Jen and Joseph, friends from San Francisco, joined us for a weekend trip on the boat. Our goal was to show them just how fantastic boating in the Northwest is. That, and relax and have a nice time. I think we were successful.
We headed for the locks early on Friday morning. It was a beautiful day. Clear and calm. As we approached the locks, we could see fog spilling over the locks into Salmon Bay.
We’ve had a few issues with our little windlass in the past. It seems to have been abused to the point of failure recently. I posted about that here. And last year we had to replace the motor. That post is here. I am going to take the high road here and blame all of this on previous owners and/or years of dedicated service and hard work (and perhaps just a little abuse).
There is a noticeable difference between the old gear and the new one.
Some time ago I posted about my new Crocs boat shoes. You can find the original post here. Since that time they have become my favorite shoes for land and sea. These are the shoes I wear on the boat. I like them enough that I bought a pair for home.
As avid readers of this site (if there are any other than close relatives (and I am not sure about them)) will note, we’ve been to Blake Island an awful lot lately. In our defense, sans windlass, we are currently limited to marinas and mooring buoys. We choose mooring buoys over marinas any day. That limits us to relatively few places close to Seattle.
So that’s how Kim and I ended up at Blake Island all by ourselves (but by no means alone) this weekend.
Yum! Fish Tacos.
I was busy working on the windlass this past Saturday when I happened to notice the fish taco boat passing by. With it being close to lunchtime, and working on the windlass less than satisfying (it’s good and broken), the obvious choice was to hop in the inflatable and give chase.
Port Madison is a great place to anchor for an evening or overnight. Too bad our windlass decided to rebel the last time we were there. It all started well. Step on the button and the motor dutifully pays out chain. Then … it all went wrong. The windlass started to spin and chain was roaring out. The 50 foot mark, then the 100 foot mark flew by, and then the 150 foot mark. They were recently repainted and looked nice for the second or so I saw each one. We managed to get it stopped with about 175 feet of chain sitting on the bottom. We were only in 15 feet or so of water.
Well there’s your problem …
Warning. Spoiler alert! This post contains descriptions and photos of actual boat use. Not the usual fix this, untangle that, install something sort of project post that has bogged this site down recently. Read on if you dare …
Our friends Tim and Carmel, and Cindy came up from Southern California for a day on the boat. The weekend before the Fourth of July was amazingly warm and perfect. People in California think it rains all the time in Seattle. It was nice to show them how wonderful it can really be here. We swore them to secrecy upon their return to California.
They only had one day with us so I picked them up from a dock on south Lake Union in the dinghy bright and early Saturday morning. Kim had breakfast waiting when we arrived. After a quick tour and orientation, we headed for the locks eating breakfast along the way Surprisingly, there was no wait at the locks. We motored in behind one boat and two smaller boats followed us in. We popped out through the locks and headed for Blake Island.
On the way over, Tim and Cindy were playing with the flybridge intercom. Tim ordered up a couple of Vodka Tonics. I called their bluff and produced two high quality drinks. They were surprised and somewhat appreciative. It was 10:30 in the morning. I think they liked them.
