Contact: billray@bedoeling.com

About Us

Bill and Jan have been married for 41 years.  We were California natives, but have been enjoying life in Seattle for 8 years.  Popcorn is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi, a cattle herder who has become a boat dog.  Bill is by trade a software designer and manager currently at Apian Software, but by avocation a life-long traveler and photographer.  Jan was Operations Manager at Apian for its early years who has retired to make a happy home for Bill and Popcorn.  We are members of the Seattle Sail and Power Squadron to support its educational mission.  We live with Tazzy and Lady, two cats who sometimes let Popcorn herd them.  Our two daughters, Freya and Ann, have careers of their own but covered for us during the trip along with Apian's sharp staff, support much appreciated!

Bedoeling is our 36 foot Grand Banks, a "floating condo" perfect for cruising the Pacific Northwest.  (We used to be sailors in California but a trawler suits us and the territory better now.)  She is a 1991 twin T210 diesel we cruise at about 9 knots.  She has a new Furuno NavNet color system with radar, chartplotter and depth sounder at both helms, plus backup GPS and depth sounder, and a ComNav heading-hold autopilot (essential to cover this much ground safely and comfortably).  Equipment includes an EPIRB-406. radar reflector, diesel generator, diesel water/cabin heater, inverter, spurs, freezer, etc.  The dinghy is an Avon RIB on a Seawise davit, mostly rowed with 7’ oars, plus an 8hp outboard for longer runs.  Anchor is a CQR on a 250’ chain rode.  Chartplotter uses C-Map chips, plus complete paper charts (rented) for crosschecking and backup.  Planning is off-line using Nobletec Navigation 6.0 on a Windows laptop.  Bedoeling has been carefully maintained by NW Explorations plus a number of great vendors in Bellingham -- many thanks everyone!

Bill's photography has switched fully to a digital darkroom this year, using ASA 400 negative film in a Bronica 6x4.5 medium format with 40, 100 and 250 lenses or an Olympus 35mm all-weather 38-140 zoom point-and-shoot.  Negatives are scanned with a Nikon 8000ED into Photoshop for the sort of processing chemical darkroom folks have been doing since before Ansel Adams.  Bill's objective is to reproduce as closely as the technology allows what the people on the spot experienced visually.  Otherwise images have not been manipulated, combined or artificial elements added.