Friday Funny 07/21 (Dock Life)

Elsie and Gus

We could actually catch fish off of our dock, someone's child was doing it the other day, but would you want to eat it? Absolutely no.

Elsie and Gus checking out our dock finger.

We have been in the marina so long now, it feels like we might never get away. The good news is that all of the electronics that Bill has put into place, rewired, and turned on, have all worked flawlessly so far. 

We will leave! We have committed to a rondezvous with some friends at Glacier Bay, north of here.

I still enjoy watching the boats coming, and going, and of course it's a daily event. The commercial fishing season is in full swing, and the processing plant next to the marina is always busy. The boats come in with their catch, unload at the plant, sometimes come back to their slip for provisioning, maybe an overnight, and then right back out to work. A local tender, (larger ship that takes the days catch, into the processor, after off-loading it from smaller vessels, so the fishing boat doesn't have to stop fishing), said that they had 78,000 pounds of fish for the processor that day. That's a lot of fish.

It's really fun to watch the transient dock, you never know what might pull in. The other day we had a 110 foot power boat, and you could hear the bow thrusters maneuvering it around the corner, and up to the dock. Last night the largest (personal), sailboat I have ever seen came in. 

It was getting dark, and the cloud cover makes it kind of hard to see in the above photo.

160 foot sailboat, "Georgia"

Here'w one I took this morning on my way to the community center, to participate in water aerobics.

More photos of Heritage Harbor, Wrangell, Alaska.

A power catamaran headed out of the marina, off to have some fun!

We see eagles every day. They live in the forests around us.

Unlike winter, when every slip is full, there are quite a few empty ones now.

Can you tell, I'm grasping to get a Friday Funny out? If you've been following along with Denali Rose Sailboat on Facebook, you've seen some of my sewing projects posted. I'm in full-steam ahead, and every day is, "what can I complete now" mode. I just didn't take time out to write a post.

FYI, Oprah is in Southeast Alaska right now. We won't be seeing her in Wrangell though.

What projects are you doing? Would you want to meet Oprah?

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Sail Covers, and Dodger Windows

I bet you thought I was just putting my feet up, reading books, drinking wine, and living the lazy life. Uh, wrong!

In between rain showers, I'm laying my projects out on the dock for measurements, and dragging them back inside to sew. Guess what? I'm done with four of them.

Main sail cover up and completed.

I got personalized labels made to put on all of my sewing projects for Denali Rose.

You may recall a previous post about how I cracked the front vinyl window.

Original look to the dodger. (Sprayhood, over the companionway, entrance to the boat.)

When we bought Denali Rose three years ago, we had a "professional" add a leather strip to the top leading edge of the dodger to repair some chafe, and to protect against any more. They took the dodger apart, and when they sewed it back up with the leather strip, they tweaked it somehow, and we couldn't get any of the zippers to meet after we put it back on the frame. (major irritation) I was afraid to take it back off for fear I wouldn't get it back on, so I took the zippers off, added material to one side, and resewed all of the zippers back on, BY HAND, and in place on the frame.

We have put up with the cloudy vinyl, and weird looking zippers, until I cracked it last winter, and then it was time to see if I could make it better. We decided on one continuous stretch of window, instead of having zippers so that the middle piece could open. We're in Alaska, and we don't really need the ventilation, (for now). I had to create a new frame for the new vinyl, and hope that when we put it back on, it would fit. My swear jar is full. 

Sewing with Bill's help.

We reused the original roof, and sides of the dodger, and sewed in a new windshield. It was super unwieldy, because you don't want to fold, bend, or make marks on the new vinyl. It is fragile while you are working with it, and preventing permanent damage is important. Bill helped maneuver the piece around while I pushed and pulled it through the machine.

Installed the new lower windshield, and removed the top one.

I'm not tall enough to look out the top piece of the windshield, so I wasn't going to redo it, but Bill is, so he said he would like that done too. I had just enough of the sheet of vinyl left over that it was a perfect fit for the redo. Since I had gotten the main piece to fit, I thought that the smaller window would be easier. Guess what, I was right! (mostly, still the swear jar got used)

It's easier to fit in my sewing area.

Notice the cat curled up in the upper left, Elsie pays no attention to commotion. And the pile of tools on the right, Bill is continuing the electronics re-do. I figure I'll keep sewing till he's done, and then I'm done. 

Woot woot, windows in, and we can see out!

What do you see in the background?

Yup, you guessed it, the mizzen sail cover is complete and up in it's place also.

Done!

So, yeah, I've been lazing around..........  in my dreams. Hmmm, what's next, I may tackle a couple of window coverings, an inside project.

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.