1st and right up front.Al and Diane Trungale are to blame for our having
sold our home in Kalamazoo, buying a new Catalina 42, and moving her to
Friday Harbor WA in the heart of the pacific northwest San Juan islands.
Why?  They bought property on one of the islands years ago with the intent
of building a home on it and retiring where the summers are rarely out of
the 70's and the winters are rarely below freezing.  So much for Al and
Diane as they sold that property and built in the Carolina mountains near
Ashville NC.  Thank God a neighbor suggested Al not sell his snow blower.

 

In any event, and after 2+ weeks where we worked 8+ hours of hard, manual
labor EVERY day, AirWaves is finally back in the water as of late this
afternoon and we will sail her the 20 miles to Friday Harbor tomorrow
morning.  Lots of people were VERY instrumental in helping us including
(most of all) Maria for not letting either of us quit working so hard before
and during our move, Ferd at Sail Place (he's an MIT rocket scientist who
simply LOVES messing around sailboats and has forgotten more than most
people know.thanks Ferd for helping out with several critical portions
during the move), Torresen Marine in Muskegon (Brian and his Dad are like
Ferd), the trucking company who transported AirWaves 2,500 miles and only
broke about $500 worth of easily replaceable (per VISA)  parts, and Cap
Sante Marina who is considered the Torresen Marine (they are very good but
not that good yet!) of the pacific northwest, and my business partner
(Stephen Trivers) of 35 years who agreed to sell our company and make all of
this possible.

 

Enough of tech and boring stuff.we have already fallen in love here.  Mt
Baker stared at us from 50 miles away all this week reminding us of the pot
of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Speaking of rainbows, whenever weren't
working or sleeping I've already seen 3 full scale, full on beautiful,
rainbows during our short stay.  They say it rains a lot here and, don't
tell anybody, but that simply isn't true.  The person who invented
intermittent wipers MUST have been raised here because you'll use them often
if you drive in this area.  The typical day includes about 15-minutes of
light showers preceded and followed by a couple hours of clouds, and like
clockwork the sun comes out in early afternoon and basks you in vitamin D
for several hours.

 

 

I'm including 2 pictures.  The 1st is Mt Baker taken from the deck off
 
AirWaves and is 50-miles distant; it was shot with a 3X optical zoom that
was in as close as possible and can't begin to describe the beauty of this
11,000 foot mountain that is bathed in snow 12-months a year.  The 2nd
picture is of the Deception Pass bridge that was built, of course, during
 
the depression at a total cost of $300,000; they spent more than that to
simply repaint it 20 years ago.  The British naval explorer Vancouver was
charged with the responsibility of mapping this huge area in the mid 1850's
and felt he was tricked when told he could sail through this very narrow
pass that is open to the entire inflow of the Pacific ocean.  Can you ever
imagine in your wildest dreams that the British could have actually mapped
most of the world as we know it and, over 150-years later, find via our GPS
units, their charts to be frankly very accurate.must have been the need to
consistently find their rum in the Caribbean!   Currents run as high as
12-knots several times a day (what goes in must come out!) and AirWaves,
capable of a maximum speed under power of 8.5 knots, would be going
backwards; actually she'll NEVER go under that bridge even though it's very
deep as we'd simply wreck in the many eddy's and whirlpools.we have
thousands of better and far easier places to sail.

 

In any event fair seas to all of you and today's tip.buy Kraft stock (symbol
KFT) as it's undervalued and, now outside the vices of the Marlboro man,
poised to increase in value.  

 

We have a permanent slip at the Port of Friday Harbor (E-39) and you are ALL
welcome to visit and enjoy paradise pacific northwest style.. Please.just
don't ALL come at once!

 

Bill & Maria

AirWaves

269-762-1065

204 Front Street, P.O. Box 838

Friday Harbor WA 98250

williamwertz@hotmail.com