I'm excited Bill. And looking forward to another fun summer with the boat! I hope so Ken. And thanks Gene.
The mooring ball last night wasn’t so fun. Not sure if I just don’t know what I’m doing, or if it’s just the nature of the beast. (This was my first time on one.) First problem was my line tangling around the bottom of the ball/can. I thought the boat is supposed to blow back from the can. (And with waves most the night, I would expect even those to put space between the ball and boat!) (I go back and forth between can and ball. They looked like balls from a distance, but seem more like cans up close.) So I shortened the 8 foot of line down to about 4 feet. Still manage to tangle once. Then I was awoken to the ball/can hitting the hull. I look out the window to see my small wind sock showing a light wind, but the boat was still just sitting next to the ball. Perhaps tidal current? And a good part of the night seemed like constant rocking for fairly small waves. Perhaps being close to shore? In any case, it was a long night without a lot of sleep. Next time I’ll use the floating docks there! On our way to Roche Harbor to clear customs, we got boarded by the USCG about a mile outside of the bay there. Being boarded last year in Door County, and being an ex-Coastie, the boarding was pretty straight forward and a piece of cake! The boarding team was off a Cutter from Bellingham and they were working with a helo over head. (Guy jokingly asked me if I liked all the attention…) We chatted about the weekend gathering and the trailerability of our boats. I thanked them for their service, and we pressed on to Roche Harbor. Customs there was pretty straight forward and the office had an international ferry clearance to get to in Friday Harbor. His computer wasn’t up, so most the time was spent waiting for him to share the information phoned in with another officer with a working computer. Got to Friday Harbor, and joined several other boats already docked. A few more came in as the afternoon wore on. A few more photos to upload. Colby P.s. Late edit. Almost put my own boat in peril trying to help out another boater. Before leaving Pender Island, I decided to go through the Pender Canal into Port Browning, just to check it out. Current was really flowing and low tide. No problem, however, after turning around to come back there was a small 16' open bow boat with an older gentlemen and two older women that was experiencing motor problems. This was pretty much under the bridge at the north side of the canal. I offered them assistance and would need to turn back around as the channel widened some. Mind you, current still going pretty good, but maybe not quite as fast as it had been. I got turned around, got a line to them and while trying to get the line tied on both boats, pretty much floating side by sideI lost situational awareness of the small reef next to the Red buoy at the south end of the narrow channel. Thankfully, the distressed boater noticed and pointed it out, and I slammed into reverse with the bow just about over the exposed reef. I managed to just miss it, and some how, the other guy had a good enuf wrap on the line that his boat also missed it. I then towed him halfway back down the bay to Poets Cove, when he finally got his motor started and declined any more assistance. I pulled my line in, as he turned back around to continue back thru the canal! :shock: I had no intention to keep track of him after that.... It did seem like a poured some oil in the top of the engine before it started running again, and in talking with Big C here in FH, he suggested it may have been an Etec outboard that had ran dry of oil. Lesson learned for me, next time I'll wait to offer a towline once clear of all dangers to my own boat! Hope today was the end of so much excitement! lol!
Colby
Colby
if you have 10, don’t let the latest update happen. Lots of others complaining on the computer forums!