Northwest Rigging,
The Realm of the Furler King
Letters
Gateway to the Sea
Glad Giffords Are Doing the Cruising Column
of Sailing Enchantment
Behan Gifford’s article, “Legos in the Bilges,” in the
June issue reminded me of why I decided to relinquish
my 48° North column “Realistic Cruising,” to the Giffords.
W
e
’r
e slashing
urling
Roller Swaging • Furlers • Lifelines • Masts
The article really points out the huge rewards for families
P
r
ices on F ou!
Marine:
Architectural: Hardware • Stainless Steel Wire cruising with their children. Cruising with them when they
units for y
Phone: (360) 293-1154 Fax: (360) 293-1837
were a family of three and cruising with them this winter
Email: nwrig@cnw.com
as a family of five, makes me wish that we had been able
www.northwestrigginginc.com
to raise a cruising family. Being a very early party to their
adventure, I know the amount of thought, effort, and time
that Jamie and Behan invested in making it doable. Jim
and I have watched, as Totem became a “custom home.”
Divesting themselves of things happened gradually.
It is very hard to make this transition without a deep
commitment.
We knew giving up Nalu IV would come in time. She
is in Long Beach now and will be in the fleet that heads to
Baja next fall. Her long-range itinerary will be familiar to
her as she transits the Panama Canal to the Caribbean. She
will return to the Pacific through the Canal and head out
toward the islands of the South Seas.
We have a new home, MV Nalu, a 1974 wood, Grand
32 furling units installed since the Boat Show, and counting...
Banks Alaskan 53. She is number seven of the series of
12 built in Hong Kong. She was in terrible shape with
tons of dry rot, fuel tanks that, after seven years of non-
use, were filled with a substance that looked like raw
ULTIMATE DINGHY LADDER
brownie batter with walnuts, and twin John Deere 180’s,
rebuilt-but-never-used engines. By the time we had taken
INFLATABLE &
her from Chesapeake to Ft. Lauderdale, it was clear she
HARDSIDE MODELS:
couldn’t make it across the Gulf on her own bottom. With
Jim aboard, and the cat riding as a stowaway, she traveled
in style to Ensenada, Mexico while I drove back. Jim built
a separate fuel system, polishing fuel from our old tanks
into 55-gallon drums in the cockpit, then back to the fuel
manifold to the engines. It took us a month to get from
Ensenada to San Francisco. Going North in March isn’t
warm and dry. In addition, unlike Nalu IV, wind and rough
water are not MV Nalu’s strong points.
2 STEP - 40” INFLATABLE Jim has restored her and she is a comfortable home and
fuel friendly power boat. On her boat deck is a 13’ Whaler
and a Holder 12 (sail). We recognize our limitations and
try to ignore them as much as possible. Although we aren’t
among the cruising fleet, we are the stopover for many
• Collapses to 16”
sailors we have known over the years. Skype has made
• Extends Rigidly into Water
it possible to talk around the world, and we never know
what awaits us each day.
2 STEP - 35” 3 STEP - 46”
• Stainless Steel Construction To those lovely folks who stopped by the 48° North
HARDSIDE INFLATABLE
booth at Sail Expo, we were thrilled to chat with you. To
those who didn’t make it, we still think of you and the
wonderful friends that we have in Puget Sound. Perhaps
our wakes will cross again.
MARINE LADDERS
BUY ONLINE AT
Fair winds to all,
www.up-n-out.com
SCANDIA MARINE PRODUCTS
(651) 433-5058 • www.scandiamarineproducts.com
Diana Jessie
48° No r t h , Au g u s t 2009 PA g e 16
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