Adventures on Blue Redd

And what we did or didn't do about it... Kabola furnace ship hot water loop, inop. ·        We never did find the fix for this.    Costica (Kabola genius) was aboard to help diagnose while we were still in Anacortes. Windlass ·        Turned out to be the breaker (Doh!).    Just closed the breaker and voi-la!    It worked. Thrusters (bow & stern).   When we moved to Lithium batteries and installed new chargers, we forgot to account for the AGMs on the thrusters, so they had no chargers.    ·        Installed AC-DC chargers (bow and stern) that run off the inverter.    Not ideal, but it was expeditious.    Woody came to Campbell River and brought two chargers and installed them – Thanks, Woody. Propane system for the gas cooktop.    We had an intermittent very low flame to no flame if multiple burners were on....

  That's no map, that's my wife! We've already shared about our Northwestern Canada transit from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy in a prior blog.   This blog covers from Port Hardy all the way back to Anacortes. Port Hardy down to Blind Channel.  This area is known as the Broughtons. Blind Channel to Campbell River.  This area is known as the Discovery Islands. Campbell River down to Nanaimo.   This is the Northern Gulf Islands. Nanaimo to Victoria.   This area is known as the Southern Gulf Islands. Victoria to Puget Sound, and around to Anacortes.   This area is known as the Northern Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.  

Here we are departing Everett, Central Basin about 0800 this morning. Well.   We completed our adventure and are back in Anacortes.   The weather predictions called for rather unpleasant conditions, so we elected to come back to Anacortes rather than spend the night at anchor in a nearby bay. We left Everett this morning as planned.  As we steamed up Saratoga Passage, we encountered literally thousands of crab pots.  You know how to find the channel - right?   Just look for the crab pots!   How can this be?   Why are these things in the navigable channels when they are a distinct hazard to navigation?   I don't get it.  Are there any crab left in the area? A least this one was brightly colored.  It's the gray and white ones that barely float that are the challenge to locate and miss.  Tangling the crab pot line in my prop or stabilizers would really put me in a foul mood!   And we wouldn't wan...

I thought I'd give you all a map and summarize our trip up and back through Canada between Port Hardy (just south of Cape Caution) and Prince Rupert (just south of Alaska), and then back. Here's a picture of Karen on one of the Whale Tail benches in Prince Rupert on our way north. We logged 1,118 miles in this section, spent 103.38 hours underway over 18 days (7 days up and 11 back down), and consumed 407 gallons of diesel.    We'd have like to have spent more time in this stretch of Canda as it is really beautiful, but we were really focused on Alaska this year. Next year, we will aim to spend more time enjoying Canadian hospitality and wilderness.

It was a Fall day.   We awoke to fog and rain this morning in Poulsbo.  See picture, above. A quick breakfast and then we were underway to Everett, 30 miles away.  Enroute, we passed in front of Edmonds.  We puttered past the ferry dock. We then puttered past our old (and still own), home.  Anyone want to buy a lovely view multi-generational luxury home in Edmonds?  Please! We got very melancholic; we both really love this home, the neighbors, and the neighborhood.   Tomorrow afternoon, we will visit with two of our neighbors, Paul & Cheryl.  We look forward to the rendezvous and catching up. We rounded the Lighthouse at Mukilteo about 1300 (1:00pm). Then we pulled into Everett Marina just before 1400. Mark & Arleigh came over this evening and we then called Patty, Mark's sister & a dear friend from Santa Cruz.   We laughed, teased, and loved.   What great friends. Tomorrow, we are going nowhere; just stay...

The picture is a retread of last night's moonrise from Port Townsend. Yesterday, we spent the morning getting some of our vaccinations in preparation for our next adventure through the Panama Canal.   Then we spent the rest of the day with Paul & Jenell, touring their neighborhood as there was an Art Walk going on.  We saw, watercolor, glass, marquetry, and acrylic based art, some of which was quite nice.   We ended the evening over a lovely Italian dinner at Nick's Grotto.  It is so enjoyable to hang out with people and have real, genuine, adult conversations about the challenges of families (kids and parents), life in general, and of course, politics. After dinner, Karen & I walked back to the boat from downtown Port Townsend as we needed the exercise to work off dinner. All of that and we ended up with no pictures!   How did that happen??? This morning, we were going to go out for breakfast a the highly regarded cafe in the marina, but ...

The picture is of Victoria Harbour as we were departing. The title is not meant to be a comment on my mental state, though it might fit.  Dylan (that's the correct spelling of his name), the crew from the neighboring boat, came through and cleared away the kelp that had become entangled in my stabilizer and secondary prop.  But the damage was done.  My starboard stabilizer is inoperative.  More annoyingly, it is stuck canted out at about a 45-degree angle.  This makes for an interesting mostly unstable, slow ride.  This cut our speed down from 7.5 knots to 5.5 knots.  Tyler from S3 Maritime, the Wesmar Stabilizer repair group, wont' be able to get to it until we are back in Anacortes next week.  So, we will limp along until then. The second issue was this big ship, the "Great Pioneer".  He was overtaking and I wanted to stay out of his way, even though in the open water, I was the stand-on vessel.  Using the Law of Rivets (he had a lot m...

Today, we went nowhere.   We stayed in Victoria, the best European town in North America.  I love this place.  Quaint streets lined with interesting shops, lots of high-quality eateries, and lovely architecture, all inhabited by friendly gregarious people. Dillon came through!  Karen & I were lunching at an outdoor spot across the harbour, at the ferry terminal no less, when we saw Dillon come over and dive the boat.  He went in four times to free kelp from our stabilizers and wing propeller.  Dillon is my newest hero!  The water temp was a balmy 52 degrees, and the air temp was 54 degrees with a 10-knot wind from the north. Best $100 I ever spent! That's the view of Dillon preparing for his dive while we were dining in relative warmth and luxury across the harbour. We decided to visit the Stonehenge exhibit at the Museum of Natural History.   I actually saw (sort-of) Stonehenge as my Oxford buddy, Mike & I, rode the train from O...