Rub a Dub Dub, Four Men In A....

Well you can’t really call a Bayliner 5788 a tub, after all it is Bayliner’s flagship boat. What you can call it is our ticket to another great water adventure and likely the trip of a lifetime.

This adventure started with a simple thread in on IBNW (IBoatNW) in early May by a guy (StuartT) in Prescott, AZ asking for help finding a captain to help him move a boat he’d bought from WA to the Stockton, CA area. Among the responses he got on IBNW and BOC (Bayliner Owner’s Club) was the suggestion that he forego a licensed captain and find some ‘regular guys’ who were experienced boaters to go with him. For all involved, it could be the trip of a lifetime.

That suggestion turned into another thread on IBNW asking if anyone was interested in making the trip. I read this thread and talked about it with GW and while both of us thought it would be a great opportunity, that’s as far as it went. One of the IBNW members tossed my name out there as one who has a fair amount of experience (“Salty” was the term he used). I got a chuckle out of that and mentioned it to GW and she thought I should contact the OP and drop my name in the hat. And thus began another great boating experience.

Through an exchange of emails and phone calls over the next few weeks between Stuart and me and the third crew member, Randy (Stray Cat) the adventure began to come together. I was asked to do some research about the ports along the coast that we could use for refuge, overnight stays, refueling, resupply, etc. I also volunteered to be the “Sous Chef” for the trip. It was either that or subject myself to Stuart’s menu of TV Dinners and pot pies. The chef duty included a 50% pay increase. Hmmmm, let’s see….150% of nothing is…..nothing. Darn!

We’re planning on leaving from Lake Union (Seattle), WA on June 16th. Lake Union is about a 3.5-4 hour drive from my house so by the time the pre-cruise party starts everything should be safely stowed on board. That will be a good time to relax after the drive and for me it will be a time to meet Stuart and Randy. Hopefully I’ll be able to also make some other new friends from the west side boating community.

I’ve also been appointed to be the “keeper of the blog” on the trip so I’ll be taking lots of photos and posting them online as time (and wifi access) allows. So stay tuned here and join us for this “Once In A Lifetime” journey.

You that have known me awhile and read my prior trip threads know that I get almost as much enjoyment from planning the trip as I do taking the trip. This trip is no different. Since the start of the venture I’ve had fun working on menu planning, researching the safe places to tuck into in case the weather turns nasty etc.

The easy part of food planning is I know how many of us there will be. The difficult part is we have no idea how long this trip will take. It’s going to be AT LEAST 5 days. That would be if we ran night and day and had no weather delays. We know that isn’t likely to happen, but how many “weather delay days” do we plan for? And how many days will we just decide to overnight in a port because we’re tired and want a good night’s sleep? I’m planning the food for an 8 day trip and we’ll see how that works out.

As we get closer to the date when we cast off the lines and head out I’m getting more and more excited. And a bit apprehensive. I’ve never done a deep water cruise and the unknowns that we face are weighing on my mind. I’m trying to do as much as possible to get ready and that includes getting my ditch bag filled with what I think should be in there.

I have done a lot of looking around the internet to see what people put in their ditch bags and much has bordered on the ridiculous. One guy had a 5/8” x 100’ long line in his bag. Things like that make me just shake my head in wonder. What the heck would you use it for? If you’re within 100’ of something to tie to, whether it’s land or another boat, just get on it.

I went to two stores a couple of weeks ago and picked up lots of things and now have them safely tucked into the bag. I’d been saving empty plastic bottles of varying shapes and sizes for several months with the thought that things going into the bag should be in a bottle so they stay dry and don’t rust in the salt water.

Stuart posted a thread on a boating forum asking “When are the seas just too rough?” The responses have been great and have provided some insight into what boaters with more experience than I have use as their guidelines as to when they should remain in port. By his posting that question it also shows me that Stuart is giving that a lot of thought. That’s reassuring to me, so “Thanks” Stuart.

(more to follow later so stay tuned and join us on this cruise)

I've been waiting for you guys to start this thread and trip. I've subscribed to this thread and will be big water boating vicariously through your posts.

8-days of food? I suppose you can re-provision along the way if needed. How much beer and booze are you carrying? Meds? Spares parts? Filters? Oil?

Have a great trip and keep the slimy side down!

I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun. I've made this run several times and it's never taken over 80 hours except once when we were hung up in Neah Bay for a couple of days because of weather. That's with fuel stops also.

And even though Stockton is about 5-6+ hours past Benicia, I'd be surprised if you didn't make it in 4 days running day and night with good weather.

Flywright--8-days of food? I suppose you can re-provision along the way if needed. How much beer and booze are you carrying? Meds? Spares parts? Filters? Oil?

Well I just found out there's going to be 4 of us on the trip and I'm glad to have Doug along to join in the fun. We are going to make the first day's (16th) run to Neah Bay, WA. From there (17th) we'll try to run non-stop the ~800 miles down to SF Bay with only a stop at Coos Bay for fuel.

I'm bringing my ditch bag that has my EPIRB plus a lot of other supplies including meds for seasickness, extreme pain, nausea, a great first aid kit, etc.

We should be able to make that ~800 mile run (at 11kts) in about 75 hours, or about 4 more days. I'm planning on 8 days worth of food so we should be good to go.

Here's some additional notes I've scribbled since this whole thing started...

May 19. Along that same line I must admit that I’m going on this ocean voyage with a bit of apprehension. I’ve never been on a boat on the ocean for any length of time. In my book, day long fishing trips don’t compare to something like this. I have had a problem with spatial disorientation for many years. That does not usually lend itself well to being on a rocking boat; it can quickly lead to sea sickness. I’ve scheduled an appt with my doctor to see about a prescription for something to take care of that. I also am going to talk with him about a prescription for a strong pain killer for the ditch bag. That’s a “just in case” thing to have in the event of an emergency where one of us got hurt. More on that later.

May 25. OK, this is driving me nuts. When I started typing this it was around the 6th of May. It’s now 20 days later and this waiting for something to happen is driving me flippin’ crazy. I’ve got my ditch bag all set, the menu is planned and I’ve studied the weather websites until I’m seeing them in my dreams…and there’s still 20 days to go. I’M TIRED OF WAITING!!!

June 10th. GW and I are in San Diego on a vacation that had been planned for several months. While we’re having a great time down here doing all the touristy stuff I am anxious to fly back home tomorrow so I can get started getting things together for this cruise.

Stuart has been busy for the past 3 weeks getting the boat outfitted for the trip. We’ll have redundant GPS and chartplotters (upper and lower helms), AIS and he added air conditioning to Following Seas. He also picked up a 4-man life raft and survival suits for each of us. I have an EPIRB in my ditch bag so we should be well equipped for a very short time in the raft if that even becomes necessary. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t.

GW and I fly back to WA tomorrow morning and I can’t wait. It’s not like I want this vacation to end, but I can’t wait for the next one to begin.

For those of you who are not familiar with our PNW waters and West Coast Waters, I put together three maps to give you an idea of where we’ll be heading. The trip officially starts in the city of Ballard, WA, a suburb of Seattle. The boat is located on the North side of Lake Union and we’ll be there loading up NEXT SATURDAY!!!! WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

That first day’s cruise will take us about 140 miles to Neah Bay, WA. Five miles or so from the dock we’ll pass through the Ballard Locks (Official name is Hiram Chittenden Locks…don’t ask). Then it’s into the salt waters of Puget Sound as we head north toward the Straits of Juan de Fuca. There we’ll enter the VTSS (Vessel Traffic Safety System) where they keep the inbound and outbound traffic separated to avoid any close encounters. That adds a few miles to the trip but also adds a HUGE safety margin. Here’s 2 maps of the first day…..

The second morning (17th) we’ll head out of Neah Bay and go around the corner of the Olympic Peninsula and point the bow south for the ~800 mile trip to San Francisco Bay. Weather permitting, Stuart wants to do it non-stop so keep your fingers crossed for us.

For those of you who want to follow us as we travel, go to the website shipfinder.com. Find the area where you can put in an MMSI number and copy/paste this MMSI number in there… 338149406 .

Also, if you want to see what sea conditions we’re enjoying (?), navigate to passageweather.com. On that site you can go to the west coast areas and see an animated display of wind, waves, sea temps, etc.

You can also go to the NOAA website (National Data Buoy Center ) and look at the buoys along the west coast to see the wave height, time between crests, air temp and sea temp.

June 11, we’re back in WA sitting in the airport in Seattle waiting for our flight home. Three more days until we drive back to Seattle loaded with groceries and other stuff for the trip. Tomorrow starts the shopping and food prep. Some of it will go into the freezer, some to be refrigerated and some will be cooked then frozen for later use. The next couple of days are going to be busy but I’m sure they will drag by.

May just see you guys out there. Headed back to Brookings OR to try and finish our trip from Newport Beach CA. We got blown off the ocean last week and had to return to Brookings. So we left the boat rented a car and will return this weekend. Sunday and Monday look real good for the Oregon coast. We have harbor hopped Newport Beach, Morro Bay, Bodega Bay, Brooking Or. 42 Riviera sport fish. We can do 26 knots if we get the seas. Passed everything but the fuel dock so far..........Good luck and have fun, still lots of crab pots so stay in deeper water...........

I am subscribed to the thread- it's a cool trip and you might see a Caddie out there.
Just keep your hands and feet out of and away from the water at all times.
Too many feets have washed ashore out there. Or was it in Canada?
No matter.

Good luck and calm seas to ya'll.

June 12th. Wednesday. Only Thursday and Friday left before we head out Saturday morning for Seattle and to the boat.

Officially now it’s the “Rub a Dub Dub, FOUR Men In A Tub” cruise. Our newest crew member is Doug Cook whom many of us know as GoAweigh2452. Doug had a commitment that originally prevented him from joining us but as sometimes happens, things that get in our way of having fun just disappear. It happened for Doug so we’re excited to have him along.

I have a bazillion things to do around here before Saturday, not the least of which is getting the lawn mowed this morning before trash collection time. Then it’s off to the grocery stores to pick up our grub. Some of it goes in the freezer, some will be refrigerated and some will be cooked ahead of time then frozen. Oh, and in the middle of all that I need to take our old truck (’81 Toyota that’s been in GW's family since new) in for a tune-up.

Something’s definitely wrong here…..I went grocery shopping today and figured the money I spent would help to seriously offset the national debt and raise the stock market by several points….but the market dropped below 15,000. I must not have spent enough of Stuart’s money on groceries. Darn.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to start preparing some food items. Most of what I bought went into the freezer or refrigerator and I have several small boxes of food on the floor of my garage waiting to be loaded into the car.

In checking the weather prediction websites it looks like we’re going to have a nice weather window for the first part of the trip. The first day’s run (Sunday the 16th) will be around 140 miles to Neah Bay, WA. That sits right at the far NW corner of the state and right around the corner from there is the Pacific. That first day’s run should be around 13 hours counting the time it takes to pass through the locks in Ballard, WA. We’ll spend the night in Neah Bay, take on fuel and leave early the next morning.

The plan is to run non-stop to Coos Bay, OR. That will be a run of about 400 miles counting the miles to get offshore then back in. This run will take us about 36 hours and we’ll have to time our arrival at Coos Bay to coincide with a high tide. They have a high tide at 9:49 a.m. which we probably won’t make and another at 9:51 p.m. Coos Bay is not the easiest place to get into and we may not want to cross that bar after dark, so we may step up the speed a bit and try to make the morning high tide. If we left Neah Bay around 6:00 on Monday morning we’d have to run at 15mph for 27 hours to make that morning high tide. That’s burning a lot of extra fuel so stay tuned to see what we decide to do.

Have a great trip. I'm looking forward to following along online and maybe I'll see Stuart/ Following Seas in Stockton sometime.

Good Morning everyone!

It's just a bit after 0500, I've been up for about 30 minutes because my body wanted to get up and going more than my mind wanted to sleep another hour....or maybe it's the other way around. WHATEVER!

I'm going to close out this thread about the preps done to get ready and I'll be starting one some time tomorrow that actually will start with this afternoon's dock party send off.

After I get the new thread opened my last post on here will be a link to the new thread. So kick back and enjoy the ride with us. I hope to post plenty of photos but may just include a linky to my Photobucket thread where you can see pics. Doug Cook, the newest member of our motley crew will be adding notes so we'll be co-hosting the new thread.

OK,time to shut this thread off. We started a new thread to continue this trip and you can follow along with us by following the link below....

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/journey-lifetime-10565.html#post163145