Dungeness Bay. 48 08.745N, 123 05.487W.
Porpoises and Harbor Seals greet us. The seals are fascinating, splashing around to get other's attention. But not getting close enough for good pictures :-(.
Kind of a rolly night, with winds pushing the boat one way and waves the other. We'll have to start setting a stern anchor out. Great name for a place to be without a crab trap :-(. So Doug improvises one out of our fish net, a couple of lead weights, a rubber band, and a can of cat food (see picture). And it works! We catch 4, one of which is legal to keep. We have that one for lunch. Then we hoist the hook and motor over to Port Townsend for parts and more repair. The dingy seems to be riding funny, low in the stern no matter how far back we position it. Need to check in to.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
August 3-5
Still no wind, but favorable current. We motor from Neah Bay to Port Angeles, about 10 hours. Doug still having to do some work along the way, and catch up on sleep also, so Cindy got to do most of the driving. The cell phone reception (what Doug requires to connect with customers) has been great. Somewhere along the way the crab trap flipped out of the dingy, so we'll have to do something about that, or waste the cost of Washington fishing licenses. Doug figures if we get 9 crabs it will pay for itself (discounting the entertainment value). We sail into the Port Angeles city pier, but there are no facilities there, and with our macerator pump not working off the coast, and no working pumpout at Neah Bay (hasn't worked for 3 years), we really needed our holding tank pumped, so really needed to get over the Port Angeles Boat Haven. While at the city pier met Max and Sherry (from Reedsport, OR). Max said he might have a spare pump on board, and would be in to the Haven tomorrow. We head over, are able to pump out and get a place to tie up for the night.
Next morning we get (hot) showers, get to the hardware store for replacement hoses, and Max shows up and amazingly does have a replacement macerator pump. I offer him $200 for it, he says "naw, just send me a replacement when they come on sale, I've got two on board." Got to love sailors. Plug it in, fits almost perfectly. Put in new (clear) hoses so we can verify functionality. Bid goodbye, motor back over to the city pier to provision at Safeways and spend the night. The City pier is a little bouncy with waves, and a lot of people are on it late crabbing. Squishy is not pleased. Next morning I hike to Swains's general store. They have everything, just out of stock on crab rings. I was able to get some more hose for the ice box and head (toilet). It's functional, but acting less than normal. We call ahead to West Marine in Port Townsend, they have the rebuild kit in stock, so we'll be stopping there soon.
Early afternoon we motor over to Dungeness bay and set anchor for the night.
Next morning we get (hot) showers, get to the hardware store for replacement hoses, and Max shows up and amazingly does have a replacement macerator pump. I offer him $200 for it, he says "naw, just send me a replacement when they come on sale, I've got two on board." Got to love sailors. Plug it in, fits almost perfectly. Put in new (clear) hoses so we can verify functionality. Bid goodbye, motor back over to the city pier to provision at Safeways and spend the night. The City pier is a little bouncy with waves, and a lot of people are on it late crabbing. Squishy is not pleased. Next morning I hike to Swains's general store. They have everything, just out of stock on crab rings. I was able to get some more hose for the ice box and head (toilet). It's functional, but acting less than normal. We call ahead to West Marine in Port Townsend, they have the rebuild kit in stock, so we'll be stopping there soon.
Early afternoon we motor over to Dungeness bay and set anchor for the night.
August 2
We get showers, we get provisions (ice and water), we get a chantrel mushroom pizza for lunch in town (yum), then we try to get out of there to anchor way from the fish and diesel smell. We have the outboard shear pin issue (see below), but when we get out have a peaceful night in the bay. Except for an emergency customer call which kept Doug up most of the night, and on into the next day. Sigh.
Days 18-19
July 31-August 1, Grays Harbor to Neah Bay via La Push.
Sorry posts might be out of order, this post is before the outoboard issue.
The weather report is really favorable, even advertising wind from the south. We finished getting the cabinet glued back together and installed, trucked the garbage out (why doesn't this place have recycling for anything other than cardboard?) And get under way. Uneventful crossing of the Grays harbor bar, we turn the corner and head north.
No wind. Nada. We motor. The ocean is calm with a gentle roll. There always seems to be a line of crab traps the direction we're going, we try to get outside of them so they don't get tangled in our propeller. Cloudy, so no stars. Drizzle. I was concerned about fuel, and had decided to go in to La Push for that. At full speed we would have been there well before fuel dock hours, so we slowed down and time our entrance after sunrise. We get in, but the only life in the marina is fishing boats going out for the weekend tuna fishing tournament. I find a phone number and get hold of the fuel dock guy, he'll be down in 5 minutes. An hour later we've got our fuel and we're out of there. A porpoise leads us out of the bay, and we continue on north. Again, the wind is not existent, so we motor all the way to Neah bay, arriving at 4:30pm. On arrival we discover that we had plenty of fuel for the trip, and had wasted 5 hours with the stop in La Push. Another lesson learned.
Sorry posts might be out of order, this post is before the outoboard issue.
The weather report is really favorable, even advertising wind from the south. We finished getting the cabinet glued back together and installed, trucked the garbage out (why doesn't this place have recycling for anything other than cardboard?) And get under way. Uneventful crossing of the Grays harbor bar, we turn the corner and head north.
No wind. Nada. We motor. The ocean is calm with a gentle roll. There always seems to be a line of crab traps the direction we're going, we try to get outside of them so they don't get tangled in our propeller. Cloudy, so no stars. Drizzle. I was concerned about fuel, and had decided to go in to La Push for that. At full speed we would have been there well before fuel dock hours, so we slowed down and time our entrance after sunrise. We get in, but the only life in the marina is fishing boats going out for the weekend tuna fishing tournament. I find a phone number and get hold of the fuel dock guy, he'll be down in 5 minutes. An hour later we've got our fuel and we're out of there. A porpoise leads us out of the bay, and we continue on north. Again, the wind is not existent, so we motor all the way to Neah bay, arriving at 4:30pm. On arrival we discover that we had plenty of fuel for the trip, and had wasted 5 hours with the stop in La Push. Another lesson learned.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Days 14-17
July 28-30, Newport, Grays Harbor, Washington.
The sail up the coast was fantastic, we actually did sail until about 1:00am when the wind died, then it started up again about 0400 with us making pretty good progress to windward. Sailing at night, by the compass, the wind in the sails, and a bazillion stars is quite the experience. I've posted our track up the coast. We did end up motoring the last 4 hours in to Grays Harbor (that would be the straight line north). Spent the next several days provisioning, repairs (one of our drawer sets broke because of all the heavy stuff we had loaded in the space behind it), trying to get Doug healthy (still has that cough), and doing some work.
Westport is a fishing town. Several charter companies, many commercial boats. Lots of traffic going in and out. Amenities for cruisers are few. The grocery store is a couple of miles from the port, but there is bus service. A few places to eat, mostly fish and chips. Fishermen drink coffee, not mochas. The "showers" are in an RV park a couple blocks away, coin operated, but no hot water! There is a good marine parts store about a mile away.
On our way out of Astoria we heard several reports over the radio of boats going aground, and at Grays Harbor we met one of them. Check out this link: http://web.me.com/nancyayres/Geist_Blog/Blog/Blog.html (even honest enough to post pictures). Great group of guys, got some needed advice on sail trim. They're on their way to Alaska.
The sail up the coast was fantastic, we actually did sail until about 1:00am when the wind died, then it started up again about 0400 with us making pretty good progress to windward. Sailing at night, by the compass, the wind in the sails, and a bazillion stars is quite the experience. I've posted our track up the coast. We did end up motoring the last 4 hours in to Grays Harbor (that would be the straight line north). Spent the next several days provisioning, repairs (one of our drawer sets broke because of all the heavy stuff we had loaded in the space behind it), trying to get Doug healthy (still has that cough), and doing some work.
Westport is a fishing town. Several charter companies, many commercial boats. Lots of traffic going in and out. Amenities for cruisers are few. The grocery store is a couple of miles from the port, but there is bus service. A few places to eat, mostly fish and chips. Fishermen drink coffee, not mochas. The "showers" are in an RV park a couple blocks away, coin operated, but no hot water! There is a good marine parts store about a mile away.
On our way out of Astoria we heard several reports over the radio of boats going aground, and at Grays Harbor we met one of them. Check out this link: http://web.me.com/nancyayres/Geist_Blog/Blog/Blog.html (even honest enough to post pictures). Great group of guys, got some needed advice on sail trim. They're on their way to Alaska.
Sailing Axioms
“Sailing: long periods of boredom, punctuated by periods of terror.”
As we were pulling out of our slip at Makah Marina, Neah bay, WA, the engine suddenly raced, then quit. The wind pushed us towards the fish cleaning dock, we were able to hale some hands to fend us off. I was able to get the engine restarted, and discovered that if I didn't rev the motor up to much I could get steerage way back in to a slip.
“B O A T = Break Out Another Thou$and”
My first thought is that we stripped the transmission of the outboard. Time to buy a new motor. I climb into the dingy and hoist business end of the motor out of the water, while Cindy gets out the engine manual and starts reading. Key word: shear pin. Lord, please let it be a shear pin. (a shear pin is designed to break if the propeller jams, saving the engine and transmission from damage. They are relatively easy to replace).
“Cruising: repairing your boat in strange and exotic places”
I take apart the propeller assembly, being very careful not to “kerplink” anything. Yep, shear pin in three pieces. Praise you Lord Jesus! Then, I think, I'm in a marina on an Indian reservation in NW Washington, who's going to have a shear pin for a 27 year old Honda outboard (which are hard to get parts for anyway)?
Answer: There are two sets of replacements strapped to the side of the engine. I get one set installed without kerplinking, and we're once again on our way. I vow to stop saying negative things about my trusty motor. We motor out into the bay to set anchor, away from the noise and smell.
As we were pulling out of our slip at Makah Marina, Neah bay, WA, the engine suddenly raced, then quit. The wind pushed us towards the fish cleaning dock, we were able to hale some hands to fend us off. I was able to get the engine restarted, and discovered that if I didn't rev the motor up to much I could get steerage way back in to a slip.
“B O A T = Break Out Another Thou$and”
My first thought is that we stripped the transmission of the outboard. Time to buy a new motor. I climb into the dingy and hoist business end of the motor out of the water, while Cindy gets out the engine manual and starts reading. Key word: shear pin. Lord, please let it be a shear pin. (a shear pin is designed to break if the propeller jams, saving the engine and transmission from damage. They are relatively easy to replace).
“Cruising: repairing your boat in strange and exotic places”
I take apart the propeller assembly, being very careful not to “kerplink” anything. Yep, shear pin in three pieces. Praise you Lord Jesus! Then, I think, I'm in a marina on an Indian reservation in NW Washington, who's going to have a shear pin for a 27 year old Honda outboard (which are hard to get parts for anyway)?
Answer: There are two sets of replacements strapped to the side of the engine. I get one set installed without kerplinking, and we're once again on our way. I vow to stop saying negative things about my trusty motor. We motor out into the bay to set anchor, away from the noise and smell.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Where we are now
Sorry we haven't kept up on the blog, have had a variety of events keeping us away from the computer. We are currently in Port Angeles, Washington. Having some problems with the head (aka toilet) that we hope we can get parts here. Will know more tomorrow. I've updated pictures, here's where we've been:
7/31 Westport, WA 46 54.6N 124 06.7W
8/1 La Push, WA (short stop on the way north). 47 55N 124 37.9W
8/1 Makah Marina, Neah Bay, WA. 48 22.1N 124 36.7W (engine repair)
8/2 Neah Bay (anchor out, less smelly) 48 22.4N 124.36.7W
8/3 Port Angeles, WA 48 07N 123 27W, will probably be here another day.
7/31 Westport, WA 46 54.6N 124 06.7W
8/1 La Push, WA (short stop on the way north). 47 55N 124 37.9W
8/1 Makah Marina, Neah Bay, WA. 48 22.1N 124 36.7W (engine repair)
8/2 Neah Bay (anchor out, less smelly) 48 22.4N 124.36.7W
8/3 Port Angeles, WA 48 07N 123 27W, will probably be here another day.
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