched a manta ray jumping out of the water over and over again just out near the rocks in front.

Flotilla-ing to Alaska Again

Laura Domela — Thu, 10 May 2018 15:48:11 +0000

It’s that time of year again, and we’re leading a flotilla of boats up the Inside Passage from the San Juan Islands to SE Alaska! We’ll be documenting this trip on our Slowboat website, so for more than just an occasional highlight reel, head over there and subscribe if you want the day-to-day reports! We’re on Day 5 (of 35!) now and it’s shaping up to be a great adventure!

Sunrise as we left Silva Bay on Gabriola Island headed across the Strait of Georgia

Sunrise on the Strait of Georgia

BC Ferry, Strait of Georgia BC

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BC Ferry, Strait of Georgia BC

Dall’s Porpoises surfing our bow

Anchored in Squirrel Cove, BC

Public dock Squirrel Cove BC

Eagles fishing between Yuculta Rapids and Gillard Pass

Airship and Safe Harbour (the Slowboat raft!) in Forward Harbour, BC

We hope you’ll join us!

Hood Canal to Port Townsend to LaConner

Laura Domela — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 23:07:54 +0000

We had a wonderful weekend exploring Hood Canal with our friend Kathy, and we wrote all about it here on Slowboat.

We left Alderbrook on Monday morning and cruised all the way to Port Townsend (~58nm in about 8 hours). The weather was perfect, so the long cruise was chill and productive. It’s easy to work while we motor along at 7.5 kts in calm water.

Leaving Alderbrook with a view of the Olympics

We arrived in Port Townsend just before 4pm and took a walk into town and back before it got dark.

Point Hudson Marina at Port Townsend

Back on Airship after our walk, we broke out the two dozen Shigoku oysters we’d picked up the day before from Taylor Shellfish Farms in Shelton, did some shucking and then had those for dinner along with a salad and a cup of soup. Delicious!

Beautiful view of the sunset from Airship

We left Port Townsend yesteday morning by about 8:30am and headed for Deception Pass and LaConner. The clouds were rolling in, but it was still calm and beautiful out:

Deception Pass

We knew we’d hit Deception Pass right at max flood, but the current would be going with us and at just about 4kts, so it was really no big deal.

Looking back at the Olympic range.

We arrived in LaConner just after noon and met the folks over at American Tugs to take a look at their new model called the Waypoint 36. We’ll be writing an article or two about this new boat on Slowboat…stay tuned.

LaConner from the Swinomish Channel

Last night we had dinner in town at the tavern (LaConner Pub and Eatery) and tonight (Valentine’s Day) we’re going to have dinner over at Oyster & Thistle (one of our fave restaurants in LaConner). We’re still trying to decide whether to stay in LaConner and walk the 15 minute walk to dinner (potentially in the rain), or continue on in Airship to Anacortes and drive the 20 minutes or so. It seems to have stopped raining for the moment, but you never can be sure around here in the winter! I think we’ll stay put. We’re getting a lot of work done, and we have rain gear if it’s raining later!

Another Successful Seattle Boat Show

Laura Domela — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:00:13 +0000

We had a fantastic time at the Seattle Boat Show this week. Our Slowboat team gave ten different seminars spread over the eight day show, and we could not have asked for better audiences. Several sessions were standing room only! We stayed at Elliott Bay Marina the whole time and commuted back and forth to the stadium. Most of the time, the weather was horrible…rainy and windy! We were glad to have Airship all tucked into a slip on C dock.

We did get some beautiful skies and even some sun, which was a nice surprise.

While not attending the boat show, we spent some quality time with friends in the area, and managed to visit some of our favorite local spots:

Fat Bastards from Pike Place Market (we shucked ’em ourselves)

Soup dumplings at Dough Zone (shhh, we went there three times!!)

Shigokus and caesar and cava at the Taylor Shelfish Farm oyster bar

LimeBikes — public bikes for rent that you’ll find all over the city now

We took advantage of a non-rainy day to check out the on-the-water parts of the Seattle Boat Show. This is Bell Harbor:

Safeco Field structure silhouette

Yesterday we did laundry and shopped for groceries and got some more work done, and this morning we cruised an hour across to Blake Island, where we were the only boat until about an hour ago.

We immediately got out and hiked the trail that rings the island (about 4 miles). On this one hike we saw raccoons, deer, geese, herons, and eagles. It’s very “wildlifey” out here today!

The last time we were here was last year after the 2017 boat show, and the place was covered in snow!

Tomorrow I think we might head up to Poulsbo and then over the next couple days hook around into Hood Canal, making our way down to meet friends at Alderbrook next weekend. It’s nice to be back in the South Sound!

Headin’ South

Laura Domela — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 11:44:42 +0000

We are headed to Seattle this week for the 2018 Seattle Boat Show, where our Slowboat team will be giving a handful (well, two handfuls — 10!) of seminars about subjects that include cruising the Inside Passage to Alaska, flying drones from boats, photography, and how to live on a boat in Seattle without a permanent slip. Check out the full list here if you’re interested.

We left Anacortes Monday morning just before 10am. We took the Swinomish Channel route since it was an hour before max ebb at Deception Pass and well, we’ve done that before. We had a nice easy cruise down to Langley, with winds in the 5-10kts range, and only one spot with enough chop to get the windows salty. Tuesday in the San Juans is supposed to be a little nasty (E wind 25 to 35kts becoming SE 30 to 40kts in the afternoon. Wind waves 5 to 7 ft) but Puget Sound doesn’t sound bad.

Seals here on the dock at Langley, Whidbey Island

I had the helm all day while Kevin wrote an article and did some work, and when we got settled we showered and did more work before walking up to town for dinner and groceries.

Langley at dusk.

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Langley waterfront at dusk

We had an early dinner at one of our favorites spots in Langley — Prima Bistro (where we took no food photos, but we shared some kusshi oysters and charcuterie for starters, then ordered two entrees to share: the cassoulet and the pan roasted chicken with polenta, braised endive, and rosemary-gorgonzola pan jus). Everything was delicious, and we took more than half the cassoulet back to Airship for another meal.

The Star Store mercantile next door is open until 8pm so we grabbed some fresh produce and eggs and called it an early night!

We left Langley this morning before 9am. The weather was gray and rainy but we never saw more than about 10kts of wind.

We did, however, pass a big submarine as it headed north:

Pretty cool to see at such close range!

Sunset and Sunrise on Cypress Island

Laura Domela — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:31:12 +0000

More reasons to cruise the San Juan Islands in the winter:

Sunset from Eagle Harbor

Sunrise from Eagle Harbor

We met up with friends Carol and Park on Akeeva (the Nordhavn 50 that went to Alaska with us this past summer) and had a nice visit last night.

Loving this weather!

Winter Cruise to Sucia Island

Laura Domela — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 00:47:08 +0000

We finally got back up to Airship AND the weather was cooperative (unlike the week we spent aboard in October), so we headed up to Sucia Island for a couple nights while the sun was shining and the wind was calm.

Winter cruising is so great up in this area. So much of time we have the whole place to ourselves! We did some work after we got settled, and then went for a hike before the sun set.

Nice sandstone textures on the outer rocky beach that faces Orcas Island.

Last night was quiet and clear and the stars were bright. This morning was still clear and blue with a nice big moon and some low fog off in the distance (and a bit of frost on the dock!)

We worked for most of the day, but managed to get out and hike over to Echo Bay before it got too dark and too cold.

We got a couple neighbor boats by the end of the day, and by the end of our hike the fog had really rolled in. No sunset photos tonight!

We’re going to grill up some of the salmon we caught in Alaska for a salmon taco dinner tonight, and then in the morning (after the fog burns off, I expect) we’ll figure out where we want to go next!

Also, totally unrelated, here’s a photo of my mom’s adorable new puppy, Lucca:

He’s a White Shepherd like her others, and just adorable, don’t you think?

All Tucked In (but not for long!)

Laura Domela — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 19:57:44 +0000

Before leaving Victoria on Tuesday, Kevin and I walked over to old town to get some breakfast at Jam Cafe. A local had recommended this spot earlier in the week, and I in turn had passed that recommendation on to boat neighbors Jeff and Kim a few days prior (hi guys!!). Jeff and Kim went for brunch on Sunday and raved about it, so we really had no choice but to check it out before leaving, and we’re glad we did! The food was delicious, and we’ll definitely go back next time we’re in town. (I had an off-menu special — pulled pork on a crunchy tortilla, topped with poached eggs and some sauce I forgot what kind and avocado and I dunno what else but it was amazing, and Kevin had a “Charlie Bowl”–Jam’s version of a hash with crumbled biscuit, hash browns, diced ham, bacon, corn salsa, peas, green onions, cheddar and sausage gravy topped with two sunny side eggs. I liked mine the best.)

The cruise back to Anacortes from Victoria was foggy then sunny but the whole time calm calm calm!

The forecast for Tuesday for the Strait of Juan de Fuca was spot-on…and a great day to cross back into the U.S. We cleared U.S. Customs easily and by phone (yay Nexus!) and returned to Anacortes right around 4pm.

In the morning, we got up fairly early to start the process of cleaning and unpacking. I began by washing Airship, and Kevin went to see if the truck would start. Unfortunately, the battery was dead, in spite of the solar trickle charger we’d left on it (the one that worked great last summer), so he took it (in a dock cart) over to a local shop to have charged and/or replaced if that didn’t work. (That worked…battery’s great and the truck started fine with it after a couple hours of charging.)

After Airship was shiny, we needed to address the leak in the dinghy. We thought we’d found the tiny pinprick hole (ahem, someone wasn’t careful with their fishhook!) and patched it successfully, but the port side was still slowly losing air. We removed the outboard and took it in a cart up to the truck (we’ll take it back to the shop where we bought it for its annual maintenance) and then pulled the dinghy up onto the dock for inspection. After spraying soapy water all around the area on and adjacent to the first hole we patched, we found TWO more tiny pinpricks that were leaking air. One patch covered them both, and we think we’re good to go. (Be careful of those fishhooks!)

While we were working on finding the leak, we also started a bit of dinghy cleaning…which turned into a whole ‘nother project. We’d never been able to find anything that worked WELL for cleaning the dinghy…everything we tried required SO. MUCH. SCRUBBING! Our dinghy is mounted on a davit off the swim step, and the port bow of it gets a bit of exhaust while under way, and that gray builds up fast. For some reason, we’d never tried (until now) this cleaner that West Marine carries, called (creatively): Inflatable Boat Cleaner (and Protectant…comes in a two-pack).

We used one entire bottle of the cleaner and went back for two more — it worked so well!! We’re going to have a clean dinghy from now on!

So, after washing Airship (which is always a good way to quell any thoughts of a bigger boat…at least for a day or so), scrubbing the Zodiac, removing the outboard, several trips to deal with the truck battery issue, and I don’t know how many trips hauling stuff in dock carts to the truck, cleaning the interior of Airship so she’s all ready for whatever comes next…we were ready to head back to Portland…at 5:30pm. We stopped for dinner at Coa Mexican Eatery in Mt. Vernon (figuring the longer we waited, the less traffic through Seattle we’d hit…plus, those prawns!) and returned to Portland just after 10:30pm. We unloaded the truck, had a glass of wine, and then hit the sack. Long day!

After some work trips and a couple photo shoots in my studio here in Portland over the next two weeks, we’ll be heading back up to meet friends in the San Juans. I already can’t wait. We have a lovely home here in Portland, but my heart is on the water.

Victoria, B.C. | Gorge Waterway and Fisherman’s Wharf

Laura Domela — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 22:50:49 +0000

The other day Kevin and I decided to take the dinghy out to explore the Gorge. The Gorge Waterway is a narrow tidal inlet that connects Victoria Harbour to Portage Inlet. Here’s what it looks like on the chart (with the yellow line being our cruise from Causeway Floats, up and back about 7.2 nautical miles):

From Victoria’s Inner Harbour the scenery changes from city, to industrial, to urban nature park. The speed limit is 5 knots, so we just puttered up about 3.5 miles and then back. It was a beautiful day for it!

As we returned to the Inner Harbour, the bridge was up to let a big tug and barge through.

This handsome vessel was docked nearby and we got a good look at her from the dinghy. Launched in 1930 as “The Chieftain” (she’s now called the St. Eval), she spent 60 years operating under the British flag escorting British warships during WWII. In 1992, she was purchased by Dennis Washington, and after extensive renovation (including a hot tub on the top deck with wood that matches the pilothouse perfectly!) she now operates as a personal pleasure yacht and is based here in Victoria.

Evening light on The Empress:

On Friday, Kevin flew to NY to cover the World Maker Faire for EE Journal, and I stayed with Airship to hold down the fort.

This morning I walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf along the David Foster Harbour Pathway, which winds along the waterfront of the Inner Harbour.

Fisherman’s Wharf is about a mile walk from Causeway Floats, and it was a perfect, quiet Sunday morning for a walk. I left Airship around 10:30am, thinking I might have a late breakfast/early lunch at one of the little floating restaurants in the wharf.

After reading several reviews I settled on the Floating Fish Store. I ordered one halibut taco and six Kusshi oysters with a cucumber jalapeño mignonette. It was all fantastic! So fantastic, in fact, that I brought a dozen Kusshis back to the boat, along with a sockeye salmon rice wrap and a cup of salmon chowder to have for dinner tonight.

View from my brunch

Halibut taco and Kusshi oysters from the Floating Fish House

(What I didn’t realize when I left the dock is that I’d be missing the very last Water Taxi Water Ballet of the summer, that took place RIGHT BEHIND WHERE WE’RE DOCKED! How did I not know this was going on? So disappointing!)

As I made my way back along the waterfront trail, once I could see Airship and the Empress Hotel, I could also see there were multiple fire engines with their lights flashing up on Government Street (between the Causeway Floats and the Empress Hotel). The fire engines had ladders up, but I couldn’t tell what was going on. I didn’t see smoke, so that was a good sign!

As I got closer, I could see an enormous Canadian flag hanging from two of the ladders, and as I returned to Airship, I watched as the firemen raised the ladders on two more fire trucks, and then spread an equally large British Columbian flag from those.

I decided to take a walk down to the art supply store near Chinatown (Opus Art Supply, if you’re interested…very well-stocked art supply store!), and on the way, check out what was going on up top! Turns out it was a British Columbia Law Enforcement Memorial. The street was closed off and there were all types of law enforcement and military, along with some really good bagpipers (unlike that one guy).

They paraded down Government Street and over to the front lawn of the Parliament buildings where they assembled for the memorial (complete with rifle fire and trumpets and more bagpipes).

I can say that being docked downtown is most definitely not boring!