What’s Happening to Us?

Starr's galley is about the size of my kitchen at home, but the ice box is bigger and the finishes are nicer. We have all the necessary appliances; stove, oven, microwave, coffee maker, toaster oven, trash compactor, etc. The galley is separated from the great room (salon) by a granite bar with some bar stools. Sharry and Lori did a great job filling the boat with tasty food. We are on our own for breakfast and lunch, but Sharry is making fabulous dinners for us.

All five of us sit down together for dinner in the wheel house. There is a small table there that seats four, and the guy on watch (me, on the current schedule) sits in the skipper's chair behind the wheel. The wheel house is a nicely laid out space. The front of the space is all business with ship's controls and instruments running athwartships below the forward facing windows. There are doors out onto the deck on each side. Behind the skipper's chair are the navigation desk and next to that the dining table and surrounding benches. Aft of the table is a day bed where someone can snooze and still be handy to the watch stander if circumstances warrant.

The wheel house provides the highest protected open views on Starr, and since it is such a comfortable place that is where most of the crew gathers during the day. In addition to the watch stander, there are usually one or two others sitting at the nav desk or table working on emails, downloading weather, reading, chatting, or just enjoying the view.

It is really nice out here now and I am loving life aboard. We are entering the North Pacific high so the winds have died off, the seas are flat and Starr is very stable. It is getting colder outside the boat as we travel north. Last night the temperature outside got down to 59 degrees. Inside we were comfy and protected from the wind.

Clay and I have sailed a lot of sea miles together on small sailboats. Yesterday afternoon he approached me with a serious look on his face and asked, "Noodle, what's happening to us?" We are getting spoiled! That's what's happening. It is going to be very hard to go back to sea on a small sailboat in the future after a life of luxury on Starr.