<Written by Rachel>
OK, we’re in the home stretch of planning and prep for this haul out and refit. Today is Wednesday the 17th and our haul out is scheduled for Monday the 22nd at 10AM. The weekend is going to be BUSY. For more info on what is planned during this project, check out Brenden’s previous blog post.
So, we’re not staying on the boat during this refit. For one, we’re not allowed to do so by the boat yard. It doesn’t seem to be an option at boat yards here in the Portland Oregon area. For two, we’ve got two young kids living on this boat. The boat is often … messy (read, trashed!) so trying to live on the boat while we have workers in and out and tearing things apart …. uh uh, not happening!
Thankfully, we do have all of our extended family here in the area. We’re welcome at a couple places any time that we need to get off the boat and, for this adventure, we will be staying with my father-in-law in the house that Brenden grew up in. It’s a good-sized 3 bedroom home with a large bonus room so we’ll have plenty of room there. In fact, it will be weird to me to have the kids sleeping ‘so far away’ – ha! We just need to borrow a mattress for Brenden and I from my parents, and probably one for the kiddos to sleep on, and we’ll be all set.
Tomorrow I’ll be out of town all day working so tomorrow evening will be my first chance to really start preparing to move off the boat. Friday at least I have a full day without either kiddo (Evan in school and Kali at daycare) BUT Fridays are supposed to be a full workday, and I already have a short appointment to help a friend of mine at 10AM and then I have a dentist appointment at 1PM to fix my broken tooth (yay for teeth that break off when you bite an almond!! What is this!?), so I don’t feel like I’ll have much chance to really start preparing on Friday either. Ugh.
This past Monday was Brenden’s 31st birthday (Happy Birthday, Love!) and we spent the day together as a family since Evan also had the day off school due to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday. We drove over to Rocky Pointe Marina and Boat Yard, where the work is going to be done, to check out the landing zone, talk to people there and get some more information, and just get a feel for the place.
After seeing all that we could see at the boat yard, we decided to head up North a bit to check out the St. Helens Marina. We’ve been toying with the idea of checking out the St Helens marina as a possible new home. Personally, I don’t like having a bridge between us and the ocean which we couldn’t get through in the event that there’s not somebody there manning it to open for us. Moving here would remove said obstacle. But it also would just be a new adventure. A move. Something different. It would be a step toward our goals.
We’re actually not even sure if the St Helens Marina allows liveaboards. I need to call them and just haven’t taken the time yet to do so…. so obviously this is just kind of a dream at this point but I’ll get that sorted out, maybe call them next week once we’re off the boat, and see what they say.
In the map above, you can see the blue dot in the lower right-hand corner is our current home slip at Tomahawk Bay Marina. The big red flag is the boat yard where we’re headed and then highlighted at the top you can see the town of St. Helens Oregon. So it wouldn’t be a huge move, but it would be something different and would be just another step in our journey to eventually casting off and cruising full time as a family on our sailboat. #goals
There are a few options, as we found out, for actual moorage in St. Helens. As mentioned above, there is the St. Helens Marina. It’s a private full-service marina. There were also a few small docks, Max’s Moorage and Dillard’s Moorage, that I want to look into and see if they allow liveaboards. And also a hotel or resort called Yacht Landing that appeared to have their own dock with quite a few boats so I might call them as well and just get the scoop.
St Helens Marina
Unfortunately, we ran out of time and couldn’t do anything but just drive through the town and look for a few moments at what our options might be. I’ll follow up and let you guys know what I find out and if there might be a chance that we move to St Helens this coming summer!
A view of St Helens and the sheltering Sand Island
Wish us luck this weekend with all the prep work, moving the kids and whole family off the boat, moving the boat to the yard, and definitely cross your fingers and toes for us as we watch our home lift out of the water and fly through the air. This is nerve-wracking stuff! But a necessary step in preparing this sailboat for some Pacific Ocean sailing this summer!
As always, thanks for reading. We appreciate all comments and followers as we move through this journey preparing our sailboat for fulltime family cruising! Oh, also, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook for more frequent updates! Adios! ~Rachel