On to Gig Harbor

Mt. Rainier

Liz and The Narrows Bridge

We're here! Gig Harbor is a cute little harbor with lots of beautiful boats. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a 30 mile trip up from Olympia. The water was like glass and Mt. Rainier served as our escort to the east all the way up. What a wonder she is, so grand and mystical. We timed our trip so that we hit the Tacoma Narrows around slack tide (time between ebb tide and flood tide). The currents can run up to 5 knots so you won't make much head way if you travel at the wrong time (you can even go backwards!). We spotted some very small dolphins on our way (only 3 - 4 ft long). Cute and compact!

K & T at Arabella's, Gig Harbor

We are staying at Arabella's Landing in Gig Harbor for two days before heading north to Kingston on Friday. This will be another 30 mile 

trip but time seems to stand still aboard our Sunny 1 as she gently rocks you along your way. Today is a day of much needed rest from the craziness of prepping and moving. It is wonderful to finally be here after all our hard work and planning. We feel quite blessed and are so grateful for all the love and support we've received along the way.

Arriving in Olympia

Sunny's arrival via Truck

Liz & Tessie at Swantown Boatworks, Olympia

Sweet Dreams

Sunny 1 recomissioned and ready to go!

We (Kathy, Liz, Tessie, and Sunny 1) arrived in Olympia on Thursday. It was a two-day road trip up Hwy 5 (though Sunny had to take some back roads). No, we didn't follow the truck but heard from the driver that Sunny cleared one particular overpass by only 1 inch! We later discovered that the top of the bow light (highest area when the mast was taken down) is somewhere down Hwy 5. Oh well - it needed replacing anyway...

We spent the next 5 days resting (a bit) and putting Sunny back together again. The folks at Olympia's Swantown Boatworks were terrific and the guest dock was quiet there at the very south end of the Puget Sound. Olympia is a town of only 40,000 (the state capital) but the downtown area by the marina has a real SF/Berkeley feel. A couple of our favorite places: The Bread Peddler (best apple fritter EVER), BonJour Cupcakes (yes, there's a theme here...), Farmer's Market, and Old School Pizza. We drove our vehicles up to Anacortes on Saturday. We've been doing a lot of walking, especially with Tessie and her quest for the 'perfect spot'. 

Vallejo, CA to Olympia, WA

Sunny 1 loaded in Vallejo

Big Girl!

We made it to Olympia from the road last night at 9:00. Having a dog really changes how many rest stops you have to try! Tessie did great and met a handsome 175 pound (!) german shepherd who gave her lots of kisses.

Getting Sunny 1 ready for the truck was quite the undertaking. Many thanks to Scott and his 4' long tie wraps! We did such a fine job that the truck driver said, "Oh, you've done this before..."!
Once Sunny was loaded onto the truck and secured (took 3 hrs), Carl (the nice trucker from Missouri) took another hour measuring the height of the load. We measured Sunny in the yard in March to the height of 15' 1".  Add 6" for the truck for the height of 15" 7'. After an hour of measuring Carl determined Sunny sat at 16' 2", thus requiring an additional escort car, one of them being the Pole Car. This car literally has a pole adjusted to 16"2' attached to the front bumper. If the Pole Car clears the overpass/bridge, she lets the driver know he can proceed. Funny that in our high tech world it comes down to something as basic as a pole not scraping the bottom of the concrete.
Sunny is expected to arrive this afternoon at Olympia's Swantown Boatworks. We noticed she needs her zincs changed before going in the water so a trip to West Marine is on the list. The trucking company is not charging us for the additional escort car (whew!).

We are so excited to be splashing Sunny into Puget Sound water today! Can't wait to take a nap in our own bed!
More later!

The Beginning of the World's Longest Boat Project

Prying off the teak!

After scoring the teak with a circular saw (yikes!), Kathy begins separating the teak from the subdeck with a pry bar and rubber mallet. It's hard to see teak being broken into a million pieces, being the original and knowing they just don't grow it like they used to. Since we're not reusing the wood, this was our best option (and a bit heartbreaking). There's no going back now...

Making way for the epoxy

Once the teak was removed, we had to deal with the molded in cracked non-skid and 1,000+ screw holes. Our options were to grind the non-skid off or chisel it off. Being liveaboards and caring for the environment (and our own health), we chose to chisel it off. This proved to be a very labor intensive task but a good decision. In order to treat the delaminated plywood core with penetrating epoxy, we had to drill each screw hole out to a cone-like shape to receive the epoxy.

Get Ready, Get Set . . .

Hi Friends! Welcome to our blog! Our boat, Sunny 1 is a 38 foot classic 1979 Taiwanese trawler berthed in San Francisco Bay. She is an Ed Monk design "Eagle" built by Shin-Hsing Yacht Builders. She has a fiberglass hull with a single Ford Lehman 120hp diesel engine. She has an aft trunk cabin with two staterooms and two heads, sole and interior are teak and holly. We purchased her in 2003 and have lived aboard with a dream to some day "go cruising". We have made over 150 improvements and upgrades to her. Our biggest project to date is removing the teak decks which is still in progress. Let the cruising countdown begin . . .