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

c-dancer":9z69b3xl said:
And thanks Mac for mentioning the special Lopez 2007 cake that Ruth and Joe provided. Thanks you two.

Peter
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Thanks for the nice comments about the cake. Working on a new plan for decorating the Bellingham cake. No blue tongue, no blue teeth, no blue lips, etc.

So good seeing Robbi (C-RUN). She drove up from the South Sound to visit her C-Brat buddies (stayed two nights in her tent)! What Robbi didn't know is that a sister of one of her good friends had joined us at Lopez for the CBGT. It was our pleasure to witness Jan (CAST AWAY) and Robbi meeting for the first time. Ya just never know what's going to happen at one of these CBGT's including us finding our old 1985 22CD sitting on a trailer while we were at Lopez. Poor thing- so neglected!

Ruth and Joe
R-Matey
 
What a weekend and what great weather sunday and monday. Susan and I got back late on monday. We had a great time seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I really love seeing the people that took their first ride in a c-dory with me out and about in their own c-dory. great to see Tim and family get such a nice well taken care of boat. I really loved macs ranger and spent a lot of time talking to them. (hi mac) Susan kept asking me to slow down to 14 mph and cruise to see what that speed was like. Its slow, thats what its like. Really glad to see all the folks that came from so far a way. Idaho is a long way to trailer for a cruise and bc is a long way to cruise just for the weekend. The pot luck was great as always and our favorite part of the trip. We love to eat if you could not tell. Thanks for all the oysters , they were just great. We did not get to talk to everyone as much as we would like too. I know I talk a lot but I get in to long talks with one person then miss others. friday night Susan had to come find me and drag me off to bed. The name tags worked out well but I draw the line at jackets! thanks for the tags peter. sorry you did not get any shrimp. What are you doing wednesday this week. little shrimping in the morning...no wait you don't have a puller ...whos got a puller that wants to shrimp????

We fished Hein banks on sunday with no hits from the halibuts at all. A boat a 1/2 mile north did get three. It was just killing me to hear them on the vhf. the water in the straits was like glass sunday and monday We stayed in friday harbour on sunday night and saw spiderman. Great movie. Monday we motored over to east sound and used the county dock near town. nice to walk around town on monday when the crowds are gone. smooth trip the whole way back on flat seas. Wish we could stay a week. thanks everyone
 
sportner":26ga8qdd said:
Right now we are in Shallow Bay on Sucia Island having just enjoyed the clams we dug today and a magnificent sunset after.
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And you're using the internet...from Sucia Island. Do you mind if I ask how you're doing that?
 
Thanks everyone...it was a great time! Wonderful seeing old friends and meeting new ones!

Really enjoyed showing my Dad around the islands for the first time. He made it safely back to Bozeman, MT from Seatac and I was home by 9:15pm on Sunday.

Look forward to the next gathering! Safe boating.

John
 
Tim,
David is right. We have a Sprint Mobile Broadband USB Modem connected to our laptop computer. We are now in Spencer Spit at the northeast side of Lopez Island and it seems to be working great. There have been a few places where we have been on the fringe and it is slow. But otherwise we are quite pleased and having a great time keeping our friends and family informed of our travels. Russ & Toni Portner on the Traveler.
 
Until recently, the sole cell phone tower in the San Juans was located at Mt Constitution on Orcas. As of around April 24, Lopez has its own tower installed and operational at the airport, located on the west side of the island south of Fisherman Bay. The tower was installed by Nextel, so Nextel/Sprint users should see improved service in the area now. Verizon is currently doing a feasibility study, and if it can get a signal from the tower in the position available, they'll probably move forward with the permit process during the summer months.

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Nextel installing the cell tower at Lopez Airport
 
Thanks, too, from me for everyone's efforts at Lopez. It was a pleasant weekend, and a good chance to meet new folks. Nice to have Rich and Bret there, as friends and as the C-Dory experts.

Everyone was polite except possibly a woman with the other group that was there with their pig roast. As she passed us on the dock while we were having out potluck, she said, "Too bad you have to do this on the dock." As I say, I wasn't sure if it was snooty and rude or not. I thought it might have been an invitation for all of us to come move onto her yacht. Or she was genuinely symptathetic to what she might have thought was a hardship for us. I'm still thinking about it, not that it affected our good time, and the good food.

Dave
 
Thanks!

I should explain what I have discovered. Up in the bow, where the hole was drilled for a drain of the anchorline locker, there was a space between the hull and the pan that was fibreglassed in as the bottom of the locker. When I ran the vaccuum, I could hear air drawing in that hole. I have now filled the hole with 4200.

And I let the foam drain for 5 weeks, not using the boat. I cut a hold under where the portapotty goes, and put a screw in inspection hatch, which let me see what was happening in there. It takes forever for the foam to let go of water, and I was still getting a little after 5 weeks. Then, when I put the boat in the water, new water appeared. The factory verdict is that I do have leakage from the stem guard screws. So, that will get fixed.

We will get this leakage fixed. The problem with water in the bow, is that when it is sealed, there is no place for it to go, and it just accumulates. I am glad it showed itself so I could do something about it.

Dave
 
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cell_20tree1.jpg
celltowertree.jpg

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

Keeps the plastic tree guys in business, though!

Joe.
 
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.
 
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
 
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/l ... .sized.jpg


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

lopez_2007_photos_015.sized.jpg
 
Next time, just take your kicker and attach to one of the legs :shock: 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. :P

Charlie
 
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
 
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