A culinary experiance.

Our friends found this very unique, and very, VERY good restaurant in one of the small side streets of Lefkas, it was called “the Seven Seas”. The tables are set up just on the street as many are here in Greece. However where the seven seas was located…

Exploring Lefkas on bike.

Joanne is going with Elly and Henny for a bicycle ride around Lefkas.  Just finished changing the wiring of the bow thruster so it will be charged by the sun panels.

Going for a little criuse with the Bonsink,s and the de Jonge,s

Out for a little test cruise. Arend is not only an expert marine technician, he also knows how to operate a boat. I guess I should not be surprised at that, as he has build many, and various boats as well as solved many technical problems. He also is t…

ICW Side Trips and a Disappointing Revisit

The Albemarle Sound is famous for being a body of water to be respected. After a great visit to Edenton, NC, we headed out on the Albemarle toward the Alligator River. The weather forecast was for northeast 5 to 10 and that would put the wind and seas …

Starr Refit Blog #5-Commuting to Work

Starr Refit Blog #5 – Commuting to work on StarrOctober 25, 2013
 Ballard is, in my completely biased opinion, the Center of the Maritime Universe.
 I’ve been commuting to work across the 550 ft. wide Ballard Ship Canal. The canal is named the Lak…

BALLARD, THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE #1

Commuting to work on StarrOctober 25, 2013
 Ballard is, in my completely biased opinion, the Center Of The Maritime Universe.
 I’ve been commuting to work across the 550 ft. wide Ballard Ship Canal. The canal isnamed the Lake Washington Ship Canal …

Starr Refit Blog #5-Commuting to Work

Starr Refit Blog #5 – Commuting to work on Starr
October 25, 2013

 
Ballard is, in my completely biased opinion, the Center of the Maritime Universe.

 I’ve been commuting to work across the 550 ft. wide Ballard Ship Canal. The canal is named the Lake Washington Ship Canal on the NOAH charts, but what do they know?
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=1444

 My commute from SBMC to PacFish is a distance of 1,965 feet.


Welcome to our neighborhood of Ballard
Go to Google Earth and type in the addresss SBMC, Seattle

Home for Sharry and I is at SBMC, on the top floor of a small 3 story building which is 15ft from the edge of the Ballard Ship Canal. We watch every boat or ship that comes and goes from Puget Sound into the Seattle’s inner waterways. 

http://www.SBMC.com


 Starr in front of our home at SBMC

 Leaving home

Tied up at PacFish


This is what I walk past on my way to work on Starr.


 Guys welding on American Eagle


  Starlite ready to head back to Dutch Harbor


 A foggy morning


 Starr is in shed right behind St. Zita

 One of our boats at SBMC is a little tug boat which we call “Tuggy Toot:” Steve Seaton re-designed Tuggy for us about 20 years ago and we got special permission to paint him in the “official” colors of Foss Maritime, green and white, whose towing fleet homeports a mile East of us on the ship canal. If I have heavy or dirty gear to transfer across the canal I use Tuggy. I either load up the tug or load a small barge and push it across.

 Tuggy ready for work

Tuggy is a converted Log Bronc, used in the Logging Industry. It has a Z drive located just below where I stand when running it. The steering is hydraulic with a jog stick, and Tuggy can thrust full power anywhere in a 360 degree radius. It is 14 ft long, with a 7ft beam and 6ft draft. Powered by a Detroit Diesel 3-71, it turns a 24in- 4 blade prop , using a modified Kort nozzle, which gives it a bollard pull of around 3000 pounds. “Little” Tuggy weighs 16,000 LBS.

 Tuggy hauling lumber for top deck extention

 Tuggy with barge

 Tuggy’s GM 3-71 in its stand up engine room

 

The alternate boat that I use for my commute is a 26 ft Bertram Launch called Westwater; this is commuting with “Class”.

 Westwater

 Before moving to SBMC, we lived in a waterfront home in Medina, a beautiful waterfront community on the edge of Lake Washington 30 minutes from SBMC; Medina is most famous as the location of Bill and Melinda Gates home.  We wouldn’t trade our home here on the ship canal even if Bill Gates offered us his home in Media!

Life is Good in Ballard!

Don

 

Starr Refit Blog #5-Commuting to Work

Starr Refit Blog #5 – Commuting to work on StarrOctober 25, 2013
 Ballard is, in my completely biased opinion, the Center of the Maritime Universe.
 I’ve been commuting to work across the 550 ft. wide Ballard Ship Canal. The canal is named the Lak…

Clifton Marina

 Our next stop was Clifton Marina a distance of 64 miles.  We awakened to ice on the gunwales, deck and the dock.  Deckhand Ed hosed off the dock to remove the ice.  It warmed to 52 degrees and sunny skies. 

 Beau…

Clifton Marina

 Our next stop was Clifton Marina a distance of 64 miles.  We awakened to ice on the gunwales, deck and the dock.  Deckhand Ed hosed off the dock to remove the ice.  It warmed to 52 degrees and sunny skies. 

 Beau…