Seattle Boat Show – 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.

More Seattle Waterfront

Laura Domela — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 16:32:14 +0000

We had a nice afternoon around Bell Harbor yesterday. We grabbed some fish & chips and a beer up at Anthony’s for a late lunch and then did a bunch of work from Airship the rest of the day. The sun popped out beneath the clouds and made for some gorgeous light.

I snapped this quickly from the back of Airship last night. I love how the lights of the city bounce off the low cloud layer.

We’ll head over to the boat show later this morning. Kevin’s “Connected Cruising/WiFi in the Wilderness” seminar is today at 2:15pm…should be a good one!

Docking Downtown

Laura Domela — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 21:03:34 +0000

It’s always fun arriving in Seattle by boat. We left Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island around 11am this morning and headed across Elliott Bay to Seattle. Elliott Bay was a bit choppy: wind 15-25kts and wind waves maybe 3ft. No big deal, just a little wet.

Mt. Rainier with some lenticular clouds:

Approaching the city:

Port side view:

Starboard side view:

We’re now tucked in at Bell Harbor Marina. I washed the salt off of Airship and now we’re just doing a little work and doing a little tweaking on our boat show seminar slides. Should be a fun week!

Airship in Seattle

Laura Domela — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 22:16:29 +0000

This heron was hanging out on our dinghy on Saturday morning. I very quietly lifted the top hatch on the door to the cockpit and snapped a couple of photos before it took off:

We headed up to Anacortes from Portland on Friday afternoon and got to the boat by about 9:30pm. On Saturday we did a bunch of work on and around the boat. One of our projects was replacing the fuel pump on the Mercury outboard (which I did, with Kevin's guidance) and then making sure it ran nicely before giving it the boot and replacing it with a Torqueedo Travel 1003 electric outboard. More about that later, but early reviews are positive.

We did some provisioning and then headed to LaConner for the night. (About 9.5 nautical miles.)

We got up early and did the rest of the cruise to Seattle on Sunday and got into Bell Harbor marina around 5pm. Approaching Seattle by boat is always a treat.

Closer shot of the paragliders along the bluffs:

Last night, all tucked in (we're just to the left of that rightmost piling):

This morning we got up and made breakfast and did some work, and then around 1pm we headed over to the floating portion of the Seattle Boat show, figuring we should take advantage of the dry day. We poked in and around a bunch of boats, but both of us decided we came away just loving our boat even more. (Awwwwww.)

Here we are today, partly cloudy. Can't beat this location for a city marina, really.

LaConner to Bell Harbor, downtown Seattle (about 55 nautical miles):

Hey Ladies!

Laura Domela — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 15:43:01 +0000

You guys remember Margaret, from our flotilla to Alaska last summer? She was crewing for Mark Bunzel, our flotilla leader from Anacortes to Ketchikan? This is Margaret, being awesome at Fury Cove after our crossing of Cape Caution:

Margaret asked me a few weeks ago if I'd co-teach a seminar with her at the 2016 Seattle Boat Show. Margaret is a very experienced mariner and sailing instructor and I'm a new (but enthusiastic) power boater (with lots of pretty photos), so the combination was natural, right? :)

This seminar is on February 1 — "Women's Day" at the 2016 Seattle Boat Show, which I have to say was initially a bit of a turnoff to me. I told Margaret that I would probably never take a seminar just for women, and maybe that sounds bad to you, but hear me out. I like to do things. I like to do things men can do. My gender doesn't feel to me like it should come into play. I have a pilot's license. I tow our Airstream. I can take a boat to SE Alaska. It bothers me when everyone assumes Kevin is the skipper of our boat just because he's a man, or that he's the one who does all our navigation, or the only one who knows how the diesel engine works, or the one who knows how our electrical systems are designed (well, okay, I'll give him that one…for now).

However, I really REALLY like inspiring people, and I especially like inspiring women not to hang out being afraid of doing things like towing their Airstream, or docking the boat, or grilling the meat or whatever. So I agreed and decided it would be fun to share some of my stories about how I dove in and learned all the stuff I needed to learn to feel comfortable handling our boat and navigating the Inside Passage to Alaska. I told Margaret I'd never taught anything, but she assured me she could handle the whole thing if need be, but that she'd love to have me and my stories and my photos to help inspire women who were new to boating or worried about how difficult things would be to learn, etc., and so I agreed.

But then Kevin broke his (right) arm, and suddenly my responsibilities for the next few weeks increased quite a bit. I'm driver and nurse and cook and also helping Kevin write the articles he needs to write, and so on. We've got a post-op appointment and a hand therapy appointment flanking the first weekend of the Boat Show now, so I told Margaret I needed to bow out. Luckily, she found another (probably better) co-teacher in Linda Lewis and I know they'll put on an interesting, informative seminar on February 1st.

So, if you're an aspiring badass woman boater (also known as "a boater"), and you want to hang out and learn and be inspired by some other badass women boaters (also known as "boaters"), I recommend this full-day seminar on February 1st at the Seattle Boat Show. It's $100 and you'll learn a ton and probably laugh a lot and meet some great people. (You'll still see my pretty photos of cruising to Alaska and around the San Juan Islands, because I'm sharing those with Margaret to use in the seminar, so I'll be there in spirit pictures.)

All Day Seattle Boat Show University Class for Women:

The Seattle Boat Show University is offering an all-day class for women sailors and power-boaters, presented by experienced instructors Linda Lewis and Margaret Pommert. A Woman’s Perspective: 101 Practical Tips for Safe and Fun Cruising is for both women who skipper and those who are ‘first mate’, and will cover topics most requested by women, including docking, avoiding seasickness, and what you need to know about marine engines and systems. This course is Monday, February 1, from 9am to 4 pm. Cost is $100. It will be a fun day of learning, laughter, and new women boater friends!

p.s. Women's Day at the boat show is free for women with a pass that you can get here. Some seminars on Women's Day are free. Here's a link to all of the free boating and fishing seminars on Women's Day.

The Boat University seminars cost $, but they're very reasonable and there are so many good topics to choose from. Here's a complete list.

p.s.p.s. We're planning to head up to the boat show after Kevin's post-op appointment, so we'll (fingers crossed) be there for the last half. We hear the Nordic NW/Nordic Tugs booth has a nice display happening, with our Waggoner Guide Airship cover shot and all! We gotta see that!

Seattle Boat Show

Laura Domela — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 03:59:54 +0000

Tonight, looking back toward downtown from Elliottt Bay Marina (Space Needle on the left):

Our first night at the marina (Thursday) we ran into our friend Sam and hung out with him on his Nordic 37 and had some wine/beer, and then he came over for a late dinner…really a fun evening.

This boat show business is serious up here! We went to the boat show in Portland a few weeks back and it took us about an hour, max. Not so here at the Seattle Boat Show. This is just part of one of the halls:

We signed up for Car2Go before we left Portland, figuring it would be super helpful for us getting around Seattle while we're in town. So far, it's great!

That's the front of our first cute little Smart car. For those of you unfamiliar with Car2Go, you sign up online for something like a $35 initial fee. They check your driving record and give you the green light, and then with a simple iPhone app (from wherever you are in cities that have Car2Go) you can see where the cars are. You can click on one and reserve it for 30 minutes (that means no one else can come take it before you get there as long as it's within 30 minutes). You get to your car, start the rental from your smart phone, the car unlocks, welcomes you, and you start your rental. The cost is .41 cents per minute, with a hourly cap of $14.99 or something. When you're done, you just click "finish rental" and it charges your account. So far, our rides across town have ranged in the 9-11 dollar range. You can park them in all the city metered spots without paying the meter, so it's probably not that much more than paying for parking in the end.

On Friday (the first day of the boat show) we headed over (via Car2Go) to Lake Union for the floating part of the show. We wanted to look at the new American Tugs (one of the contenders when we bought our Nordic Tug). They've done some really great things to the new Americans and they're beautiful. We saw a super cool handmade "Sockeye 45" made by the Devlin Boat Co. here in the PNW. Fantastic, and too hard to take good photos of, so here's its listing. There were some ENORMOUS (and expensive!!) boats over here that we peeked in…pretty cool, but not our thing.

We had some lunch and then took the free shuttle from Lake Union to Century Link Field to the indoor part of the boat show (running through January 31) and, whoa. We hung out a bit with our buddies at the Nordic "booth" (which is really a giant wooden stairway and deck up to a brand new Nordic 39 with a flybridge). Gorgeous boat, and fun seeing and hearing about all the upgrades they're doing (while we think about our second boat wishlist, of course).

We wandered the halls looking at boaty stuff, and stayed for a bit of the opening event "Uncorked" which was basically a scavenger hunt for wine. You get a souvenir wine glass and 6 tokens and a map of where the winery tables are hidden in the maze of boats. We wandered a bit and tasted three wines and then headed back to the boat for some dinner.

The closest Car2Go was about a half mile away up in Chinatown, and it was raining…but we're seasoned northwesters and were dutifully wearing our GoreTex, so not a big deal and kind of a nice walk (after all that…walking).

This afternoon we attended two of four Boat University seminars we registered for: (1) Starting the Trek North through Southern BC: Nanaimo through Cape Caution (something we will probably do in the near future) and then (2) Getting on the Outside: Cruising the West Coast of Vancouver Island (something we'll wait a bit to do). Both talks were interesting and informative.

Tomorrow morning we've got (1) Cruising the Wild & Beautiful Northern BC, and then (2) Understanding the Weather and Cruise Decisiong Making.

Tonight we picked up a Car2Go and headed over to the Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar in Queen Anne for some oysters. SO. DELICIOUS. We had a dozen on the halfshell (two each of Virginica, Shigoku, Kumamoto, Pacific, Olympia, and Kusshi).

We shared a caesar salad, and then finished with two kinds of baked oysters: Oysters Marco (bacon, kale, shallot, cranberry, and parmesan) and Oysters Matsushima (mushrooms, shishito peppers, and miso butter). Also SO DELICIOUS.

Our same Car2Go was still outside when we were finished, so we re-rented it, stopped at Whole Foods for some groceries on the way home (not letting go of our rental yet) and then parked it at our secret (not really) spot at the marina. So far, we've always had a car there in the morning.

On Monday we'll be moving over to the Bell Harbor Marina (much closer to downtown, as shown in this billboard right up the road from us):

That'll be fun! We picked up a local bourbon at Whole Foods to try (2bar Spirits bourbon), and are having a little sip now. It's yum!

Another full day tomorrow, so early to bed!