Getting the Hell Out!

[The Forklift Lady]

Good Evening TF Family:
Well this is my first. Be gentle! I'm an emotional kind.
After 22 years boating with Forky (and that's being kind) we have found ourself with an empty nest. Our 18 year old- after 1 year of college, has more sense than Mom and Dad. Bahahaha! We are wanting to move quick before he figures it out.
After reassessing unexpected freedom 4-5 years early- we realized that some doors had opened up that could begin a whole new lifestyle. It would require a tremendous amount of work to pull it off- but we have lived this way for the last 18 years with our own business and very little time really enjoying our trawler; although we do better than some getting out.
And so it begins. Where to start? Seattle we think (flying in for a few days in 4 weeks) to have a look around.
Target is 1.5 years (mine is 1 year!!), Did I mention we have three dogs and a squirrel (Sebi)??
I'm not much on anchoring (sorry I'm trying) but I do love to boat, exploring beautiful waterways and wildlife I go nuts over. Would I mind clam chowder in Pikes Market while purchasing fish and flowers? Nothing wrong with that either right??
I am agreeing to live on a trawler!
Seeking wisdom, advice and prayers as we begin our research ?




Patricia Louise II
Present 42 Sundeck
The Best is yet to be!

[Marin]

Originally Posted by The Forklift Lady

Where to start? Seattle we think (flying in for a few days in 4 weeks) to have a look around.

Well, you don't want to come here because Washington has become the poster child for global warming. Half the state is on fire, there is no end in sight, and this coming winter is being predicted to have less rainfall than El Paso.

Mt. Rainier is looking more like a sand dune every day and Mt. Baker is not close behind. The glaciers in the Cascades, our primary source of water, are receding so fast the guys setting the instrumentation to track them can't move the instruments fast enough.

The rivers are pretty much dried up, the salmon can't get up to spawn so the salmon runs as we have known them in the past are over. The resident Orca pods are predicted to move farther north to Alaska following food and not be seen here again. Ever.

The state is broke, the city of Seattle is close behind and the traffic is pretty much at a standstill 24/7. The waterfront is torn up with seawall and tunnel projects that are predicted to stretch on to about 2030 and make Boston's Big Dig look like a kid in a sandbox with a plastic shovel.

The state just raised the fuel tax a mile and a half and it's said that next year it will go up even more than this year.

Oh, and the waiting lists for moorage space in the harbors here are measured in years and liveaboards are rapidly becoming persona non gratis in most of them. Moorage rates are going up so fast the bill calculators can't keep up. Environmental regulations tack several hundred dollars to a haulout bill and you can't wash your boat in your slip anymore.

Finally, we are long overdue for the "big one" (quake) which will pretty much destroy everything west of I-5 (which in itself is a fabulous idea, frankly, but a lot of people will die in the process which is a bummer. Maybe. Or maybe not. We won't know until it happens, right? If you don't believe this, the article's in the New Yorker.

About the only bright spot is that we have a hell of a football team.

I strongly advise staying east of the Mississippi River.

[HopCar]

Welcome aboard! Forklift is a lucky man to have such an adventurous lady.
Three dogs and a squirrel, how did you end up with a squirrel?

[THD]

Marin-you make me want to sell my house, get on the boat and leave Seattle! Fortunately for me, houses in my neighborhood sell in about an hour and a half at more than the offer price after a bidding war!

For Forklift Lady-come on out while we still have some green trees around. Also, please tell us how yu come to be known as "The Forklift Lady"!

As for the move aboard-it will be different, it will take a lot of getting used to, a lot of getting rid of "stuff", a lot of putting up with "You are doing what?" from friends and relatives. But, if you are committed to it, you are in for a helluva ride!

[BruceK]

Welcome Aboard.
I`m looking forward to a "Boating with Squirrels" thread, to go with the "Boating with Dogs" one.

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

[Donsan]

Welcome!

Be aware Marin has been trying to discourage folks from moving to the Pacific NW for time immemorial. By all means move to Seattle....we don't need more folks in Florida.

[Capt.Bill11]

Are you planning on taking your current boat to the PNW?

[siestakey]

Donsan

Now that is not True we need more good folks like Forklift and Fork lift wife.

FLW best of luck on your upcoming adventure Siesta Wife is making me keep the house for now

[Off Duty]

Welcome aboard.
A squirrel huh? Probably not nice to refer to a family member as such, but hey, whatever

Ignore the naysayers.
Go where you want.

It's a BOAT, you can always move

[Donsan]

Originally Posted by siestakey

Donsan

Now that is not True we need more good folks like Forklift and Fork lift wife.

I have a dry sense of humor. It was said jokingly.

[TDunn]

Based on Marin's comments it sounds horrible. However, if all the new comers would go back where they came from, the PNW would be a pretty nice place again. More like I remember it. I could even come back then.

[FlyWright]

Originally Posted by HopCar

Three dogs and a squirrel, how did you end up with a squirrel?

Psssst....I think she was talking about Steve/Forkliftt!

[Shrew]

Squirrel!!??? Bah!!!!

[Marin]

Originally Posted by TDunn

However, if all the new comers would go back where they came from, the PNW would be a pretty nice place again. More like I remember it. I could even come back then.

The newcomers are not the issue. There are so many newcomers here now, mostly from India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the former Soviet Union, that a few more are not even noticed.

No, the problem is that western Washington is changing at an increasing rate due to ever-increasing drought and climbing temperatures, incredibly inept planning and execution of everything from zoning regulations, to what they laughingly call "transportation planning," to rapidly accelerating urban and suburban development.

For example, east of Seattle (Seattle has become so screwed up there's no real way to make it worse so the developers are now concentrating on the east side) the trees are coming down so fast and the cheap condo/townhouse developments are going up so fast it visibly changes from day to day. I see it every day on my commute to work.

The crime rate in Seattle is astonishing today compared to what it used to be just a few years ago. The news features shooting deaths virtually every day now and from what I hear from acquaintances in the police, gangs have become rampant everywhere, even in the suburbs.

I don't know how Seattle stacks up statistically against the rest of the nation but the homeless population is massive and growing. My wife and I went to a Joe Bonamassa concert in Seattle the other month, and the four block walk from the parking garage to the Paramount Theatre was solid panhandlers. Not just people holding out their hands but coming up to you and engaging you in their tales of woe and asking for "gas money" or "rent money" or "food money" or "help with their electric bill." And even if one very firmly says "No" they stay with you, persisting in their pleas for money. It was a major topic of conversation in the line waiting to enter the theatre.

King County (the one with Seattle and Bellevue in it) has staggering tax rates now and they go up higher several times a year. Almost every week I meet people at work who are selling up and moving out of King County because it's becoming increasingly expensive to live in, particularly for retirees.

I learned recently from an acquaintance who is a local politician involved with King County that the county actually has a policy (unwritten) of doing everything they can to discourage retirees from living in it. They want the young, usually immigrant, tech and bio-tech folks to come live in King Country because they are in a position and will be for many years to cough up the ever-increasing taxes.

So more and more people, retirees as well as people in the middle/lower-middle class, are moving out simply because it's becoming too expensive. A lot of people who work in King County can no longer afford to live in the county. Instead, they are moving to or settling in Snohomish, Island, and Whatcom counties farther north. It makes for a hideous commute in today's traffic but it's the only way they can afford to live in the region.

We (my wife and I) are starting to think seriously about leaving the area ourselves. Most likely for someplace farther north or even in BC if we can make that work.

Outside of the immediate Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma area the west side of the state is still pretty nice. The Skagit River valley and delta in particular are great (that's where Eric Henning of this forum lives.) Whidbey Island is very nice as long as one does not have to go into the Seattle area for anything. And the Olympic Penninsula remains about the same (other than the changing climate), mainly because there's not much to do there job-wise so the population remains small.

I grew up in Hawaii and moved to the Seattle area in 1979 not because of Seattle but in spite of it. I wanted to live in the PNW and I was offered a terrific job at Boeing so have been here ever since. I'm not a city fan but Seattle used to be pretty good as cities go. It's still living on that past "Space Needle, monorail, Pike Place Market, cool waterfront" image and reputation, but the realities are far, far different.

Seattle today is an absolutely hideous city. My work takes me all over the world and the only cities I have found to be less appealing and more depressing and screwed up than Seattle are Sao Paulo in Brazil (which should simply be nuked off the planet as far as the physical city goes, not the people-- they're great), and some of the mining and industrial cities in China (PRC). Yes, Seattle is very small compared to these other places. But they are managing to pack in everything that's wrong with these other places into a very small space.

I know a lot of long-time residents of Seattle and they are unanimously appalled at what the city has become and the direction it's going.

The "Emerald City" is losing its luster indeed.

But the football team is cool.

[MartySchwartz]

Welcome. I tend to agree on Marin's impression of Seattle even tough I have never actually lived there. I dislike cities period and only go over to Seattle when I absolutely must or for the Boat Show. We (Da BOSS and I) live-aboard our President 41 in Poulsbo (on the Olympic Peninsula) and absolutely love it over here. I was born in Mississippi and got older in Florida (no clue where I will grow up yet.)

So come on up but be sure to bring a jacket, it will be colder than you expect or are used to... Look us up when yer here and we will treat you to a locally-brewed frosty adult beverage.

Marty.......................

[Marin]

Originally Posted by MartySchwartz

So come on up but be sure to bring a jacket, it will be colder than you expect or are used to....

This used to be true. Sadly, it is becoming less true with every passing year.

[siestakey]

Originally Posted by Donsan

I have a dry sense of humor. It was said jokingly.

I really did take it that way being 7th generation Floridian as bad as it gets I love it

(even though I do not live there full time)

[siestakey]

Originally Posted by MartySchwartz

Welcome. I tend to agree on Marin's impression of Seattle even tough I have never actually lived there. I dislike cities period and only go over to Seattle when I absolutely must or for the Boat Show. We (Da BOSS and I) live-aboard our President 41 in Poulsbo (on the Olympic Peninsula) and absolutely love it over here. I was born in Mississippi and got older in Florida (no clue where I will grow up yet.)

So come on up but be sure to bring a jacket, it will be colder than you expect or are used to... Look us up when yer here and we will treat you to a locally-brewed frosty adult beverage.

Marty.......................

DO you really plan to grow up? don't do it !!!!

[HopCar]

Forklift Lady, Pretty women on boats are always welcome in Florida! We'll even put up with Forklift himself. Don't go to the PNW. It's cold, wet and Marin hangs out there.


Al, you think she was referring to Steve as the squirrel. Could be. He's pretty squirrelly. I was hoping for something cute and furry.