Buddy on the Boat

On Wednesday we picked up Brian in Anacortes.  He was the Best Man at our wedding, and remains the Best Buddy.  We are giving him a grand tour of the San Juan Islands, and the first stop was Sucia.  I had thought I was done with Sucia for awhile, but the boys wanted oysters, so here we are!

Waiting for the feast

Walking wounded

Brian found out how sharp barnacles are when he stumbled while helping Al gather the oysters.  He claims it looks worse than it feels.  It gave Al a chance to practice his first aid skills, and clean out many odds and ends in our medical kit.  

I took the opportunity of a solo walk and ended up taking over 160 photos, stopping several times to enjoy the quiet and solitude on a corner of the island.  I heard the grunt of some dabbling ducks, geese flew by honking all the way, a sea lion surfaced and blew several breaths just off shore, and I climbed a ridge and watched the sun lower towards the horizon.  Mmmmmmmmmmeditation.

Getting Back on 'The Horse'

They say that when you are thrown from a horse, you need to get back on!

So today, after Al re-torqued the injector pump cover screws to specification and safety wired them.  He then attached one of our three spare anchors to take the place of the one that got corkscrewed.  And then he started the engine and let it run while he showered up.

No leaking, so let's go!

Again, I was putting away the dishes on the way out, and when I finished, I looked up and thought 'My, this looks familiar...'  We were in the almost identical spot where yesterday's incident all began.  Al had set a mark on the GPS yesterday, and we confirmed it.  So today Al set a red X on our chartplotter to remember.

Now, to share the highlight of yesterday afternoon.  During our 'decompression' time, I noticed this goose family heading straight for the boat.

We so enjoy seeing the babies every year.  Last year in Portland we didn't see very many, and I fear that the high water flooded out the nests. (ducks too)  Most of the geese here are quite shy of people, but this group was making a straight line for the boat.  I grabbed my camera and quietly opened the door.

We've got a couple of leaders here!

Come on!  Let's see what's on the other side!

Please, Ma'am.  Have you any food?

She's going round to the other side....I'll race you!

Feeding of the wildlife is greatly discouraged here, and our diet does not include breads or crackers, so no, we did not have any goose food.  I wonder if these are migrants who have visited Portland, where geese are not afraid of people and think they mean 'FOOD!'

Assessing the Damage

Carnage and Mayhem!

Please be assured that today, things do not seem to be as bad as they appeared yesterday at this time!  (To US -- I know you are just hearing about it now...)

We are okay, the boat is okay.  Al's pride is a little worse for wear and I am stiff and sore from the stress.  And the damage, though a bit more than minor, is less major than we feared.

Now .... the story, and pictures taken AFTER the fact.

The Super Moon has brought spring tides, where the distance between high and low tides is larger and causes currents to rip.  They also have been making the low-low tide a 'minus' tide -- 1 to 3 feet lower than average.  At the old dock in Fossil Bay, Sucia on Friday morning, we came within inches of laying on the bottom.  We moved to the other dock after the tide rose, and had another foot and a half of water there, but we needed to be off the dock before 9 AM yesterday to avoid setting in the mud.

So we had coffee and breakfast and prepared to leave.  As I was putting the dishes away, I announced "I smell a smell."  It was 'chemically' and seemed strongest in the kitchen. We could not determine where it was coming from and soon pulled away from the dock.

As you leave Fossil Bay, you pass between the two rows of mooring buoys, and they were all full.  It feels a bit like those dances where partners line up on the sides and you sashay through the middle.

Al is at the helm and I am standing nearby.  And now it seems I smell gasoline.  Al says that a dinghy just went by, maybe that was it.  Or was one of the other boats running a gas engine?  But as we leave the bay, the smell seems to only be getting stronger, not dissipating in the fresh breeze on the open water.  Al opens the engine compartment and cannot immediately see anything wrong, but WOW -- this is the source of the smell.  It is diesel!  And now Al can see diesel accumulating in the bilge!

He cuts the engine and gets into the compartment.  (We are now drifting in a strong current.)  *Curse* *Curse*  At first he says the engine is covered with fuel and when I turn the fuel pump on and restart the motor as directed, diesel sprays out and he sees that the gasket on the injector pump has pushed out.  So I again shut everything down.

Al asks 'Where are we?' and I am not sure how to answer ....'On the water?'  'No, how deep are we?'  '304 feet.' Al comes out of the compartment to throw the anchor down and says 'No, we're not.  It's 194 feet.'  The current was so strong we gained 100' of depth as we were drifting over an underwater ledge.

We have 400 feet of chain.  If we don't catch this ledge, we will be drifting, dead in the water, in over 600 - 1000 feet of water.  But I know it is at least dragging on something -- a bass note is humming up the chain.

Now what?

We called Mark on Waterfall, back in Fossil Bay.  They HAD been hoping for a lazy morning before heading back to Bellingham after noon, but they were willing to come out and attempt a rescue.

With the current running and Mark not having much experience working with a side tow, we attempt to throw a long line.  The second pass the boats crunched a bit, breaking a window on Waterfall, bending our rails and pulling up screws.

YAY for safety glass!

A bent stanchion and the cap rail scraped and blue paint added all at once

Screws were pulled out on three of the stanchions

Bent rail and scraped cap rail

We can see a Coast Guard ship nearby, and with two failed passes, Al calls the Coast Guard to alert them to what's going on.  Basically, they have about 50 questions to ask, and then pretty much say 'Call us if it gets serious.'  We could call Vessel Assist, but Mark decides to try one more time, and comes up for a side tie, which we DO manage to secure.

I am near tears, and have nearly vomited over the rail.  Lauresa leans across to give me a hug.

Well, now we have TWO boats anchored.  Our windlass REALLY gets a workout, and Al.  He's got the boat pole and beats on the chain to keep it feeding onto the windlass wheel and falling into the chain locker. The anchor is holding tight, and it takes a lot of maneuvering in the fast current before it finally breaks free.

When the anchor arrives back on deck, we are amazed!  It is nearly corkscrewed!

Mark does a good job maneuvering us back to Fossil Bay, despite a power boat that comes way too close, way too fast, to what is obviously two boats tied together.  Then begins the trip back down the corridor of boats.  We are not sashaying this time.  This is the Tow of Shame. (Especially after everyone most likely heard our conversations with the Coast Guard.)

Mark gets us to a mooring buoy and they move back out, on their way home from a quite expensive weekend.

We take a deep breath -- not too smart, since the boat reeks of diesel.  This STINKS, literally and figuratively. We begin to assess the damage and make moves to fix things.  Al sops up four gallons of fuel.  He found his manuals and did online research on the failed gasket and learned that loosening the case and re-positioning the gasket would probably stop the leak.  We started the engine to check, and it did not leak.  He is now ordering a new gasket, and some others that he has learned could/should be replaced. Spade is looking into the cost and timing for a replacement anchor shank, we will use one of our backups until the Spade can be fixed.  Mark will call us when he learns what it will take to have his window fixed and we will take care of that.

The Culprit

I am being nice to myself.  With fibromyalgia, I expect to be very stiff and sore after a stress event, and it began even before we were back in the bay.  Tomorrow should be the worst day for me.  I just hope I don't start losing hair like I did after our storm event last fall (also at Sucia....., hmm).

Happy Anniversary!

In my mind, it has become rather expected that significant anniversaries are celebrated by taking a trip, perhaps even a cruise.  But, what do you do when you LIVE on a boat, and every day, you are on a cruise? (And your husband has already taken you to Hawaii, Europe, San Francisco, and more)

Well, when your anniversary falls on the shrimp season opener, and you have new friends that love to go shrimping, you go shrimping!

Another friend asked how one shrimps, and I said 'Like "Deadliest Catch' but with smaller waves.  The day included ripping currents that swept a pot to deeper water, submerging it, but brought it back with the turn of the tide and the most shrimp we got from any other pot, but still was not a good haul.  We had fun getting to know Mark and Lauresa better.  And there was drama, grumbles, and even a couple swear words when the day ended with catching a line on the prop and losing the gear -- the same pot that had played hide and seek earlier.

Here is the day in pictures:

Prepping the gear

Pot down

It takes quite a while to spool out 400 feet of line, but  we are  nearly there and Al is ready to throw the markers

Mark and Lauresa

Threading the pot puller

Unfortunately, most of the pots came up like this one.  Just ONE little shrimp saying 'What did I get in to?'

The engines went off when we anchored for lunch, and boat cat Qiwi came out and let us be friendly 

We ended up with about a gallon of shrimp.  We didn't hear of anyone else out there doing any better.

Off with their heads!!!

Back at the dock in Fossil Bay, Sucia Island we had a shared dinner of salad, fettuccini, and pork (no shrimp).  Mark and Lauresa insisted we take home the haul.  There are two more weekends of shrimping, and the last one should have better tides.  The day ends with the rising of the Super Moon.  Dr. Kundart, perceptions professor at Pacific College of Optometry tells me that the Moon Illusion doesn't show up in a camera, but this still looks pretty magnificent to me.  I love that wide path on the water...

10 Years!!

And Counting, Yeah :-)

To Matia and Back

It was a short trip to Matia from Sucia, but once there, we spent a couple of hours rocking in the northwest winds and waves, waiting for friends Mark and Lauresa on their boat Waterfall.

During our wait, we watched this seal consume his afternoon snack!

Once Waterfall arrived, it was agreed during a very short conference that we would all be much more comfortable somewhere else.  So back to Sucia we went.

Now to prepare dinner and get reacquainted.

Costs for April

This month we actually did rather well, just about in the middle of our $2-3K/mo goal.  And especially when we consider there were a few Extra larger expenses then normal.  Maintenance/Upgrades included a radiator and fittings to be installed in the main cabin, this should help out during the Shoulder Seasons by allowing the Hurricane a way to get more heat actually delivered into the main cabin area. (And perhaps reduce the number of days on the Dickinson).  For once Medical came in 'low', in fact it contains only the insurance payments for our ‘catastrophic’ healthcare coverage.  That one that if we were NOT in the USA we could get for around $400/YEAR.

Groceries were high, this is in part of us stocking up before all the local stores liquor get sold off – I am sure prices will be lower at the Booze Barn and Costco.  However that small store front on Orcas island, who will now need to carry the inventory themselves,  I suspect will not be seeing Rock Bottom Prices here in the Islands J   Even so our grocery costs seem to be trending up over time.  We had noticed last time we were in Anacortes that things seemed more costly, but do not have an item-by-item receipt to compare - just a overall feeling..  Perhaps that accounts for some of this months increase as well???

Communication was a bit higher in April as I needed to use the Sprint iDEN phone several times (at a pay-per-minute).  But it has allowed us to cruise into areas that would not be possible using just the Verizon or Skype solutions.  Not to worry, Sprint is starting to take these iDEN transmission towers off-line in preparation for redeploying the spectrum for their LTE roll-out.  This iDEN spectrum is a valuable frequency, as it has lots of penetration capability.

Next month we will be again filling the tanks, and we expect to take on 300+ gallons   - it is the ‘Price To Pay’ to keep warm up here, guess we could just put on more jackets if we really wanted.  And I we are getting rather serious about installing 400-500w of Solar Panels.  This will be a large expense; but I figure will ROI in less than 2 years.  Plus it should cut down dramatically on the generator run-time.  Not that that is too costly, but it is a bit noisy!

In a couple more months we will be 1 year, and I will do some comparisons with other cruisers who track costs – look to see where we are the same, and where we differ.  Have already been looking some, and you might be surprised and what we can see!  One thing is for sure, we likely will not make the $2-3K/month goal this year….