M/V Katherine Jane

William Garden

2009-12-17T19:22:00.001-08:00

I was honored today to receive a response to a note I sent to Bill Garden, the designer of this boat. I had written a couple months ago, with a few pictures of KJ as she is now. She was designed in 1952; Bill is in his 90's now. He very kindly wrote back to me, remembering the boat as "a good husky boat and well built." He last saw her about 50 years ago in Newport Beach.

The handwritten note will definitely be framed and hanging in the wheelhouse.

Ho Ho Ho

2009-12-16T20:54:00.001-08:00

It was an evening of great local things and people. The Christmas Ships were at the Hiram M. Chittendam Locks. Brock and I have our little "couple traditions" for this show, which always includes a peanut butter & chocolate milkshake from Totem House for him.

One of our local favorites, the 173 foot Feadship Ice Bear was coming back in. She typically resides in Lake Union alongside Daedalus, Boeing's corporate yacht. It looked as though they'd been out for a while, as there was soot above the genny exhaust. As Brock said, they usually wash those boats fairly often and well, so it was a giveaway that she'd been underway for a while.

One of our favorite lock operators was on duty too, so it was good to see him.

A good night really, which we needed. After my dear friend Asa died last week, it's been hard to get much into the holiday spirit. He was a regular reader of the blog (checking up on me, as he called it) and it's very sad to write a post I know he won't read.

The Water Situation Update

2009-12-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

So we re-filled to 27+ inches last Sunday. From what we know about the tanks (through hearsay only), that means 800 gallons. We're at 16 1/2 inches after one week. We've been conservative on water, but not drastically so. I've modified my dish-washing habits. Brock has shortened his showers. Even S2b took a radically brief shower by his standards.

Things are still quite frozen around here. This photo of Snoqualmie Falls was on King 5 today.

Cliff Mass thinks it'll be warming up by Monday evening, so hopefully we will be able to fill up in the next few days. I never bet on the weather though, so we'll continue our conservative measures until we actually get water turned back on.

Looking at the Tank Tender closely for the first time, either our two water tanks are nothing near square or the person who wrote the measurements on the wall was really bad at math.

3/4 full should equal 20.25 inches, not 16 1/2

1/2 should be 13.5, not 11

1/4 should be 6.75, not 5 1/2

Given how far off they were on the fuel tanks, I'm thinking I should just crawl in and take some measurements of the water tanks. Or better yet, I can send my Magic Brock in...On the other hand, we've made it this long without needing to know. Perhaps we'll just continue with our rough figures. Yeah, that sounds reasonable for now.

Thank you, my boating community

2009-12-03T18:42:00.000-08:00

Because Katherine Jane now has the recommended $12 water timer which limits the amount of city water that can possibly come onboard. And because he is always thinking of my comfort, Brock has the water pump on as backup, so if we reach that magic gallon-o-meter number while I'm in the shower, I'll have backup so that I can finish shaving my legs.

There was the moon coming up over the lake tonight. Reminding me just why I love being onboard.

And the ships are all decorated for the holidays. Golden Eagle is a local boat, done up really well. Probably time to start thinking about some decorations for Miss KJ.

***UPDATE*** And wouldn't you know it...less than 24 hours after we get our new toy, they turn off the water to the docks because of freezing temperatures, so now we have no city water! The unfortunate part is that we had originally had 27 inches of water (800 gallons), but with the water pump on, when they turned off the city water, we were back-feeding the system. Which left us with only 19 inches of water. Still enough for quite a while, but we're being aware of our usage during this freeze. Brock is restricted to Navy showers. Mine are already short enough that I'm not on restriction. I'm very efficient. Stewbie? Yeah, you're on restriction, kid.

Google Searches

2009-11-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

I'm always amused at some of the searches which bring new visitors to the blog. Today's gems included "katie jane live hot" - sorry, guys, I'm pretty sure my blog was NOT what you were after. Hope you had better luck on another site.

And then there was "Does Brock have worms?"

Really? Umm...No. Not as far as I know anyway. But thanks for asking. I think I'm most intrigued by the fact that we were the number one link on Google for that search.

Huh.

Happy Turkey Weekend To All

2009-11-27T19:25:00.001-08:00

Had a lovely Thanksgiving evening out at the lake with the whole family, including my mom and grandma. We played spoons, ate pumpkin pie, and Nity & I went kayaking this morning. She likes to just go out to the middle of the lake and float, which coincidentally enough, I also love to do. So we just hung out there and had very Zen mom/daughter time on the water.

It was good to have some Zen onboard, because we then headed down to Westlake Center for the lighting of the Macy's Star. I had forgotten how much I dislike crowds...and pointlessly long extravaganza shows...and well, we had a good time anyway. Our friend Katy was singing with the Seattle Women's Chorus and they were great.

It's a decent start to another holiday season - not my favorite time of year, but one I generally manage to survive.

City Water

2009-11-25T17:48:00.000-08:00

This week's Magic Brock Project gives us a teed connection with city water which creates all sorts of cool things...

We have actual water pressure now. Showers are a whole new world with fantastic pressure.
We're prolonging the life of KJ's water pump, as now it will be used when we're away from the dock and at anchor, but not for every day activities.
When guests are onboard, they won't be rudely awakened by the water pump going off if somebody is up early trying to make coffee or shower. In the forward cabins, that's LOUD. You're welcome, NJ!
As the freezing time of year approaches, we can always have our onboard tanks topped off. Then, when they shut off the water at the dock without notice, we'll be well-prepared to last a few weeks without having to find alternate water sources.

The potential downside? If there were to be a leak onboard, there is an unending supply of pressurized water & theoretically the boat could sink if the bilge pumps also failed & nobody noticed. Not so likely that all of those things would go wrong at once, but for best practice, we will make a habit of shutting off the water at the hose bib on the dock when we leave.

2009-11-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

Well, Grainger is closed on the weekend, so that killed the project I had in mind for the day. We instead continued with further cleaning of the lazarette. Those big old 34" diameter, 33" props that were stored away don't do this boat any good at all anymore. We haven't found anyone we know who might need them (they're awfully specific), so tossed them up on Craigslist (after hauling them up through the deck hatch, which wasn't easy).

I can't imagine that we'll get someone who actually needs them for boating purposes, so we offered them up as yard art as well. If no one bites, we can at least scrap them at $1.30/lb. That seems a shame. Wonder if I could take a small bit and have it fashioned into some trinket (ring, tiny propeller pendant or earrings) as part of KJ history?

Large Locks Maintenance

2009-11-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

The large locks are closed for maintenance for about 2 weeks. They're completely empty of water, so we took the kidlets down to check them out last night. Unfortunately, none of my photos turned out. It was impressive though, so if you're in the Seattle area looking for something to do today, that's not a bad outing. Lots of water being released as well - 5 spillways are open.

There were a couple of small coho in the fish ladder. Nity found the eggs interesting.

And now we're on to Project KJ Saturday - there's always some way we can be improving this thing!

October in the San Juans

2009-11-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

It's been an awfully busy few weeks. We took my father to the San Juan Islands on Katherine Jane. He always wants to ride the ferries when he's here. Like, every single day. Again. And then the next day. It's been that way for 17 years, so Brock and I figured there couldn't be anything better than a private yacht of his own for days and days.

The theory seemed to have merit.

We got Miss Jo-Jo up at 3:00 am for the Orionid meteor showers. Well, actually, Brock got me up first, because it was crystal clear and calm and perfect outside. And then I had to explain to him about the proper way to wake people up in the middle of the night, which was not the way he did it at first (think: gentle). Dad was already up, of course. So I went to include the kids. SB was definitely uninterested in some freakin' star show, but NJ got up, somewhat begrudgingly. I tried all the gentle, encouraging techniques for getting her dressed warmly and up on deck.

We stepped outside and *poof* half the sky was covered in clouds and the visibility continued to deteriorate fast. NJ managed to get in some good sarcastic jibes about people who drag other people out of bed to look at cloudy nights, but even she managed to catch a glimpse of 5+ shooting stars. And we had hot cider. So it wasn't a total loss from her perspective.

We found Dad his own private island and left him on it for several hours when the closeness started to get to him (he lives on 16 acres next to a 4870 acre state park with nobody in it except him and my step-mom ~ his hermit instincts are sharply honed). Blind Island State Park was pretty much perfect for him. Three acres, all to himself.

We joined him eventually, bringing freshly baked scones with strawberry jam.

The dryer requires us to run the generator, so we decided to try an alternative and save some fuel. Heck, we were running the main engines anyway. Might as well use the heat for something good! It worked quite well & the clothes didn't even smell too badly of diesel. We volunteered Dad's clothes for the experiment. Thanks, Dad!

Onward to Jones Island, one of our very favorites. We climbed to the top of the island...

and climbed down to the base through the tide pools. It was a Forced Death March for Nity after she found the most perfect, best beach in the whole world and then we made her leave it. Sorry, Nit!

Sunrise as we left the islands was reportedly beautiful. I was, of course, asleep.

We came home a day early because of incoming stormy weather - no sense bucking 30-40 mph winds all the way up Admiralty Inlet. Within 15 minutes of arriving at the dock, we hit the road again, off to stay at Ocean Shores to watch the storm. It was blowing like crazy.

Finished it off with a drive the next day to Lake Quinault. We circled the lake & encountered a herd of 30 or so elk. And encountered some really big trees. My dad got to sit on a wet log in the woods.

So I think overall it was a very good visit.

Sunday Evening Projects

2009-10-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

The captain had a whim tonight. The aft deck has always been somewhat inadequately lit for hanging out on after dark. I've dealt with it by bringing candles out and having a little string of tiki lights, but it's just been something that's bugged us. Barbecuing is next to impossible without a flashlight. So we went on an excursion to the local hardware store...

And bought some supplies.

One of my favorite things about us is the way we work together on projects. We both have MacGyver brains and are constantly coming up with creative ways of accomplishing things. Brock's "cheap bone" is a huge influence, yet he has learned to listen to me when there is the time and place for a more expensive, quality approach. His initial thought was to throw up a plastic J channel and put some rope lighting in it. At $1.98 for 8 feet, that would certainly have been the economical way to go.

But it's KJ. And she's classy and quality and workmanship in every way. And so we decided to make our own channel for the lighting. And put some ornate trim on it. Once it's painted white, I think it will blend beautifully into the style of the boat.

And the effect at night - wow. It's a very welcoming indirect light, perfect for entertaining. With some paint and tidying, we have a great outdoor room after dark.

Total time from concept to working product? Three hours. Nice job, Magic Brock!

Not-My-Two Update

2009-10-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

Still adorable! They're 20 months now ~ walking, running, talking (in their special twin language mostly).

Little Jamie came and climbed right up in my lap, no shyness at all. Such dolls! It's always amazing to see this little family I had such a huge part in creating. Being a surrogate mom was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

The Story of KJ's Rudder

2009-10-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

She's been a "bit of a dog" around the docks ever since I've had her - her handling more than a little sluggish and slow to respond. We've pieced together some of the reasons why and no, nowhere on the list is the phrase "Bill Garden is an idiot." He designed the boat as she should have been in 1952. One rudder, given the sailing rig. One rudder, big enough to catch the wash from the large 33" x 34" propellers.

Ah, but wait, my astute readers! Remember that refit she had a few years ago? The one where they put new engines onboard? When they changed the prop size to 20" x 22"? But somehow neglected to foresee the part where none of the wash from the faster, smaller props was actually reaching the rudder anymore?

Enter my Magic Brock, and the Uber-Talented Welding Twins, Dean and Joe. Some sheet metal, a good old wire feed welder, little bit o' time and *POOF*!

An extended, articulated, hinged, mechanical fin that now catches the prop wash!

I've seen it built, in action, and throughout the whole process. I *still* don't get quite how it works.

Anthropomorphization

2009-10-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

To a very high degree, as my daughter would point out. She's fond of noting Mama's quirks and peculiarities.

And yet I can't help but think that my darling Katherine Jane prefers her bath water WARM. She seems...happier...when I scrub her down with nice, toasty water to cleanse all of that coarse, gritty salt off of her.

Brock is off at a meeting tonight and I'm caring for our girl in all the ways she needs after being out and about, playing in the salty, cold water of the Sound. It's past dark, but that in no way negates the need to get that grating debris rinsed off right away. And so I was out there, communing with my beloved wooden boat. Just the two of us. And the warm water from the hose.

From a logical perspective, I'm quite certain that I must be correct. Salt dissolves more quickly in warm water than cold, right?

Solubility is function of temperature of solvent.

The solubility of a given solute in a given solvent typically depends on temperature. For many solids dissolved in liquid water, the solubility increases with temperature up to 100 °C.

Consensus seems to be that at a simple level, yes, warm water dissolves salt mo' bettah than cold water (and it gets non-simple in a hurry:

But the basic thing that I noticed?

KJ really likes her warm baths. And I like it when she's happy.

The Cherry On Top

2009-10-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

Of an incredible weekend:

It's tough to take good wildlife photos with a point and shoot, but here's my best attempt for the day.

We got into the middle of a pod of orcas this evening. It was absolutely incredible. We were crossing the traffic lanes when we saw them breaching to the south. I saw one come completely out of the water - that was a first for me. Earlier, the radio was chattering about them being just north of Blake Island, so we knew they were in the area.

We got outside of the shipping lanes and waited for them to pass us. They were spread out all across the water and there was no way to avoid their path, so we cut the engines and floated as they came closer. At one point, a group of 8 came within 20 feet of the stern of the boat, in a row. I'll have to find out more about behavior - they were shoulder-to-shoulder (or whatever one would call that ) and swimming in perfect unison. Hunting, perhaps? No words to describe it ~ we are so lucky to live here in the Northwest. My dad is visiting from Ohio in a few weeks & we will take him to the San Juans. Hopefully, we will find the pods there as well.

We Have It Good

2009-10-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

The cam lock system worked! Not that we're surprised. Now we have enough fuel onboard for heat for the winter and some playtime too.

The only hitch in the giddy-up came later when we were transferring the fuel from port to starboard tank to level out the boat. I went down to do an engine room check and discovered fuel pouring off of the starboard tank. Guess we didn't factor in the fact that even when just using the transfer pump, the starboard tank still only has that stupid little 3/8" vent. The system got pressurized and it started to leak out of the tee on top.

Easily fixed (plug the 3/8 tube and open the fuel fill on that side - voila, new vent) and we didn't lose very much at all. Just a bit of clean-up with the absorbent pads and we were good.

That's the main reason to have an immaculate engine room. Anything amiss shows up instantly when there's not gunge and muck to hide it. The pink fuel pouring over the white tank was immediately obvious.

We had Brock's work-partner and his family onboard one night. Lotsa fun, good food at night, fishing in the morning. Megan did catch one silver that was too small to keep (which was what she wanted, being a non-violent earth mother type). She caught, she threw it back, all was well.

Then we dropped them off and headed out to one of our favorite little anchorages for the night.

Port Madison is the closest cute little hideaway we have. It feels miles and miles away from anywhere. When we've only got one night outside the locks, that's usually our choice.

And the rest of Sunday? Fishing, football, and reading on the aft deck. Doesn't suck!

On The Water For The Weekend

2009-10-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

Pretty iffy Internets where we are going, so pics must wait until we return...but we are out enjoying a blissful, calm, sunny afternoon on the sound.

Hope you're having a good one too!

Tonight's Magic Brock Adventure...

2009-10-07T19:53:00.001-07:00

...begins with a hole in the fuel tank...

...and a wicked cute smile from the captain...

...and then the drilling commences. I hid upstairs from the ungodly noises.

We had to move all the fuel from one tank into the other and now Katherine Jane is heeled over pretty hard to starboard. It's very "Poseidon Adventure" climbing up the stairs and hanging from the walls.

A few weeks ago, we turned KJ around in her slip and I thought that was really weird and disorienting. Wasn't nuthin' compared to being on her side. I think the hardest part for my brain is the "not moving" part. On some level, I keep expecting her to lean back over on the other side of the wave. The angle is not the freaky part - it's the lack of movement WITH the angle.

So it goes a lot like this: I'm fine. I'm dizzy. I'm fine. I can't stand up. I'm fine. Hold onto something. I'm fine. Are we done yet?

We're adding a fuel fill and a fuel vent to the port tank so that we can fuel at a much faster rate without the Geyser of Diesel effect that we have now. Anybody remember a few years ago when I got a faceful of diesel the very first time we put fuel in KJ? I kept thinking it must have been my fault, something I did wrong, heck, I don't even know anything about boats after all. Turns out it wasn't my fault at all.

The vent for the 1500 gallon fuel tanks is one 3/8" copper pipe. High volume of liquid in...air goes where?

It only took fuel spraying up at Brock's shirt once before it was decided that we would be fixing that problem, once and for all.

Enter tonight's festivities.

There were many pieces to choose from.

And a disappearing Brock.

Well, almost. I could still see his knees as he stood in a garbage bag inside the tank. Which did fail slightly and left him a little diesel-y. We'll just be throwing the pants out, thank you very much.

What is it with boys and their quirks? At 8:10, as he broke the second drill bit, I asked him if he wanted me to run to the local hardware store to pick up a few more just in case. After all, the tank is made of 5/16 steel. And the Home Depot does close at 9:00. No, no, don't think I'll need it, he says.

At 8:40, he breaks the last drill bit with two holes left to drill. Suddenly, the ball is in my court. I dash out the door, zoom down to the store, arrive with 7 minutes to spare.

I took pictures of him by just shoving the camera through the hole and aiming in the direction it seemed he was likely facing. You can see the new fill spout on the interior of the tank on the left side.

Finally, at the end:

Finished cam-locks! (Well, they'll need paint and clean-up, but they are operational!) So now we'll be able to take on fuel much more quickly and safely, with less risk of those pesky EPA reports and fines. And we'll also be able to get fuel at more commercial places with higher gpm requirements, which translates to saving money over the course of a 3,000 gallon fill.

Back to level now, please.

And Another Thing I'm Not Really Good At

2009-10-05T18:33:00.001-07:00

I picked 'em by name. I picked 'em by looks. I picked them completely randomly without looking at them. I picked 'em by stats.

I was consistent in my inability to pick a winner. Someone should be able to turn that into profit simply by betting against me.

On the plus side, the bugle guy (no, I don't know if it's a bugle...I have no idea) played "Fly Me To The Moon" just for Miss NJ. And Brock *almost* got an Exacta.

It was fun. Not sure I need to go back again, but it was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Brunch on the Royal

2009-10-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

Lovely morning - second deck to ourselves, many Mimosas, gorgeous (if windy) weather.

The young ones swore they weren't going to have any fun. I think they lied.

It's good to be engaged to a man who wakes up with brilliant ideas every day. I can't wait for the day when I get to call him my husband!

From the WBF

2009-09-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Just to give you a non-numeric idea of how many people came onboard Katherine Jane at the Wooden Boat Festival, I offer this photo. Brock and I decided long ago that we were NOT going to begin polishing the rails. They are bronze and would luster up to a beautiful, warm, golden color. However, the upkeep would simply not be worth it ~ neither one of us has the inclination to polish for three hours a week. And so we have been accustomed to the natural verdigris.

During the festival, people boarded on the starboard side and used the handrails as they stepped from Elmore to KJ. It wasn't until after the festival that we noticed that they had managed to polish the bronze to golden beauty, simply by the sheer number of hands to touch it. Wow.

If you prefer a numerical estimate, I would guesstimate that we had easily over a thousand people on the boat that weekend. There were 15,000 through the gates and if even 10% boarded the boats, that puts us at 1500. There were hours every day when we had no less than 20-30 onboard the whole time. I made arrows and signs for a Self-Guided Tour, which cut down slightly on the number of times we had to answer the same questions. I couldn't have done it without my awesome crew, who would take over when I started to get overwhelmed by the vast numbers of people filing through my home.

This, Rob, is for you. You and I both arrived at the idea that the rod holders would make ideal vases...and they did. Liz came through with some very pretty fall bouquets and I now think I need flowers onboard a lot more often! Gives her that extra touch of class...

We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

2009-09-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

Nope, I don't really know what happened. But I went in and tweaked some settings and *poof* there we are again.

Did you miss me??

And Other Reasons I Can't Live Without Him

2009-09-19T21:37:00.001-07:00

Found a bad plank in the bow; it was basically disintegrating, as they all do after enough time. Luckily it hadn't got to any of the other planks around it. That is, of course, because Brock constantly has eyes open for every piece of wood on this entire boat.

Before I knew it...Bad wood out, new 2 1/2" fir back in place. He pounded in cotton, followed by filling the seam with 5200. Now we'll let it weather for a few days. That may allow it to blend in a bit (although nothing like 57 years of use!) and then we'll seal it back up.

Just another day in the life of owning a wooden beauty.

Obsessive behavior

2009-09-19T21:21:00.001-07:00

New toys can completely occupy an afternoon.

These are My Brock's eyes.

This is the Space Needle from the boat...WITHOUT A TRIPOD! Not perfect, but a good bit better than I could have achieved with the old camera.

Brock wanted to play with ghost pictures. Although the Lumix really is just a point-and-shoot (no ability to adjust aperture, exposure, etc.), it has some fun modes that will allow me to accomplish most of what I want to do. Yay!

Random thoughts and pics

2009-09-19T16:56:00.001-07:00

This is the first submarine I've ever seen in the Puget Sound area. Navy Unit 42, I believe it was, listening to VHF 16.

Took this one as we ran around downtown today. We first stopped at the Fisheries Supply swap meet and found 50' of Katherine Jane sized dock line for $15. SCORE!

Then we made a stop at Captain's Nautical Supplies - OMG, heaven on earth! They have everything I've ever wanted, I think. Books and charts and globes and charts and telescopes and sextants and charts and did I mention the charts-on-demand that they can custom print? Wow. Drool city. We did pick up a splicing manual.

Then we went and replaced my camera. Finally! The old one went TU quite some time ago and I've been meaning to get around to it. I've been borrowing a co-workers for the interim, but really needed to return it to her. So we went and picked up a Panasonic Lumix ZS1. Considered lower-end models, but comparing them all side by side (and taking the same pic so we really had apples to apples), there was no doubt that this one was worth it. I've had Perma-Grin on my face all day since then (would you like to see my macro pictures of Brock's shoelaces? I didn't think so...). He's splicing lines (cussing just a little - left-hand strand over the first strand, under then center strand and over the right-hand strand...but where's the first strand? Isn't that the left-hand strand in a three strand line? He'll get it, I'm sure) and I'm reading camera manuals.

That, and the Huskies beat USC! Does it get any better than this for a quiet Saturday afternoon?