"Steve caught the bowline, although he had
to race down the dock to be there first"
"As the party started to degenerate. . . the security guard found
out about this and looked at the surveillance tapes"
"I have got to the point now that when people ask me “well, are you
glad to be back?” I answer “NO!” very firmly"
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Here is the last of the Margarita
emails. We are in the process of converting from being known as the
"Margaritas" to the "Stanfords", and the transition is not always easy.
Living aboard at a marina in the pacific northwest has very little of the
appeal that boat life around the world held for us. We are cold, have
limited space and miss the magic of a new anchorage and new culture.
However we are enjoying old friends and family and know that this is the
right direction for us at this time - once we get a house. We have
enjoyed the fact that you have all been a part of our adventures for the
past several years and have really appreciated the contact and positive
feedback we have received along the way. Thank you for being along for
the trip. - Sarah
--------------------------------------------- June-2002
Anacortes, Washington
Hello all,
I have been not writing this email for quite
some time (and making a very good job of it), but I can’t go on
procrastinating for ever.
We are home. We arrived at the Anacortes Marina on
the 25th of May, after spending three nights in Friday Harbor
resting and recuperating. Our last passage, from Eureka to Friday Harbor
(6 days), was excellent, we actually got some favourable winds for a while
(a rare thing going north on the W Coast) and made very good time.
We left Friday Harbor on the 25th and
motored the whole 27 miles – what a passage!-- to Anacortes Marina,
passing Washington Park on the way, where 15 or so of our friends and
family were gathered, waving at us, blowing air horns and showing off a
banner. (What the other people at Washington Park thought was going on I
can’t imagine.) We motored around the Cap Sante Head head, memories
flooding back, and tied up to slip B63 of Anacortes Marina. Steve (who has
been forwarding these emails all along, and censoring them too, for all we
know) caught the bowline, although he had to race down the dock to be
there first. We had a great party on the dock with 31 people present,
including family members from Vancouver; friends from home and from
Oregon; and the Hoptoads, who showed up to our complete surprise about
half and hour into the party. It was exceedingly strange to have our
cruising friends, our family and our old friends at the same place and
time. I kept wandering from group to group, wishing that I could be in
three or four places at once.
As the party started to degenerate we delinquent
teen-aged boat people became involved in a water balloon fight. We went
outside the gates to the marina and then had to climb over the top to get
inside again because we didn’t have a key. Unfortunately the security
guard found out about this and looked at the surveillance tapes. He came
rushing down the dock a few hours to catch us red-handed at our second
offence, which was being in our rowing dinghy, Emily, looking at a seal.
He got very angry at this (he said that we might have been outboard engine
thieves coming in by dinghy – you never can tell with boat people!). I can
understand that he didn’t like us climbing over the fence, but not being
allowed in a dinghy is just plain crazy, and the way that he kept saying
“I got ‘em on tape!” was very irritating. So our first encounter with the
marina staff was also probably our first encounter with anyone truly
uptight and unfriendly since… well … OK never mind. We later found out
that the only reason that marina hadn’t closed down our calm and quiet
party on the dock (which broke up before dark) was that the press was
there.
The next day Mum and Dad started the House Hunting,
which had become a very involved sport for the Margaritas since then, all
though not a very fruitful one so far. We bought a 1600$ 1990 Dodge
Caravan in great shape, although the Department of Licensing didn’t
believe us. They refused to believe that we got it for under 3800$, and
wanted to tax us accordingly.
The next exciting thing that happened to us was the
Today Show interview. They had picked up our story from the front-page
article in the county paper. They interviewed us at 4:30 in the morning
for a 3 or 5 minute live segment. The anchors in New York had it easy – it
was 7:30 for them! The cameraman, sound technician, satellite operator and
producer actually arrived at 1:30 to set up with a huge satellite van.
They, like us, didn’t have a key to the gate, so they put a sandbag on the
door’s electromagnet lock to hold it open. Luckily for them there is no
security guard from 11 PM until 6 AM at the Anacortes Marina, which as we
all know is the time when most of the criminals are asleep. I guess that
Pat got to see the Today Show people on the surveillance tapes the next
morning, which must have been a surprise. I must say though, that after
NBC broke in to interview us the marina staff was very courteous.
Now as the reality of staying in one place – and not
an extremely pleasant place at that -- starts to set in I am starting to
wish for just one week in Fiji, or five days in the Aves…. I have got to
the point now that when people ask me “well, are you glad to be back?” I
answer “NO!” very firmly. Right now living on the boat seems very
inconvenient. The boat is surrounded with water (surprise surprise), which
saps away all of the heat, so we are freezing in the mornings. There is
clutter everywhere, and the cabin is stuffy and closed up and dark. As
time passes our high standards for The Perfect House are lowered. Now we
are considering putting in an extra condition for the purchase of a house:
“you have to be out in a week”.
OK, I will stop and send this email, which, might I
add, is the last of its kind as far as we can tell. Thank you all for
being there as an outlet into which we could pour our complaints, and as
people that we could tell our stories to without being interrupted.
Circumnavigator Douglas Stanford
July-11 2002
PS. We now have an accepted offer on a house! They
have to be out in 30 days and hopefully will be out considerably sooner.
Our current address is:
PO Box 892
Anacortes, WA 98221-0892
USA
There will be no more Margarita groupmails, but we
will inform you of our new address when we get the house.
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