I purchased pontianum (Fair Winds in Latin) in December of 2006. The first ride was unforgetable. My older son, Andrew, and I sailed her back from Port Angeles on Christmas Day.We waited for a good weather forecast--light & variable winds. Those light & variable winds reached 40 knots somewhere near Port Towsend. There were waves crashing over the cabin top. We had planned to stop in Port Townsend for the night, but it was too cold to figure out where it was & how to get there. So we pushed on & reached the locks around 10 PM on Christmas night. Apparently the lockkeepers were having their Christmas eggnog, because it took a long time to get anyone's attention.
We made it through the bridges before 11--the cutoff for on-demand opening. The next week we were each sick for a few days--probably from hypothermia. But we made it.
Pontianum is an Islander Freeport 36 designed by Bob Perry, who lives and designs in Seattle. It's a 70's design, but has a few unusual features for its time. It has large ports in the salon to provide light. More importantly for me, it has nearly 7 foot headroom. No more ducking!
There is also a queen-size pullman bed--not the usual v-berth. And she has a large head with standup shower. There isn't much guest space--but every sailboat design is a compromise.
She also has a walk-through stern & folding ladder. In the Keys or Virgin Islands this would mean great swimming. In the Sound, this means easy dinghy handling and boarding.
As soon as I got to my slip in Tillicum Marina, I realized there were leaks in Pontianum--including one right over the berth. I also found that the diesel wall-heater was not enough for Seattle's winter and the marina had less than adequate wiring to support the 2 space heaters I needed to stay comfortable. So for many weeks, I was wet, cold, and wondering why i'd chosen this particular form of hell.
Getting two circuits in the marina & the right fittings to use them, buying a de-humidifier from Amazon, fixing leaks, receiving flannel sheets from a very kind friend and other seemingly minor improvements made it gradually more liveable. And now, finally, in July, the weather has turned around. It's even been too hot--tho I'm not about to complain about both extremes.
