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.
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