A New Jazz Venue is Born!

With the end of a jazz epoch here in Bellingham, drummer Julian McDonough moving on and leaving long-time partner saxophonist Mike Allen without his sideman, jazz as I have come to know and love it seemed to have come to a sudden and sad end. I honestly didn't know what I was going to do to hear exceptionally well played jazz in our community.

Then I went out to The Temple Bar Saturday night from 6-8 and fell in love all over again. This time with the Blake Angelos Trio. I've heard Blake play with Julian and other musicians in the past and loved his style of piano jazz, but Saturday night something clicked. It was certainly the combination of musicians, but it was also the crowd and the space.

Blake had pulled together two other members of his trio that just made a superb combination. Mark Hunter, a young bassist in the jazz studies program at the University of Washington, makes regular trips home on the weekends to play with Blake and others. Mark is a stunning talent, assertive and with impeccable intonation, his playing made him a strong and sophisticated partner in this ensemble.

Cary Stevens has played with Blake regularly and while he doesn't have the range of creativity and talent of Julian McDonough he was easily able to maintain a strong command of the beat in a variety of styles, adding riffs in just the right places to keep the music varied and interesting.

As if the trio's playing wasn't enough, the venue added to the effect. The Temple Bar is a very popular area establishment with a varied wine, beer and cocktail menu as well as a long list of delicious, distinctive small plates from which to choose.

The funky decor attracts a varied crowd of young and old alike. It is warm and intimate reminding me of some of the small jazz clubs found in much bigger cities. A crowd of about 25-30, many familiar faces, crowded into the side room and enthusiastically approved of the varied jazz standards the trio played.

So, I awoke this Sunday morning confident that jazz is still alive and well in little Bellingham and that, at least for a little while, the Blake Angelos Trio will keep my jazz habit very satisfied. Thanks Blake!

A Great Day on the Boat!

Well, I've used that title before, and meant it. But today, after a couple of weeks of rain and foul weather on days that I might otherwise have been at the boat, a day off and a beautiful day coincided.

So we packed up the car with cleaning stuff--towels, cleaners, buckets and so on. Arriving at the harbor and walking down the gangway pushing our cart in front of us to the dock, we were greeted by scattered pieces of driftwood stacked along the dock and more drifting about the muddy water along with bits of trash and debris, a far cry from the more placid green water reflecting a sunny summer sky only a few short weeks ago.

We strolled on down the dock and turning down our dock The Key of Sea came into view. She looked beautiful sitting there just as we had left her. How I had missed her.

We passed our things on board and got to work. Leslie headed for the galley and head to started doing some deep cleaning with disinfectants. I opened up the engine room compartments and began scrubbing the engines and the entire compartment from top to bottom.

I started with the port side engine for no particular reason. After covering the air filter with a plastic bag, I began spraying Simple Green in full concentrated form all over the engine, then applied a little elbow grease with the help of a brush to help scrub down the metal surfaces. I scrubbed down the gas tank, hoses, battery cases and finally the deck itself. With low water pressure, lest I get water into places it shouldn't be, I rinsed everything down until places once covered in diesel oil, grease and the dust from last summer's fiberglass work began to sparkle.

I placed one foot on the case of the engine starter batteries and another on the muffler and stepped up and out of the engine room. I cranked the port-side engine to life and let the warming motor dry the water off. The bilge pump continued emptying the lowest regions around the keel.

Taking a look around the much cleaner deck in the engine room I noticed some holes I hadn't seen before. Small holes, probably from former screws that had been removed. I just groaned at the thought that here were more places where water could easily enter the wooden interior of the fiberglass outer coating. Here I was spraying fresh water around in a place I thought had been sealed up tight after last summer's work in this compartment. Apparently the shop had missed these spots. I walked over to LFS and inquired about the best product to seal up these holes and purchased the goop. Returning to the boat I found two jars of goo were in the box I had purchased. They needed to be blended in equal amounts for 2 1/2 minutes, then dabbed into the offending holes. After about 20 minutes the job was done--mission accomplished!

After shutting down the engine I descended back into the engine room, this time on the starboard side and began the cleaning process on that side. Finally, the compartment was beginning to look like my goal which is to be able to eat off of the floor. Well, maybe a few more layers to remove yet but I'll get there or as close as is possible. Take a look at the before and after photos above to get some idea of what things look like.

After everything was dry on the port side, I crawled back down into the compartment with a can of primer paint and some cardboard. Carefully positioning the cardboard here and there I was able to put a first coat of the blue primer on spots of corrosion and rust, leaving the engine looking nearly new. The effect is remarkable and looking down on the finished job at the end of the day left me feeling like I had really accomplished something. When my mechanic, Travis, comes back next year, he should be able to gaze down into a very different engine room from the one he met last August.

Another big accomplishment, one I can't take responsibility for other than setting it in motion, was finding our new inflatable dinghy connected to the swim step, on a new davit system and ready to go.

As always seems to be the case, there is routinely something new to deal with. I found a small leak in the "pass me a beer" hatch. This small hatch from the flybridge to the salon is pretty useful but right now it is a real pain. Sitting in the salon looking at the owner's manual for the new dinghy a single drop of water hit me in the head. Oh, crap! Now what?

I removed the molding from around the hatch and what do you suppose I found?-- moisture. So someday very soon, on another day at the boat, I will be taking this hatch apart and resealing it with some 5200 caulking. Ah, just another day on board The Key of Sea. And I loved every minute of it!

My Yankees Win Again!

After a longer than normal drought, the NY Yankees won their 27th World Series last night putting away any concern that tearing down the old "house that Ruth built" may have created a curse that would prevent them from ever winning another. With Mariano Rivera on the mound and the depth of talented players NY is known for, the Yankees were able to complete the series with a 4-2 record. Last night's game ended with a 7-3 win. But the score and series were tougher than it may have looked like as the reigning world champ Phillies put up a heck of a fight.

I have heard from friends who rooted for the Phillies only because they would NEVER root for the Yankees. They despise them for a variety of reasons. One of the big issues is salary.

"Why shouldn't they win?" they'd say. "They get the biggest salaries in the big leagues."

"They always win", says another friend. "I won't root for them just for that reason."

People, people, people. Have you lost sight of what this is all about? It is a silly game played by big boys for a few years in their youth and then they remove from the stage and let those who are younger take their place. They are paid insane, ridiculous amounts of money to play this game. Salaries no one has the right to be paid no matter how good they are. And what talent is required of this select few? A college education? A doctorate degree? Any degree? Nope. Basically they need to have exceptional eye/hand coordination and that's it. For that they are paid millions of dollars a year?

But don't forget PEOPLE, you support this system everytime you pay $75 or $100 to buy a single ticket to a game, or $10 for a 50 cent hot dog or $5 for a $1 beer. I say if you are going to express outrage at the salaries of the members of the Yankee roster, you ought to be just as outraged at the only slightly, relatively speaking, lower salaries of the poor, poor Mariners up in Seattle.

I enjoyed watching the games on TV this year and yes I am jazzed because my childhood favorites won for the 27th time in major league history. But I was also excited about how well the Phillies attempted to defend their title. It was just the Yankee's year.

Next year it will, if statistics are any indicator, be some other team's year. And I will enjoy watching whoever plays for the championship then as well and root for the best team to win. But always, out there on the horizon, with over a 100 years of tradition and the ghosts of Dimaggio, Ruth, Berra (the guy is still alive), Gehrig, Mantle, Pepitone, Maris, Williams, and all the others down through the years, will be those boys in pinstripes. It's only a matter of time before they win #28.

A Great Day at the Boat

We spent all day on the Key of Sea today, most of it doing many necessary chores in preparation for the winter ahead. We headed down about 9:30 to meet with the Commodore of the local Coast Guard Auxiliary to have our boat inspected or rather have the inspection completed. We began the process back in August only to find out we couldn't be passed until we'd received our registration and purchased some new flares. Today was the day and we passed with flying colors and now proudly carry a new inspection sticker in our window. John, the commodore, also gave us some tips for winterizing our boat. He has an identical 32 foot Bayliner and so we thought his advice would be helpful.

Afterward we headed over to Redden Marine and purchased the winterizing materials we needed to get the job done. 6 gallons of non-toxic anti-freeze, a low power heater to add to our other two and a de-humidifier device which collects excess humidity into a collection chamber. First, we drained all the fresh water out of our tank through the hot and cold faucets. Then we poured anti-freeze into the tank and turned on the faucets until the pink fluid ran through the pipes. Now our fresh water system is protected from any freezing weather. Next, we poured nearly a gallon of anti-freeze into the toilet and pumped it into the holding tank. A bit of the anti-freeze also went down the shower drain and was pumped through and out to protect that system.

We set up the two West Marine heaters to operate when the temperature dropped to about 45 degrees protecting the engine room, the forward part of the boat and the aft cabin area. The 3rd heater runs in the head. All the cabinet doors were left open so the heat could reach any interior pipes. We have also removed all clothing, bedding, food and documents in order to avoid them developing mildew.


Time was spent finishing the install of our new GPS system and integrating it into our vhf radio. The two components can now work together in an emergency. The new DSC system allows the MMSI number programmed into the radio to send an emergency message with a single button. In an instant authorities know the name of the boat, the owners, important phone numbers and a variety of other data which could help in the event of a rescue.

I also, quite by chance, came across new switches to replace the missing ones in the flybridge control panel at Hardware Sales. The new ones are still dead but at least two critical holes that allowed water to get into places it wasn't wanted are now plugged.

We still have a few things left to do before being prepared for winter and also have hopes for a few more short trips before the worst weather sets in late December and January and February. Ah, Spring!

Power Failure?

Out on a visit to The Key of Sea we noticed the AC panel light was yellowish in color indicating that there was no shore power into the boat. A boat tied to the dock can often be plugged into a shore power outlet, kind of like plugging something at home in using an extension cord. If the extension cord gets unplugged or its own power source fails, nothing works. And so it seemed with our boat. The tell tale was that our recently installed heaters designed to come on only when it got cold enough had a red indicator light which meant they were in that mode. Both indicator lights were off. We tried checking the shore power plug at the source and at the point it came into the boat. No problem. We clicked the circuit breakers on shore, off then on. No problem.

Circuit Breaker panels to the right and below the main helm.

We checked all the DC circuit breakers on board and those others on the AC panel. No problem. So could it be the shore power unit itself? Hmmmmmmm. In the meantime, having run out of time and ideas, I decided to call my broker from whom we are subleasing the slip, ask him to contact the Port of Bellingham and request they come out and check the power hook up. I flipped off all the circuit breakers on board except the bilge pumps in case that would make any difference. I called our broker and left a message. Monday morning I had a call waiting from his office. He had gone aboard the boat (he has a key since he could have to move the boat to a different slip on a moments notice) and checked things out. All seemed fine to him. Hmmmmm. Monday afternoon I drove over to the boat to check things out. As I entered the boat I noticed the red light aglow on one of the heaters. I went to the circuit board and began to turn switches I had turned off the day before to the on position. Everything was working fine. Hmmmm. So, is the issue that a circuit breaker kicked off due an overload from these heaters? The jury is still out, but as left the boat all systems were go. I'll go back and check on things this weekend and see if one or more of the circuit breakers is tripped. Perhaps we just have a breaker that needs replacing. Hmmmmm. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

D'anna's Cafe Italiano

D'Anna's Cafe Italiano consistently serves the best Italian food in Bellingham. I know, I know, what about Guiseppe's? A few years ago I would have agreed with you that Guiseppe's was number one. Then Guiseppe moved into his new, bigger, fancier digs and it just hasn't been the same since. The service is slow and inconsistent and, even more importantly, the food which was once so wonderful, has become hit and miss.

Then there is D'Anna's. A long time favorite with locals, D'Anna's features homemade pastas, sauces and desserts along with a complete bar. No, the ambiance may not be quite as fancy as Guiseppe's but the rustic look--brick walls, posters of the Italian countryside and an open kitchen design give it a more informal, friendlier feel. The servers are always attentive and friendly and the food is delicious--consistently so.

We visited D'Anna's for Leslie's birthday dinner the other night. We ordered a starter of tapanade served with creme fraiche, fresh greens and grilled crostini. Our dinner main came with a fresh green salad of micro greens dressed lightly with an Italian vinaigrette and a large slice of their broiled Sicilian bread topped with herbs and cheeses. We each ordered a different pasta for our main. I ordered my favorite spaghetti and meatballs. Yeah, it is sort of like ordering vanilla ice creme when there are so many other flavors to explore, but I have always judged an Italian restaurant's quality based on its ability to make this classic dish shine and D'Anna's shines deliciously. Leslie ordered the little pillows of potato gnocchi. She asked for an received a combination of the traditional gnocchi along with D'Anna's special spinach gnocchi all tossed with olive oil and fresh tomatoes.

She also ordered a nice glass of white wine from the extensive and affordable wine list and I had my usual iced tea with lemon which was kept full throughout the meal along with our water glasses (another marker, in my opinion, of an excellent restaurant).

For dessert we ordered a delicious peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake with a fabulous crunchy crust embedded with crushed peanuts.

D'Anna's is a wonderful place for a family celebration or a special occasion. You will be treated like family and the food will delight you. The extensive menu offerings have something for everyone so bring your family to D'Anna's and experience Italian food the way you remember it!

New Dinghy

After a trip to Seattle on Saturday to take a look at some dinghy options, we settled on one built by Mercury, the same company that makes outboard motors.

We picked out a brand new 9 foot 2 inch, 2008 Mercury 285 Airdeck sold by Maritime's Marine Center. After driving down we found out they also have a store in Anacortes which would have saved us a lot of travel and trouble, but it was worth the trip since we were able to stop at Paseo in the Fremont district and have one of their fabulous Cuban Sandwiches.

The new inflatable has an inflatable floor which is nearly as hard and stable as a solid floor would be. It has a seating capacity of 4 people and or holds up to a 1,000 pounds load. So it should carry all four of the current family on shore excursions to the San Juan Islands from our moored boat.

Maritime's Marine will ship the dinghy to the Anacortes store and, for a bit more (Another $100), retrofit our existing Weaver davit system to accomodate the new dinghy.

Our old dinghy, a very nice 8 foot fiberglass dinghy will be sold off to help pay for the new one. We are still not sure about the condition of the 4 hp Mariner engine now sitting in our garage. I did have it running once in the water but it died and wouldn't restart. Don't know if this is as a result of neglect, age, needed repairs or all of the above. I do wonder how the cooling system was ever cleaned as it seems to have been kept pretty much on its side mounted to the transom of the dinghy. Was the cooling system ever flushed with fresh water? I am hoping a buddy of mine will take a look at it with me one of these weekends and perhaps give me a verdict. A new one will cost about $1,200 so we aren't in any hurry to replace it.