Some thoughts on returning to boating

[BillF]

I am sharing these thoughts in the hope that those who are planning boating events may be influenced by them, and that others may chime in with pertinent views.

For quite some time, Louise and I have not been able to participate in the many NWCBC events. Our most significant reason has been that my wife's mother, who has lived with us for a little over ten years, has required our close attention for several years, and she was unable to be left alone at all during the last part of her life. This dear lady passed away (at 94) during the last week of October, and we were blessed to have her with us as long as we did. Having four generations in one house was pretty cool. Although it may be some time before my wife and I are physically and mentally able to lead normal lives again, we do hope to get to where we can be more involved in boating activities.

As a related factor, neither of us qualifies as a "spring chicken" any more. Our days of overnighting on board are long over. Our idea of roughing it now is to drop way down to a three-star motel.

I hope that I am not the only NWCBC member who really enjoys the local and the televised college football games, mostly played on Saturdays, or the related Bowl Games that are tacked on to the end of the season. There are six bowl games on January 1, somewhat influencing my enthusiasm for the Jan. 1 planned NWCBC event. Because I am retired, unlike many of the NWCBC members, I have a preference for having some events occur at times other than on Saturdays, but most strongly during the football season. Are there enough others in this general category to allow the scheduling of just a few boating events on non-Saturdays?

What are your thoughts?

[Lootas1]

I think those of us who are retired, jobless or have a job or business where we are free to go at any time, should defer to those who are working the 9-5 routine. (Although I suspect our group is larger than those who only have weekends off.) It appears to me that turnout at events is generally quite low and events should be scheduled to be at a time when most members can participate.
Like you, I do like watching football and I used to think it had to be watched live. For the past few years, I've been recording the games and watching them when I want to watch them. I figure the days I have left are to precious to spend watching stupid commercials. This way a 3 hour game can be watched in about 2 hours and, if I get too many games recorded and unwatched, I fast foward as soon as the whistle blows to end a play and the jump usually takes me to time to see the ball snapped on the next play.
Like you, I too have generally given up sleeping on the boat and gave away my tent, sleeping bags, etc. years ago. That made it difficult for Becky and me to do the Chelan outing. Would have liked to had a cabin to sleep in but our dog is our baby and there was no one to take care of her while we were gone and couldn't find a room around Chelan or at Stehekin that allowed dogs. Considered taking the fifth wheel trailer over, returning to Lummi Island to get the boat and family. Decided we couldn't afford the gas and ferry fares.
Okay, you asked my thoughts. There they are. I believe if we need to make a choice between boating and watching TV, we can hardly call ourselves boaters.

[Tim McCrain]

Event scheduling

Bill,

I moved this thread to the Events Discussion forum, this seemed a more appropriate place for it.

Sorry to hear of your mother-in-law's passing. I can definitely relate to your experience caring for her, and the feeling of "we now return you to your life, already in progress". Kinda strange, isn't it, to suddenly be able to choose what to do with your time? You don't fully realize how your life revolved around their needs until it doesn't have to anymore.

As far as the event scheduling, primary factors are what works for the person / persons volunteering their time to coordinate it, location-dependent factors such as venue availability, tides, etc. and the general preferences of the members. What I've seen in my time in the club is that Saturday works for the majority of our members for various reasons and in general seems to be the preferred day. So much so, in fact, that when overnight events are scheduled an effort is made to arrange the event so that people who can't stay overnight can come on Saturday for the day and participate in the "main event".

My personal feeling, not being a huge sports fan, is that if what we're doing isn't more attractive than a televised football game, or for that matter anything on TV, then we're definitely not doing it right.

Many of our members (myself included) don't find camping as enjoyable as we used to and an effort is always made to choose overnight locations that offer more refined accomodations. However, we can only work so much into the planning, and if we were to try to consider things like where folks with dogs could rent a room, (sorry Jerry & Becky!) youth soccer shedules, or what games were on TV, we would never be able to schedule an event. It would be great if we could avoid conflicts with the many other activities our members enjoy but it just isn't possible.

Tim

[Lootas1]

Tim,
Want you to know that I think you and the event coordinators are doing a terrific job and if I won't leave our pup in a kennel, that's my problem, certainly not yours. As always, I put a lot of events on my calendar and have good intentions. Then stuff comes along to mess up my plans.
Jerry

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Event Scheduling

Bill -

Nice to see you on the message board again, and welcome back to NWCBC boating...even though everyone's sorry to hear the background regarding your mother-in-law's passing.

What's amazing, when you consider how crazy-busy everyone's lives seem to have become in recent years, is that we get anyone at boat-club events. Even though boating with friends is way more fun than a lot of other activities, so many of us appear to be overwhelmed with multiple jobs, endless money pressures, home-related repair/maintenance checklists, family activities with kids and grandkids, cars and trucks that need (more) work, etc. etc., to the point that we can't make enough time for pure fun.

Mo and I took our first 'vacation' in years last month, and it was only five days on the Oregon Coast. Before that, I think we had three or four days cruising in the Gulf Islands in 2007, and a full week boating in Barkley Sound and Clayoquot Sound back in 2005. (The old idea of two- or three-week vacations is out the window, and often it's hard to break free for NWCBC one-day events, let alone weekend-long adventures...although we manage to stay involved in a lot of on-the-water gatherings and love them.)

No complaints about our busy lives, just an observation that everyone seems hugely preoccupied with the business of getting from one month to the next, especially in the economic world we now occupy.

Speaking personally, we recently made a commitment to fight for more leisure time. I'm not talking about major life changes--just more low-budget, pre-planned weekend getaways, so we don't feel like we're on an endless treadmill. At age 55, I imagined I'd retire at maybe 65, but that was then. At age 68, I no longer think about retirement--it isn't in the cards, financially speaking--but the clock is ticking and we want to make the most of every year we've got, and do as much boating with friends as possible...until somebody tells us we're too feeble to operate the damned boat.

So, Jerry's got a good point: Record the football games for later viewing, hook up the old boat and get out on the water. It's way more soul-satisfying than the endless beer and truck commercials!

- Marty

[bham-rick]

Hospitality Industry

I'm not a big sports fan but I work in the Hospitality Industry and work Tuesday thru Sat. Sat. is our busiest day and I work evenings. So to get a Sat. off is a major deal which makes it hard to attend just about all the events. I have found that Sunday is a good day because most of the folks are leaving to return home and the dock space is easier to find in the summer.

[GregJ]

Bill and Jerry, I am also retired and the week ends are very importend to me also. I do go to a lot of events but I also spend most of my time on the water alone during the week days. I think this is the best time to go out because there is usually a lot less traffic at the launch and on the water. I think there's enough of us old retired geezers that would like to get together during the week that maybe we can organize some week day events where we can cruz together. I would much rather cruz with other people then alone. Jerry, Susie and I would be more than happy to let your dog stay with us at night on board while you guys stay in one of the rooms at Stehekin. I like dogs more than people so I think that would be great. Something for us to think about.

[John Berg]

Go Huskies

A few years ago I took Ideal down to the cove in front of Husky stadium and listened to the game on the radio at anchor. You can hear the roar of the crowd coming from the stadium before you even know what happened on the radio because of the delay. Pretty fun. They even have electric boats that give you rides to shore so you can people watch or enjoy a beverage. A floatilla of Classic boats tailgateing would be a cool sight to see. Boating and football at the same time? Yes, this is a perfect world. And than you have the rest of the day to explore. John

[McSkagit Tim Jones]

Finding Time - Priorities

Good points made by Jerry, Tim, Marty and John. I see the issue as priorities. As one of my close friends was fond of saying in our 20's, "You can't do it all".

If you've been off the water for a while I suggest you unplug the flat screen for a weekend and joint the boating clan. One glorious day on the water can be a life changing event. Some of my best memories on the water were (are) early in the morning....flat calm...a little mist rising from the water....the fragrance of freshly brewed coffee and the aroma of bacon wafting on the salt air."

I went nearly a year and a half marooned on dry land after I sold my tow boat. Spending an afternoon on the mooring buoy at Jones Island on the Saratogan....wasn't difficult to think....wow, what have I been missing?!

You've probably seen the bumper stickers: A bad day on the water is better than a good day on the freeway! or "Kill your television!"

Here on the club forum, we've kicked the topic of priorities around quite a bit.
We concluded: You can't have too many interests, too many boats and/or too many wives telling you how many interests and boats you can have.............

Time and money are tight for a lot of people....still have to MAKE time!

Tim

P.S. If anyone has a problem with the picture I've attached, let me know, I'll take it down.

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Saturdays or Sundays?

Are there other club members who work on Saturday, like Rick, and who'd prefer Sunday for boating events?

Hey, Tim--great shot of the old Buick and color-matched boat. I assume that was taken Mukilteo?

- Marty

[westerner]

I'm retired also and have always wondered if there would be enough interest in events scheduled on Sunday or better yet during the week. I would be interested for sure and it looks like at least a small number of us could get something together anyway. Even somthing impromptu would work. During the summer and fall I am on the water often and avoid the ramps whenever possible on weekends. It's amazing how flat the water is on Monday as compared to say, Saturday. The attached photo is at the South Whidbey ramp on a summer weekday. The parking lot typically has one other vehicle and trailer. Love it.

[BillF]

Thanks for the good comments and suggestions. This certainly is a good group of folks. It looks like there are more than enough of us with similar feelings to do a few non-Saturday things. These do not have to be grand in scope, nor planned really far in advance. Perhaps just a little running around on local lakes?

Perhaps I did not make it clear enough that I was thinking of additional get-togethers, rather than replacing any of the standard events, so that those who can participate only on Saturdays would not lose anything. Rather, those who prefer (or can only participate on) non-Saturdays could expand their choices. There is a lot to be said for missing the summer Saturday crowds and almost out-of-control boats, and for seeing fall football games without already knowing the outcomes. There is no necessity to choose between being a boater or something else. We can come close to having it all, with a bit of planning.

I have to do a little preparation of my boat, Bluejacket, and then I'll be eager to go.

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Boating on Sundays and Weekdays

Bill -

Since it's been awhile, perhaps you could post a few photos of your boat....(?)

Let us know when you and others want to go boating next Spring-Summer-Fall, on some of those non-Saturdays. You never know when some of us might break away from normal schedules to enjoy a little weekday boating.

- Marty

[Helmar]

Carol and I are sure planing on boating During the week.
To me, a day is a day so I am not apposed to working through a weekend to free up some week days.

The Plan is, make this run again and go boating.

[Tim McCrain]

Melanie,

It's not really fair to post photos like that in the middle of winter!

That first photo really says it all, doesn't it? What a great shot, it really puts you there, I can almost hear morning bird calls floating across the water and smell the coffee. That's what it's all about.

Tim