Back to West Yellowstone to close the Motel.
Back to Seattle to work on the boat.
Back to West Yellowstone to finish winterizing the Motel.
Back to Seattle to take a load of "stuff".
Back to West Yellowstone to finish what we didn't get done in the last two trips.
Back to Seattle to settle in to the Pacific Northwest weather.

During one day of "surfing" we came accross a post looking for "crew". We answered and soon found ourselves headed to Seattle to meet Captain Josh, Emily and the URSA Major. She is an older all wood red oak 65 foot headed to La Paz Mexico and needed crew. We immediately signed on and left Seattle the beginning of October. Teal and Shiela rounded out the crew.We laid over in Eureka California for storm and San Diego for Hurricane Rick. But lots was learned and good friends were made. It was obvious that Nick and Becky were the "old folk" when it came to bar hopping in Eureka while we waited out the storm. However, I do think we held our own on the ping pong games. Josh, Emily, Teal and Shiela were so knowledgable about the whales, birds, fish and marine life - and it was a great learning experience to spend time with them. Not to mention what we learned crusing. In San Diego Teal and Shiela left and Bill joined us now making us a crew of 5. Having traveled on the URSA before he was knowledgeable about how things worked and was a asset to the group. Arriving in Mexico was unbelievable. The water temp was 87 degrees. Snorkeling was definitely a highlight as the fish were bright, beautiful and so close but the boys enjoyed the dingy ride and things got a bit crazy. It is certainly a different lifestyle in Mexico with the warm temperature both in and out of the water.

Our last morning in La Paz. We sat quietly on the back deck of the URSA and as the sun rose with spectacular color and wisps of clouds drifted by - the "Nick and Becky Show" made the determination that Mexico is our destination. It will not happen this year but hopefully next Thanksgiving we will be on the

back deck of Freyja viewing that same type of sunrise.

Summer is Summer - what can we say. We have been busy at the One Horse this year however it was not quite as hectic as some other years. With the Evergreen Motel not being our responsibility it gave us the opportunity to work together again - which we both enjoy. Summer seemed to go by quickly and without much drama. We are looking forward to winter on the water.

Time to pack up and head back to West Yellowstone for the Summer. Have to make a living so we can play. Freyja is in good hands and the Selene Yacht Service crew promise to take good care of her. As we go thru the summer we will look at this last picture as we count the days.

New friends from the Lavender Rose don diving gear to look for Becky's glasses that fell overboard. No luck but what awesome people and what a beautiful boat.

We have learned that we still have much to learn. Our first trip thru "the ditch" to LaConnor was pretty stressful. Just how much water is there under this big boat? At one point we actually turned around and went back to Cornet Bay to re-group. We are really chicken at heart. The second try was much better and we cruised into LaConnor like pros.





April 2009 brings aboard our first real guests and best of friends,
Bill and Connie. We were so excited that they would venture from the desert to spend time with us. We visited our haunts, played cards, drank, ate, and in general just had a wonderful time. We are blessed to have such good friends. A week was definitely not long enough and we hope they return soon.

Our winter is over. It was wonderful to see our good winter friends but sad to tell them we would not be open in the winter anymore.

We arrived back on Freyja on March 5th with high hopes of heading out to sea. We were going to spend a day making sure everything was on the up and up as some work had been done on the boat while we were gone. Friday the 6th. We hired a training Captain to spend a day or so with us but somewhere during training things went astray and we had an electrical meltdown. Smoke--I mean SMOKE was coming out from under the helm and out of the portugese bridge. VERY SCARY !! Long story short...it had to do with an unfused battery, no shore power, inverter, etc etc. Problem solved but we did lose some of our electronics and had to have new wiring put into place.
We spent the next week repairing and replacing and headed out to sea on March 11, 2009. We are actually in Lake Union which is a fresh water lake in Seattle. We have to go thru the locks to get to Puget Sound. They have two locks - one for the really big boats and one for smaller boats. HOWEVER...they were doing work on the small lock and we got to experience the BIG LOCK.

Our first time in salty water.

We headed North from Seattle toward Everett, staying on the East side of South Whidbey Island. North to Saratoga Passage on the West side of Camano Island. Headed to Skagit Bay, past Hope Island and toward Deception Pass. By this time it was 0' dark thirty - and we were navigating in the dark. Stayed the night in Cornet Bay-right at the edge of Deception Pass. Waking up the next morning we realize we were not the only one in the bay.

We waited until 9:30 the next morning because the current was only 4 knots at that time. The current thru the pass gets as high as 14 knots - way too dangerous for newbies.Thru Deception Pass and headed for Canada. Crossed the shipping channel thru Rosario Strait, then thru Lopez Pass, Spencer Spit, followed Harvey Channel between Orcas Island and Shaw Island and headed for Pole Pass (which is about the size of a pole). Next adventure - South of Jones Island and down Spieden Channel , Miners Channel to the West side of Sidney Spit. We had a little time before we had to clear customs so we decided to try our hand at anchoring. We parked ourselves on the West Side of Sidney Spit and let the anchor go. Wow....it went really fast-came off the gypsy-and fell into the sea. 450 feet of chain in 45 feet of water. Luckly we have a electric windlass or we would still be there pulling chain. Decided we should head to Sidney and clear customs into Canada before we attempted to try anything else. What a piece of cake clearing customs was. Decided that learning to anchor should be a priority, we headed to South Pender Island and anchored in Poet's Cove.

The Resort at Poet's Cove looks like a fun place to stay-but we have a boat-its funner!

December 12, 2008. Here we are the new owners of Freyja. She is located in Lake Union Seattle Washington. She is a 43 foot Selene Ocean Trawler.

After four years of searching there she was at the dock saying

"Pick Me Pick Me"

We moved aboard after a quick trip to West Yellowstone to pick up clean undees and a few odds and ends. And the new adventure begins. We hired Captain Bob to help us get Freyja out of the "parking lot" and back in to her spot. If you don't think that was exciting!! We practiced during the next few days and felt very proud of ourselves ~ we could now dock Freyja with only a minimal amount of panic. She was hauled from the water during the survey so we could see her bare bottom. Freyja is not slim and trim. She weighs in at 60,000 lbs with a draft of 5.7 feet. Although she is called a 43 she is 48 feet overall.

She holds 860 gallons of diesel, 250 gallons of water and is powered by a 220 John Deere.

Christmas Eve was spent watching the 75 or so decorated boats on Lake Union float around and listening to a choir on one of the large boats sing christmas carols.

It brought a new meaning to "it came upon a midnight clear".

The week between Christmas and New Year was full of
Cold Weather, Snow and Learning Obsticles
running out of power
running out of water
overflowing the holding tanks
and just a general
"WOW ~ I didn't know it did that".

Life on the water is over for the time being. We arrived back in West Yellowstone on January 3rd where it was a balmy -27 and all was well-we thought. The hot tub was 120 degrees, we were out of propane and there was snow every where. Life is somewhat back to "normal" for now and we are counting the days before we head back to Freyja.