05/04 - 05/05 - Lopez Opening Day 2007

Sea Wolf · Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 12:22 am Post subject:

Here in California, they (sometimes) make the towers "enviro-friendly", with varying degrees of success!

Keeps the plastic tree guys in business, though!

Joe.

starcrafttom · Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 12:37 am Post subject:

black north we had the same problem in the bow you have. we also have a inspection plate installed by the factory. they had to redo the bow strip. seams some one got to motivated with the drill.

Grumpy · Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 1:02 pm Post subject:

Thanks to all (Too numerous to mention) for the great gathering and entertainment. Didn't expect an actual demo of walking on water but....
Wish we could have had a shot from Deception pass bridge of "The Fleet" setting sail.

Please tell more about Barry and the Picnic table !!!! All we heard was a one sided discussion with USCG..

We continued from Lopez, via Reid Harbor and then down to Snug Harbor for 2 nights. Nice place but very thin water!

Then to Poet's cove for Canadian entry, lunch and on to a great house we rented at the top pf Bedwell Harbor just at the entry to Pender Canal which is an "experience" (Thanks Ron & Anne). Depth is not problem but gets kinda funny if the tide is the wrong way and someone in a large plastic boat is trying to go the other way.

Through the canal to Browings marina then a 10 minute walk to the Mall is a fun way to do shopping ! Alternative that we did yesterday was a quick blast up to Ganges. Just don't add the price of gas to the grocery bill...

Great weather apart from Tuesday evening when it kicked up to about 30 kts and caught us in the tide rips around the S end of the Island. Not fun.

Lots of photos of here and the Lopez gathering including several running shots of the fleet leaving Cornet Bay etc. Will have to wait until we get back next week as the internet service here is "iffy" Must get me one of them there wireless cards.

Sure beats working..

Merv & Kathy

colobear · Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 12:32 am Post subject:

OK Here's the great picnic table caper. On the way back from Lopez we were near lawson Reef in the middle of Rosario Straits and saw a really funylooking object sticking out of the water where there ain't nothin sposed to be there. On closer examination it proved to be a giant picnic table floating merrily along upside down with four 2X6 dagger legs sticking up and about a 4X8 table top made of more 2X6's floating about 12" under water. That did not seem right so I called the CG and reported the hazard (I'll bet that got a lot of laughs: "CG Port Angeles, There's a giant picnic table adrift near Lawson Reef"). Anyway, the CG asked me by cellphone if I could retrieve it. As it probably weighed about 400 pounds soaking wet I said no but I would attempt to tow it out of the strait. Accordingly I attached a line to said picnic table and took it under tow. Well...that's a bit of an overstatement, I attempted to take it under tow! Let me tell you, towing a waterlogged picnic table is an exercise in futility. I could make about .7KTs. (The current was about 1KT going the wrong way.) If I tried to get a little more speed all would go well briefly when the table would submarine and I would have to slow down even more. The damn thing would slalom off to one side pulling C-Cakes in its wake. We made some circles out there but after about 30 minutes we were no closer to shore and were in fact getting farther from Deception Pass so I called the CG and said we tried but had to stop for fear of running out of fuel as we went in those great circles. Released the table and the last we saw of it, it was proceeding toward Canada.

Fred and Robbin on Anita Marie called by cellphone during this adventure, concerned because they had heard "C-Cakes" and "Coast Guard" in the same transmission. We thanked them and said no, we weren't sinking, just trying to get a cheap picnic table.

Here's the table under tow (Said He!)
http://www.c-brats.com/albums/C-Cakes/lopez_2007_photos_015.sized.jpg
[img][/img]

Sorry i don't know how to get the actual image here.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 12:42 am Post subject:

Barry - do it this way:

Grumpy · Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 11:27 am Post subject:

Nice one Barry !!!
We figured from the CG 1/2 of the conversation that you were OK and actually heard them broadcast an advisory about the table.

As a "handyman" I bet you are going to get a lot of suggestions as to how you could have attached it using HD hardware in order to get it to plane and track !!!

You are probably right about it's destination. 2 days ago just off the West side of Saturna we had to run from a 6 ft tugboat wake and we were amazed to see that it was the same beast as Mac met in Deception pass only this time without logs and in a hurry to pick up some more.

Met Amigo II in Sidney yesterday as we were attempting to copy Mac and park sideways. At least fellow C-brats understand !!!

2 more days in paradise (yes the sun IS still shining up here today)

Merv & Kathy

Sea Wolf · Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 11:36 am Post subject:

Next time we get a new thread asking about which prop to use for this guy's new motor, we'll have to advise him to use the new 12-blade Super-Torque from Solas with the design copied after General Dynamics Subsurface Division.

Plan C · Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 1:11 pm Post subject: table

Are you sure it was a table and not four wooden sharks?

Captains Cat · Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 1:19 pm Post subject:

Next time, just take your kicker and attach to one of the legs Shocked

and ride the sucker to shore! Wink

We have the more rare 6 legged picnic tables here on the right coast in the Chesapeake Bay. The 4 legged ones have been fished out. Razz

Charlie

Grumpy · Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 1:17 pm Post subject:

I have just posted a bunch of pictures from the Lopez gathering to the "kingfisher" album.

I tried the empty Lopez album but it does not appear to offer the option of entering photos ! (probably why it is empty)

Anyone who wants a higher resolution picture of their boat can PM me and I will send by e-mail. (Don't try it if you have dial up as they are 1M and up)

More later when I have finished cleaning the boat !!

Merv

timflan · Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 8:12 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Merv. I would like large versions of these three:

http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=Kingfisher&id=DSCN6117&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=Kingfisher&id=DSCN6101&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=Kingfisher&id=DSCN6106&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

Also, thanks for the Raymarine lead. Just to follow up, between the first time I called Mr. Dixon's number and the second, his outgoing voicemail message was revised to say "If it's about Raymarine, call Fran Mitchell at 800-539-5539", so I got the impression he didn't handle this anymore Smile

Grumpy · Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 8:31 pm Post subject:

Tim. Sorry to see that the Raymarine tip did not work. Must admit I did not even attempt it before the Lopez/Gulf trip as I was pretty sure that whatever could go wrong, would and I preferred to risk having my old number in the unit just in case.
Thanks for posting the results of your research, guess I will just have to bite the bullet and send it in.

Sent you a OM on the photo's.

Merv