Seattle Boat Show

It's that time of year again... freezing, windy, with a dash of snow thrown in for spice. The warm breezes and gentle swells of summer on Puget Sound are but a distant memory, which only the most stout-hearted are able to chisel out and contemplate without tears of sorrow sweeping their cheeks.

It must be time for the Seattle Boat Show again!

We got three day passes again and have gone for two of those days. My first impressions are that the show is both smaller and more sparsely attended than last year, but the deals are much better and more easily had. Pity we're not shopping for much this year... most of our outfitting was either done or won't be done again until the next time we are getting ready for along trip. Most of the boat budget this year will probably go into engine repairs, if that.

We are taking the opportunity to catch some of the seminars that we missed last year in our haste, and to check out potential future upgrade boats should we suddenly have a fit of profitability in one of our businesses. We're only catching the free seminars, not the presumably more comprehensive "Boat Show University" presentations, which cost extra, and they've been a mixed bag. Mandy liked the Marine Weather skills presentation by Lee Chesneau, which I felt was scattered and confusing (to be fair, Mr. Chesneau looked as if he were having a horrible day, with some sort of fever and an uncooperative electronic equipment, and I am sure that hurt his presentation), whereas I liked Clyde Ford's Situational Awareness presentation and Mandy felt it didn't address the topic that was promised. We're going to go to Chuck Gould's Man Overboard presentation tomorrow; hopefully that will score a hit for both of us, as it's a significant concern of ours.

As usual, the show has us all fired up about getting out on the water again. With the economy in the dumper, why not spend all this time not working by sailing, instead? I'm not sure I know the answer to that rhetorical question yet, but with the economy the way it is and our impending nuptials this summer, there might be "Perfect Storm" conditions for taking another sizeable trip considerably before we had ever thought we would. Sailing as a honeymoon has the virtue of putting the dollars that might otherwise be blown on airfare and accomodations into something that we will get more long-term use out of (ie, the boat). And diesel prices are lower and the exchange rate better this time around, to boot.