With the change of weather, fewer people seem to venture out in their boats. That’s good for us! We spent the weekend all by ourselves on the west side of Blake Island.
By ourselves at Blake Island
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Tag Archives: Pacific Northwest
Alas, Poor Windlass
Thirty four years ago, the Ideal Windlass Company manufactured a nice little windlass. Serial number 937. Since that time, that little windlass has been dutifully serving it’s masters on the bow of our boat. Last month, it finally decided to go on strike and refused to do the job it had been conscripted to do. It would pay out chain nicely when anchoring, but was just too tired to pull it all back in again.
Ideal claims that parts are available for 99% of their products manufactured since 1940. (I doubt most companies could make that claim about their products.) An email exchange with Ideal proved them right — at least for the part we needed. A quick call to Ideal when we got back from our trip and the exact replacement motor for our 34 year old windlass was on it’s way to us.
More Light, Less Power
Archimedes came to us with fluorescent overhead lighting. The fixtures are about 12 inches long and built into recesses in the ceiling. Each fixture holds one ten watt tube. Sadly, they don’t produce much light. In fact, a previous owner went so far as to line the insides of the recesses with aluminum foil in the hope that would reflect a bit more light. I don’t think that was terribly effective. The tubes just don’t put out much light.
We have seven of these fixtures. Four in the main salon, one in the aft stateroom, and one in each head.
Gulf Islands – Observations and Errata
We just finished two weeks in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. We’ve been going there for a number of years. We try to visit old favorites and make some new discoveries each time we visit. This year, the weather was fantastic. Some years are sunny, some are wet, some a combination (this is most common). We had sun, warm, and flat seas almost the entire time. It clouded up one afternoon, rained in the evening and through the night, and was clear and sunny the next morning. Perfect!
This is what boating is about.
Poulsbo to Seattle – The End
We slipped out of the Poulsbo marina this morning at 5:30 under cover of darkness and wound our way through the anchored boats in Liberty Bay. Surprisingly, only about half the anchored boats seemed to be sporting the required anchor light. We could see the boats on radar, but occasionally had a hard time finding them visually. Once past the anchored boats, it was smooth sailing.
Port Townsend to Poulsbo
We left Point Hudson early this morning and headed south through the bay, past Indian Island, and through the Port Townsend Canal. Here we are approaching the canal. The bridge links Indian Island to the mainland.
Sunrise
We were out of Point Hudson at sunrise this morning. Spectacular sunrise and fantastic day ahead. On the way to Poulsbo.
