First trip – a true “cruising” experience

After our yard experience (not cheap, but satisfying in what we got done) and some hard work on other things ourselves, it’s time to get out and actually enjoy Boundary a little bit!

Plan was a week out to see some of the northern state parks, with a marina night somewhere in the middle.

And it all started according to plan… late night arrival in Bellingham (~2AM) after a drive from Hailey and we were still at the fuel dock then heading out by 11AM the next morning… not bad turnaround time… helped that we provisioned in Idaho before we left (not a huge fan of the big Washington sales tax and even bigger sin tax).

Day 1: Bellingham to Matia Island… great building breeze across Bellingham Bay, eventually leading to a reef and partial furling of the headsail, but still hitting 6.3 – 6.4 knots, woo hoo! Strong elevator current up the Hale Passage and then across to Matia in a dying breeze. Our hope this trip was to catch some dock space at the various state parks we were headed for, in hopes that would make life with the Hobie dog a little less complicated. But dock space in the San Juan Island state parks can be hard to come by, we’d heard, so imagine our surprise when we round the corner and there’s not another soul at Matia. Yeah!

Day 2: Matia to Stuart Island… after a somewhat rolly night on the dock at Matia, probably due to the strong currents caused by the -2′ low tides, we headed off to Stuart Island, one of our truly favorite places in the islands. We spent a great night at Prevost Harbor on our charter trip on the Baba and promised ourselves we’d be back. This time we chose Reid Harbor, for a little variety. Tried to sail a bit but the wind was quite light and fluky… still getting used to seeing rippled water and realizing it’s not wind on the water but just the currents swirling around. So mostly motored to Reid Harbor, where we found, once again, a completely empty dock. How awesome! Spent the late afternoon in some gorgeous weather hanging out on the dock and taking Hobie for nice ranging walks on the deserted roads just outside the state park, where she could roam semi-legally. Fortunately everyone seems to be adapting to the trips from one island to the next:

Day 3: Stuart Island. The -2 tide meant we couldn’t stay at the dock during the low low of the day, and we had already been warned that a jammed board was making the dock buckle at low tide anyway. So leaving Brig and Hobie on the dock Bass took Boundary out to a mooring ball (practicing the single handed mooring pickup from the cockpit, instead of off the bow… super easy!) and then rowed back in… slick. A very pleasant hike out to Turn Point and back in great spring weather, truly a treat. Sat on the bluff above Turn Point and ate a little lunch, enjoyed the view, and just chilled… just like we never left on the Baba those years ago. And of course the crazy hound loved the hike. By the time we got back to the dock low tide had come and gone and we brought Boundary back in for another night, again on our own… who knew?

Day 4: Stuart Island to, well, Stuart Island. Not ready to leave our mellow little island yet, so we headed out for a day sail while the dock got too shallow, buckled, and came back to life. Out Reid, up John’s Pass (against the current, DOH!) and out to try to sail around Turn Point. Not a lot of wind, although we did try, mostly got swirled around in the current and enjoyed the view. After giving up on sailing, returned to Stuart Island with plans to stay at Prevost… Bass had eye balled the dock that morning and thought it looked at least as deep as the Reid Harbor dock. Ahh, nope. Thank goodness for the new depth sounder, and ability to see it (even though it’s in the pilothouse) from the cockpit… a sudden glance at the depth reading 5′ 5″ convinced us to hit the brakes and back out as gracefully as possible, and head back to Reid Harbor for another night (going through John’s Pass the other way, again against the current… how does that happen?). Not alone on the dock this time, but shared it with two nice parties on two spectacularly clean Grand Banks trawlers… turns out they were headed to Roche Harbor for a Grand Banks reunion (pay attention, this comes up again later!). The coup de grace was Brig’s bread, baked in our very own oven… despite a little challenge in getting it out of the pan, it smelled great and tasted great… I think the whole harbor could smell it.

Day 5: Stuart Island to Roche Harbor. Well, ice was getting low, showers were getting needed, it was time for a little civilization. A 1 hour motor from Stuart to Roche Harbor and their marina was in order. Little dicey coming across Spieden Channel with strong, strong (4+ knot) current going east to west… enough to get Bass a little confused when the chart plotter wasn’t quite agreeing with what he was seeing (word to the wise, your boat icon on your chart plotter shows the direction you’re GOING – including current – not the direction your physical boat is FACING… knew that before, but really got it now!). Roche Harbor is very cozy, very cute, and had lots of open transient slips. Being the social butterflies we are, we stayed all the way out at the end. Another beautiful sunny day, we relaxed on the dock, enjoyed the scenery, and witnessed their nightly “colors” ceremony where they lower the Washington, British, Canadian and US flags, punctuated by a cannon blast that cannot be described as Hobie’s favorite part of the trip. All was well, although on arrival I could hear the fan belt squeaking, so figured I’d just change that out in the morning (cue the “duh duh duhduh music…”)

Day 6: Roche to… Roche. So here we get to the true “CRUISING” part of our trip… because as the old saw goes, “What is cruising? Working on your boat in exotic places.” OK, well Roche isn’t exactly exotic, but… So squeaking fan belt on arrival, quick fix this morning, right? Nope. Fan belt I had bought as replacement doesn’t fit, other belts that were on the boat from previous owner don’t work. Checkout time is noon. Roche Harbor folks VERY understanding and friendly, said take your time just let us know. $45 for cab plus $50 at Napa later Bass has round trip cabbed it from Roche Harbor to Friday Harbor for new belts. Install new belt. Squeaking and burning. Not good. Try to turn water pump by hand, won’t turn. Very not good. While Brig pays for another night, Bass starts calling around for diesel mechanic, because he’s figuring water pump is shot. John at Roche Harbor Marine is very helpful, but we’re now too late in the day to do anything. So stressful night’s sleep awaits. To top it off, the Grand Banks reunion has come to Roche Harbor and is in full swing with almost every guest slip filled and barbecue floats and events going on halfway down the guest dock. Fortunately we were nice to the Grand Banks folks we met in Reid Harbor, and since everyone recognizes Hobie at least, we feel we’re among sympathetic folks.

Day 7: Roche again. With John’s help, we finally track down a water pump. Not the $480 Westerbeke pump because it’s overpriced a** is out of stock anyway, but the $165 Kubota part (our Westerbeke engine is just a rebadged Kubota block). Pump is ordered, overnighted (not cheap), to arrive on Friday afternoon. Gulp. Got to point of talking details with Vessel Assist in case we need to get towed back to Bellingham. Another night on the dock, more sympathy and offers of tools from the Grand Banks crews.

Day 8: Shampoo, rinse, repeat. Actually just repeat, we keep forgetting to take showers. Part does arrive, but of course there’s the inevitable broken bolt in removing the old water pump, which sure looks like original equipment. Fortunately the diesel mechanic from Roche Harbor marine has a plan involving an unused hole right next to the broken bolt, a drill and tap, and plenty of sealant. But not today as the day has slipped away while awaiting UPS delivery, so it will have to wait for Saturday morning. Another colors ceremony… boom… and another nervous night’s sleep.

Day 9: Finish water pump install. Put on belt that is a little long but SHOULD work. Test run with mechanic for 20 minutes. Runs cool, runs right, doesn’t leak coolant. YEAAH!!! We are on our way. Nice days have transitioned to a little more overcast as we motor from Roche Harbor over to the Wasp Passage… wanting to make sure engine is running right no sailing, just motoring, a lot of it from pilothouse where we can watch gauges more closely. But all runs well. We consider Blind Bay but it’s actually quite choppy at the mooring balls there, so we motor on to Spencer Spit. Last night before back in Bellingham (a few days later than planned), so we’re going whole hog and a night on a mooring ball with the dog. Weather turns quite ugly with rain and cold breeze, but we’re SUPER comfortable below with the Wallas diesel heater blasting. One evening dinghy ride to shore for Hobie and Bass seems to do the trick, Hobie gets to blast up and down the beach and get her crazy out and do all her business and then she’s ready for bed.

Day 10: Spencer Spit to Bellingham. Another quick morning row to shore (did I mention how incredibly good this hound was during this trip??) and we’re off the mooring ball and heading for Bellingham. Fluky winds ease us across the Rosario Strait and then pick up as we get closer to Bellingham… the ride across Bellingham Bay is once again awesome, cooking along at 6+ knots on a beam reach with some following swell, felt just fricking sweet after days of worry on the dock at Roche. Not that we’re worry free, because backing into the slip with 20+ knots of breeze coming over the starboard quarter isn’t exactly slick, but it works, we’re in the slip, and we are good!!

All in all a great trip, all the things we did in the yard and improvements we’ve made really felt great. Sure we had a little glitch, but I’m pretty sure if we complain about a mechanical problem that cost less than a boat unit ($1,000) to fix, and only caused us to spend 3 extra nights in one of the nicest marinas in one of the cooler spots out there… well, I think if we complain about that, they just take our boat away, right?

(NOTE: Back to work for us for a while, so next few posts will be more, err, maintenance and upgrade oriented… feel free to skip right on over them if not your cup of tea!)