When I decided to start this blog, I thought about the different #hashtags I’d use. Even though I work in the biotech industry and knew, conceptually anyway, it was only a matter of time before a pandemic disrupted the planet I honestly didn’t expect it to come shortly after my boat was in the water. I never thought #pandemiclife would be a part of this blog.
Our race this coming weekend has been canceled, which is probably the right call. Despite the fact most of us have 6 or fewer people on our boats, the data simply are against us. If we can reduce potential vectors of transmission, we have that much better chance to spread out the infection rate. Spreading out the infection rate is the point in the US now, since we blew our chance to stop the virus spread. By now, our best chance is to spread out the hundreds of thousands or millions of infections we’re going to see over time in the US so the serious ones don’t overwhelm the hospitals. Given I live in Seattle, pretty much ground zero of the COVID-19 pandemic here in the US, doing even little things to prevent our ICUs from being overwhelmed is a big thing.
OK, enough of #pandemiclife… On to #sailboatlife.
After a “spa week” for the boat at he boat yard (CSR) and the sails at the Doyle Sails Seattle loft (all perfectly normal for a brand new boat), we brought her back through the locks on a stormy Saturday (24+ knot gusts) and spent the day with her at the dock on an also blustery (and cold, damn!) Sunday. The primary order of business?
Installing the Magma!. Second order of business?
Testing the Magma (and the dining table), of course!
During sailing season, we eat so many of these wonderful Bavarian Brautwursts from B&E Meats I should look into signing them up as a sponsor for the boat, lol. The new Magma cooks just like my old one. Cold to done in seconds, even with a 20 knot breeze and it being around 40 degrees F out! Remarkable piece of equipment, actually.
I spent the remainder of the day trying to figure out how to hook up my Garmin Quatix 5 to the on-board electronics. Pretty sure I got it figured out, though I don’t think I have the autopilot feature figued out yet. Now I just need to learn how to use the watch.
We had the heat blasting and the companionway buttoned up. Kris was relaxing with a book and Kelvin was putting up with us being on the boat (poor fella just isn’t a boat dog).
Both Kris and I are very pleasantly surprised at how light and airy the J/99 cabin is. The side windows, the smaller windows, the clear companionway door, and the front hatch let in an absurd amount of light. Combined with the light wood and largely white interior, it’s very nice in there.
This panorama of the inside doesn’t really do it justice, particularly given the side I photographed is a bit of a yard sale…
I didn’t use any touch-up tools on the photo. It’s really that bright inside.
It made for a very relaxing day. One Life proved to be a great oasis for us in the middle of so much uncertainty.
Take care of yourselves, readers and friends. Keep those thermometers handy and use them often on yourself and all your family members. We’re likely to all get COVID-19 at this point. Our only goal now is to spread the infection rates out far enough so when vulnerable populations finally get the virus there are ICU beds available for them.