I be new here, but not to trawlers

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Tator

Guru
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
Messages
516
Location
Bainbridge Island WA
Vessel Name
Oz
Vessel Make
Formerly Bluewater 40' RPH 1979
I go by the moniker of Tator. My wife is Patti. We've been boating on trawlers for 25 years.

Our first boating experience was taking a friends 32GB woody from Seattle to SE Alaska and back in 1990. Being a Kansas boy, it was my first boating trip and essentially the first for our two other crewmates. It changed my life and my wife's.


Our second boating trip was in 1992 bringing our newly purchased 42GB woody up the coast from Marina Del Ray to Poulsbo Washington. We had the help of my brother in-law and his wife for that trip. Thank God he had plenty of blue water miles! I won't say more other than we spent a lot of time crawling across the salon floor to get to our watch and a lot of time powering of the crests of waves so that we wouldn't slam too hard!

Our next boat was purchased in 1996 and was a beautiful GB50 woody. We took this boat every summer to SE Alaska and lived on her for three years until we sold her in 2002. Since we had decided that we were not going to continue to live aboard year around, we got a smaller 40' fiberglass Bluewater RPH that we could leave in SE Alaska year around rather than making the trip back and forth to Puget Sound.

After a two year rebuild including all the systems replaced, Decks rebuilt, Aluminum double pane windows installed, etc, etc., we took Oz up to Petersburg , AK. We now spend May through Sept. cruising.

Among our more unusual activities on our boats has been volunteering our time and boat as a platform for humpback whale research. We have worked with National Geographic Crittercam program and Alaska Whale Foundation as well as Whale Trust of Maui. We helped put the first crittercam on a humpback whale back in the 90's. We have also helped in whale dis-entanglements with NOAA.

We do almost all of our own work on the boat. Some of the locals who don't know us think we are a charter boat because we think it is fun and important to share our boat and the beauty of SE Alaska with our family and friends.

I could go on, but it's time to go watch KU basketball-my other passion.

Tator
 
I'm impressed, nice background. Maybe we'll catch up with you in Petersburg this summer.
 
Tater-- Do you by chance know longtime Petersburg residents Bill and Carol Steadman. Bill flew Grumman Gooses (Geese?) for Alaska Coastal back in the day and later was chief mechanic for Alaksa Island Air in Petersburg.

Just curious.....
 
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Greetings, Tator, you sound like a very worthy addition to the membership, and with a wealth of real life knowledge to share.
 
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