SO WHAT DID YOU DO WITH OR ON YOUR C-DORY TODAY??

OK, Daydreamis ready for a quick little dash out from Eddie Vine at Shilshole over to Manzanita Bay just for tonight, back after breakfast tomorrow morning. Weather is iffy but got to keep the string alive - out on the water every month year round since February 2003 when the CD22 Daydream came home! Can't go out next week, so it is now or the string is broken...not about to let that happen!
 
I agree Pat, don't break the string. Thanks for proving that it's possible to boat all year around in the Pacific NW. BTW, I'm very knowlegable of the streets of Seattle and how to get around and I was wondering, which route do you take to trailer your 25-footer down to Shilshole? Are you taking 85th all the way until you go down the narrow windy road down to Shilshole or do you go over the Ballard bridge to Market Street thru the tight and busy Ballard traffic on the way to Shilshole? Just curious since we'll want to launch from Eddie Vine sometime in the near future.
 
Peter - we used to take 85th straight across - now we really go out of our way to travel the broadest streets - I-5 to 105th, over to Holman Road, back south on 24th to 85th, just a short ways on 24th to Market. The lanes on 85th from I-5 to Market are just too narrow for comfort with the CD25.

Changed our plans a bit, we thought Manzanita would be a little too much in the shade, so we headed for Blakely Harbor, our favorite spot. Here are a couple of shots:

Blakely Harbor Sunset 4-21-06
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Seattle Sunrise from Blakely Harbor 4-22-06
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The run over Friday afternoon was great, a little bit of chop, running 17.5 knots all the way. Coming back, wow a different story! Seas 2 -3 feet, with a few 4 footers thrown in for fun! 6- 9 knots back, slow but not uncomfortable at all!




c-dancer":tsxv2th4 said:
I agree Pat, don't break the string. Thanks for proving that it's possible to boat all year around in the Pacific NW. BTW, I'm very knowlegable of the streets of Seattle and how to get around and I was wondering, which route do you take to trailer your 25-footer down to Shilshole? Are you taking 85th all the way until you go down the narrow windy road down to Shilshole or do you go over the Ballard bridge to Market Street thru the tight and busy Ballard traffic on the way to Shilshole? Just curious since we'll want to launch from Eddie Vine sometime in the near future.
Click to expand...
 
Gorgeous scenery! Thanks Pat n Patty.

We went to Newport today to try some sturgeon fishing. It was sunny and nice -- then the wind started. We ran all the way to Toledo looking for deep holes people had told us about, but ended up back downriver in 38 feet of water....Steve put out a smelt and I used a squid -- we both came back with no bait, but no visible bites either -- we re-baited and tried again -- I held my rod to see what had taken a rubbery squid off my rig~~we both came up with crabs clinging to our bait! We ended up catching (and putting back) 4 females and never got a fish to bite. Steve got bored with losing bait, so we decided to go back further downriver -- we met the wind head on! I've never seen it quite like that before at Yaquina!

http://www.c-brats.com/albums/CatyMae/P4220005.sized.jpg

We went as far as about halfway out the jetties and turned around and came back in to load the boat -- WOW on that wind! -- we chose the dockside where we'd blow away from it so we wouldn't slam into it -- but WHOA is it hard to get the boat to the dock with the wind coming straight from the side where the dock is! I had to pretty much face the dock straight on (like I was going to ram it) and at the last minute, swing closer and reverse -- Steve jumped onto the dock and I went to the back to get the pole to hold us to the dock while he got us tied off. He THOUGHT he was going to drive onto the trailer, but my expletives made him determine we ought to walk it onto the trailer -- SUCCESS!! No bangs, scrapes nor dings. WHEW! Guess we shoulda taken the traps with us! And some lightweight rods and herring jigs too...saw a few bait balls...dagnabit! :)
 
Hey, those meat sticks will handle a sabiki rig just fine :D.
Don't feel bad about not finding the Sturgeon holes, I have looked for them too, of course I got bored and turned it into a "how far up this river can I go" kind of trip.
I had a hard time getting your pic to open. I will try again.
By the way, any time crab is open and you are early season fishing take the pots. I have had it save more than one trip before. Worst case you can crab the dock by the brewery.
 
Mr. Fisherman":1fvswlo5 said:
Hey, those meat sticks will handle a sabiki rig just fine :D.
Don't feel bad about not finding the Sturgeon holes, I have looked for them too, of course I got bored and turned it into a "how far up this river can I go" kind of trip.
I had a hard time getting your pic to open. I will try again.
By the way, any time crab is open and you are early season fishing take the pots. I have had it save more than one trip before. Worst case you can crab the dock by the brewery.
Click to expand...

Yup, I'll have to pick up a couple sabiki sets and just keep them in the boat. I don't know how far one can go up the Yaquina, but we went past huge ships that'd gotten up there somehow! We turned back after going toward a dock on an arm of the river -- don't know if that's the Toledo launch or not, but the water was shallowing up pretty fast -- pretty big tide exchange yesterday! Does that have anything to do in conjunction with the wind making the water rough?

Yup too on the crab pots...and big yup on the brewery -- for food and drink that is :-)
 
OK, Peter, let me try this one again, I re-read your question, and obviously, I missed the important part about the winding little road at the end of 85th that goes right down to Shilshole. There is a cautionary tale!

We used to take our CD22 all the way down to Shilshole on 85th, down the little winding road with the switchbacks that goes under the railroad bridge and comes out right at Eddie Vine - those were tight turns with the CD22, but we managed, and I just didn't want to even try that with the CD25. So we would take the CD25 on 85th west to 24th and 24th south to Market, Market back north to Shilshole. Did this quite a bit. This is a bit out of the way, after all, 85th is just a completely straight shot from I-5 to Shilshole. Now of course I go even farther out of my way to stay on wide streets. But we had talked about taking the CD25 down the winding road, just thought those turns were probably too tight.

One day coming back with the CD25, I thought, what the heck, let's try going UP the winding road and out 85th. As we were just starting under the railroad bridge, Patty yelled "STOP!!!!" (four exclamation points are warranted here). The Expedition was under the railroad bridge, and the boat was just partially under when we stopped. Got out to take a look, THE UNDERSIDE OF THE BRIDGE IS MORE THAN A FOOT LOWER THAN OUR RADAR ARCH - we would have just sheared off our new radome and ripped the arch off to boot had we not stopped. Traffic was piling up behind us, we had to back out - well, let's just say this was not one of my finer moments...I can only imagine what it would have been like if we had tried to take the CD25 DOWN that road and had to back up around those switchbacks to get to some place to turn around.

So, yes, you can take your CD22 down that winding little road, IF you are sure you fit under the bridge (don't recall if C-Dancer has a radar arch). It is tight but you can do it. You MIGHT be able to take a CD25 without a radar arch, the limiting factor there is really the tightness of the turns on the switchbacks and the narrowness of the road.






c-dancer":189mwtuj said:
Are you taking 85th all the way until you go down the narrow windy road down to Shilshole or do you go over the Ballard bridge to Market Street thru the tight and busy Ballard traffic on the way to Shilshole? Just curious since we'll want to launch from Eddie Vine sometime in the near future.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the clarification Pat. No, C-Dancer doesn't have a radar arch but I might just stick to going down Market Street. Hope to see you out on the water real soon!
Peter
 
Dropped the trailer (with boat) off at MCT Trailers in Ventura this morning.
Having a 2' extension added to the tongue, new brake actuator, new jack and a weight distribution system installed (yes, Joel- I'm copying you)
Have always had trouble with the existing brake actuator and the jack has always been hard to crank.
After all this is complete, they will adjust the carriage so the tongue weight is ~475 lbs.
Hope to have the boat back by this weekend :roll:
 
Shilshole access:

I worked as a marina attendant at Shilshole while in college (1965 - 1968). During the summer we leased a garbage truck and emptied the garbage from the docks. The truck included a compactor that we used regularly as the holding container filled up. About once a week the waste mgmt company came down, emptied the truck, and returned it to us.

This was a LARGE truck, and had a large gear (for the compactor mechanism) sticking up above the forward end of the container, just behind the cab. One week the driver decided to go up the winding road. The container might (?) have made it under the RR bridge, but the gear definitely did not -- I imagine that truck came to a VERY ABRUPT halt!

I don't know if the driver lost any teeth in the process, but needless to say, we didn't say him around anymore after that.

BTW Pat - Are you sure you would have merely lost the radar dome and arch? Or would the arch have taken the top of your cabin with it? Either way not so good . . .

iggy

P.S. We drove from Portland to Seattle 4/22 for a family photo. Beautiful weather; crystal clear Olympic Mountains. Reminded me of working swing shifts at Shilshole. At sunset I'd have lunch up in the 3-story tower, with a 360 deg panoramic view of the marina, Puget Sound, and the Olympics. And THEY were paying ME!
 
I could have written this in the "today tense", but by the time I got in last night, I was too tired to do anything but just enjoy a nice glass of wine and go to bed. So, this is what I did with my C-Dory yesterday. :lol: Could a day on the water been any better than yesterday? I launched early with a forecast that predicted 15 to 20mph winds, and cloudy weather. I just had a feeling that it wasn't going to turn out that way. I questioned my judgement about 5 minutes out. The wind was 15 from the south, 100% overcast, and it was a bit lumpy. But, I followed the lee shoreline of McNeil Island to Pitt Passage and started a search for the resident silvers that have been elusive this year. By late morning, with no fish showing, the good news was that it was perfectly clear and the wind had dropped to a dead calm. I went to Longbranch, Lakebay, Penrose Point State Park, and Fox Island. It was delightful. I did C@R two cutthroats, so the day did produce a fish fix. I watched an adult bald eagle with two very large "teenagers" on the beach. The young birds were so fun to watch. They looked huge, it must be that their feathers when young are a bit more puffy, because they looked much larger than the adult. The adult, so stately, the kids a bit "goofy". No camera, too bad. I returned and had the boat washed and put away by 9pm.
A great day, a great boat. Life is good. Robbi
 
Spent much of this week's evenings and part of today polishing up SeaDNA. Ran a buffer with McGuires oxidation remover over nearly the entire boat. She's looking sweet now.

Now that the outside is done, I won't be too embarrassed to moor next to anyone at Lopez. Will spend the remaining evenings cleaning up, reorganziing and provisioning for the Lopez trip. After a year's worth of fishing, a lot of tackle is out of place and a lot of new things need to be properly stowed.

I moved the rails in a bit on the trailer to make it tighter when I load on.
Also moved the rails aft about 5". When I looked at how they were installed at the factory, I realized that the front portion of the railing was not really doing anything for me due to the bow curving away from it. Hence, moving the rail aft as much as possible made more of the rail useful. I'm also thinking about mounting a short guide rail on the angled part of the trailer. Anyone ever done that?
 
Roger,

Not entirely sure of what you mean by "short guide rail on angled part of the trailer", but here's a picture of what I call "cheek blocks" I installed to positively center my boat on the trailer. The side rails (fairly tight) help guide the boat on, but these blocks do the final centering. Hope this helps.
 
Roger, I have seen that set up on ski boats afew times.They dont have the side boards we do but do have short guides at the front of the trailer that guides the bow right in to the bowroller and strap. I have been thinking about this my self. I'd be willing to talk about it at lopez. I also have a auto bow hook in the garage that I was thinking of installing. you just drive the boat up untill the bow hook is in the device and a spring drivin pin goes thru the hook eye and your done. With the extra side mounts guideing the bow this may work out really well.
 
Spent yesterday going out of Harvey Cedars, NJ. Went up Double Creek Channel and out to Barnegat Inlet past Barnegat Light. Beautiful trip in the back bays of Long Beach Island. Wind blowing 20+ knots and the 25 ft Cruiser handled everything well. Lots of spray and glad for electric windshield wipers. Boat is new to me so I am slowly spreading my wings and exploring new places. Not much boat traffic yet in the northeast. C-Dorys unusual in this area so lots of questioning stares as we cruise by. Enjoyed an earlier cruise anchored up for a few hours watching the water fowl wildlife in the marshlands. Nice to have a shallow draft craft. C-Otter
 
I made window covers for the boat, and I am surprised how well they turned out. Super simple. I found some material At GI Joes that is an automotive utility carpet sold in 3' by 6' rolls for $12.99. This is a material that looks similar to the liner that some have used to insulate the V-berth area, but it is not of the same quality, but will work great for window covers. No sewing required, just cut and add snaps. It took about two hours to complete. Cost around $35. I will post pictures in my album. Robbi
 
Thanks Norma. You remove the screws from the window frame and replace with a "button stud". The "button socket" is attached to the window covering material with a hammer and a tool that comes with the kit. If you have a West Marine catalog these items are on page 703. Now, you can buy the kits at most fabric stores at a fraction of the West Marine cost. They may not be as good of quality, but they are stainless. The button studs I bought at West Marine. Take a window screw in with you and they will match the size. Robbi
 
Robbi and Norma ,
I also found the button studs at Lowe's, They seemed to work pretty good and cheaper than We$t Marine ...

Anyhow... since I have been off work and gimping around, I have been getting Laurna Jo ready for Lopez..working on getting a stereo installed along with my Ham.
Today working on drawer dividers, and a box for the electronics.
Dang hope I can have her ready by Friday a.m.

Jim
 
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