February 2010, we take the boat to Friday Harbor

We returned to Anacortes, where the boat was berthed, the end of February, to do some training with a boat captain recommended by our insurance company. It seems you don't really need a license to drive a boat like this, but you do have to have the blessing of your insurance carrier. Three days with "Captain Mike" and we were good to go! He was great! We got lots of training and took the boat to Friday Harbor overnight. On the way back, Mike took this photo of us and we cruised back to Anacortes. Looks like fun, huh?

It was during this trip that I had a chance to "operate" the boat. Mike asked me to maneuver the boat to an anchoring buoy so that Jerry could grab it and tie up to it. That was quite a change, since in the past Jerry had been at the helm, and I'd been the one to to the tying up. It only took me two attempts...I was pretty pleased with myself. However, I could see that my aspirations to operate the boat easily and confident were lofty indeed!

We came back to the boat again over spring break the end of March with the hope of going out once again and getting more experience. Our boat broker, Greg, had indicated he'd share his considerable expertise with us and we were excited to get some more training. Unfortunately, this was not to be! Greg was busy and we had engine problems. It turned out we had air in a fuel line. Fortunately, the Nordic Tug manufacturing site is just down the road from Anacortes and one of their diesel experts, Jim, was able to come to us. He spent the afternoon with Jerry working to remove the air in the fuel line. Jim thought that the problem would be solved when he applied clamps to all of the fuel line hoses...we sure hoped so! Unfortunately, it was too late and the weather was to yucky to take the boat out that trip. We did spend a week on it, however, getting a feel for how living aboard works. Gladly, we were comfortable and excited about our decision. We knew that the next time we would be on the boat we would be retired and ready for this new adventure!