June 2020

June 20, 2020June 20, 2020

Time for a Change – Big Announcement

For those of you who have followed our journey since 2013, you know our goal has always been to find a liveaboard boat. We sold our business, our home and our first boat in order to downsize and prepare ourselves.

In the Fall of 2018, we began searching marinas for liveaboard space, only to find out the wait lists are long and a few years down the road. As much as we love Elliott Bay Marina, they don’t allow liveaboards. So we put our names on the lists and now we just wait. We hadn’t planned on buying another boat anytime soon – in fact, we were waiting until we found the liveaboard. But Scott and I had never spent much time on a larger boat and wondered if we would like it?

Along came “Our Happy Day” – Bayliner 4087 Aft Cabin Motoryacht

In December 2018, Scott found a listing for a 2002 Bayliner 4087 Aft Cabin MY and asked the broker to give us a tour one Saturday. We look at boats all time and we didn’t expect to like it, but we were curious what it looked like. Low and behold, we actually thought it was great! Uh ho. Yep, you know what that means? Next thing I know Scott transferred money and put a deposit on it.

Seattle was in the middle of snow storm and we scheduled the sea trial in the middle of February! What were we thinking? By mid March, we were the proud owners of Our Happy Day. (I know, you’re wondering where am I going with this, right?)

Time to Learn & Explore

Scott and I wanted to spend as much of our free time on the boat, as possible. This included blustery, rainy & windy nights, to get a feeling of what it’s like to live on a boat. We visited new and familiar ports, we anchored for the first time and we worked on a lot of boat projects.

Looking back at everything we did last year, I’m amazed! In the last three years, we’ve learned more about boating than we ever expected. Who knew we would haul out two boats within two years? While it’s an expensive project, you certainly learn a lot in the process.

Now We Need a Plan

The past three months have certainly brought us focus. Back in March we had no idea what would happen in the world and still today in June, things are uncertain. All of us want things to be back the way they used to be – socializing, traveling with groups and visiting new places. But how long until that happens? No one knows.

With the shelter order in place until May 4, 2020, Scott and I did a lot of soul searching. Here we own a boat that we won’t live on and now we can’t venture out anywhere. After a few months of discussion, we made a bitter sweet decision to sell the boat.

Sell the Boat?!

Why would we sell the boat? At the first of the year, we set boating resolutions, that included visiting new ports and going up to Canada. Plus we were going to do some remodeling in the galley. Then came COVID-19. Who invited IT to the party?

Our decision to sell is based on many factors. One, we are bummed that there are still restrictions on where we can go and visit. Yes, things are finally opening up, but back in May when we made our decision, we didn’t know for sure when the restrictions would be lifted. Once you get to your destination, things are still limited. Of course we can anchor, but we like to visit new towns and stay at a dock. Our generator is not hard wired and we’re more comfortable in a marina.

Secondly, why are we spending money on a large boat and a 48′ slip, that we don’t plan to live on? The reality is, Scott and I should be saving our money for the 50’+ boat we’re looking for. Our quarantine was a wake up call. We certainly love the boating life and we miss it already (even though we haven’t closed yet).

Thirdly, we wanted to sell the boat at the beginning of the season, so someone else can enjoy her during the summer.

Now What?

Well, as you know this blog is called Boating Journey, as is our YouTube channel. It will always be about our love for boating. So as we look for our liveaboard boat, we’ll continue to bring you boating stories. We have lots of content coming up including the cost of ownership, buying & selling process, liveaboard boat tours, interviews with other liveaboards and boating adventures.

Knowing us, we’ll find another boat right away and we could be on it before this blog publishes. Who knows? Be sure to continue to follow us here and on our YouTube channel. We promise to try and not disappoint you. If there’s anything you would like us to share, please comment below.

As we say every week, thank you so much for following our journey. There’s just a few of us, who have sold everything to live on a boat, and this has certainly been a journey. No matter what happens, Scott and I will be sure to have fun and share with you our adventures.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram @BoatingJourney, so you can see our stories and get current updates on our progress. Also, check out our YouTube channel at @BoatingJourney and subscribe for future episodes.

Cheers, Scott & Ally

June 12, 2020June 12, 2020

Boating these days

These are certainly different times right now and boating these days, isn’t quite the same as it used to be. It was a year ago this week, that we took our first big trip to Dock Street Marina in Tacoma. The weather was horrible and we had three foot seas. At 9 knots, it took us just over three hours. Definitely not my favorite in the books.

Once we got there, we had a blast and that’s what boating is all about. Spending time with fellow boaters on the water and docks. Even though things are starting to open up, we still aren’t there yet and we miss those times.

Adjusting to the new norm

When boating opened up in Washington State on May 4, 2020, many of the marinas were still closed as were the towns they are in. Some boaters chose to head out and anchor, but we like the amenities of a marina (especially since our generator is only a portable one). As a result, we’ve been hanging out at home working on boat projects.

Last weekend, we finally gave in and invited our good friends Ben & Maria down for the night for cocktails and a dinghy ride. We hadn’t seen them since we took off to Port Orchard and we needed to talk about rescheduling our trip to the BVIs.

They have been following our struggles with getting the dinghy started, so it was a celebration of its’ own. Ironically, I have never taken the dinghy out by myself. After Ben and Scott got back from their tour, Maria and I climbed in for the big adventure. We had a ball cruising the marina, saying hi to fellow boaters and enjoying the sunshine.

What’s next on YouTube?

Before they arrived, we filmed a YouTube episode about our electronics on board (see video below). A few followers asked us how our boat was outfitted and we decided to share in a tour. We have the basic necessities for cruising around Puget Sound and they work great for us. Be sure to watch the video at the end for the full episode.

Our weekend was short with Ben and Maria, but fun. It doesn’t matter if you are at a marina, at anchor or out cruising – if you are on the water with friends, life is more fun. Summer is just two weeks away and normally we’d have big plans for cruising. This pandemic has changed that for all of us, as we are living day to day. Instead of making huge cruising plans in two months (we did that back when….remember how that turned out?), we’re looking short-term at what we can do as the weekends arrive. We love the summer evenings at the marina and we can’t wait for more warm weather.

In the meantime, we’re enjoying being on the boat with friends and family. As I said in our “whale on our stern” video; if you open yourself up to the world, you never know what might be waiting for you. Stay tuned and see what happens for us this summer.

As always, thank you for following us! Be sure to follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram @BoatingJourney, so you can see our stories and get current updates on our progress. Also, check out our YouTube channel at @BoatingJourney and subscribe for future episodes. Cheers, Scott & Ally

June 2, 2020June 3, 2020

Ally learns how to fly our drone

Scott bought me a new drone for Christmas last year and believe it or not, I’ve never flown it. Time to learn! To be honest, I wasn’t nearly as nervous about flying the drone as I was learning to dock our boat.

We picked a small park at our marina to practice the basic maneuvers, then I flew it slightly over the water and marina. Though it can fly out of range a mile, I would never do that. One hundred yards is far enough for me. LOL!

What kind of drone to we have?

This isn’t our first drone, in fact eight years ago I bought Scott a drone which I thought was high quality and expensive at $500! But drones and cameras have come a long ways in the past eight years. Knowing we needed to have better quality videos, Scott decided it was time to invest in a good drone (plus our DJI Action and Pocket cameras). He spent hours researching and talking to other YouTubers and he decided on the DJI Mavic Air Fly More Combo. It came with tons of accessories and I’m still learning what they all are. (This page does include affiliate links).

The hardest part of learning to fly the drone, was that the screen is hard to see in the sunlight. If anyone knows of screen guards, etc that we should be using, please let us know. The controls were pretty easy – forward, backward, side to side, up and down, turn left, turn right. There’s a small dial on the front and that controls the angle of the camera. Our camera has a setting that won’t allow it to crash into anything.

When we took the drone out to film me docking, Scott couldn’t land the drone back into the boat, because we had the wrong setting on and it refused to land on a moving object. As a result, he had to land it on the dock and go fetch it. Over all, I think I did great – be sure to watch our YouTube channel / video (link below) and see how I did.

Family visit on Camano Island & a sad goodbye

The next weekend, we headed up to Camano Island to my family’s place at Tyee Beach since we hadn’t seen them in person since Thanksgiving! We stayed outside on the beach and practiced our 6′ apart distancing.

It was a somber day, as we finally decided to finally spread some of Mac’s ashes in Port Susan, where he loved to swim. Scott could throw the stick for hours and he would be in heaven. The funny thing is, he wasn’t a very good swimmer.

Since my family didn’t have the boat out on the water yet, we decided to spread his ashes at the shore line. It’s been three years since we said goodbye and it was still gut wrenching. Everyone raised their Corona beer (how ironic) as we toasted to our fur baby and shed a few tears.

Birds eye view of the beach – LITERALLY!

They have a family of bald eagles that live up in the trees behind the house. They are always looking for fish or crabs on the beach. Imagine our surprise when we were all hanging out talking about Mac, when an Eagle swooped down and grabbed (something?!). It was pretty cool and for the full footage, be sure to check out our YouTube video at the end.

I then flew the drone over the beach to practice my skills and check things out. It’s really beautiful up at Camano and especially on a calm sunny day! I only took video, so the images below are snippets from the footage. I’m still learning how to go back and forth from photo to video on the camera while flying.

Hoping for good times ahead this summer

These past few months have been so surreal and we’re all still trying to figure things out. We’re in the process of re-booking our bare-boat charter to the BVI’s this week and we’re also looking at other boating adventures. That’s why this blog and channel have always been about. To share our love for being on the water with all of you. As marinas slowly open up, along with popular destinations, we’ll see where the water takes us. Until then, stay tuned.