boating blog Archives

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021

Avoid getting a BIG fine for flying your drone!

A year ago, Scott bought us a DJI Mavic Air drone so we could capture some great footage while boating. One of our favorite YouTube vloggers, Kara and Nate, always include awesome drone footage in each of their videos. In fact, it’s one of the reason’s we follow their channel. Unfortunately, this past year, someone turned them into the FAA and they got into big time trouble. Not only did they not have their Part 107 drone certification, but they filmed in National Parks which is not allowed without the proper permits.

That was a wake up call for us (though we don’t have 2m followers!) Scott discovered that if you want to use any of your drone footage for commercial use (business, real estate OR YouTube videos that are monetized, etc) you need to get the FAA Part 107 drone certification. Plus, you also need to register your drone with the FAA.

Prepping for the test

Scott signed up with Pilot Institute about a month ago for study guides and sample exams. The cost is normally $249 which includes lifetime access to resources, but he was able to get a deal for $149. There is a lot of information and the sample exams really helped him prepare for the actual exam. In fact, he recommends that you NOT take the exam without prepping first.

Some of the interesting things we learned from the institute were:

Before flying, check the city, state and federal rules and regulations. Just because the Federal authority might say it’s okay to fly your drone, the city might not.
Don’t fly over people. For example, you can fly over a football stadium, but only if it’s empty.
You can’t fly at night.

In addition, this training / exam is also used for people who are getting their pilot’s license. So Scott learned a lot about aviation in general. One thing that he learned was what the numbers on a runway represent. Airport runways are numbered according to compass bearings. This means runway numbers are based on the compass with 360 representing north, 90 representing east, 180 representing south, and 270 representing west. Who knew?

Test time

Scott scheduled his drone certification exam with PSI examination services in Bellevue. He selected this company because, while all testing sites charge a fee for taking the exam, many also charge another fee on the day of the exam – PSI did not. The exam was $96 and it had 60 questions. PSI said the testing time would be 2.5 hours, but after taking the sample tests, Scott guessed it would only take him about 20 minutes.

His appointment was for 1:30p and they ask that you arrive 15 minutes early. Since this is FAA regulated they are very strict with their rules. No phones are allowed and you need proper identification with a current address. Unfortunately, after I dropped him off he immediately called me from the office phone, stating his driver’s license had our old address and he needed the car registration to show his new address. After running a quick errand, I returned to pick him up, but it didn’t take him 20 minutes to take the exam. It was more like an hour.

You need to answer 42 out of 60 questions correctly to pass (70%). Did he pass? Drum roll please……Yep, he got 90%!! Woot! Way to go pilot Scott!

Time to officially fly the drone

Since studying, we learned we can’t go to the cool places we’d like to (Myrtle Edwards Park, Alki, Golden Gardens…..) so now where do we go? Well, we picked the dock at Ray’s Boathouse. Sadly, it’s closed right now due to covid and it offered us a dock all to ourselves. Ray’s has a special place in our lives, as we used to walk to it for happy hour when we first starting dating (I lived in Ballard). We can’t wait for them to re-open after the pandemic is over.

The sun was about the set and the sound was perfectly calm. It was the perfect day to fly the drone. Be sure to watch our next YouTube episode to see the footage.

We also figured out how to have the drone follow us – so that will be fun to include in future episodes.

Links and information

Scott certainly did his research and below are the links to various sites that helped him prepare for his Part 107 drone certification:

ONLINE TRAINING

PRACTICE TEST SITES

MORE HELPFUL INFO

As always, thank you for following our blog and our YouTube channel. Now that Spring is around the corner, we are actively searching for another boat and hope to find one by March or April – so stay tuned! Be sure to follow us on social media @BoatingJourney too.

Cheers, Scott and Ally

July 24, 2020July 24, 2020

Living on a Nordic Tug 32′ in Ballard!

A few weeks ago, our friend Jeff Gassen of M/V Why Knot gave us a tour of his Nordic Tug 32′ that he lives on. Yes, you heard that right – a 32′ tug! We met Jeff virtually through Instagram and you can find his profile page here. It’s been fun sharing ideas and suggestions over the past year. In fact, Jeff offered a lot of help in getting our dinghy up and running!

Scott and I reached out to Jeff to ask him questions about how he likes living aboard, especially on a small vessel. When we downsize from a home, our mindset tells us to mimic our home (three bedroom, two bath, living room, etc). But that’s not what the point is. I do think it makes a difference if you are a single resident versus a couple!

Jeff moors his boat in Ballard along the canal. This is a private dock in an industrial area, not a marina. The disadvantages of that is he doesn’t have a dock box, private hose, laundry or bathroom facilities. The plus side is, he gets to live on his boat!!

About is ’86 Nordic Tug

Jeff has lived on his boat for about three years after he moved from a small apartment on Alki Beach in Seattle. He had been looking for a boat to live on and when this one came up, he jumped at the chance. Originally built in Woodinville, WA, Jeff is the second owner of this tug. You can check out the history of Nordic Tugs here. This boat launched in October 1986 and this was hull #6, making this vessel a classic.

It’s a perfect layout for Jeff and provides him everything he needs. The forward berth is comfortable and he has a full head with a separate shower. I asked him if he has ever run out of water (my biggest fear) and he said “Yes, one winter day when I was in the shower.”

He has a local service pump him out or he will take the boat to the Sky Launch pump-out. That gives him an opportunity to boat on Lake Union and practice his one man handling of the boat. Speaking of which, he says, it’s actually pretty easy to maneuver using the dual pilot house doors.

The boat has one engine, a 175hp Yanmar diesel with 6 cylinders. Jeff happens to be an auto mechanic, so he’s able to do a lot of the engine maintenance himself!

The Grand Tour!

I took a few photos of Jeff’s Nordic Tug, but for the full tour be sure to watch our YouTube episode below. There was too much to try and include here in the blog (and the blog doesn’t do it justice). Jeff spends much of his time in his salon/galley where he loves to cook. He has a super cool spice rack that adds to the character of the space. Of course I forgot to take a photo – so tune in!

Inside his salon, he has a wood burning stove that pumps out serious heat. Though his salon may seem small to some, Jeff explained that he works out in the salon, he entertains and does game nights and relaxes while listening to music. Notice I didn’t say anything about internet or television? That’s because he does NOT have a computer or a television. Good for him. To be disconnected these days, is impressive.

Where are the photos of the rest of the boat?

I got so caught up with the tour while Scott was filming that I forgot to take still photos for the blog! Me forget to take photos? Shocking, I know. To get a tour, you will need to watch the video. The other thing is during our tour it got really windy, with winds coming from the south at about 21 knots. We could really feel it. It gave us some perspective of how it would be living on the canal during the winter.

Living on a boat

For Scott and I, we were curious if Jeff had any regrets or did he miss anything by living on his boat? He did say he misses a big comfy couch. I would agree! Our next boat, will definitely have some sort of couch/lounge area that we can comfortably relax on.

While his fridge was on the smaller side, along with his pantry items, he simply goes to the store a bit more often. Being moored where he is, Jeff is walking distance to two major grocery stores. Super easy! I did ask about doing laundry – his laundromat is next door to a brewery, so he drops in his wash and grabs a beer while he waits. Perfect!

There are about six or so live-aboard boats where he is moored. He loves that they all watch out for each other and share different things should they need it. They barbecue on the dock, watch the boat traffic pass by and enjoy the sunset with cold beer. You can’t beat that view.

Scott and I were super grateful to Jeff to spend time with us on his Nordic Tug 32 and answer all of our questions. Living aboard can seem fun, adventurous and rewarding, but it has to make sense for you. Our plan is still to search for our live-aboard boat. It probably won’t be this compact, but if it was, we might have a better chance of finding a slip! LOL

As always, thank you for following our journey! We have some great stories coming up, including a tour of two Navigator 5300 yachts. Now if only we could find a slip for a boat that size. Stay tuned.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter @BoatingJourney and use the hashtag #boatingjourney. Thank you for subscribing to our blog and our YouTube Channel. We’ll see you on water soon! Cheers, Scott and 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.

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