We Have a New Ship in Town: The Schooner Zodiac!!

Saturday, April 16, we had the pleasure of celebrating the arrival of The Schooner Zodiac to its new home port of Bellingham, Washington.  It was a huge celebration, including a rendezvous of other tall and small ships from around the Salish Seas.

  

Besides tours of all the vessels, there were artisans offering their crafts, vendors selling warm food and hot cocoa, and even mini classes available for children to build small wooden ships.

  

It was a great day!!

     

This tall ship was built in 1924 for the heirs of Johnson & Johnson.  It was built in Minnesota at Hodgson Bro.'s Shipyard and modeled after the American Fishing Schooners. 

It has an interesting history found HERE.

She is A GIANT.  Her length is 127 feet on deck with her length sparred being a full 160 feet!!  The main mast is over 12 stories high and her sail area is more than 7,000 sq. ft.!!  She has one of the largest working mainsails on the north coast.  That all adds up to one WHOPPER OF A HUGE SHIP!!   

The details are gorgeous...

and mostly wooden.

The Zodiac has a 500 HP Caterpillar Diesel engine and a Hull Speed of 12.5 knots.  Can you imagine how spectacular it would be to watch a bunch of these schooners race??

HERE is your chance!! 

Two new beautiful wooden masts were installed, just recently, and a new mainsail is on its way.  Today's cruise out into Bellingham Bay was without the new sail.

I love all the brass details too. 

 I just picked me up a porthole like this for the NP...except it's made into a mirror for the head...so charming!!

 

What a great place to plot a course!!

This is the Baggywrinkle-maker-guy.  

Baggywrinkles prevent the rigging from rubbing on the sails, therefore extending their lives.  

See the piece of rope near his knee?  He cuts the rope that length, untwists it and splits it into ~90 pieces.  He then wraps the individual pieces around two long lines and pushes them together tightly.

So the line of rope (above) is eventually frayed and twisted to look fluffy (above and below).

It is then wrapped around the rigging in various places (especially where chaffing is most prominent) to prolong the life of the sail.

The unveiling of her new home-port name was preceded by a few speeches, lots of cheers, and SOME VERY LOUD HORNS from around the port.  It was awesome!!  Wish you could've been there!!

And off she sails....

WELCOME TO BELLINGHAM ZODIAC CREW!!

The Schooner Zodiac's 2011 season of cruises is available.  2012 is also starting to fill.  

How about a "Victoria Tall Ships Cruise" or a "San Juan Islands Schooner Race"?  Or if just an evening aboard is preferred.....how about a "Summer Solstice Dinner Sail"?  

They all sound good to me.....SIGN ME UP!!  

See you onboard!!

http://www.schoonerzodiac.com/cruises.asp

s/v NP

I'm linking up to Watery Wednesday where you can find LOTS more gorgeous photos relating to water.

An Evening at the Beach

Our sunsets are always so beautiful!!

Birch Bay State Park, Washington

 

9 Teens, 3 Sailboats and SUCIA ISLAND!!

I'm getting myself psyched up for sailing weather and posting past stories while the weather is still unfavorable.

Here's one of our favorite weekend trips to Sucia.

  DAY ONE

   

We followed S/V Air Apparent to Sucia.

Maggie and Ainsley were hangin' out on the bow.

A view of Shallow Bay.  This is where we usually drop anchor.

The view from our anchoring spot.

So peaceful...

So beautiful...

After we were all situated, the kids took the crab pots and dropped them near the entrance to the bay.  Then they all played in the dinghys for awhile.

Here's Lauren and Tessa learning to row a boat for the first time.  It was HILARIOUS to watch!!  They swirled in circles, cussed, argued, laughed and about threw the oars overboard!! 

"Here, JUST LET ME DO IT!!" they each yelled.

  

 So after Lauren tried...

and Tessa tried...

they finally decided teamwork was the best way to do it.

Taylor and Christopher (in the Coleman Inflatable) decided the best way to get the boat somewhere was to be towed by the dinghy with the ENGINE!!  Now THAT was getting somewhere!!

They did this for hours...

and hours...

until the sun started setting.

On this particular evening, after the sun had set, a cruise ship (probably bound for Alaska) passed by off to the West.  All of its lights lit up the night and looked magnificent.  We all sat on deck and watched it go by.

DAY TWO

The kids loved to go pull up the pots every few hours or so, to check for crab.

Maggie is holding a keeper!!
Guess you know what we had for dinner!!


There is so much to do on these trips... 

like hangin' out on deck...

and in the cockpits,

or playing guitars...
Maggie was our awesome musical entertainment!!

We usually "raft" all the boats together depending on the weather, tides, conditions, and how many boats are with us or around us. 

Here are S/V's Cyclone, Air Apparent and our New Perspective all rafted together. 

It's like a giant party deck!!


 Other things to do are...


after beachcombing and collecting broken shells, driftwood, and other tiny finds...

the kids made name plaques out of the found items.  A bottle of glue was all that was needed!!
 
They were all so creative finding things to do...

like stunts...

and more stunts...

and swimming...

The water was super cold at first!!

 But they had a blast!!

The sunsets were spectacular!!

And when darkness came, we were still out playing!!

 

On this night, there was a Bachelor party going on...until the wee hours of the morning.  A HUGE group of guys had a couple of power boats and a bunch of tents onshore.  They had bonfires, played guitars, sang songs...it was fun to listen to!!  We even sang along with them!! 

DAY THREE

In the morning, before loading up the boats and heading home, we all went to shore.

Chris, Ainsley and Maggie explored the "China Caves."

 

Ainsley and Maggie

Raymond explored the caves too.

Josh rock climbed while Bill looked on...

and scaled the heights!!

He worked his way up...

all the way to the top!!

Emily started the construction of a "Wee Beach House"...

while Ainsley covered her legs with a volcano.

So cool!!

And Maggie found the perfect smoke.

Run!!  It's erupting!!

We laughed so hard!! 

We all went digging for clams too...

 

Jim showed us how to find them.

We didn't have shovels with us, so we just dug with our hands.

Taylor was SO GOOD at whipping those buggers outta the ground before they disappeared too quickly!!

You have to dig fast!!

 

Taylor kept getting one after the other!!

It was the perfect trip!!

s/v NP