Dock 6 to Dock 8

Our recent voyages have been short ones. Sunday we docked at an empty slip on Pier 6, as instructed via telephone by the Harbor Master. 

Just after we returned from our party cruise, we found an unhappy sport boat nipping around our stern, insisting we vacate immediately. 

Ok, perhaps we misunderstood the instructions. We backed out with the angry young pup still hovering impatiently at our stern. Before we were clear, he goosed it, spun his boat into the wooden dock end with a thump, bounced off, recovered his composure, and darted into his space.

(I went back later to gather evidence of the splinters)

Oh well. 

We moved around the dock to an empty slip on the other side - thus swapping lines, cushions, steps, power lines, etc in the process. 

Monday morning, a maintenance guy handed me a note and said please move to Dock 8. Luckily Jim was nearby, so we cast off and motored over to the side of the Marina. Changing bumpers, lines, steps, etc. Again. 

If you are having dinner at Chinooks, you might see Jason out front. Wave. And ask for Brian as your server - he's my brother. 

PS - the Dock person told Jim he'd have to go through a "Basic Boat Handling" exam before they committed to our long-term stay at their dock. 

We looked at each other, laughing. Fourteen hundred miles up the coast, 30+ tie-ups in treacherous winds, fog, dark, with no splinters - we CAN do this.

Shilshole to Fishermen's Terminal

My first thought waking up in the Shilshole Marina was "I overslept! It's 6:30 and we're not underway? what's wrong?"  

Since then we have fired up the boat 4-5 times. We fixed some things. We failed fix others, like the L speaker on the upper deck. 

We went to Fisherman's Terminal -- a cruise of about 2.5 miles that took about 2.5 hours! We went through the Ballard Locks with dozens of other boats, including this monster. 

But we made it through with only a few dock bumper scrapes and cuts, thanks to Captain Jim's expert piloting.  

We took an empty slip at the Terminal pier and prepared for a party to celebrate our safe arrival. 

A dozen friends and relatives showed up. The weather was perfect; the food was gourmet; the beer was cold and the lake was packed with boats!

We finally returned to the dock and dove into a rare delicacy -- abalone steaks and abalone chowder. 

Here I am cutting up the abalone:

In the meantime the Captain rested his thrown-out back. 

Imagine the stress of going through this madhouse. We needed a break; a diversion. 

We got one when the Captain leapt into the lake. 

I had to go in too. Funny, no one else joined us!

Dinner was eventually served along with three bottles of champagne.

The abalone was terrific - both the sautéed and chowder versions. Everything (a kilo of it!) was consumed. 

Some of my family, gathered on the deck for a photo. 

Jim went home to his house, and we moved up top and spent the night on the deck under a sleeping bag. I didn't notice  stars, cars, bugs or noise of any kind. I just slept until the sun came up and scorched us in our black cover. 

Stick around, there's a bit more to say ...

Boating by the Numbers

Some statistics-minded folks might want to know how the numbers look for this trip. This post is for you.

VESSEL

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1963 Stephens Motor Yacht

Length: 47' or 52' with davits & dinghy

Beam:  13' 9"

Power:  twin John Deere 135 hp diesels

TRIP SUMMARY - San Diego Yacht Club to Seattle Fishermen's Terminal

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Total hours running: 146

Total fuel burned: 973

Total nautical miles: 1226

Total statute miles: 1410

LEGS - Nautical Miles

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1. San Diego Yacht Club to Yellowbanks on Santa Cruz Island - 144

2. Yellowbanks to Port San Luis - 109

3. Port San Luis to Morro Bay - 21

4. Morro Bay to Bodega Bay - 217

5. Bodega Bay to Eureka - 112

6. Eureka to Brookings - 88

7. Brookings to Coos Bay - 94

8. Coos Bay to Newport - 83

9. Newport to Seattle - 358

MECHANICAL ITEMS REPLACED

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7 Raycor 1010 filters

2 Raycor 1002 filters

2 wiper blades

2 gallons distilled water in house battery 

REPAIRS

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Port wiper motor

Anchor winch motor

Autopilot chain/cable pulleys and tensioner

Saloon entry door lock set

Re-sealed all front and side windows, portholes & windshield 

Repair sliding window tracks; both sides

Rear swim step ladder

Many new small cracks around the stern

Re-pack starboard prop shaft seal stuffing box, while in the water (thanks Reid Hawkins of the JANUS)   

Tighten wiring and recalibrate the auto pilot

Re-solder connections to speaker controls; replace 2 speakers 

Velcro icon of Archangel Michael to the dash

LOST OVERBOARD

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Nothing

FOUND ENROUTE

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A great dock bumper

More to come ...

Cape Flattery to Seattle

We "turned the corner" this morning at 6:06, in moderate fog. Unlike most of our northward trip, we were no longer alone. We saw many fishing vessels on the radar and a few at close range. 

The sun was trying to peek through the marine layer. The 2 knot tide (going out) tried to push us away. The multitudinous birds didn't care one way or the other. 

We had decided in advance to celebrate at the corner, so we pulled out the champagne and had a toast. 

We've made the hard 1200-mile part of the journey. From here (we thought) it's  an easy 150 miles downhill to Seattle!

Unfortunately, we had 4 hours of fog, then emerged at Port Angeles into a shipping maelstrom. 

Jim piloted us through the currents, wakes and CapeSize ships until we turned south at Dungeoness Spit. 

We  celebrated a bit more with grilled cheese and crab sandwiches washed down with the remainder of our champagne. And a few cherries for dessert.  

The weather was wonderful from noon onwards, so I got out into the warmth for a selfie and a quick snooze. 

We climbed up to the flybridge and took a tour of Port Townsend, the wooden boat Mecca. 

then we headed down to Seattle, fighting our way through monstrous cruise ships. 

We saw four - at 4-5 thousand passengers each, how many can Seattle support?

 How many people really want to spend 10 days on a boat?

I guess I do. I'm not tired of it yet. 

So Captain Jim let me take the wheel of the flying bridge. It's like driving a giant bus. 

Mt. Rainier welcomed us as we sought a place in Shilsole Marina. 

We slipped into our reserved slot without incident (thank goodness for cell phones that work out at sea). 

Our journey is almost over. 

This leg was 358 nautical miles in 38 hours at an average of 9.4 kts using about 250 gallons of fuel. 

Tomorrow we plan to reposition the boat all the way through the Ballard Locks to Fisherman's Terminal, where our work will end. 

But for now, we need sleep!

Newport to Cape Flattery

We left Newport at 5 am. It was beautiful as we slid out under the nifty old Hwy 101 bridge.

We had a breakfast that includes none of the recommended food groups - tea and popcorn (a staple on Jason). And salt. 

If you are worried about our diet, don't be. We have plenty of other healthy things to choose from - this IS a proper "road trip" after all. 

It's a happy day. We've been on the water for over 10 hours and covered 106 nautical miles. We are in Washington.

The water is green! The waves are small! We've seen whales! The autopilot is working! (Why am I excited?)

We've decided to make a run for the border (Seattle) and NOT stop in Westport. 

Yahoo! (says Jim's tee shirt)

The sun sets as we churn along. We continue in the dark with millions of stars lighting our way. 

And some electronics too. 

The sun tries to rise through the fog over Tatoosh, WA. 

It finally succeeds. Or does it? We continue along in dense fog for hours. 

To Be Continued ...

Newport, and nowhere else

We were asleep last night by 8:30 pm. At 9:15 pm I woke to the noise of the Coast Guard rescue boat filling up.

We woke again at 4 am. Or rather, the alarm went off at 4. A moment later I opened one eye as I heard Jim coming to our end of the boat. 

"Weather has deteriorated; do you mind if we go back to sleep and wait it out?"

"No Jim", I mumbled. "We don't mind." And so we all went back to sleep. 

A few hours later we crawled out of bed, had a hot cup of tea and put our feet up. 

We watched a few boats refuel, including this forty-footer that came in after an all nighter from Crescent City. The two guys on board were whupped - they looked like we did yesterday. 

Of course today we are fairly clean, moderately rested and very happy, with stomachs full of a bacon, French toast and freshly-made blueberry syrup breakfast. 

So today we wait for the wind and the waves to settle down. Maybe we'll go fishing ... although our shore crew insists we could stand to do some washing up!

So of course instead we went out in the car and Jim showed us how a K-Mart shopper buys a crab trap and all the fixin's. 

We threw the trap into the water, took naps, strolled over to the Maritime Center and looked at fish and whale theory and research. 

On the way home we saw the practice to go with the theory, as a world-champion fish filet-er took care of a bunch of Black Sea bass and some salmon. 

We fixed our autopilot, then had a gourmet lunch on the flying bridge. 

We took another nap, and checked the crab pot. No keepers! Drat. 

Although it's warm(ish) and sunny, the wInd is now 12-16 gusting to 24 and forecast to 35+ tonight. 

We cruised the bay, testing the autopilot. It works!

We will wait to see what happens with the weather... while waiting we discovered it was National Tequila Day. So we celebrated. 

We dug into our reserve stock and pulled out a lovely piece of salmon, which accompanied a plate of pasta with avocado cream sauce.  

We finally found a legal crab in our trap.  

So instead of going to bed we cooked him. 

And then we went to bed.