Tag Archives: port townsend

Sailing in the Bay

October 26, 2025 Kasanje Leave a comment

On Wednesday, I posted Out in the Bay, in which my father and I took Wren out for a sail.

Wren is a 15 foot, two masted, open seating sailboat. She has a center board and an electric outboard motor. The outboard battery was especially heavy and needed to be hoisted out and over the stern to be fit in place.

The mainsail is rigged with lines to allow raising and lowering while still seated aft near the tiller. The main is complimented by a roller-furling jib and mizen. The mizen also rolls up, but manually.

A single line going out the stern was used to control the aft sail, which was connected to a permanent aft sprit extending out past the tiller. I am told the position of the sprit and the mizen spar make for better runs on some tacks.

With the wind to port the mizen sail could not fill entirely due to pressure from its spar. On the other tack however, it filled out nicely.

The weather report had been mixed and somewhat uncertain. As we motored out past the entrance to Point Hudson marina there was a light shower from passing a cloud.

My father set the jib and mizen and had me pull on some lines to hoist the mainsail. It stuck momentarily as one of the sail ties which had not been removed. With the line cleared, the main was raised fully and set into place.

It’s a gaff-rig like our second boat Anares, the navy whale boat. I will have to write about all of my father’s boats in another post.

There wasn’t much wind initially. We could see the steam rising straight up, down at the far end of the bay from the paper mill. So we motored out further into the bay until we hit a spot of wind.

Eventually a stronger breeze presented itself and the motor was cut. We had a nice sail and got to see the ferry boat crossing from PT to Bainbridge.

The sun broke out from behind some cloud cover and warmed our faces. The earlier rainshower had generated a rainbow and as we shifted our position we began to see it was a double rainbow.

We continued for awhile across the bay under sail, but the wind lessened. After the sun disappeared behind the clouds again I asked to turn back for the harbor.

My father remarked that we likely could have made it to Rat Island. But I wasn’t quite up for that long a journey, possibly under power for a considerable portion.

On the return journey the ferry was making its trip back after depositing its passengers at Bainbridge and picking up travelers bound for Port Townsend. As our position shifted and the ferry moved closer it became apparent that the ferry would pass under the rainbows.

I timed my shot but forgot to enable the high resolution shooting mode on my phone. Even so I got some nice pictures of the ferry passing through the end of the rainbow.

Eileen’s later remarked at dinner that had it been a telephoto lense shot picture, I might have sold it to the ferry system.

I think I may print a copy of the photos to frame for my bedroom back in NC.

This was Wednesday, the next post should be Roast Chicken, but I forgot to take photos that meal. So skip ahead to Scramble Eggs.

Errant Literary, Shopping, Travel

Granola with Yogurt and Banana Slices

October 25, 2025 Kasanje Leave a comment

I had a couple of Zoom meetings this morning at NC time (-4 UTC). So I woke up at 5:50 and logged in for those. They ran for just under 3 hours.

Afterwards I ate a light breakfast of granola and banana slices in yogurt. I added some hazelnut milk to balance it out.

Around eleven a friend of my mother’s, Julia, came and picked me up and we went downtown to Tommy Knockers for brunch with another friend of my mother, Ruby.

I had the Scotch Egg, a hard boiled egg wrapped in ground bacon and spices, topped with mustard and paprika. The eggs lay on a bed of garden greens quite stylishly.

To drink I ordered the tap cider, Alpenfire. I didn’t care for the cider, it was a bit like light beer. It didn’t have much body or depth of flavor. It was maybe like a semisweet apple juice.

It was a very nice opportunity to meet up with old family friends. Ruby’s son, Cedar, was my best friend growing up. I still consider him my best friend, that’s a position that could never be replaced.

Julia’s daughter, Nina, was another young friend. I can remember playing together with dolls and LEGOs. Her father raised stick insects and had games on his computer.

I recall watching the premiere of Powerpuff Girls at Julia’s house. They had a special event running on Cartoon Network with some prize giveaway you had to call in for.

Fond memories. I got a chance to inquire about the other children I had interactions with. Kali lives in Tennessee, Cherese is in Florida, and Becky is in Oklahoma. Rebekah is still local and something of a sports prodigy.

After the meal we must have chatted for an hour and a half. All sorts of topics. Quite pleasant.

I was able to get a phone number of another friend’s sister, Lily, and I left her a voicemail inquiring about her brother, Lang. Hopefully we can meet before my flight home on Monday.

During the drive back to my father’s house we stopped at Laurel Groves, the cemetery, and I had a chance to pay my respects to my best friend, Cedar. He was just a year younger than I. It’s been 13 years since he passed. I wish I had kept in contact with him more.

There are many people I have lost contact with. I recall my first email was a Hotmail address. I lost the password sometime around going to Job Corps on February 5th, 2005.

At the center I had a Yahoo address and I was introduced to MySpace. I recall connecting with mostly students at the center and maybe someone from Port Townsend.

Sometime in 2006 the kids around me started talking about moving to Facebook. I remember logging in to MySpace and someone snorting and saying, “you still use that?”

I’ve always been regarded by others as being good with computers, but I’ve never been good with keeping up with trends. I expected Social Media to be a fad that would eventually go away.

Anyways, Facebook was quite effective. I was able to put in my schooling history and it brought up the profiles of several friends. That was quite impressive compared to MySpace.

I used the Yahoo email until I moved to NC. At some point the account became inundated with spam and I made an Outlook account. I initially try recovering my Hotmail, but I couldn’t quite remember how it was spelled, Aquila13 or something.

I still use the Outlook account these days. I tried getting back into the Yahoo, but it’s totally gone. I think Yahoo went away at some point. Been sold off or something. But the email address wasn’t recoverable.

So, unfortunately, I was never able to copy my contact lists over between any of the accounts. Additionally, I had multiple technology scares that led me to purging my social media accounts time and again over the years. Now I don’t use it at all.

Now with all the AI stuff going around I just don’t feel like I understand computers anymore. The last technology hurdle I successfully passed was Bitcoin. I chased the mining game from 2013-2020.

I should have just held with the HODL crowd. If you count all the Bitcoin and Litecoin I ever bought, I would have a multimillionaire by now. Thousands of coins to pay for GPUs and then ASIC mining rigs that were soon obsolete.

My last mistake was liquidating my last coins to cover the EIDL loans and other bills. I did it two months before Bitcoin hit $10k. I could have paid my debts and had plenty of cash left over.

Went off on a tangent again, sorry.

Daily Writing, Errant Literary

Grilled Cheese and Pears

October 24, 2025 Kasanje 1 Comment

On Thursday afternoon we ate lunch with my fathers downstairs neighbor, Eileen.

She prepared oven toasted slices of bread topped with our choice of cheese. I went with the pepper jack. I ate two slices and then a pear from the community garden was sliced open and shared.

To drink, we had a pot of lemon ginger tea. Very fragrant but light in color. It warmed the insides and went down easy.

It was explained to me that the members here take turns preparing meals each week. Each person has a particular day of the week they have to make lunch and dinner.

It’s a nice social custom and adds some structure to the retirement lifestyle.

On Tuesday’s, the day I arrived, they normally would attend a group potluck after the community center with a bonfire, drinks, and much levity.

It being my first night here and still quite tired from the journey, I and my father opted to stay in for the evening.

Chronologically, the next post would be On Walkabout: Eddy Street

Daily Writing, Errant Literary

On Walkabout: Hidden Trails Road

October 23, 2025 Kasanje 1 Comment

The trailer on Hidden Trails Road had actually been our home prior to the construction on Eddy Street. So we really just moved back after a short sojourn.

It was on the old dirt road where we got our dog, he just wandered down our driveway one afternoon, no tags no collar. He was never properly trained and I liked to wrestle about with him.

Dogs need to be trained. We had been a cat family up until his arrival and I just assumed he would manage himself like the cat did.

He ran off one day and was found a while later down in Port Hadlock missing a leg. It was a gruesome sight after the surgery, him hopping about. I recall thinking at the time that dogs were kind of stupid.

I still feel that way. I smile when I see them and I think they’re cute in their own way, but I wouldn’t want one. I prefer cats.

Back to the trailer now. There was a new family living in the studio across from us. It was my best friends elder sister I think. I may be mistaken on the time and dates. I did visit several years later and may be confusing the dates.

Before the new couple moved in, there was a family that lived there and the father had a flight simulator game on his computer that quite enjoyed playing.

I would sometimes play with the young boy, Forrest, much my junior. We both enjoyed Power Rangers I think. The daughter, Kali, had one of those old all-in-one Macintosh computers with the dual disk drives.

I recall our mothers were all friends and sort of networked out childcare. I can remember days and nights spent visiting many of the other children.

My junior year I mostly rode my bicycle to school. There was a school bus stop, but it was such a long walk to the street I could never make it on time to be picked up.

In a jewelry class at school I met up with a former friend, Jaime Freitas, who used to live down the street from a much earlier home. It turned out she was living down a private drive directly across from Hidden Trails.

If I had taken the bus to school during my junior year, I would have met her sooner. A later incident at school ended the friendship.

In my senior year, I started staying with my father in Darby’s boatyard. I lived in a camper and rode to school each day. It was much closer to school and easier to get around.

On Friday and Saturday nights, I worked a part-time job as the doorman at the Port Townsend Dance Collective which was hosted by Jeffrey at the masonic temple uptown.

Jeff got me involved with the Big Brothers and Sisters program as it was being implemented. I wasn’t entirely confident I could do a good job. But didn’t feel comfortable turning him down. I never liked disappointing people when I was younger. I rarely stood up for myself.

I think at some point the program merged with Island County and Jeff was no longer involved. I let them know I was only there as a favor to Jeff and didn’t wish to continue.

As you might imagine, that did not go over well with the staff. I believe I heard something along the lines of “think of the children.” It was very uncomfortable but I think I must have been firm about my decision because I don’t recall going back.

I’m off on a tangent here. Best stop before it becomes my life’s story.

Continued in F & Fir Street

Daily Writing, Errant Literary, Travel

On Walkabout: Eddy Street

October 23, 2025 Kasanje 1 Comment

After breakfast on Thursday, I decided to walk across town to my old house on Eddy Street.

1265 Eddy. It was part of a first time home owners project. There were six homes to be built, 3 each on two different streets. The future homeowners took part in the construction process.

I recall afternoons after school visiting the work sites where my mother was busy hammering nails and hoisting lumber.

After construction I lived in a big two-story home with a nice yard, a tree out back and my dog. I had my own room, we had a guest room for company.

A friend of my mother visiting from Canada stayed with us once. And another friend lived with us for a time in the guest room. She had a little one-eyed cat, I think it’s name was Fafnir.

I would ride my bicycle to Grant Street where I attended an alternative school program called ICE. It provided some classroom instruction for home schooled children. After graduating ICE, I attended the local high-school through my sophomore year. From then on I rode the bus most mornings, unless I slept in.

My mother worked at the nurse’s station at Jefferson hospital for a awhile but she couldn’t continue.

The housing was an inventive idea, but we couldn’t make the payments on the mortgage and sadly had to sell the home. We got very little after paying the bank back. After that we lived in a single-wide trailer outside of town on a gravel and dirt track named Hidden Trails Road.

Continued in On Walkabout: Hidden Trails Road

Errant Literary, Travel

Out in the Bay

Video October 22, 2025 Kasanje 2 Comments

Sailing in Port Townsend Bay

Daily Writing, Errant Literary, Travel

Paved Away and Gone From Sight

October 22, 2025 Kasanje Leave a comment

One of my childhood homes was down in an old funky boatyard, nestled away below an old railroad track. The boatyard was home to many folk working on boats and dreams of returning to the water.

Up a short slope there was the old track and down an embankment on the far side was a beach, partly stones and partly sand. At low tide you could walk all the way to the ruins of an trestle bridge.

Many a meal included shellfish gathered from the beach or fresh vegetables grown in a little garden beside our home. We lived in a small 12 foot trailer parked beside an old step van. The van in turn had been expanded using scrap wood and construction materials to include a workshop alongside it.

Now years later I stand atop the spot where our roof would have been. The entire old funky boat yard is gone. All that remains is a sandy paved driveway and parking area with a lavatory nearby.

I had seen it once before after returning from school in Oregon. I think seeing now has had more of an impact on me. Being older now I feel a greater void when recalling the past and from my memories the life I once lived.

Also gone is the trestle bridge, that at least was still there 18 years ago. Now the beach is uncluttered excepting of course the driftwood, a staple sight in the PNW.

After the trestle beach we drove through downtown and on to the other harbor. I saw connsiderably more buildings around there than we had in the past. The whole town has seen much development.

Other parts seemed the same. The food co-op hadn’t changed a great deal other than some interior remodeling. The public library and uptown businesses still stood. Although, Aldrich’s had been rebuilt. I think I heard it had burned down while I was away at school.

In the harbor I got a good look at another boat my father shares with a delightful lady who lives in the flat below his home.

The beach here was also littered with driftwood and seaweed. The pungent aroma of salt and seaweed could not be avoided.

Daily Writing

Camping? Not since childhood.

May 4, 2024 Kasanje Leave a comment

Have you ever been camping?

I think my last time camping was when I in the Boy Scouts. We had a big meet up with the other area chapters which included the Sea Scouts.

I recall that on a different camping trip, I had left the tent door open and it rained. The tent and all my belongings were soaked through.

If my tentmate is reading this, I’m very sorry for the wet night.

I spent the night and the next day shivering in my Long John’s near the campfire. A sorry sight indeed.

I also forgot that I had packed my spare (dry) clothes in the bottom of my pack. I was struggling with ADD back then and was often spacing out important details. I only noticed the clothes after I returned home and was unpacking.

Earlier camping trips included visiting the natural hot springs in the Olympic Mountains of WA. Skiing trips at Mount Rainier and Mount Baker.

There were a few camping trips that included my mother. We camped in the designated park area at Fort Warden. She preferred the comfortable surroundings of home for the most part.

One season, while on a beachside camping trip, in our small sailing skiff, my father raided a seagull nest for eggs. He fried them over the fire on an old steel barrel lid that he found washed up on the shoreline.

I experienced #Vanlife early on. My father had outfitted his old dodge van with a bed, wood stove, a gas cooker, and various other comforts of home.

We would sleep in the van when he went to craft shows like Best of the Northwest and to the Barter Fairs in Eastern Washington out near Tonasket, Yakima, and Omak.

Actually, I was born at the general hospital in Tonasket. Although my family eventually settled in Port Townsend, after their step van broke down, the sagebrush and scrub land was always a second home for me.

That’s it for today. Thank you for reading.

Questions and comments, please put them below, and have a great day.

Errant Literary

My Hometown is Pretty

February 14, 2024 Kasanje Leave a comment

I had one of them fancy new AI things write this up. If I were to write this thing up myself, all I would have to say is that Port Townsend is the BEST. End of story.

Nestled at the northeastern tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State lies the picturesque town of Port Townsend. With its rich history, stunning natural beauty, vibrant arts scene, and unique Victorian architecture, Port Townsend offers visitors a truly unforgettable experience. Let’s delve into what makes this charming town a must-visit destination.

A Historic Haven

Port Townsend’s history dates back to the mid-19th century when it was originally established as a seaport town. Its strategic location on the Puget Sound made it a hub for maritime trade, and remnants of its maritime heritage can still be seen today in its well-preserved Victorian-era buildings and historic waterfront.

One of the town’s most iconic landmarks is the Port Townsend Historic District, which boasts over 50 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Stroll down the streets lined with ornate Victorian homes, browse the quaint shops housed in historic buildings, and immerse yourself in the town’s rich maritime history at the Northwest Maritime Center.

Natural Splendor

Beyond its historic charm, Port Townsend is surrounded by breathtaking natural beauty. From the rugged coastline of the Olympic Peninsula to the lush forests of Olympic National Park, outdoor enthusiasts will find plenty to explore.

Take a leisurely hike along one of the many scenic trails in the area, such as the Larry Scott Memorial Trail, which offers stunning views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. Or, for a truly unique experience, head to Fort Worden State Park, where you can explore abandoned military bunkers and enjoy panoramic views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Art and Culture

Port Townsend has long been a haven for artists and creatives, and its vibrant arts scene reflects this heritage. The town is home to numerous art galleries, studios, and performance spaces, showcasing the work of local artisans and performers.

Be sure to visit the Port Townsend School of the Arts, where you can take workshops and classes in a variety of mediums, from painting and pottery to photography and fiber arts. And don’t miss the numerous festivals and events held throughout the year, including the Port Townsend Film Festival, the Wooden Boat Festival, and the Kinetic Sculpture Race.

Culinary Delights

No visit to Port Townsend would be complete without sampling the local culinary delights. The town boasts a thriving food scene, with an abundance of farm-to-table restaurants, cozy cafes, and artisanal bakeries.

Indulge in fresh seafood straight from the waters of the Puget Sound, savor artisanal cheeses and chocolates from local producers, and sip on craft beers and wines from the region’s many breweries and wineries. And be sure to check out the Port Townsend Farmers Market, held every Saturday from April to December, where you can sample the best of the region’s bounty.

Community Spirit

What truly sets Port Townsend apart is its strong sense of community. Despite its small size, the town is a vibrant and welcoming place, with a tight-knit community of residents who are passionate about preserving its heritage and fostering its cultural richness.

Whether you’re attending a local community event, volunteering with a local nonprofit organization, or simply striking up a conversation with a friendly local, you’ll quickly feel at home in Port Townsend.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Port Townsend, is a hidden gem of the Pacific Northwest, offering visitors a unique blend of history, natural beauty, arts, and culture. Whether you’re exploring its historic streets, hiking its scenic trails, or indulging in its culinary delights, you’re sure to fall in love with this charming town. So why not plan your visit today and discover all that Port Townsend has to offer?