House and stuff

NEW HOUSE!!! NEW HOUSE!!!!!
We haven't quite signed the paperwork yet, but expect to take care of all the formalities this week. We're taking over on May 20th., so after that date we'll be ready for a lot of visitors. We'll have the paintbrushes ready for your arrival. . .

The 80ies are alive inside this place, so we'll spare you the interior photos. Here's the backyard.


"Why should I visit Trondheim," you ask? Because you can do things like take the bus to the woods, where fun awaits. Some skiing action may ensue.

Our fearless leader points the way.

Notice Trondheim in the background of this one.

Mmm, waffles and coffee at the ski hut.

Aaaaa, look out, here he comes!

Fin.

A walk to the U-boat base

Greetings, all. Here is a photo montage of our walk to an old German U-boat base that's located behind the hill seen in the distance of this photo:


Yup, here it is. Cool.

An old bunker. Now a good place to smoke some crack.

Nothing beats a seaside picnic after seeing a U-boat base.

P.S. We bought a pimp-ass house near downtown Trondheim. The move-in date is May 20th. Details to follow sometime between now and then.

An Amazing Trip???

Hello, all. Yes, big things were promised for today's blog, wind turbines, adventures, and all, but I'm terribly sorry to say that I won't deliver, yet. Saturday morning we got our butts up mega-uber-early to go tour the Smølna wind park. About 30 brave souls showed up to take part. Only one person was missing, but that person was the bus driver, along with his bus. So, after standing around in the snow for an hour or so, the event to end all events was postponed, hopefully just a week or two.

Aw, no, wait, wait! Don't close the browser window just yet, please! We need visitors! My adversisers are going to kill me! I'll still try to entertain you, really! Yes, a story... hm... Let's see... Um, how about, the story of K and M going to... Ikea! Yes. Ikea, in search of a mattress pad and frozen meatballs.

Ok, uh, so we walked, around, um, in the general direction of Ikea, and... Yeah, so here's a picture of an old fort in Tondheim, and the view from its walls over the downtown area. Picture Genghis Kahn and his army of Moguls storming the walls, as the Vikings shoot volleys of flaming arrows and pour burning tar on the invaders! (Could have happened, you never know...)



Walked around, some other stuff happened, or didn't, and hey, there's Ikea! M plots all the extra stuff she's going to buy.

They were out of frozen meatballs, but they had some mattress pads. A celebratory ice cream was in order.

We went home, and then went out for a coffee at the library cafe. The library is built upon the remains of a church from like the 11th century or something. They have dead guys lying around.

(This blog has been brought to you by Ikea. Ikea: Restock your Damn Meatballs!)

Quick update for anyone who wants to know

Hi. Um. I don't really have much to say today, but I've seen enough TV to know that it's smart to provide your audience with a teaser to keep them interested and watching your show. (Then you hit them with advertisments and rake in the cash. I'm still working on that part.) But anyways, here is the teaser:

"A rocky, windswept isle off the arctic Atlantic coast... A perfect location for giant wind turbines, which generate electricity to light our homes! How do these great white beasts work? Who built them, and how? And what if something... goes wrong!? Our heros will risk life, limb, and an otherwise free Saturday to bring you an up-close look at... The Smølna Windpark!!! (Brought to you by Narvesen Convenience Stores. Narvesen: How Many Bacon Sausages Can YOU Eat?)"

Heisan fra Trondheim

Hello friends! It has been a while, hasn't it? Let me be the first to send greetings from the far-away and exotic land of Norway! How exotic, you ask? Let me give you an example: 7-Eleven bakes their own fresh whole-wheat bread! And it's freaking awesome. Also, the "erotic film" section is dispayed right next to the "drama" at the video rental stand at the local convenience store. Cheap wine costs the equivalent of $14. And... well... heck, otherwise it's really not that different, when it comes down to it: you can get an Old El Paso taco dinner pack at the supermarket. Minimal culture shock for K, so far. (Of course, to M this is coming home.)
For those of you who are wondering, yes, it is dark much of the day here, but it's not that bad. It gets light around 8, and it gets dark around 3:30. And it's cold, but not Minnesota cold. They don't salt the roads and sidewalks here, just gravel, if that, so we've learned the art of shoe-skating to the store and back.

So yes, we are still alive and well. Let's summarize the boring details: we got to Berkeley, moved in with K's parents, and K locked himself in the bedroom to try to finish up his self-initiated personal transportation research project that he hoped would be his ticket to his Ph.D dream. Two repetitive-strain injured wrists later, he finally looked online and learned how desparate Norway is for Ph.D candidates -- in fact, any engineers. So a couple weeks later he found himself the top candidate for a project on deep-sea offshore wind turbines, with a start-date in January.

In the meantime, Mariann was busy working on the boat and getting it looking good for the next leg. But with a severely distracted and uninterested Captain, she was finally persuaded to give up on warm-weather cruising for the present. Yes, she is a little dissappointed, but consoled herself with the fact that 6 weeks of cruising is better than none, and that a relocation to Trondheim, Norway, would be the start of a new adventure of a different kind. By the way, if you're looking to buy a top-class cruising boat, contact Dave Wolff at Pacific Yacht Imports, Alameda, CA.

We've got some photos to share. First, proof that Seattlites can thrive in the milder climes of the San Francisco Bay Area. (Sorry, Jay, Julie, and Laurel, but I don't think we took any photos with our camera when you were in town.)




Next, some initial sights from Trondheim. We're renting a 1-bedroom apartment right next to the downtown area. We hope to buy a house by the summer, at which point you should all start planning your visits to the far North.

Here my finger is pointing to the place where we live.

M in tha house, y'all.

Seattle - San Francisco (Part III)

We join the crew of Ho-Beaux as they pull out of the Crescent City harbor. A large 8-10 foot swell greets them as they round the breakwater and are exposed to the open ocean. But strange, rather than the forecast 20 knots wind, there is... nothing. Nary a puff to be found. And let me tell you, out of all the conditions to be out in, apart from, say, a hurricane, nothing is worse than a big swell and no wind. The forward motion and lean of a sailboat stabilizes it; without wind, the waves rock the boat back and forth. You've got to keep the mainsail up to damp the motion a bit, but then the sail slaps and jerks back and forth with the boat, shaking everything with a jarring "thunk!" each time. Ugh.

We forgot the logbook again, so I'll spare you the details of each day. No matter, they more or less blend together anyways. The first couple were spent in the uncomfortable conditions described above. Catching the occasional light breeze, we made slow progress Southward. After a couple days, still no wind, but the seas flattened out. It wasn't really unpleasant to spend the day on deck, relaxing in the sun and reading. Every time a light breeze came up, we'd spring into action, setting the sails and windvane, and making a couple hours' progress before the wind died.

So, blah, blah, we made it to the Bay Area. Yay.

What was noteworthy about the voyage was the wildlife. The best story? We're sitting in the cockpit reading on an especially calm day. Out of the sky comes this little puffball -- I think he was a sparrow? -- who lands on the deck a few feet away. Now, we're something like 40 miles offshore at the time, and he's a land bird who eats bugs and stuff, so I've no clue what he was thinking flying out there. The boat, as mentioned previously, makes all sorts of creaky clacky noises, and he's scared of every sound. He's clearly exhausted from flying, so eventually he convinces himself that it's not worth being scared, and goes to sleep.

We made an effort to not be too threatening, and he got used to us moving around, and would hop all over the deck around us, pecking at dustballs, flecks of dirt, and whatnot. We thought he might be hungry, and put out some food, but he wouldn't touch it. Apparently, sparrows don't like:
- Cocoa Puffs
- Crushed almonds
- Wheat crackers
- Red bell peppers
- Bread crumbs
That's why I think he likes bugs.

He kept trying to walk through the plexiglass dropboards on our hatch:


He'd fly away from time to time, realize there's no land in sight, come back aboard, and hop around some more. One time, he flew over the plexiglass dropboards and into our cabin. The last we saw him, he was in the bunk we use to store various large items; suddenly he was gone. Either he finally flew away to his doom, or he had a birdie-heart-attack and is deceased in our bunk; we haven't found him yet. [Editor's Note: It was a birdie-heart-attack. M found his corpse under our vacuum cleaner cord.]

Sea Lions:
An albatross:
A Humpback whale:

Point Reyes:
Pelicans:
Lots of birds:

A pelican diving for supper:

Approaching Golden Gates. . .


The bay is crowded! After barely dodging an army of aggressive racing boats we learned that the Saturday we arrived was in the middle of the Big boat Rolex series or something to that effect.

So, we're here, and probably will be until at least mid November. Anyone who'd like to visit is welcome.

Seattle - San Francisco (Part II)

After deciding to bow out from the approaching squall, we landed in Crescent City Monday afternoon. The decision was not an easy one, as the forcasted winds would for once be in the right direction and presumably carry us very quickly to our final destination. That is as long as they didn't pitch us over and sink us first. . . More than the level of winds, it was the forcasted dangerous seas that scared us. So far on the trip, we had maybe seen seas of half of what was now forcasted, and 20 ft waves in confused seas did not sound too appealing to two sailors who were already fairly tired after a week of not getting much sleep.

A small island with seabirds as we're pulling into Crescent City Marina:

Crescent beach close to the Marina we stayed at:
Crescent City supposedly had a charming downtown by the waterfront up until 1964, when it was wiped out by a Tsunami. The downtown was rebuilt on higher ground, but unfortunately the architecture at the time was pretty void of any charms. The city had the feel of recent decline, and a walk along the residential street facing the Pacific Ocean revealed that about 20% of the houses were for sale. Contrary to the downtown, a lot of the houses were artfuly decorated with old surfboards, fishing bouys and a lot of woodcarvings and wood-sculptures. Definitely a blue collar town, it appeared that a lot of the traditional jobs in fishing, shipping and forestry were in decline, and the painful transition to a fickle tourist-based economy had started. The biggest new projects touted by the Del Norte County economic outlook brochure was a Walmart and a Home Depot (oh, my...).
If the ecomony of the town looked like it could need some help, the people in town at least have a lot of options for what to do with their free time. The town had some impressive beaches, and surfing appeared to be a favorite pastime. Other than that, the most popular attractions in town was an old picturesque lighthouse, the vast marine life and of course the nearby Redwood forest.

We spent our first day walking into town, to the lighthouse and onward toward some beaches on the northwest side of town. Part of our mission was to get a closer look at what the ocean looked like in the gale. We walked out to a promontory that faced the North; the wind was so strong it about blew you over. You could lean over at a good angle. We decided that we were glad not to be out there.


Now a lesson in natural history. The beaches were bordered by a 20-foot high cliff on the landward side, made of sedimentary rocks. (First photo) The rock layer exposed at the bottom of the cliff was full of embedded clamshells! (Second photo) So this layer had been also a beach long ago, covered by 20-plus feet of sediment over time, compressed into rock, then raised up by plate tectonics, and finally uncovered by erosion from waves. I wonder how old those shells are? Tens of thousands of years? Hundreds of thousands? K took a souvenir (third photo).

There were some cool plants by the beach. This slimy stuff was interesting:
The nearby grasslands were dense with an incredible variety of plants:
The next day we hiked out to the Redwood forest. This forest is also where the land-speeder scene on Endor in Return of The Jedi was filmed. (For real this time, Jeff...)

See if you can spot K in this one:

We'd been optimistic, and brought our swimming stuff, just in case we came across some water. We were hiking on a dirt forest road, when we came across a trail to Mill Creek. Ooo, a creek! So we hiked a mile or so. And, (cue angels singing: aaaaaaaaaa) through an opening in the trees, THERE IT WAS. The Perfect Swimming Hole, complete with a rope swing!!!
Karl getting in (Yes, the rope was the only graceful way to get in):

Not a good picture, but the only proof we have that M (eventually) got in via the rope as well:
Our third day in town, we were planning to rent surfing gear, but it was cold and overcast and in a bout of laziness and anti-epic-making mood we decided to stay in and read instead. Saturday we finally cast off for what was forcasted to be still pretty strong northwesterly winds (20 - 25 kts) and 12 foot seas...

Will the stalwart crew of Ho-Beaux complete their epic journey? Or will they be smashed to bits by waves and become a shark's breakfast? Tune in next time, for Part III...