New Dinghy!

Well, we pulled the trigger and got a new (used) console RIB dinghy today. Steve Guyer from Guyer Boatworks came out a few weeks ago and scoped things out, interviewed us, and then came back with a fantastic used Novurania 335DL with a 25HP Honda which he brought down and rigged up today. We're happy campers now!!

Poulsbo in the Fall

The admiral and I took off around 4pm on Friday and cruised around the west side of Bainbridge up to Poulsbo. Chilly up top, but we dressed for it, and the weather and scenery were gorgeous. Water was glass. Made it to the marina at about 5:30pm, in the dark, and sterned in uneventfully. Dinner Friday night at Tizleys.

Saturday morning was, of course, Sluey's Bakery, a quick boat clean and tidy, and spend some time walking around town. Lunch at Mor Mor. Maezy and Aunt Sharon arrived by car about 4pm, and we chilled and then had a great dinner at Casa Luna.

Sunday we picked up Steve from the Bainbridge ferry terminal and chilled on the boat and had breakfast, then cruised home via Agate Pass. No rain, but the wind was up and the seas a bit messy, so a bit rougher than on the way out. Sterned in back at Elliott Bay without incident.

All in all a very fun Fall trip.

Ran about 1600 RPM both ways, 13-15kts.

Foggy Bottom!

Cris and family arrived in the morning and we headed out into the fog! Kept close to the Seattle shoreline, blew horn a bit, and entered Duwamish waterway, down to Delta Marine and back, fog had lifted. Did flyby of Alki and back to marina. Windy, got a little cattywompus but recovered and made it in on the 2nd try.

Ashes to Ashes

Met Terri & Dave & kids at El Puerco Loron at Pike Place for a yummy dinner, then all went to the boat for a fun evening hanging out at the marina. Sister Denise & Dave and family showed up Saturday morning, and Greenwood Memorial arrived with Dad's ashes. Headed out to Blake Island and sprinkled Mom and Dad. No room at the docks, so headed back to the marina for a nice BBQ. 13 people on board!

Dock Street Marina @ Tacoma

Left Friday at 3:30pm and cruised 2.5 hours down to Dock Street Marina in Tacoma.

Cruise back was 3 hours along west side of Vashon, looped around Blake then back to the marina to pump out.

Quick Bay Cruise

With friends Andrew and Dianna (and baby Tobias!), had a short but fun cruise out of EBM to the tip of Alkai, then into the Duwamish for about a mile, then back outside of the waterfront to the marina. Great dinner at Maggie's.

Total cruise time 2 hours.
Effective cruise time 1 hour.

Blake Island Overnighter

(draft)
Left Fri about 6pm, Blake Island docks were full, so tied up to mooring buoy on SE side, spent night. Sat spent day relaxing on board and on shore, Tillicum dinner/show in the evening, retired to boat for evening. Buoy started dragging, emergency de-buoy to avoid other moored boat and slow midnight cruise (awesome!) back to EBM. Uneventful return to slip. Sunday topped off fuel (130g) and emptied holding tank.

Total cruise time: 1.5 hours
Effective cruise time: 1 hour

Duwamish Cruise

Cruised by downtown, into Duwamish waterway to Delta Marine and back. Spent night on board.

Freeland!

Date: Wednesday, July 3 - Saturday, July 6
Time: 10:30am - 5:30pm
Origin: Elliott Bay Marina 
Destination: Freeland, Holmes Harbor, Whidbey Island 
Distance: 43 miles one way (86 mi r/t)
Specs: 9kts @ 1800rpm out (against tide), 9kts @ 1400rpm back (with tide)

Final boat loading and prep on Tuesday afternoon and spent the night on the boat to be able to finalize preparations Wednesday morning before departure.

Wednesday

Left the marina right about 10:30am on Wednesday and followed Main Attraction up to Holmes Harbor. Total trip time was about 4h 15m, and all systems worked perfectly. MA anchored off the shore of our friends beach house, and I rafted up. The porta-bote on the dinghy davit worked great, and is very convenient. Had it launched in under 5 minutes after shutting off the engines. Spent the afternoon and evening visiting with friends and enjoying the Freeland fireworks, a great show!

Thursday

Up and out by 7am with a full complement of people and crab pots and dropped them all off of Beverly Beach using the big boat. Returned and rafted up again to MA. Pulled pots around 1pm and got a very good haul. Returned in the evening for a final pull and got about a dozen keepers. Used the dinghy, but with the 3.5hp outboard, it was a very slow go. Not ideal. Ran the generator for two hours in the evening to top off the house batteries.

Friday

Out by 9:30am to pull pots using the big boat, towing the dinghy. So so haul. Anchored upon return, as MA was departing in early afternoon.

Saturday

We had our crab limits, so we decided to pull and store the pots without keeping any crabs. One scare upon leaving the harbor, the port engine wouldn't start. I did a few obvious checks and finally determined that the port gear was ever so slightly out of neutral, so the engine safety was activated. After a quick jiggle, both engines fired right up and we cruised back to EBM, much easier with the tide, about 4h 20m return. Again, all systems ran perfectly. Backed into slip without incident and did a quick washdown.

Ferry to EBM

After many days of scrubbing and cleaning and fixing little things here and there, today was the day to leave Seattle Yacht Club at Portage Bay and ferry the boat to Elliott Bay Marina. It was also my first time at the helm of this boat, or any twin screw, or any boat at all bigger than Toenail Clipper (23 feet). So we enlisted the captaining consultancy services of Torben to guide us on this journey from Lake Union out the locks to the marina.

Those beautiful DD's fired right up and purred, not so much like a kitten, but a huge lion I'd say. ;-) Departed the slip with no issues and putted out towards the Ship Canal. I didn't like how little fuel was registering on the gauges, so I opted to fill up at Morrison's North Star Marine Fuel Dock. We filled up both tanks with 250 gallons (out of 400 gallons capacity), so we had plenty of reserves after all. Pumped out the holding tank too while we were there.

Next stop was the locks. Made it with two boats to spare at the big lock, rafted up to a 46 footer, and settled in for the ride. Here's the view north from our flybridge while we were tied up.

Out the locks, powered up to about 1700 rpms, and cruised at about 11 knots to EBM. Found our slip and proceeded to stern in to starboard. This one was a bit tougher, since I was at the lower helm which is to port, and I had no spacial reference to where the stern corner was. But on the third attempt I got close enough for Eryn to hop off and get us tied up. The slip next door was unoccupied, so we've chosen that one as our permanent slip which will be better with the southerly prevailing breeze during the summer (it'll nudge us onto the dock instead of away from it).

All in all, a gorgeous day and a great run with no mishaps. Huge thanks to Torben for his support!!

She's Ours!

Well, today was the day. After nearly seven years of dreaming, looking, procrastinating, looking and debating, today we closed on our dream boat, a 40' 1979 Bayliner Bodega 4050.

More pictures to come. Now comes some busy days and nights preparing for our first cruise up to Holmes Harbor at Whidbey Island, July 3!