We almost burned down the boat this week

Does a boat burn down…or up…?

Either way, Scooter is fine, don’t worry. Also, if you’re only invested in these emails for pictures you’re in for a bummer week (but also don’t feel bad, the text is usually just to space out our photo-journal).

Let’s rewind. We have an alcohol stove that burns denatured alcohol. It’s awesome. Simple, cheap and it burns hot. Denatured alcohol is a cleaner used in painting applications like mineral spirits, but when it’s used, it just evaporates. So it’s a pretty bad pollutant when used as a cleaner. 

Anyway, California banned its sale unless the business applies for a special recreational use permit and not very many stores have done that. People, however, still want it so the stores that can get it are always sold out/back-ordered. When each of our parents visited they schlepped 3 gallons from Montana/Colorado to supply us. 

Now that we’re stuck in California we burned through our stores. So we called around to a few dozen businesses and finally found one who could sell the stuff. But it was 75 miles North. 

In the meantime, Heet (like the fuel treatment from Oreilly’s) works as a substitute. So we filled the stove and continued as normal. Apparently, however, Heet burns a little yellower than denatured alcohol. 

Taylor and I drove up, and made a day of it. Beach walks, skateboarding, wandering around malls WAY out of our price range, and discovering the PCH is not a continuous road. 

Anyway, we got 6 gallons special ordered for us and got them back to the boat. Hopefully that’ll last us till we get to Mexico. 

This week we received some sad news. Tay’s great uncle, and avid SailScooter reader Larry, passed away this week due to Covid. Prayers are welcome for Larry’s family, and we’re hoping the ‘vid is a thing of history soon. I wanted to cheer Tay up so I decided to attempt a little comfort food for dinner. I made homemade french fries and chicken tenders. They turned out great despite the limited resources of deep frying things on a boat. 

This week we went fishing with Dave. We hopped in the dinghy before dawn and got to it. Tay caught one good one, I got skunked, and Dave proved that luck isn’t relevant cause he caught 8 or 10. We kept one, and were eager to eat our catch. 

So I’m getting ready for a deep-fried fish and chips dinner. The stove was burning a little yellow last we used it, which normally is a sign of low alcohol, so I assumed it was nearly empty. I filled both burners the normal amount to go from nearly empty to full, and might have gone a little heavy hoping to have extra heat and ample cook time for the hot oil. Plus we had tons of stove alcohol so why not. 

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We’ve got fresh fish, a system of frying things, ample stove alcohol, and a great night planned.

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Turns out, the stove was full when I started pouring. So we had a few cups of highly flammable ethanol/methanol mix sloshing around the stove interior. 

When I lit it, it seemed normal because only the vapor burns and a little splashed alcohol normally burns off after a re-fill. 

But the flames didn’t go down, or retreat to the burner hole. Instead, they grew and grew and grew. 

Another fun detail is the fuel, when burned correctly is odorless and doesn’t leave any spot. When burned incorrectly, like just a puddle on fire, it turns into a pretty toxic gas. 

So here we are. Eyes burning and watering, 3 foot flames lapping the walls and ceiling of the galley, Taylor and Eunice evacuating and me dumbfounded (and coughing) wondering what was happening. The overfilled, heat burning yellow thing didn’t occur to me immediately. 

Tay. The rockstar. Hands me the fire extinguisher and a scuba mask as she bolts out of the boat with the cat to breathe.

I slap the mask on. Hold my breath and make a few feeble attempts to quell the fire. 

The fire extinguisher worked instantly. It also blanketed the boat in yellow dust. 

It was a good opportunity to deep clean that corner of the boat. There was still a lot of alcohol sloshing around the stove and to my chagrin, there was still at least a cup under the stove in the storage locker. Thankfully, fluids fall down and flames go up. Otherwise, this could be a pretty bad conversation with our insurance company. 

Dinner was delightful but served after an extensive boat cleaning, and wasn’t plated until 10 pm.

The next night we got to cook for Chuck and Kitsy in their kitchen with a big gas range, and room to walk around. The simple pleasures of living on land won’t be taken for granted when we get there. 

Sun, a guest, and another fun week.

This week starts on a low note. In the 3 weeks since we submitted our coast guard documents, the coast guard has processed 5 days worth of papers. They update what day is being processed and they’ve inched up to October 27th. So I’m interpreting that as it’s unlikely we’ll get the priority request, and we’re about 2 months out from the right papers to apply for our clearance into Mexico. So here’s hoping this says December 17th soon.

While here we’ve been able to reconnect with friends, cook for a bunch of people, find an in-person church (meeting outdoors) and get back some sense of community. So maybe there’s a bigger reason to be stuck in San Diego. Until we figure out what that is, we’ll continue to improve the boat to sell someday and entertain more visitors. Right now, it’s looking like we’ll take a return trip to Catalina and the Channel Islands next week. I’m selfishly hoping there’s a divine reason to be in San Diego, otherwise it’s cause I screwed up the boat documents.

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In the meantime, Tay and I have been exploring on land, but all the cool spots on land are on the coast so we still rarely venture more than a few hundred yards from the ocean. We hiked around La Jolla and drove forty minutes North to Oceanside which was fun because sailing the same stretch on the way down took us all day.

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This weekend, our college friend Andy flew in from Billings to visit. We finally got back to sailing after a few weeks tied to the dock. We had perfect conditions for our usual visitor activities, the dinghy ride, a hike, a beach day, fishing, and a day out sailing.

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Andy’s a good vacationer and an even better friend so his priority was to relax and chat. So maybe we spent a little more time in the cabin of the boat than with some guests, but it was awesome. And I was in heaven because I got to cook the entire time.

The food-highlight was Sushi. We bartered some bluefin tuna and yellowtail collar off of our ol’ pal Dave, in exchange for some cocktails. And we finally made a trip to Point Loma Seafoods, for some salmon and Ahi (and a pint of pickled ginger). We also learned it doesn’t take much fish to make way too many rolls to eat. We had plenty of opportunities to practice our rolling and presentation techniques.

The surplus fish allowed us to have a medley of fish tacos the following night. Andy likes Italian food, so we also got to make my take on a Chicken Cacciatore, and parmesan polenta. The weekend of good food lead me to want to post a newsletter of our weekend menu in hopes of enticing more visitors. Stay tuned.

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Here’s to a fun sunny wait, and in the words of Dave Easton, “It’s already Spring in San Diego”.

Cheers to 2021!

Kim Buschy, the world’s best mother-in-law, always said we needed something dramatic to get this country back together, like a plague or aliens. Unfortunately, the plague was more divisive, but I’m hoping the optimism surrounding 2021 and the gratitude toward every hint of normal will be what we all need to reunite… or maybe aliens. Speaking of Kim, she texted us last Wednesday about our NYE plans, and within an hour had booked a flight to visit, and within a day was having dinner with us on the boat. We’re grateful for her spontaneity and we had a blast!

In just a few days we hit all the bases to show her our temporary life in San Diego.

• Dinghy Rides
• An over-the-top-dinner with Chuck and Kitsy
• Watching a Sailboat Race (shoutout to Chuck for taking us out)
• Fish tacos
• Hiking & touristing in San Diego
• Kickin it with Eunice
• Our boat’s electrical system failure
• More water pump issues.

Here’s to 2021.

Floating festivities.

I’m a big Christmas person. I’ve always loved the traditions. Since this year was Tay and my first Christmas on the boat, and it is going to be forever our memory of our first family Christmas, expectations and stoke levels were high. I told Taylor every 15 minutes, for a full week, how excited I was for Christmas morning.

On Christmas Eve, Tay and I skated. We like to skate on holidays because the skate parks are usually pretty empty so we’re less in the way and less embarrassed.

We were invited to dinner with Chuck and Kitsy and seized the opportunity to take our dinghy across the bay as our Christmas transportation. My wish in life is for one more year, however many years from now, for the dinghy to be the preferred means of transportation to Christmas eve dinner.

Dinner with Chuck and Kitsy was decadent as always. A feast to remember. They gave us a set of steak knives for the boat, which shows how generous they are, but also observant as a few weeks back they had to use paring knives at dinner on the boat

A highlight of Christmas eve was the dinghy ride back. Sometimes we kill the motor and drift in the bay. It’s quiet, dark, and wonderful to feel disconnected floating along. It’s isolated but surrounded by the bright boat lights and hills of houses.

Christmas morning was our first Christmas as our own little family. We love our families and miss them dearly, but we were excited to celebrate as our own unit. Eunice’s stocking was filled, I made a frittata, and the small boat floor filled quickly with wrapping paper.

Growing up the Christmas day tradition was a long walk or cross country ski with the family. This year was a fitting nautical version of that when we met up with our local family and went for a boat ride. We cruised the bay and enjoyed the sunny December day.  

We tagged along to Chuck and Kitsy’s dinner plans with their friends, cruised sunset cliffs in a ’48 woodie, and had a photo shoot with some inflatable Christmas decorations.

All in all, expectations were high for this Christmas and we couldn’t have asked for more. Oh yeah! and Taylor made cookies in our oven, which has the temperature control of a steel box with a candle in the bottom and one big door…sorry that’s not a very colorful analogy, that’s what it is.

Merry Christmas and a BIG thank you to everyone along the way

Sometimes on Scooter, I wonder why people follow us or care about this trip. Before we started we tried to find a concise purpose for this trip, like clean the coast, or open a sailing school, or to give away free pancakes at anchorages, or any one of a dozen ideas we had. And although we’ve experimented with themes we never landed on one. And without a specific cause, we feel largely undeserving for the generosity we’ve received.

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This year for Christmas we have ended up in a slip in the San Diego Yacht Club. Our cousins went out of their way to pull some strings and we’ve been allowed access to a slip for a month at an amazing rate. We’re so blessed to have Chuck and Kitsy taking care of us in San Diego. Not to mention the opportunities opened up to us when they loaned us their car.

Before San Diego, we were so blessed by Kate and Brandon in Newport, Oregon when they gave us everything we could need to repair our sails, and tons of spare hardware to keep on board. And a dive mask to retrieve our lost fiberglass plate. And the cutest little succulent.

By Kyla & Rydell who worked with us some very long days to get Scooter outfitted for long cruising, and providing much-needed community.

We were blessed by Nelson who took 2 weeks out of his life to join us for 8 days of seasickness and terror, as well as 6 days of celebration.

We were blessed by Joe and Hannah for making this trip possible. This one is an endless list, but they made so many sacrifices to get us where we are.

The boaters and marina people have been amazingly generous along the way: The couple in Half Moon bay who gave us a tuna, the Chileans who treated us like their long lost friends and gave us everything they could, the guy at the last marina who gave us 60 days of freeze-dried provisions, the kid in Oregon who gave us his prize eel fillets, the two Russian men who fed us all the seafood and far-too-much vodka, Lou & Erica and the COHO HOHO people, the West Sound Corinthian Yacht Club and so many more. My take away from boat life is that sea people are the nicest genre of people. (Also shoutout to Nate and Bobby at Sea Peoples Co for everything)

The Eastons and the Wilburs have also taken us into their homes for Thanksgiving, and for fishing, and for Eunice-sitting, and have blessed us with so many things.

We’ve been blessed by so many friends along the way and the chance to re-connect with people living on the coast. Cynthia, Max & Matt, Ben & Katie, Annie & Steve, Joe & Gummi, Nikki, Brittany, Kim, Brooke, Caitlin, Lindsey, Kate, Steve & Claire,

We’ve been so lucky to have SO many wonderful visitors. Both of our families, as well as Troy, Cynthia, Hailey, Darby, Michalah, Mckenna, Mitch, Alex, Sunara, Tanner, Iris, Aunt Anita, Sam, Christie, Kyle, Hailey again, and Spencer and Sarah.

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I could fill a book with the generosity we received, and hopefully, the weekly updates read somewhat like a gratitude list. I missed some, I’m sure of it, but no part of this trip is taken for granted.

Also since this is my blog I get to add that I’m so grateful for Taylor. She’s incredible and 95% of the people listed above are in our lives cause she’s charming and kind, and fun to be around, and she loves people so so well. Thank you Tay.

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In conclusion, I still don’t know why y’all follow the trip, but I love that you do. So please let me know so we can offer more of whatever it is. Until then, we’ll try to bless people as best we can, but will be forever trying to pay forward what we’ve received this year.

Merry Christmas

Love,

Scooter.

A wonderful blend of frustrating and embarrassing.

We spent the week getting ready to leave for Mexico. It started by getting the boat organized. We shopped for Christmas presents and gathered temporary water storage buckets. Without a water maker, having enough clean water is the biggest safety issue going South.

We took Eunice to the vet and got her international certifications sorted out. Lucky for her she’s as healthy as can be!

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We also were gifted a 24-hour vacation from boat life. A friend had a free hotel night that expired at the end of the year. Due to Covid, they were unable to use the perk, so he gifted us a night in a high-end hotel downtown. We also got upgraded since no one is in hotels right now. It was AMAZING. The bathroom in this place was literally larger than our boat. The shower had one of those huge rain style heads and was gigantic. So compared to the normal rarely-cleaned-marina-showers we were in heaven. In 24 hours we each took 3 showers. We loved the little vacation and it was our first night off the boat since July. Eunice had a sleepover with her biggest fan Linda. She did ok but we missed each other.

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We prepped our fishing gear. Dave Easton took us shopping, gave us a lifetime of tips & tricks for fishing Baja, and loaned us a ton of spare gear. We started the process of getting fishing licenses for Mexico.

We also started saying goodbye to our ‘host’ family Kitsy and Chuck. They’ve taken such good care of us so a few goodbye dinners were in order.

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And then reality hit. This morning, while getting our ducks in a row we reached out to the coast guard to check the status of our boat registration. Turns out this was bad timing to buy out Hannah & Joe, because we currently don’t have a valid proof of ownership document. The paperwork is grinding along mid-pandemic, we’re apparently 2.5 to 3 months out to be squared away.

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This is both a devastating blow for our plans and pretty embarrassing. We knew we eventually had to push some paper around when we took ownership of both halves of the boat in September but thought our current paperwork situation was sufficient.

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Either way, we’re ready for a Christmas on the boat in either country.