Recovery is a success

That stump in the middle sure looks like a giant squid

It's Tuesday,I'm in a coffee house in Astoria, Oregon. Marvin hired a Salvage crew to pull the boat off the sand bar Sunday night around 10:30 p.m. at high Tide.It took a 68 ft. commercial fishing boat and a 20 ft. skiff, with a crew of five guys.The first attempt riped a cleat off the bow, so they tided a line around the mast and it pulled the boat over on it's side and slid it over the sand bar.By 12 o'clock midnight we were in a bar drinking a beer with the guy who managed it and celebrating Marvin's 69 birthday.He couldn't ask for a better present.They towed the boat to Warrenton marina, just outside of Astoria.

Yesterday we spent the day pumping out the bulge. It had about a half a foot of water in it.We also cleaned her up. Everything was strewn about and soaking wet, but we managed to get her back in livable condition and spent the night on her.Today Marvin is diagnostic testing the electric motor to pinpoint the problem.Until that is fixed we can't safely go anywhere, but he's confident that it shouldn't take too long, unless we have to order parts and have them shipped from Minnesota.I'm on the hunt for a fuse that was blown during the fiasco.

When the coast guard dropped us off in Astoria there wasn't a vacant hotel room in town.I contacted a hostel, but they were closing in 10 minutes and we still needed to call a cab and cross town to get there.It was looking pretty grim.Somehow we made it in the nick of time. We spent the night eating a pizza and watching the comedy channel and laughing like girls at a slumber party as if what we just went through never happened.The cab driver gave us the tip about the salvage co. and by mid morning the next day Marvin had it all worked out.Not without a serious price though. Ouch!Nothing like getting kicked when your already down.

Astoria is a beautiful town on the shore of the Columbia river with lot's of coffee houses that serve stumptown coffee,restaurants, and museums.We couldn't have found a better place to be laid up for a while.We're moored next to a fish precessing plant where the commercail fishing boats unload there catch and it stinks to high heaven.We'll make the best of it though.On Sunday there was a great farmers market with live music and vender's galore.My buddy Jamie and his girlfriend Cece are gonna be in Portland soon, hopefully I'll get a chance to to spend some quality time with them.Until then, see ya when I see ya.