July, 2022
To the east of Camano Island, over on the mainland, and just a bit north of Camano Island, is a small town called La Conner. Here’s another link to a website that talks about the history of La Conner. I’d never driven the country roads to La Conner, although I’ve cruised there in my boat, and stayed in the marina there, many times. So today, I explored new territory in my big white truck. She is such a good truck!
Got into town and immediately headed towards the marinas north of town. But I found something else first … a campground! And it is now on my list as a future camping destination.
The campsite below is my favorite. It’s at the end of a line of campsites … there’s not a soul to the right, and out past those tall trees in the photo below is a humungous field, so no neighbors there either. The blue table to the left of that blacktop parking spot is also part of this one campsite, so there’s plenty of room between this campsite and the one to the left. Towhee the Trailer would be backed onto the blacktop spot, and my big white truck would be backed into the spot right in front of that blue table. How sweet.
#61 … one of these days MY name will be on that little slip of paper. 🙂
Then I drove to the public marina for a view of a marina that is so well-known to me. It’s always pretty here.
The photo below was taken some years ago when I was here with my 40-foot 1939 Matthews Standard Sedan cruiser Pied Piper for the wooden boat show here. I think she was the oldest wood boat here that year. Ok, maybe second oldest, right after my friends’ boat Shearwater. 🙂
The photo below is of the helm (the steering station) of the boat inside the main cabin. There are a few “new” (1960’s) additions to the gauges since 1939, but mostly it’s original, including the great big huge shiny compass binnacle … brass with an aluminium coating. Polish, polish, polish! 🙂 [And yes, they called it aluminium back then … alyuMINium.]
To add to the boat’s own gorgeous attributes, I liked adding a few of my own touches (photo below). Look in through the door (two photos above) and you can see the lamp and the green glass of herons that’s on the “dash board” of the boat … in the photo below.
Ok, so enough of my talking about and sharing photos of a boat that I USED to own. Walking down memory lane. 🙂 One of these days, I’ll post some blog posts about this very fine boat.
After seeing that La Conner campground with that great campsite, and taking a peek at the marina (and remembering memories), then it was time to drive back (in the big white truck) to the campground on Camano Island for my last evening there.
After I ate my dinner, I walked up the road to the nest where the young eagle was earlier this week. Was she still there? Had she flown? I hoped she hadn’t flown … and yet I hoped she had.
Well … here’s the video. She was still there. I so wanted her to fly while I was watching her. And yet, what a thrill to watch her get ready. She opened her mouth several times, but she never called … and I heard no other eagles in the area calling.
Tomorrow morning I leave this place. I’ll be hitching up and heading home. I surely don’t want to leave. Tonight inside my little trailer, I’ll go to sleep and dream of this young eagle and I’ll see her in my dreams on her way, on strong wings, high up in the sky, with her heart full of joy.
Wow, great boat! I sure want to see more!! Gorgeous boat.
🙂 Thanks Rob.
Wow the boat! But wow the eagle! Fly eagle fly!!!
Janey
My thoughts exactly, Janey. 🙂
Wow! Ha! 🙂 ok sorry to keep repeating that word, but what a gorgeous boat! Yes, please post info and photos here. We know nothing about boats, but we’d sure like to see yours.
And … thank you for the video of the young eagle. We wish her well too, on many flights of joy and freedom. Makes me want to fly with her.
You can say wow any time you’d like M&M. 🙂 Makes me feel good. I’ll share more about the boat for sure.
I wonder what it feels like to fly using just your own body to do that. How cool that would be.
Oh my word that boat is gorgeous. It really is from 1939? wow.
Ok, I liked the boat stuff. But that campsite looked terrific. Hope you do get back there.
Yes, it was built in late 1939, although it was called a 1940 model. The Matthews Boat Company had just that year started having a model year for boats, like cars were already doing.
I’m sure planning on camping in that marina campground! Then I can walk a hundred yards or so and just sit and watch the boats go by. 🙂
You share lots of things in your blog posts. I really like how diverse those things are. From music to photos of your travels to photos of your own boat, to camping (of course), to animals and art and help for the environment and things to see in local small towns, and your own family history. I love that glass piece on the dashboard of your boat … the herons. 🙂
Thanks Lori. That was really nice of you to write that. Although I sold the boat, I kept that glass with the herons. It’s beautiful and so peaceful.
Nice to see the young eagle again. Do you know when she flew? Would the state park know?
Good question Nebraska. While I was still camped there, I asked one of the park rangers about the timing of the first flight. She said it varied by several weeks from year to year. She also said that she’s been working there for 12 years, and there has always been a juvenile eagle in that nest every year. I also Googled “Camano Island State Park juvenile eagle” … ha! all I get are links to my own blog. Guess I’ll have to go back there another spring and see what happens.
Ok yes the eagle is great but you are spoiling us with how many eagles you find. 🙂 On the other hand, that boat, she’s gorgeous! Why did you buy her? Old wood boats must take a lot of time to maintain, find parts for, things like that. Do you wish you still owned her? I’ve spent time with friends on their boats on Puget Sound, but never had a boat of my own. Being on the water, however one gets there, is really special. More about the boat please. 🙂
🙂 I felt spoiled too, Fran, finding eagles everywhere I went. Pretty wonderful.
Ok, short story … I wanted a larger boat and one that used less fuel and had more amenities than my first boat did. 9-11 had just happened so the prices of boats had dropped massively, so I took advantage of that. Yes, maintenance of old wood boats is time-consuming but once the boat is restored and in good shape, it doesn’t take that much more time to maintain than a fiberglass boat. Sure if the 1939 exhaust elbow in one of those 1939 engines blows a hole in it, then it turns out I had to pay to have one machined from scratch … that cost a couple of bucks!
I loved that boat, still do. I miss being on the water, but I don’t miss the maintenance and the risk of boating alone, since I’m getting “older”. I have so many photos and a good bunch of videos, and so many great memories, and so many great friends from that time.
Indeed, Puget Sound is truly special, nothing like it. 🙂
I love that campsite you found in La Conner. What a find! I hope you go there. Gorgeous boat. 🙂 Eagle fly!!!
I wish there was some way to identify that juvenile eagle, so that I could tell which adult she is on my next visit here. So far, all the eagles I saw here were sitting in trees. If/when I go back here, I bet there will be one eagle flying, and it will be her. 🙂
What a boat! I had a 14-foot fiberglass ChrisCraft for a bunch of years, used it for fishing, but your boat is gorgeous. I bet you never fished from it, you wouldn’t have wanted to beat it up. Did you add the anchor chock?
Oh you are correct, almost no one fishes from any of these classic wood boats because it would be just too easy to damage the wood, the varnish, the paint, not to mention getting the smell of dead fish out of the wood. But when I would cruise past a bunch of folks who were fishing in their fiberglass or metal boats, I sure envied them catching and eating fresh salmon and other fish.
Yes, I did add that anchor roller out on top of and in front of the bow. Originally, the anchor just lay on the foredeck, loose. I put small cleats on the deck to hold it securely, but still, when I anchored out, I had to pick up the anchor, lean WAY out of the bow of the boat, and lower the anchor into the water, letting the anchor chain/line out by hand. Dangerous! So I designed the system to fit this boat and had a shipright help me build the system … with an electric windlass to lower/raise the anchor by push-button while I was standing at the helm, at the steering wheel, inside the boat … cool system. Truth is, I copied parts of the system installed by Mike on “Freya” (a 1940 boat), and learned about it from him, but then adapted it for “Pied Piper”. Thanks for noticing and asking, Joe.
The PIED PIPER has always been our favorite boat to see when you’ve had her at classic wood boat events. Sorry to hear you don’t own her anymore, but I hope the new owner takes care of her like you did. She’s a beauty!
Wow, thanks Mark! That comment made my day, and week, and month, and year. 🙂 The new owner is indeed taking excellent care of the “Pied Piper”. If you see the boat at any classic wood boat gatherings, please say hi to the new owner, John. He’s great.
Thank you for sharing the pictures of your boat. I have tried to visualize a forty foot boat (that’s the length of my house, front to back!), and to imagine you handling her solo. How wide is she across the beam? She really is beautiful! How hard it must have been to say goodbye. I assume you made sure that she was going to a good home?!
The pronunciation of aluminium (alyuMINIum) should be familiar to anyone who watches the PBS lineup of British shows 😉😃!!!
I sure was intimidated by the 40-foot length of “Pied Piper” at first, but then I was intimated by my first boat too and she was only 26-feet long. I took “Pied Piper” out on Lake Union (downtown Seattle), during the day, during the week, when no one else much was out there, and cruised over to some docks with huge fishing boats tied there, and practiced maneuvering in between those fish boats. I couldn’t hurt those boats! And that built my confidence. Also, my friend Dave said … “don’t go any faster than you want to hit something”. Amen to that, since all of us do hit something sooner or later, so just slow down and minimize the damage, maybe just a little paint touchup. “Pied Piper” was 11.5 feet wide at the widest point. Any time I was cruising, I always had lines rigged on both sides of the boat, and fenders ready to deploy with a flick of the wrist on both sides of the boat, two VHF radios were on, I always wore my life jacket, etc.
Oh gosh, the day she sold? I cried. But then John, who bought the boat, asked me to train him on all manner of things on the boat including how to drive/handle the boat. That made it ok, knowing I passed on lots of information to the next owner who had no problem asking for help.
Ha! yes, the Brits do still pronounce it that way, don’t they. The right way, I’d guess. 🙂
Your boat was sooooo cool! I’m sure you miss her. I get sentimental over TENTS!
Thanks Dawn. 🙂 And yes I do miss her. Ya know, these “things” in our lives are our homes, at least part of the time. Whether it’s a 2,400 square foot house or a cabin in the words or a tent or a boat or a travel trailer … they are home. I still have my parents 8×8 heavy canvas tent that we all slept in. I can’t bear to part with it! So I sure get that sentimental thing. 🙂