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The new year has been very busy as we rush to complete maintenance and upgrades to the boats systems. The captain is putting the finishing touches on the yawl boat (above) and davits. The new galley cabinetry is comming together thanks to Mike and will be fully operational by the April schooner rendezvous in Tacoma. We replaced the house batteries in January and a new inverter is on the way. The addition of an engine driven hydraulic system will allow powered hoisting of the main sail and hopefully avoid a mutiny. The electric hydraulic pump will stay aboard as a back up system. Bruce has been volunteering one day each week completeing the interior of the main saloon. I would like to thank Jason Misner for building the new davits and all of the volunteers who have spent time over the winter working on the yawl boat.

Photos of the yawl boat construction can be seen at the end of the 2009 captains log page. We plan to carry the new boat on her davits (photo at left) when we head to the Tacoma schooner rendezvous in April.

I am very excited about the formation of the new Puget Sound Schooner Association (PSSA). The goal of the association is to promote public awareness of the great history and the vessels available to sail on and charter right here in Washington. Seventeen vessels have joined the association as of this writing. The first rendezvous and meeting will be in Tacoma's Thea Foss waterway on April 23,24 and 25. The rendezvous is a great opportunity for the public to tour the vessels and even go for a sail.

The heart of any schooner's yawl boat is an engine capable of helping the big boat to maneuver. The 20 hp Yanmar diesel shown at the right is going to power our new "bow thruster". I have said, only half joking, many times that maneuvering 320,000 lbs. of full keel vessel with just a single scew will make an old man out of the captain. Everyone who knows me can attest that I do not need any more white hair. We decided the time was right to create a little tug so that we would not need to rely on volunteer push boats. I regularly get asked if the Merrie Ellen has a bow thruster so we christened the yawl boat "bow thruster" so that we can answer yes in the future.

Captains log June 11,2010

The schooner Gam in Tacoma on april 24th and 25th saw the formation of the new association and a surprizing amount of public foot trafic aboard the boats considering the weather. Many thanks to Stan Selden and everyone in Tacoma for making the event possible. We overnighted at anchor in Port Blakely on the way down with Zodiac and did sail training for new crew members on the way to the Thea Foss waterway. The King 5 news helicopter paid us a visit while we were under full sail in the East chanel and multiple visitors remarked about the great sailing video on the news friday night. Hoisting the main sail was done by brute manual labor on this trip with hope that it would be the last time.

The Memorial Day weekend saw us at the Kitsap Harbor Festival. The weather did not deal us a favorable hand but the crew soldiered on. Thanks go out to Kathy Garcia and the great folks in Bremerton and Port Orchard for having us in. The new yawl boat and hydraulic sail hoisting performed beautifully avoiding (hopefully) any futher mutinous talk from the crew.

We have added to our calendar with June 20-30, July 6-10 and 16-25, Aug 1-15 and Sept 1-9 in Port Townsend at the Maritime Center dock. We will also be spending the fouth of July weekend in lake union at the Center for Wooden Boats. Day sails and charters will be available at all of these events.