MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I think we blinked...is it really Christmas 2012? Tasman is three, Josie is one...What happened? It has been year to remember. When we named our boat "Balancing Act", we didn't really realize how true it would be.

Tasman was busy this year marching and digging. With "76 Trombones" in the background, we all marched around the house, inside, outside, up and down the street. It was a time to remember! We also spent time this year visiting building sites, as Tasman took in diggers, dumpers, backhoes, excavators, front-wheel loaders...and much more. This winter, he loves to build roads with his diggers and dumpers.

Josie is joyously discovering how her legs work, playing and giggling as she learns to walk and run. She loves to tell us what she wants or needs by pointing, signing (just a few signs so far), or communicating in any way she can.

Tasman and Josie can get each other to giggle like no one else. What fun it is to have siblings!

Cory and I are working to balance family, work, responsibilities, just like many of you are. What a balancing act that is! As a child, you begin life living in the moment, taking pleasure (or being distressed) by what is happening in the moment. Soon, you learn to look ahead, whether for Christmas, summer, or just the end of the day. Sometimes, it is so difficult to let go and just be in the "now". In this part of our lives, we are relearning from our children how to appreciate the moment, letting go of the pressures of the outside world and just accepting and appreciating what is. We want to wish each and every one of you a peaceful holiday season, and a wonderful New Year. While our daily lives don't always allow us to see or talk to most of you, we think of you and wish you well. Drop by or drop us a line! We would love to catch up on your lives!

Welcome, Josephine!

Josephine, aka "Josie", and "Bay-Bee" to Tasman, was born in the wee hours of December 7th. Everyone (but Tas, of course) is tired, but healthy and happy. Tas is a terrific older brother, trying to help out where he can, like bringing us blankets and diapers.

3 Pumpkins

A very pregnant Nancy, Tas in his Halloween costume, and Tas's Pumpkin.

Since our last post over a year ago, we have sold our "hip" home and moved to the other side of town where I am in coffee shop withdrawal, Tas changed from a baby to a little boy, and we are expecting a baby girl in a month or so.

11 Months

Tasman hasn't even turned one yet and he's driving the boat. He's so good he doesn't even have to face forwards!

6 fabulous months? Really?!?

The first 6 weeks with Tas were wonderful, but seemed to last forever. Where did the last 4 1/2 months go?

Each day we spend with Tas is an exploration. We love watching Tas learn and grow, and helping him to explore the world. This weekend, after trying to sit up since the day he was born, Tas finally is sitting up on his own. (OK, he does topple over after a little while - it's adorable!) Tas really doesn't care too much about getting places yet, but seeing them from an upright position, yes that seems to be critical!

Being a new mom has been a growing experience. I know that I've stressed about things that more experienced mom's don't worry about. (Yes, he will someday sleep through the night...I probably don't need to spend all my time reading sleeping books for tips.)

But now let's get to the important part...pictures!

Tasman wakes up!

The past two months have flown. Tasman is no longer the cute sleepy little lump, but has put on three pounds, grown about 5 inches, and is a wiggly bundle of energy. He loves to play with daddy and hang out with mommy. Cory has come up with all sorts of creative games to get Tas moving and laughing. We are finding our stride and looking forward to springtime when we can all get outside and have some fun.

We had fun visiting great-grandpa and grandma at Christmas. Tas decided to give mom and dad a break and sleep through dinner.

We get a lot of hugs in every day - there can never be too many of those!

Merry Christmas!

We're hoping he'll still fit in his Christmas outfit at Christmas. He's growing like a weed... long and skinny.

Tasman's Birth

Tasman Lucas Bolton was born on Tuesday, 11/17/09 at 3:08 pm. He weighs 8 pounds 5 ounces, and is 20 ½ inches long. He is perfect. Life is good and we are thrilled to be a family of three.

We arrived at the hospital at 6 am on Tuesday, November 17th, after a fitful night of sleep, nervous and excited. We weren’t sure how long the labor would take. Surprise, surprise, it only took 8 hours! I got an epidural by 11 am the doctor came to deliver the baby just after 2 pm. When the baby arrived, he was immediately placed in my arms. This is the best moment of Cory and my lives. Our baby boy was finally here.

Cory got to bathe the baby within an hour of birth, so he is the bathing expert. Our move to the postpartum section was delayed when I passed out due to blood loss. I don’t remember much, but I managed to scare Cory pretty badly. After several similar episodes, I wasn’t allowed out of bed for several days without help from the nurses. Talk about frustrating! They gave me two bags of liquid iron to jump start my energy level, so I am feeling much better now.

Both sets of grandparents were able to visit several times during our stay. The nurses were amazing, and Cory diapered and took care of Tasman while I was confined to bed. I still got plenty of time with Tas, feeding and cuddling him.

We’ve been home since Thursday evening, and Cory has been working hard to take care of both Tas and me. It was days before he allowed me up to change a diaper. Friends and family have supplied us with wonderful meals and other help. Things are finally settling down and getting into a new rhythm.

Tas is doing well and almost back up to his birth weight. We are very tired, but love having this new little boy to love and care for.

A Beginning of New Adventures

Our new adventure is due to begin today, but our little boy is late for his first party! Don't worry, we'll put the party on hold until he is ready to arrive. But, we did decide that it was time to dust of this old blog to update friends and family on our status.

I feel really lucky to have had a good pregnancy. My only issue has been fatigue, which has been mostly resolved by extra iron pills. We worked hard of the summer to get the house ready for the little one, and are ready to go. The brunt of the task has fallen on Cory, and he has painted, organized, drilled, and just been busy!

The baby is healthy and good sized. I've been asked by people for months how long until my due date. (Some of them turned white when I still had 6 weeks to go!) I can't believe that we are finally here...well, at least the due date is here! I've uploaded a few pictures to our online albums. Click the link to the right to see them.

The Final Leg

There are certain spots where boats pile up waiting for a good weather window in which to continue their journey. Port Angeles is one of those places. We had left the boat on Thursday in Port Angeles while we headed home to wait for more favorable weather. We returned on Sunday, August 6th, with a forecast that showed mild NW wind and waves in the ocean on Tuesday and Wednesday. Most of the boats that had been in Port Angeles when we left were gone, and a new group of boats was stacking up waiting for the right weather.

On Sunday night, the Tuesday forecast was changed to a southwesterly, which made us decide to hold off our journey for another day. We spent an enjoyable afternoon touring Hurricane Ridge, which is in the Olympic Mountains. Hurricane Ridge is a gorgeous overlook, with spectacular views on all sides. We highly recommend it as a good place to take a drive and or a hike.

The new forecast showed the ocean wind turning to NW on Wednesday. So, we headed out on Tuesday morning for the ten hour journey to Neah Bay. Early on, there were some steep and uncomfortable waves. However, we were happy to have the current speeding us along, and felt that the waves were helping get our stomachs ready for the ocean trip.

In Neah Bay, boats were piled up waiting for the proper window to take the ocean trip. Most had left with us from Port Angeles that morning, but a few had arrived earlier, and were still waiting for their weather window. Everyone intended to head out with us the next morning. Some were planning to head straight to Astoria, others were heading 100 miles offshore for a trip down to Mexico.


The Ocean Journey

We left at 4:30 am the next morning, in the last part of darkness. By the time we reached the Straits, the sun was starting to come up. We had the current with us on our way to Tatoosh Island, at the end of the Straits. As we got closer to the ocean, we lost our visibility as fog set in. We appreciated having both our radar and AIS to "see" other nearby boats, and our chart plotter to tell us where we were.

That day was a long slog, with light westerly winds. The swell was 5-7 feet, at about nine seconds. The 7 foot waves felt large, but were far enought apart not to be too much of a problem, even on our side. We've found that the first four hours of a journey are really fun, but 17 hours gets long and boring. However, we were just so happy to be able to avoid a night out on the ocean that we didn't mind the boredom. We arrived at the Grays Harbor bar at about 8:30. We were on the end of a flood, and the crossing was a bit rocky. Once we were past the bar, the Coast Guard came out to ask us if we had been inspected recently. We've decided that they get a bit bored and inspect boats just to add some activity to their day. We were happy to tell them that we had not only been inspected recently, but that had the pleasure of a Coast Guard escort over the bar a month ago. We finally arrived at the Westport marina just as the sun finally set, at 9:30 pm. The longest leg of the ocean journey was over, and we were looking forward to a "short" trip the next day.

On Thursday, we "slept in" until 7:30 am. Given that we had a relatively short trip that day, we would have been happy to slow down a bit if it let us sail. Unfortunately, the winds were practically nonexistent, so sailing was out. We had some added fun to our day when Cory saw a huge sunfish that looked to be about 5 or 6 feet long. We saw some crabpots during the trip, but not nearly as many as on our trip up the coast.


A huge sunfish seen between Westport and the Columbia River

As we neared the Columbia River, the color of the ocean changed from a clear green to a dirty brown. The powerful river churns up so much mud that it impacts the ocean for many miles. It was an amazing sight to see.

And finally, the bar crossing. Once again, we were a bit early on crossing the bar. However, conditions were much easier than earlier in the summer, and Cory and I took turns steering the boat through to the river. We arrived in Astoria as the sun was setting, after an 11 hour journey.

On Friday, we set out from Astoria for Portland. We were planning to spend the night half way up the river, but found that we were making great time and were ready to be home that night. We decided to continue our trip home, even if we arrived well after dark. As usual, the first four hours of the trip was lots of fun. We were amazed at how flat the water on the river was. Up north, the wind and currents were always creating some sort of waves, even on windless days. As the tidal changes on the Columbia are substantially less, and it doesn't have such long straight stretches, waves don't get a chance to build. The result is a much mellower journey. I even made pancakes in the morning while underway!

While in BC, we had seen very little wildlife - a few deer, rabbits, and other small creatures. While on the river, we saw a cougar on shore. It was pretty far away, but, through the binoculars, it looked incredibily powerful. It's funny that we had to be so near civilization to see a truly wild creature.


Sunset by the mouth of the Willamette River

We arrived at the railway bridge just after dark. It was so nice to be on a familiar stretch of river, and home at last. My parents had dropped off our car and gave us a good welcome.

It's a bit of a transition from living on the boat to home. Over the last few years, with many boat projects and trips, the boat and marinas have become our life. Our social life and interests are at the boat rather than at home. We find that we are spending lots of time at the boat, and plan to continue to do so. We love the beauty of the water, and the exilaration of a good sail. However, it is also time to turn our attention to a sorely neglected house. In the next month, the house will be repaired and painted, and interior remodeling projects will be scheduled. And, of course, we must spend significant time working to make up for all the time we took of this summer.

This summer was a great learning experience, and we are very happy that we accomplished it. It was often more of an adventure than a vacation, and brought as much stress as fun times. But, it has whetted our appetite for more journeys, and we intend to continue our exploration of the inside passage and northern waterways in future years. It was fun to know that our friends and family were reading our blog, and we enjoyed hearing back from those of you who read it.

Heading South

Heriot Bay

After Gorge Harbour, we went to Rebecca Spit, at Quadra Island, and spent a peaceful afternoon at anchor. For the evening, we headed to a marina, and an evening meal at the local Heriot Bay Inn. It rained for a short time, but the wind was minimal, which was a nice change. From there, we headed for Campbell River, which is about halfway up Vancouver Island. In Campbell River, we rented a car and drove up to Port Hardy to see what we were missing. We found that driving in a car was boring after spending several weeks on a boat! Boats go much slower, but the scenery is always spectacular, and there are always navigational challenges to keep our attention. While we enjoyed the change, we were happy to head back to the boat at the end of the day.

From Campbell River, it was time to head south. On our trip up, we traveled up the west coast of the mainland after leaving Nanaimo. For the trip down, we decided to explore the east coast of Vancouver Island, and stayed several nights in Comox. After Comox, it was time for a night in crowded Nanaimo. We were afraid that the rest of the trip would continue to be filled with crowds of boats and people. Fortunately, we picked Silva Bay for our next stop. Silva Bay, which is on the east side of Gabriola Island, was beautiful, calm, and seemed a world apart from busy city life.

Our challenge after leaving Silva Bay was to head through Active Pass, which is another "gateway" in the Gulf Islands. Once again, the guidebooks offered many warnings about currents and ferry traffic. We entered just before slack, and found it to be a fairly easy passage. We were helped by our AIS, which picks up signals transmitted from commercial vessels, including ferries. These signals show up on our chart plotter, and tell us the position, heading, name, and speed of each vessel. We have found this to be much more useful than radar, which only shows a blob on the screen, and does not see around corners. Therefore, as we entered the channel, we were able to "watch" any nearby ferries on our chart plotter, even if they were around the corner and not visible.

Even with charts, it can be hard to see the rocks at high tide!


Our final night in Canada was spent anchored at Pender Island. We've discovered that if we plan carefully, we can find uncrowded anchorages, even at the high season for visiting boats. People tend to visit specific favorite places, and the masses leave places such as Port Browning at Pender Island alone.

Finally, it was time to clear customs at Roche Harbor, or "Bug Bay", as we call it. We found this to be a completely different experience than our reentry to the US two years ago, as our customs agent was much less concerned about petty details. Roche Harbor was filled with weekending US boaters, which are a different breed than the boaters that explore the Gulf Islands and Desolation Sound. Although the facilities are beautiful, we find that we never meet anyone at the marina, and feel somewhat alien to the other boaters. There are several beautiful bays nearby - next time we'll anchor out there instead of visiting Roche Harbor.

We took Mosquito Pass as we left Roche Harbor. It was fairly narrow, but well marked. The guide books warn that it is somewhat tricky, but after transiting much narrower unmarked entrances up north, it was nice and easy.

We reached Port Angeles that afternoon. The wind was light, so we were unable to sail for long, but our trip was fast as we had current with us for the entire way. We decided to head home for a few days before heading to Neah Bay and out to the ocean. We've learned that we don't like waiting on the boat for a good weather window--it wastes too much time.

As we were about to head out of town on Thursday, we had a phone call from Donna DeMeyer, my dad's cousin's daughter. (I just call her my cousin!) She and John, her husband, were returning from Barkely Sound, and would reach Port Angeles late that afternoon. What a coincidence! We know a number of people and boats up north, but they seem to be the boat we consistently cross paths with. It was too good of a chance to miss, so we decided to wait to see them in before heading home that evening.

We are now at home, and have decided that there is a reasonable weather window on Tuesday. We'll head back to Port Angeles tomorrow (Sunday), and travel to Neah Bay on Monday. Assuming that the forecast holds, we will head out onto the ocean on Tuesday, and probably reach Westport late Tuesday night. Alternatively, we may decide to head straight through to Astoria.

Waiting it out in Gorge Harbour

We left Desolation Sound yesterday and arrived in Gorge Harbour on Cortes Island. After two nights at anchor (the second a little windy, with more wind in the forecast), we decided a night at a dock would be nice. Well, the forecast for a little wind changed into a whole lot of wind, and then into a gale warning (which is way more than a whole lot of wind). Most of the boats up here right now are holed up until things moderate a little, where we were planning to go next we could still probably make it to, but the direction and strength of the wind makes it nearly impossible to get out of the dock we are at without a very exciting game of bumper-boats, and since we're comfy and protected here, we're staying put.

We've taken the opportunity to explore the island some. We hiked over to "Whale Town" today, which consisted of a general store which is closed while its being remodeled, a cafe which was closed with no posted hours, a library open Fridays 1:30 to 3:30, a post office open only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, and the tiny church pictured above. So much for town. There's a very nice restaurant up the way which we've had lunch at, but dinner at $35+ Canadian comes out to, eh... $35+ American. Maybe next time.

We're doing a lot of reading, watched some movies on the laptop (thanks Dave), and fortunately can hop onto the marina's wireless internet connection to keep ourselves occupied. If we are still here tomorrow we're going to try to hitchhike (Nancy for some reason is really excited about this - the harbour master says thats how a lot of people get around here) to the other side of the island where they are having a music festival this weekend.

Desolation Sound

After leaving Lund, we were off to Prideaux Bay in Desolation Sound. The first thing we noticed as we turned the corner and passed Sara Point was the large steep mountains going down to the edge of the water. Absolutely beautiful! The Gulf Islands are pretty, but the scenery isn't majestic as it is in Desolation Sound. Also, few houses, with none in Prideaux Bay.

Prideaux Bay was packed with boats, but not nearly as many as in the Gulf Islands. In between rain showers, we spent the next several days kayaking and exploring the wonderful bays, nooks and crannies, and nearby islands. Once we spent time exploring the area, we were amazed at how many boats were there. The motor boats were especially creative in finding nooks to tie up in as their draft (depth) is usually only a few feet (ours is about 6 1/2 feet). We envied them their ability to find private corners, especially when the 80 foot motor boat near us left their generator on for the whole day, spoiling the peacefulness of the anchorage.

Prideaux Bay was remarkably protected. During our explorations, we noticed that Melanie Cove, which looked more protected than Prideaux Bay, had gusts of wind rushing down the mountains and spinning in circles around the bay. However, we did get some wind the second day, and a boat that had anchored too closely to us were force to move when our boat danced too closely to it--the last boat to anchor is generally the first to move.

Anchoring for us and for many people is both an act of planning and an act of chance. You look around the crowded anchorage for the best place to set your anchor. In between going to where you want to anchor and actually setting the anchor, you usually drift several boat lengths. In Prideaux Bay, we were anchoring in 50 feet of water. This meant that, according to the books, we should have been letting out about 200 to 250 feet of anchor rode. However, given the crowded nature of the anchorages, we were lucky to let out 3:1, or 150 feet. The combination of 150 feet of anchor rode and drifting several boat lengths while anchoring meant that you never quite end up where you planned to be. Because of this, we tried to be tolerant of people who we felt anchored too closely to us, as well as hoping that others were tolerant of us. Fortunately, we were well protected from the wind the first night, so we got a good sleep. The second day was less rainy, but had wind coming down from the mountains that tested our trust in our anchoring with limited scope out.


It's been cooler up here than earlier in our trip, and has rained for a good portion of the time. We're pretty sure that it rained about five inches the first night. We heard that this has been an unusually rainy and windy summer. The wind is great when we want to sail, but not so great when we are trying to sleep.

Beautiful Pender Harbour to the Lund Zoo

Across the Georgia Straits to Pender Harbour
Our trip across the Georgia Straits to Pender Harbour was calm and uneventful. We were only able to sail for a short while before motoring again. Pender Harbour, which bills itself as the "Venice of the West" was lovely. We tied up at an old-style resort, complete with ping-pong tables, a swimming pool, a small store, and kayaks for rent. We took our kayaks and paddled several miles around the harbor to the "town" (it had a grocery store, cafe, liquor store, and a few other businesses), and hiked up the hill to the Grasshopper Pub, which had a wonderful view of a portion of the harbor. We then kayaked over to an Ericson 38 anchored nearby, and spent some time talking to the owner, exchanging notes about Ericsons and traveling north. Owning a boat from the same manufacturer is always a great way to make a new friend. We haven't yet found anyone who knows as much about Ericsons as Cory, and I don't think we will! Then back to our peaceful and beautiful marina, which was tucked inside a nook in the harbor. Our arms sure got a workout!


Lund Marina (aka "the zoo")
Our next stop, Lund, was only a few hours away. Lund is a jumping off point into Desolation Sound and was an absolute zoo. The marina had two long docks and a separate floating breakwater. The boats were tied lengthwise to the dock, and up to two additional boats were rafted (tied) to the boat attached to the dock. The harbormaster's assistant was going to have us raft up to another boat. In front of that boat, there were three boats rafted together, and behind it, there were two boats. We were going to have to line up and move directly sideways into our spot. Needless to say, sailboats don't move sideways, and we were not excited about attempting this maneuver. I spotted an empty spot on the floating breakwater. This is a secondary dock because you have to use a dinghy to get to shore. We decided that we'd rather row to shore than try to make our boat do impossible maneuvers. After an easy docking, we spent the rest of the afternoon watching boats move in and out of the marina, with the one marina staff member assisting every boat to dock. In the early evening, we ended up with two boats rafted up to us. While the people were reasonably friendly, its not our favorite way to spend an evening, and we'll probably avoid Lund in the future.

Nanaimo and Newcastle Island

We got up at 5 am on Friday to make the Dodd Narrows passage at slack tide. This was the first real "gateway" that we had to pass through. These are extremely narrow passages that have a lot of water going through. For Dodd Narrows, up to 9 knots of current could occur at maximum flood or ebb tides. We hit it a bit early, so we had a few knots of current against us, but had no problems going through. I was a bit nervous after reading all of the guide books, which really try to scare you. However, Dodd Narrows is very short, with no obstructions, and we planned ahead. After the Columbia Bar, it was a cakewalk!

We decided to spend the first night on Newcastle Island, which is across the bay from Nanaimo. The boats were so tightly anchored that we tied up at the docks. After breakfast, we took a ferry to Nanaimo to shop and explore the town a bit. Then it was back to the boat, where we inflated our kayaks and enjoyed a paddle to a neighboring island, where the Dinghy Dock Pub is located.

On Saturday morning at 6:45 am, we woke up to someone yelling, "hey, that's not your boat!" Several intoxicated guys had boarded someone's boat and tried to take their dinghy. As it was firmly attached to the side of the boat, they didn't succeed. Instead, the owner woke up and chased them off the boat. They next tried to steal a dinghy from a neighboring boat. All of the people on the neighboring boats were roused with the yelling, and the thieves were pushed into the water. Strong words were spoken, and it looked like a fight was about the break out. The thieves finally decided to swim for the next island as they were vastly outnumbered. There they stole a boat and headed for Nanaimo. The last we heard, the police had picked them up and had them in custody. Needless to say, there was much excitement and adrenalin at the docks, and nobody got any more sleep. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and no one lost their dinghy. We were glad that our "dinghy" is our kayaks, and our "engine" is our paddles. That is much less tempting for anyone to steal.

We've now spent a few days in Nanaimo, regrouping, organizing the boat, and provisioning for the trip to Desolation Sound. We'll leave tomorrow for that portion of our trip.

Galiano Island and the Hummingbird Pub Bus

This past week has been a blur. We left Victoria on Wednesday morning and headed for Galiano Island, which is one of the Gulf Islands. We actually were able to sail a good portion of the way, as the wind was fantastic. It was good to spend time re-learning how to sail. Montague Harbor, a bay at Galiano, was packed with over 100 boats. We anchored much closer to other boats than we preferred. Fortunately, there was very little wind all night, so we were able to sleep well.

The next day, we kayaked to shore and explored the Island. It has a beautiful park, with trails, a campground, and beaches where many children were playing. Cory's highlight of the day was taking the Hummingbird Pub Bus. The bus was very old, with a driver that was quick-witted and had everyone in fits of laughter. He changed hats at least three times during the drive and had all of the passengers singing "Blueberry Hill". As he said, he has been driving the bus for 16 years, but has only driven well for three weeks!

Oh Canada!

We are on vacation at last! On Monday, we left Port Angeles and headed for Victoria. It was a nice short trip...only four hours. We tried to remember how to sail at first, but were forced to motor for most of the trip once the wind died. We are moored in front of the Empress hotel, which is very entertaining. Right now I am listening to a street entertainer captivate a crowd. He seems to draw crowds all day long! The entertainment, with music, acrobatics, street vendors, etc, goes from about nine or ten in the morning until eleven at night. It has been a welcome treat, but we are thinking that we'll head to the Gulf Islands next and anchor in a quiet bay. :)

We made it at last!

Written July 3, 10:30 am

We finally reached Neah Bay yesterday, after a 21 hour rattleless and crabpot free journey. Neah Bay has never looked so beautiful! Now, I'm sitting in the cockpit as I write this and Cory is enjoying relaxing on the bow as we head towards Port Angeles.

The ocean journey was mild and uneventful. However, we agree that night journeys on the ocean are not our favorite part of boating, and should be avoided whenever possible. During the night, when you are convinced that fifteen minutes have passed, you can be relatively confident that at least five minutes have gone by. And those flashing lights out there. Are they marking a fishing net? Or are they crabpots? We just stayed miles away.

The good news is that we were crab pot free all night. The only "crab pots" we saw flew away before we had too many heart attacks.

Today, the Straits of Juan de Fuca are unusually calm. The sunshine is peeking through the clouds and the Olympic mountains look spectacular. We'll cover close to 60 miles today in about 10-12 hours. In the meantime, we're letting the autopilot steer, while we read, relax, and check around us every few minutes. We're heading back to Portland tomorrow for a few days. Then, it's back to the boat, and time to head for Canada.

Beautiful Westport

Just a quick update, we are still in Westport (after a few days in Portland) trying to resolve the rattling problem. Its probably nothing serious, but we are hesitant to continue North until its identified and resolved. While trying to diagnose it while playing in the bar here, we noticed the raw water pump on the engine was leaking (interior carbon bearing is worn). Its totally fixable, but does add to the list, and will probably include a field trip to Seattle to get the part.

UPDATE: The waterpump turned out to be the cause of the very loud rattle we were hearing, not missing Risk game pieces as some had surmised. We were greatly relieved to find it, as motoring is now much more relaxing without the horrible noise, and the problem would have turned serious sooner rather than later had we not found it and fixed it.

Landmines of the Sea

Well, we finally made it out of Astoria last Thursday morning for our long delayed trip up the coast. The seas were initially a little rougher than we preferred, but mellowed a bit as we made our way North.

Everything was going fine until about 11PM at night, about halfway between Astoria and Neah Bay, when we heard a loud clunk. Against all odds, we had managed to drive the boat perfectly between a pair of crab pot floats and had them firmly wrapped around our rudder. We immediately put the engine in neutral and tried to untangle ourselves to no avail. Fortunately, the floats had somehow missed our propeller, so we had no engine damage, however, with the line wrapped so tightly around the rudder we could only turn about 1/2 the normal radius (and it was possible it might get worse). This was fine for where we were, and we were in no immediate distress, but we didn't want to risk the entrance to the Straights of Juan de Fuca, which can be a little bumpy, in our now impaired state.

We contacted the Coast Guard and informed them of our intent to proceed to Grays Harbor, which was about 40 miles behind us. We proceeded to Grays Harbor at substantially less than full speed to reduce the loads on the rudder, and hand steered instead of using the autopilot, which is pretty tiring. We made the entrance to the harbor at about sunrise, and the Coast Guard sent out a boat to escort us in through the bar, in case our situation suddenly deteriorated. Once inside the bar, the Coast Guard tied us up along side to tow us into the marina, as we didn't feel we were manueverable enough to get in by ourselves.

Our compliments to the Coast Guard, they were polite and courteous, and as far as we're concerned a good use of tax dollars.

Even tied up to the dock, and Nancy going around the boat with the kayak we were not able to unsnare the line and floats. We had a diver come out to the boat yesterday to free us of the now many times cursed floats, and to check for any damage to the boat. It took him about 10 minutes to cut us free, and he could find no damage.

So, we are going to take the time in Westport to try to find and fix a very loud rattle that we first noticed at the start of this trip. It only happens at close to full speed and in waves. It makes it impossible to sleep at night, and difficult to use the VHF radio below decks when underway... fortunately we had a good quality handheld that we could use to keep in touch with the Coast Guard throughout the night.