Where is your "home" port and tell us a little about it..

We're perched on the edge of Paradise on the north coast of BC, Canada, in the little city of Kitimat. Kitamaat is the Tsimshian name for the Haisla community here, and translates to People of the Snow.

Here's a photo of Zain in one of our 'over 3 feet in a day' snowfalls. Those globs in the sky are snowflakes which are so big that when they land on your tongue they don't melt, so you have to chew them. Below is our local marina.

I am always surprised at the photos our members post from Alaska, where boats seem to stay in the water year 'round,with docks covered in snow. Yet, everyone in the Northeast hauls their boats with the first snowflake. Is this a function of different water temps, just customary ways of doing things.. or is ther another explanation?

SeaHorse II said:

Let's see, 7.2NM in 45 minutes is ?? nmph. Ummmm....fast trawler!

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Hmm I'm coming up w 6 miles but granted I'm using low tech- paper chart. Maybe we had the current with us AND we didn't have to wait for the bridge on the 45 minute runs.

ARoss said:

I am always surprised at the photos our members post from Alaska, where boats seem to stay in the water year 'round,with docks covered in snow. Yet, everyone in the Northeast hauls their boats with the first snowflake. Is this a function of different water temps, just customary ways of doing things.. or is ther another explanation?

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Good question AR

50' 60's 70's... When in NY and Maine owning wood boats we pulled each year due to ice formation that could cut too deeply into the waterline area. While working in boat yards during my teens I recall a couple boats that stayed in and had severe ice damage at waterline. Alaska - waterline ice damage??? Makes me wonder too why/how they keep boats in all year...

Here we were in Thorne Bay in one of those big dump wet snows. The first year we were there I think.

Boaters on the north coast generally leave their boats in the water for several reasons.
1. There are limited marine haulout facilities in most places.
2. The water is fairly warm and the bilge stays much warmer even when the harbor is frozen.
3. Considerable expense can come to pass for a little heat from electricity in the water but hauled out it's many times more expensive and electrons are twice as much as down south.
4. The winter is mild enough so one's boat can be kept active. We kept Willy ready to cruise most all the time. When ice permitted we ferried people around in the bay.
5. In 60 to 80 mph winds a boat is probably safer in the harbor than up in the air on jack stands.

Later this year the ice around the boat was 3" thick. No water gap around the hull. It was strange to step aboard to a solid boat. Never heard of ice damage to wood boats and we had a number of them. Frequently Willy had to sorta wade through ice chunks but we never played ice breaker. Guys w aluminum skiffs did though and I think some got damaged. In Washington Marina's attempt to keep people from getting underway when there is ice.

Eric's got it nailed. Another factor might be that we live in small towns where the marina is only a few minutes away

I am based in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia.
Google Maps

Marina is near the mouth of the Mooloola river so access to the ocean is good.
No real bar to cross and 95% of the time it is a doddle to get in and out.
12 hour steam and you are in behind Fraser Island the biggest sand Island in the world
"Fraser Island stretches over 123 kilometres in length and 22 kilometres at its widest point. With an area of 184 000 hectares it is the largest sand island in the world.

Fraser Island's World Heritage listing ranks it with Australia's Uluru, Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef. Fraser Island is a precious part of Australia's natural and cultural heritage, it is protected for all to appreciate and enjoy.
Fraser island is a place of exceptional beauty, with its long uninterrupted white beaches flanked by strikingly coloured sand cliffs, and over 100 freshwater lakes, some tea-coloured and others clear and blue all ringed by white sandy beaches. Ancient rainforests grow in sand along the banks of fast-flowing, crystal-clear creeks.
Fraser Island is the only place in the world where tall rainforests are found growing on sand dunes at elevations of over 200 metres. The low "wallum" heaths on the island are of particular evolutionary and ecological significance, and provide magnificent wildflower displays in spring and summer.
The immense sand blows and cliffs of coloured sands are part of the longest and most complete age sequence of coastal dune systems in the world and they are still evolving.
They are a continuous record of climatic and sea level changes over the last 700 000 years. The highest dunes on the island reach up to 240 metres above sea level.
The Great Sandy Strait, separating Fraser Island from the mainland, is listed by the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention).
The wetlands include: rare patterned ferns; mangrove colonies; sea-grass beds; and up to 40,000 migratory shorebirds. Rare, vulnerable or endangered species include dugongs, turtles, Illidge's ant-blue butterflies and eastern curlews.

The great Sandy Strait on the western shore is a cruising ground in itseld and a migration point for the Humpback whales on their north and sout migration each year.
Another 12 hour steam and one is into the Great Barrier Reef, still exploring this after 17 years of doing it.
Cheers
Benn

The weather in SE Alaska is more or less what it is in Washington and BC albeit a little colder and even wetter. So it's pretty easy to keep a boat in the water year round there.

I'm not familiar with the winter situation farther north in places like Cordova, Seward, etc. But with heat on the boat and dilligence regarding snow accumulation and ice around the boat I would imagine that keeping a boat in the water year round up there is not that big a deal.

Our marina can get a skim of ice on it if we get a stretch of several days of freezing temperatures. This is due the everpresent layer of fresh water on the surface of the head end of Bellingham Bay. The port has never tried to stop anyone from taking their boat out when this happens--- it doesn't damage the marina--- but it's a good idea to try to avoid taking a boat, particularly a fiberglass boat, though the ice. It doesn't take much ice to start carving grooves in the gelcoat of a boat underway through it.

The big aluminum seine boats and crabbers crunch their way through no problem. So once one or two of them have broken through it going to and from the fuel dock or the fish processors or ice machines it's pretty easy to get in and out of the marina if you can get to the cleared channel from your slip.

Eric,
In your shot of the Swinomish Canal I noticed an old timer called the Black Raven 11. It used to be moored not too far from me. It's nice to see it still afloat and looking pretty good. Wondered what happened to it.
I didn't really know the guy but it was his families boat which he used while he had this one restored. Glendevon Tugboat Restoration

manyboats said:

The south end is just north of Padilla Bay.

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Eric-- Regarding the Swinomish Channel, I think you'll find that actually the north end is just south of Padilla Bay. Or more correctly the north end enters Padilla Bay.

The south end of the Swinomish Channel enters the top end of Skagit Bay.

johnma said:

Hey Ruthless! Kent Narrows, huh? Does the background of my avatar look familiar?
John

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Looks like you are waiting for the bridge to open

Here's a video cruising guide we made for our home port:

(Edit: I hate it when the automatic thumbnail generated is something basically ugly - like a propane tank - when there are so many beautiful shots in the video. Arrgghhh!)

((Second edit: I really hate it when commercials are automatically inserted on my videos - but that's the price we pay for this free feature. But it's even worse when the commercial plays but the video won't?? Is the video playing for anyone else?))

Marin,
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.

Between here and Juneau there's just toooooo many bodies of water to keep track of. Just wrote it down w/o think'in. If ya post a lot you're bound to make mistakes.

C lectric,
Iv'e noticed a Black Raven II there and wondered about it's history. Thanks for the link. I see the wood boat festivals entry. May make use of it .. w your permission of course. Thanks in advance.

Greetings,
Florida?????
Thousands of sharks seen migrating along the Florida coast | Mail Online

Interestin', what some boaters accept as normal weather conditions, other boaters would consider horrendous. When we came to California 45 years ago, we went down to the marina and they had small craft warnings out. Coming from New York's Long Island, it looked like just another day.

Home Port Linwood, Ks. boat is 250 miles away on the Illinois side of the upper Mississippi River mm 283 ldb. Once the water warms up people will anchor in 3.5' to 4' deep water & smaller boats will beach on sandbars & wade around in the water. Set up grills on the sandbars to cook & have coolers full of cold drinks. Some will set up a canopy for shade or tents and stay all weekend. Everything from 14' jonboats, runabouts, pontoons, to 50' houseboats & cruisers, and the fish fries are great.

Moonfish said:

Is the video playing for anyone else?))

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Great video, Darren. It is viewable here without commercials. Looks like a slice of heaven on a sunny day.

Thanks, Al! When I checked it only played a commercial... Glad to know it's actually working.

Moonfish said:

Glad to know it's actually working.

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It's working, alright! Can't believe I've cruised right by the place. Do Wa. State ferries stop there?

SeaHorse II said:

It's working, alright! Can't believe I've cruised right by the place. Do Wa. State ferries stop there?

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SeaHorse - No ferries here in Port Ludlow, but the Port Townsend-Coupeville ferry is just 13 miles north. That and there is a seaplane dock here in the marina that Kenmore frequents along with private planes...

Moonfish said:

....and there is a seaplane dock here in the marina that Kenmore frequents along with private planes...

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Great! Kenmore is right across the lake from Kirkland where I visit my daughter.

I was down at the boat checking and securing, just in case Cyclone Sandra decides to do a loop and come back towards us, so while there took these pics of my marina, or home port, if you like. Horizon Shores Marina, Woongoolba, near the Gold Coast, and 20 mins south of where I live.

Ok, my pics are too big for more than one at a time it appears. The above is the first part one enters, called Northhaven, taken from the restaurant looking back across to the main maintenance sheds. Below is where my boat is called Westhaven, looking past my finger back towards the travel lift and the dry stack sheds, the nearest one still being repaired after the massive fire we had there recently.

Buck's Harbor, Penobscot Bay, Maine. A gorgeous and interesting place to boat (for 5 months a year at least). No marina. Just swing to the wind on a mooring, which is the way we like it. The area of the Maine coast, including adjoining bays and their multitude of islands, is a cruising mecca for boats of all stripes and sizes.

Marin wrote;

"The weather in SE Alaska is more or less what it is in Washington and BC albeit a little colder and even wetter. So it's pretty easy to keep a boat in the water year round there."

Re the difference in SE AK weather and W WA weather measured in degrees is rather small but the effects are large. The difference in water at 31 deg and 33 degrees is WAY different. Howling winds of over 40 knots are common in SE but very uncommon in WA. There's lots and lots of time when it isn't raining in both places but the ice and snow and wind make the very considerable difference. What Marin said is exactly what I told my wife Christine just before we moved north and I was tell'in myself the same thing. I'd obviously forgotten some of my previous years in SE.

Here's a nice winter day in Thorne Bay SE AK.

dwhatty said:

Buck's Harbor, Penobscot Bay, Maine. A gorgeous and interesting place to boat (for 5 months a year at least). No marina. Just swing to the wind on a mooring, which is the way we like it. The area of the Maine coast, including adjoining bays and their multitude of islands, is a cruising mecca for boats of all stripes and sizes.

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dw - You're cruising over the ashes of both my mom and dad. When a dolphin waves - wave back... that's my mom, she's cool!

Dad's now a dolphin too, but too grumpy to wave!! :lol:

manyboats said:

Howling winds of over 40 knots are common in SE but very uncommon in WA.

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Keep a boat in Bellingham and you soon learn that 40 knot frontal winds in the winter are more the norm than the exception. Don't know what it's like farther south in the Sound since our boat refuses to go there.

Art said:

dw - You're cruising over the ashes of both my mom and dad. When a dolphin waves - wave back... that's my mom, she's cool!

Dad's now a dolphin too, but too grumpy to wave!! :lol:

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Will do.

At least with the porpoises (dolphins not local).

My ashes, soaked in a fine Bourbon, will someday join them should my directives as to my final disposal be observed.

dwhatty said:

My ashes, soaked in a fine Bourbon, will someday join them should my directives as to my final disposal be observed.

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Such a shame when good Tennessee sour mash whiskey would do a better job. You may even want to do a little presoak.

We are in Merritt Island Fl. This is the east coast,near KSC and Port Canmaveral. Great spot, easy access to ICW, the Banana River, and the Ocean. Good cruseing to the North up to St. Augistine and to the South all the way to key West. We keep our boat in a great marnia called harbortown of merritt Island. Full service facility,great boaters, great service,pool and resruant on the grounds. The marinia is off the Barge Canal, providing great protection in the form of a hurricane hole.