Nordic Tug – Riveted

Interior Living Space, Compared

Laura Domela — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 18:20:51 +0000

We’ve logged almost 700 nights in our Airstream since we purchased it in 2010 (a 2010 27’FB International), and almost 600 nights aboard Airship (2013 Nordic Tug 34) since it joined our family in 2014. We’ve returned to the Airstream for a week of camping on the Oregon Coast (OMG is it ever going to stop RAINING??), and we can’t help discussing the things we find different/better/worse between the interior living space of the two “vehicles”. We aren’t taking into account things like self-propulsion…this is just about the living space design and interior.

Airstream 27FB Plan

Airstream 27FB Plus Points

Airstream publishes a much better graphic of its interior layout than Nordic Tugs does
There is a LOT of storage.
Bigger fridge and freezer
Bigger, separate shower
Quite a bit more closet space
The Airstream’s Amana stove/oven kicks the butt of the Force 10 we have on Airship. Sure, it’s not as shiny, but we’ve got three full burners (rather than one fullish burner and one “sorta kinda keep warm” burner), and…a vent-a-hood!
The heater in the Airstream heats the interior in no time
Bigger bedroom/master stateroom, in all dimensions

Nordic Tug 34/Airship Plan

Nordic Tug/Airship Plus Points

Far better craftsmanship…lots of real wood (because weight is not much of an issue)
More windows
Built-in generator
Better fresh water system, variable speed pump and much higher capacity tank (100 gallons vs. 39 gallons)
Privacy of master stateroom from guest sleeping area is better and more separate

Overall though, the Airstream wins in the category of interior living space. If we moved up to a Nordic Tug 40 (with hydronic heat, a better oven/stove, and bigger fridge/freezer by default, we’d be even with the Airstream in terms of interior living space…well, probably we’d be ahead, since we’d gain a separate stateroom for guests.

Other Observations Not Related to Interior Living Space

Campgrounds are like marinas. You’re almost always too close to your neighbor with the yippy dogs. With a boat you have the option of anchoring out.

Airship anchored at Teakerne Arm, British Columbia

With an RV (and a lot of planning and local knowledge) you can boondock “away from it all” on public land, but it takes a lot more work to find a scenic, off-the-grid place to hang out. But, as with boating, if you camp in the off season, you can go to normally crowded places like this and not see another RV:

Airstreaming the Badlands, South Dakota

The boat has to bring its own outside space with it (upper deck, back cockpit, bow) but the Airstream gets to use the campground and surrounding area as its outdoor space.

Airstream at Athabasca Glacier, Alberta, Canada

However, if you’re camped somewhere and it’s just raining and raining and raining (like the past few days here at the Oregon Coast), then your outdoor space is a bit more limited.

Freedom from roads is a plus with a boat.

Airship in Melanie Cove, Desolation Sound, British Columbia

Finally! Tiny Deer!

Laura Domela — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 01:03:17 +0000

We’re back at Jones Island tonight (three Nordic Tugs!): Dan & Eileen on Fortunate (a 32′), and Sam, Anna, David, and Mark on Safe Harbour (Sam’s 37′).

Airship, with rainbow:

We are moored on the north side of Jones, since the wind today and tonight will be SE. This afternoon we dinghied to shore and did a little hike across to the south side.

Not too long after we started our hike, we (FINALLY) saw one of the famous tiny deer of Jones Island! Everyone talks about them, but we’ve never managed to spot any when we’re here…until now!

It was not afraid of us at all (because, no predators on the island). We stood and chatted with it for a while and then moved on.

On the south shore, we saw a single camper over at a campfire, presumably staying in one of the little camping shelters. This is his rowboat (rowboat!!), and it was not looking all that…robust (and had quite a lot of water in it).

It’s a little rough out there and we wondered where he’d come from (maybe Orcas Island?). Hope he keeps warm tonight in that little shelter!

Sam took this great photo of us all with the drone earlier:

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Tomorrow we’ll return briefly to Friday Harbor to drop off David and Mark, do some groceries (maybe check out the recommended sushi spot for lunch), and then probably head for another TBA anchorage.

Tonight everyone’s meeting for and cooking dinner (all eight of us!) over on Safe Harbour. Should be festive!

Roche Harbor to Fossil Bay

Laura Domela — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 21:19:37 +0000

We left Anacortes on Sunday morning a little after 9am. The plan was to meet up with Sam over in Roche Harbor and then walk up to the San Juan Island Distillery (open Saturdays and Sundays from 1pm to 4pm) to pick up some more of the delicious shrubs I bought at the Christmas market in Friday Harbor when we were there for Thanksgiving — Kari’s Island Elixers. I bought a Sweet Summer Tomato shrub and a Spicy Rhubarb squash. They’re so great to mix into fizzy water for a non-alcoholic cocktail, or to add to cocktails…and as soon as I tried it at home I wished I’d gotten more. You can’t order them online (but you can order her bitters online), but apparently she sells some shrubs/squashes at the distillery…so anyway…where were we? Oh yeah, leaving Anacortes:

It was a little windy out, but not bad at all. We anchored over near Henry Island, near where Sam was docked at the Seattle Yacht Club outstation, and then we all dinghied into Roche Harbor for a walk up to the distillery.

Awwwwwwww. So sad. We’re here, but they’re not.

We’ll be back in Friday Harbor this weekend…maybe I’ll just give Kari a call and see how I can get us more of the delicious elixirs. We out to be able to work something out…it’s not a huge island.

Back in the marina we stopped to visit with some friends of Sam’s and they invited us all to stay for drinks and dinner aboard their 48′ Tollycraft. It was a super fun evening with great folks!

The docks were frosty and a bit slippery as we walked back to Sam’s dinghy. Hotel de Haro reflection under the dock:

The dinghy ride back to Airship was cold but short.

On Monday morning we headed for Sucia Island (photo taken from Airship, Safe Harbour up ahead):

The wind was supposed to pick up (gale warnings and such) so we thought we could hunker down and get some work done in Fossil Bay for a day or two.

Snow on Mount Constitution, Orcas Island:

At the dock in Fossil Bay:

We got some work done and then before it got dark we went for a hike out to Fox Cove:

Snow on Orcas Island:

Back at the dock…we’re still the only boats here! Winter boating is awesome!

Echo Bay to Port Harvey | BC

Laura Domela — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 02:43:11 +0000

We arrived at Echo Bay early in the day yesterday (since we got out of Booker Lagoon by 7:30am). It was rainy all day.

Dawnbreaker arrived later on (still pouring rain). Luckily, they had these fancy umbrellas onboard:

Thomas and Urban, above…doing the umbrella spinning thing for drama. Not pictured, Lars at the helm, being serious (but probably not really).

It rained all night. But hey, that means nice freshwater wash down for Airship, so it’s okay.

We slept in this morning (after a not-that-late-but-still-kinda-late evening hanging with the Dawnbreaker crew). After dinner last night, Thomas, Lars, and Urban brought over a homemade apple pie (and a bottle of wine) and we got out the pint of vanilla bean ice cream we brought from home (and still hadn’t eaten yet! How did THAT happen?) … fun conversation, stories, dessert, wine, espresso…

It was great catching up with Pierre, as always. He’s making some expansions and improvements to the store and the restaurant, and he’s got a new, darling cabin for rent (plus suites in the lodge) so if you don’t have a boat but want to come to Echo Bay, there are options!

We wandered around a bit this morning chatting with the other boaters (there were 7 boats at Pierre’s last night…that’s a lot for this time of year!)…and then made breakfast before heading out. (Our default breakfast is…breakfast tacos. Today’s were the last of the chorizo scrambled with some eggs, sliced avocado, homemade salsa, a dash of habanero hot sauce in flour tortillas…yum!) We left around 10am and headed over to see George and Gail at Port Harvey. The rain came and went, but it was a beautiful cruise:

We went around the west side of Gilford Island through Cramer Passage and Retreat Passage to Knight Inlet (bottom of Gilford Island) and then through Chatham Channel to get to Port Harvey. We were timed to hit Chatham Channel at max flood, so the current would be going with us, but at potentially 7 knots. We read up on Chatham Channel, and nothing sounded too dangerous (no whirlpools or eddies or overfalls), and it’s a smooth-bottomed channel, so the flow is laminar which is just fast, but not turbulent. We went through with no issues at all. We had 4.5 knots of current with us at the narrowest/fastest part, but that’s it. Nothing weird or nail-biting or anything.

We dropped our crab pots just west of Range Island on our way into the dock at Port Harvey and then caught up with George and Gail here for a bit. The rebuild of the store and restaurant are coming along nicely, and should be fabulous and better-than-ever for next season!

George said they’d seen a big grizzly on shore near their house next to the apple tree for the past two days, so to keep an eye out. We did, and then there he was!

George waited while I took a few photos before he fired his rifle to scare the bear away.

Now, we’re just hanging out on Airship (one other boat here tonight, the Jacari Maru, a Puget Trawler) and about to make dinner. We aren’t sure of our plans for tomorrow yet. Maybe Shoal Bay, and then the Octopus Islands…and then maybe Heriot Bay or Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island (in the spirit of trying to also go some places we haven’t been before). I could explore like this indefinitely.

Codville Lagoon | BC

Laura Domela — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 17:27:00 +0000

We left Shearwater late yesterday morning and made our way over to Codville Lagoon. As we got just south of Bella Bella, we turned the corner into Lama Passage (I think that’s its name), we were “greeted” by about 75 gill netters with nets strung pretty much the entire width of the channel.

We looked behind us just as another one was setting his net from one side of the channel, across our stern and headed for the other side.

“Quick!! Turn around and get out while we can!!” I said to Kevin, but it was too late (and the other route around and through Gunboat Passage was considerably longer). So we picked our way through the crazy maze of nets and boats…it was complex and intricate, this maze. The boats let their nets out and what you can see on top of the water is a teeny tiny line of white dots (once you’re close enough to see them) and at each end of their net, there’s an orange float.

But there were so many of them, right next to each other, that we had to basically zig zag back and forth across the channel and/or find the end floats that were far enough from shore to squeeze past. It was nuts. We’ve never seen anything like this many boats in such close proximity. The interesting thing was that they were all being so polite and civil to each other on the radio while they jockeyed for their sets…this is NOT how it would have sounded in Alaska. I’m serious. The gill netters we’ve heard on the radio are, well…FAR less polite.

We saw this tug and barge up ahead of us and wondered how the heck they made it through, but it’s more likely that he was through before they started setting nets.

The cruise over to Codville Lagoon was beautiful and uneventful (after we got through the net maze).

We met up with our three new friends on Dawnbreaker (Lars, Thomas, and Urban) and anchored at the head of the lagoon. Their dinghy was on shore at the trailhead so we knew they’d hiked up to the lake already. We did a little work and had a light lunch and then hiked up to the lake after they got back. We made a plan for a co-op happy hour at 6pm on Airship.

The hike to Sagar Lake is not a long hike.

There are wonderful boardwalks built to walk on for most of it, but in some spots, there are stairs made from roots and they’re a little bit of a scramble.

Little frogs along the trail:

Actual stairs in one spot:

The lake was placid and the only sounds were bird sounds and water moving somewhere down the shore (maybe a small waterfall from the hillside). We saw kingfishers, one goose, and an osprey overhead. The beach! A sandy beach!

We heard there were wolves around here, but didn’t see any tracks on the sand (just the tracks of the barefoot sailors…they all went for a swim when they were here).

We headed back to Airship, and about a third of the way down the trail I spotted some fresh wolf tracks. So fresh, that they were filling with water as I got out my camera to take these two photos:

There were some smaller tracks next to them…maybe a wolf pup? Pretty cool. (And now I’ll say that while I was sitting on the beach up at the lake, I had the very distinct feeling of being watched.)

Back to the lagoon, Dawnbreaker and Airship at anchor:

Back at Airship we had snacks and a cocktail on the top deck, and were having such a nice time we invited the guys to stay for dinner. We grilled some halibut and I made some lemon risotto with zucchini. It was a very fun night!

We’re monitoring weather conditions for crossing Cape Caution, and tomorrow looks like it might be good. After tomorrow there look to be a few days of not so good weather. Dawnbreaker is headed down to the Koeye River today. There’s a little cove that looks anchorable in good weather. Their plan is to anchor and take the dinghy on an excursion up the river…word is that there are quite a few grizzlies back in there. We aren’t sure what we’ll do yet. We’ve got some limited internet here in Codville Lagoon so we’re doing some work while we can. We’ll either take our time for a few days, or head down to Fury Cove and get set up to cross Cape Caution tomorrow.

Klemtu to Shearwater | BC

Laura Domela — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 16:49:03 +0000

We left Klemtu on the early side yesterday. The water was smooth and the skies were clear. Gorgeous day to be on the water!

We arrived at Perceval Narrows near max ebb, but the tidal swing is small right now and we estimated we might have as much as 2kts of current with us. As we got closer we kept an eye on our speed as we binoc’d the area between Martha Island and Lizzie Rocks, and it looked fine…a little bit of movement in the water but not much. We went through easily with just below 2kts of current with us. Just like we thought!

Gorgeous in Reid Passage:

A bit of swell (crashing on the rocks) as we came out of Reid Passage and into Seaforth Channel:

We arrived into Shearwater around 3pm, caught up with Christophe (the harbour master) and then headed up to do laundry and get groceries. We did some work while waiting for laundry, and then had dinner up at the pub.

View from dinner (before it got too cold and we moved inside):

We ran into the guys from Dawnbreaker, the big sailboat docked next to us in Kasaan (and then again in Klemtu) and caught up with them after dinner (had a nightcap on Dawnbreaker). We’ll probably see them again tonight in Codville Lagoon…fun bunch of guys!

This morning it’s gorgeous out! Kevin’s finishing up an article and I’m going to make breakfast here in a minute before we head out. Codville Lagoon isn’t far, so it’ll be a short cruise today.

Shearwater, from Airship this morning:

Not sure when we’ll have internet next. Our rough plan is Codville Lagoon tonight, then maybe Pruth Bay or Fury Cove before crossing Cape Caution. We need to look at the weather forecast and that’ll give us an idea how fast or slow we need to be over the next few days. The guys on Dawnbreaker have some other spots between here and there marked on their chart that sound interesting too…so we’ll just play it by ear!

Kasaan | Paddling a Haida Canoe

Laura Domela — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 02:49:31 +0000

This afternoon we got an opportunity to paddle a hand carved Haida canoe here in Kasaan Bay!

This is the first canoe built by Stormy Hamar (head carver on the longhouse project), and he plans to make more (which is great, because they’re super fun to paddle). It’s a little tippy when you first get in, but as you get used to it and relax (and get moving) it begins to feel pretty easy. This is a smaller, single-person version, carved from red cedar with a decorative, yellow cedar edge. If you want to see other examples of Haida canoes, check out this link to some images.

What a cool thing to be able to do! Thanks Stormy!!

Misty Fjords with Mijonet | Part 1

Laura Domela — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 23:54:10 +0000

Kevin and Mijonet (granddaughter, 8, on her first solo trip!) arrived from Seattle on time in Ketchikan on Wednesday afternoon. We got Mij all unpacked and then headed up to the Bar Harbor Restaurant to have some dinner (Mij had a pound of clams to celebrate her arrival into the Land of Seafood). After dinner, Kevin and Mij got out their matching (telescoping) fishing rods and Kevin taught Mij how to cast. She caught on really fast!

By morning the wind had died down considerably. We left the dock around 7am and headed for Misty Fjords. Just as we were about to enter Behm Canal we found a humpback breaching like crazy. This guy was so active! We counted about 15 breaches in a row, then fin slaps, then about a dozen more breaches….so much energy! The first breach was usually a full one and the subsequent breaches were not quite full…but still seriously splashy.

We watched for a while and then continued on, since our cruise today was a long one. In Behm Canal we came upon some more Pacific White Sided Dolphins, but they didn’t come swim with us…must have been too busy eating fish.

We arrived in Walker Cove just after 5pm. There was no one else here, so we grabbed the one mooring ball and then went out to set crab traps. While we were setting the second trap we saw a black bear sow and two cubs on shore, so we followed them up the river a bit (from a distance). The sow was combing the shore for fish, as her two little ones followed along. It was so cool (except for the insane amount of bugs flying around us).

Up river a bit (it was just about high tide) we saw several seals, and then something weird floating/swimming in front of us a ways. It was kind of long, and didn’t really look like a seal head. I said “What IS that?” as we slowed down…it was alive, but didn’t look like a seal OR an otter. I picked up the camera and zoomed in…it WAS a seal, but with just its snout sticking out of the water…and it was swimming upside down! Silly seal!

I made a shrimp boil for dinner in the pressure cooker. This is a pretty cool recipe, actually. Beer, spices, potatoes, corn, sausage, and shrimp…5 minutes on high in the pressure cooker and boom! Super fast!

Ketchikan, Cruise Ships, and Laundromats

Laura Domela — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 01:37:59 +0000

This was our view last night from Airship:

And this is the view this morning from the same spot. Quite a difference! It’s still fun to be right down in the middle of all the hubbub.

This morning we had nice surprise. Some fellow boaters we met on Thanksgiving in Friday Harbor last year, Connie and Chuck, are also in Ketchikan on their boat and found out we were here so they came by to say hello. So cool! We chatted a bit and they offered to give us a ride to the laundromat. (We’d pretty much talked ourselves out of schlepping our laundry all the way down there today…so this was very helpful. It’s so much nicer to have it done!) Nice view of Bar Harbor marina from the Highliner Laundromat:

While our laundry was going, we walked over to Tongass Marine to get some more dinghy patch supplies, and this afternoon we removed all the old glue and patch(es) and did a much better job. We hope. We were able to pull the dinghy up on the dock here and so it’s drying/curing in the sun and it’s not raining, so the temperature and reduced humidity should help with Patch 2.0.

This morning I tried a breakfast experiment. I mixed two ripe bananas, four eggs, and two teaspoons of vanilla and then used that batter just like pancake batter and made some little pancake thingies. They were thin and delicious, a little like banana crepes (served with a little bit of syrup). I think I might prefer them less sweet, but they were pretty great (and really easy)!

The cruise ships are gone now and the Arctic Bar is rockin’ up there on the boardwalk. I’ll do something with crab for dinner tonight and then I think Connie and Chuck are going to stop by for a glass of wine later.

Happy Sunday!

Meyers Chuck to Ketchikan

Laura Domela — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 03:30:05 +0000

We arrived in Meyers Chuck just after 5pm last night. We just docked and made dinner (OMG the BEST crab pasta recipe…I’ll share it below) and watched a movie. Well, 3/4 of a movie. It was 310 to Yuma, and we had it on our external hard drive, but it abruptly ended before it was technically over, so we’ll need to find it and watch the last quarter of it sometime. No big.

This morning was another minus tide at low tide (-2.6 I think). Meyers Chuck is the place where you can call Cassy and order up some freshly made cinnamon rolls for morning and she’ll bring ’em right to your boat. We didn’t do that, but at about 7:15am Cassy knocked on the pilothouse door (we were sleeping) and asked if we wanted a couple of cinnamon rolls. Even from a cozy sleep, it’s hard to say no to hot cinnamon rolls. Kevin went up and got them (thank you Cassy!) and we ended up getting up and doing the sugar and caffeine thing right then and there. A bit later, we hiked the trail out to the beach, which was much larger due to the very low tide.

I brought two really cool rocks back to the boat (Kevin keeps calling me “Lucy”)…but man I could outfit The Willows Inn with some killer little rectangular serving rocks from this beach. Picture the perfect amuse bouche bite served on top of this rock! (I’m gonna do it.)

The one above is about the size of a large cell phone (only much thicker and heavier) and this one below is smaller, but shows the cross section pretty well. They look a little gritty in these photos, but they’re pretty and smooth in person.

Back at the dock:

We didn’t leave Meyers Chuck until about 10:30am and had a nice chill cruise to Ketchikan, arriving just after 3pm. We’d planned to take our laundry to The Mat to take advantage of their “Wash and Fold” laundry service, but they closed today at 4pm and aren’t open tomorrow at all, so I guess we’ll do that on Monday. If we get it there by noon, it’ll be finished same day, for $1.75 per pound. Sounds like a deal to me!

We found a spot on the city floats/Casey Moran (the last spot, it seems) behind a big seiner called the Maren E (she’s pretty cool looking with that wooden bow). This spot is one of the least protected spots (and perilously close to that cruise ship dock behind us!), but it’s great to be right in town. We walked over to the Bar Harbor Restaurant for an early dinner tonight, and I took this shot of us on the dock. That seiner’s skiff is about the size of Airship!!

On our way past the Bar Harbor marina, we caught a glimpse of celebrity crabbing boat Time Bandit (notice the little kid fishing right there on the dock next to it):

Oh yeah, we saw this floating in the water on our way to Meyers Chuck yesterday…part of a concrete dock! Pretty nice piece, too!

Once we got to Ketchikan we’d planned to go get more supplies to re-do the patch job on the dinghy (our on-the-fly patch worked, kind of, but was substandard), but the marine store is closed tomorrow. So two of our major chores for today and tomorrow are now off the table. The weather is nice though, so maybe we’ll just go be tourists and look at totem poles. We have our 8 year old granddaughter joining us for 5 days starting Wednesday. We may take her into Misty Fjords, or across to Kasaan Bay, or back up to Meyers Chuck and Thoms Place…we’ll decide based on the weather. I think Misty Fjords is in the top spot right now. She wants to go crabbing, and fishing (though you can’t salmon fish in Behm Canal, but she could tool around with the little rod from the dinghy and probably be pretty happy), and she wants me to make seafood for her (ideally with what she catches).

Right, before I forget, last night’s crab pasta. I used this recipe, and substituted chives for the parsley because I didn’t have parsley and I did have chives. This is definitely one to make again. We both LOVED it. I bed it would be good with other seafoods (or chicken) subbed for the crab, too…yummy!