August 13, 2009 Thursday
Overcast, cool morning

9:30am
I finally get up. Phil's been up for hours. I've been hearing him move around the boat. I feel when he steps off and back on. He's straightening decks, coiling lines (Sailor likes to feed them into the river) and importantly, Phil's rigged the waist line - oops! it's called a warp line. Now I hear him dumping yesterdays rainwater out of the wagon and buckets and into the river. . .

We should have an easy out today. There's no work barge taking up half our fairway this time. They've been repairing the winter storm damage to the barns.

9:49am
Phil's checking the gas - that means, unscrewing a little brass cover on stern deck and dipping a stick. He comes in and says "Six to seven inches of fuel. We just haven't used much". Fortunately this boat sips diesel. We decide to get gas on Friday when we move to the Sellwood dock. Today our destination is RiverPlace Marina. Sa's been asking for weeks to "Get underway, go downtown".

11:13am
We switch to holding tank water and fill tank.
Phil rousts Sailor, telling him about our upcoming trip. Sa asks to push the (starter) button.

11:26am
Sailor, standing on a stool at the helm. pushes the button . . . it's his first solo start up of Victory. He's needed Phil's strength to help push in the past. Victory starts right up with a puff of white smoke.

I disconnect the power cord, Sa & Phil move topside.

I single lines the loose bow line, then loose stern line, run in trhough cabin to port and pull warp line. There's nothing quite like feeling the wieght of a 15 ton wooden boat being turned by using me as a pivot. Then I pull in the fenders and coil the lines. I really do like being the crew.

Phil navigates us into the channel and announces our presence with a nice riff on the brass bell.

As I coil lines on the bow I hear a whisper and then hear it again "I want my bottle". Ilook up to see Sailor peeking over the Pilot House window ledge. I hand him up his bottle.

11:55am
We're all in the Pilot House heading down river, River Place Marina is in sight.
"Do you have her ready for starboard to?" Phil asks
I'm relaxing back with Sailor on my lap, "No", and I realize I still don't know what the 'to' means.

12:09pm An easy slide alongside the dock. WE get off and pull her up around to the corner 'free' spot. Again, I like feeling the wieght of her as I pull her lines. Sailor really likes to help pull the lines along with us.

There are workers on the dock replacing the whalers. Phil helps pull one standing on a little floating dock, around Victory.
Sailor gives a good, long wave to the passing Willamette Jet Boat. His wave outs always bring lots of smiles and a boatful of wave backs.

13:30
Sailor and I head up to the park. We play in the sand that has been used to fill holes. We're among a big flock of geese. After the sand we walk over to the Hawthorne Bridge. We stand under on of the lanes and watch the cars pass over head.
We meet up with our friend K and walk her back to her car.

15:00
Back at boat. Cooking corn dogs on the BBQ that Phil just repaired (malfunctioning hose).

We're on battery power, our little generator is lent out, so I'm trying to be an electric miser. I don't use light in the bathroom. I use water out of a jug instead of using the pump. We don't use extra dishes - all corn dogs on one plate.

afternoon
Sailor's playing with Hot Wheels. He looks out the back window and says "Downtown is nice".

Niece drops by for a visit. her work is slow, she's kind of down.

17:00ish
Sa and I move his race track and bucket of cars back to his v-berth. Sailor lays back on and dumps the cars on himself like a blanket, then falls asleep.

18:00ish
I walk niece to her car. We see about 6 men in wet suits jump into the river - they're training for next Sunday's triathalon.
I pick up Little River Cafe ice cream on the way back to the boat.

20:00pm
On back deck at ice chest filling baby bottle. It's grey and raining.

We have the little brass lamp lit for light. Phil's looking out at city lights and says "I like the Low Power aprofile".

21:00
Sa' wakes. He climbs down the ladder from his v-berth bed. and runs to the cabin's full back window. With delight he says "Look at the lights! We're downtown!" He's soooo happy.

night
we play with HOt Wheels much of the night. We go up to the Pilot House to play, calling down the voice tube 'orders' for various cars, blankets, snacks. Phil hands them up to the window.

02:30am
We're all crashed in the big cabin bed.