San Juan Weekend

Spent Sunday and Monday in the company of Carey and his wife and their lobsterboat Happy Destiny.* After some interesting albeit a bit nerve-wracking adventures with a mooring buoy and eelgrass at Center Island we ended up at the Blakely Island Marina a couple of miles from Center.* My wife and I had never been in there but Carey had.* Nice little hole-in-the wall marina with good protection from the weather.*

First shot is the marina basin itself.* Second panorama shot is from the stern of our boat and shows the narrow marina entrance leading in from Peavine Pass.* Third shot is of Peavine Pass with the current running heavy and the San Juan Seafoods buy-boat "Caleb Haley" (based in Bellingham) on its way to pick up fish from somebody somewhere.* Next shots are of a river otter family that was feeding on eels or candlefish in the marina.* Two adults and two young ones.* One of the young ones thought Carey and I might be a good source of a treat and came to visit.

Last shot is of our boating waters on one of the rare occaions when you can actually see them through the mostly continuous curtain of rain, fog, volcanic ash, snow, and sleet we have here.* I took the photo because I realized this was also one of those rare times when the wind wasn't blowing 40 knots with gusts to 70.* And I realized later it must have been at absolute slack tide (which lasts about 15 minutes around here) because the water was not filled with huge whirlpools and boils.* A rare picture indeed.





-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 24th of August 2010 12:24:49 PM

Marin wrote:"Last shot is of our boating waters on one of the rare occaions when you can actually see them through the mostly continuous curtain of rain, fog, volcanic ash, snow, and sleet we have here. I took the photo because I realized this was also one of those rare times when the wind wasn't blowing 40 knots with gusts to 70. "

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Boy, I'm sure glad I don't have my boat up there as the cruising weather must be terrible!


*


-- Edited by SeaHorse II on Tuesday 24th of August 2010 01:22:03 PM

You know, I have a whole bunch of family and friends, all nutjobs driving SeaRays (poorly), who would just love your part of the world Marin. Thanks for all the great pics, I'll get to work on the move asap. You're gonna love these guys.

Gulf Comanche wrote:

You know, I have a whole bunch of family and friends, all nutjobs driving SeaRays (poorly), who would just love your part of the world Marin. Thanks for all the great pics, I'll get to work on the move asap. You're gonna love these guys.

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Considering the number of dorky Bayliner drivers we have up here your Sea Ray friends won't even be noticed.* And they'll never leave the dock anyway as the weather and water will be too scary for them.* So send 'em on up.* The local economy could use the boost.

*

I can smell it!!! Thanks for Sharing Marin....beautiful!!!

Hey ya'allJust thought I'd tag on to Marin's weekend notes.


He only touched on the "eelgrass episode". In an attempt to leave Center Island, I found my cooling system rendered useless by the intake of about a cubic foot of eel grass. The strainer was full, and worse yet, the elbow leading into the strainer had plugged itself tight with grass. It took about two hours of reaching into the impacted area with a four pronged retrieval device, and removing mostly small bits about the size of the tip of my little finger. Once I had the elbow cleared, I would then start the engine and run for ten seconds to allow the next wad to pack the elbow. This cycle was repeated about twenty times, and all was clear. After two hours, and a very sore right hand, on we went to Blakely Island.

Here are a few of my photos from the weekend. We started a couple days prior to Marin, so we also hit LaConner, Friday Harbor, and Sucia Island along the way.


The first three shots are in LaConner. A small artsy town on the Swinomish Channel just east of Anacortes, Washington. The old wood boat is our friend Vic just returning from Alaska.


-- Edited by Carey on Saturday 28th of August 2010 01:42:17 PM

Carey--- When we got back to our slip in Bellingham we heard you talking to Allegra and Allegra's replies. So your VHF signals carried all the way to Bellingham, a good indication that your radio is working

Marin wrote:
Next shots are of a river otter family that was feeding on eels or candlefish in the marina.* Two adults and two young ones.* One of the young ones thought Carey and I might be a good source of a treat and came to visit.

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oh my gosh those are sickeningly cute.* Are they considered pests up there or are they ok?* (I know the tourists think*the sea lions*at Pier 39 in SF are cute but most boaters... not so much!)*

No, they are not considered pests at all UNLESS they decide to get into your boat. This is not a problem on larger boats but if you have something like a low, open sailboat or you keep a dinghy in the water with a cover over it otters may decide this is a great place to hang out, eat dinner, take a dump and pee, and generally kick back and have a good time.

The first winter we had our boat we sublet a slip in the south basin of our marina. In the next slip over were a pair of racing sloops, perhaps 25 feet long, with open cockpits. The owners kept canvas covers over the cockpits in the winter. There was enough room under the edges of the covers for otters to come up over the side of the boat and slip into the cockpit. They "lived" there all winter, and when the owners came down and removed the covers in the spring they were confronted with a pretty unbelievable mess. Fish and crab carcasses, poop, pee..... not a pleasant thing to have to deal with.

The otters did not damage any components of the boats themselves---- they're not rodents and don't have to be chewing on stuff all the time. But they left a hell of a mess. Fortunately since it was winter it was cold so there was no smell that we noticed. In the summer it can be a totally different story. They were loads of fun to watch, though, from our boat which they couldn't get onto except for the swim step.

But other than the occasional boater who has a run-in with them like this, people get a big kick out of watching the otters. They are larger than you would think--- we're always surpised by their size when we see them out of water even though we see them all the time. They seem to be very "happy" animals and even the adults indulge in play quite a bit. At one of the islands we go to a lot they have a slide down a steep bank on the shoreline they like to go down over and over. They can get aggressive if they have young and feel threatened by a dog or something, but for the most part they're just part of the scenery, like the eagles, herons, and kingfishers.

These, of course are river otters, not sea otters which are a very much different animal. I don't believe we have sea otters in Puget Sound and the inside waters. There may be some out on the Pacific coast up here.

River otters are amazing swimmers: I had one play around my canoe during a camping trip to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior when I was a teenager. The water was very shallow, glass smooth, and crystal-clear so I could watch everything the otter did around the canoe.* It swam better than the fish, which I guess it has to since that's what it catches and eats.

-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 31st of August 2010 06:42:13 PM

Marin wrote:

They seem to be very "happy" animals and even the adults indulge in play quite a bit. At one of the islands we go to a lot they have a slide down a steep bank on the shoreline they like to go down over and over. They can get aggressive if they have young and feel threatened by a dog or something, but for the most part they're just part of the scenery, like the eagles, herons, and kingfishers.

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Oh my, I am going to have to come up there and see these for myself.* I love watching the sea otters around here (well, down in Moss Landing near Rocky) and these sound even more entertaining.* Of course I will have to pick a good weather window since it is so miserable up there.

*

Pineapple Girl wrote:Of course I will have to pick a good weather window since it is so miserable up there.

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Yes, most of the otters up here have been fitted wtih small transmitter collars so they can be "seen" on radar since most of the time it's far too foggy and rainy to see them in person.* So watching otters at play up here is generally a matter of sitting in your boat, putting your radar on its lowest range (in our case that's .125 miles) and watching the "blips" frolic in the water and on shore.

*


-- Edited by Marin on Wednesday 1st of September 2010 12:39:25 PM

That radar thing is great! LOL

Marin wrote:Yes, most of the otters up here have been fitted wtih small transmitter collars so they can be "seen" on radar since most of the time it's far too foggy and rainy to see them in person.* So watching otters at play up here is generally a matter of sitting in your boat, putting your radar on its lowest range (in our case that's .125 miles) and watching the "blips" frolic in the water and on shore.

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You keep ruining your story of the awful weather by posting glorious pictures!

*

Most of the photos are actually taken on the south island in New Zealand. The terrain is quite similar to what's up here but they have much better weather. But I've found that shots from NZ are very good stand-ins for the PNW, BC, and SE Alaska, so a lot of us have gotten very good at taking shots from NZ and the using Photoshop to insert elements unique to the PNW like docks and ravens and bears and whatnot.

Very rarely do we get to see the beautiful scenery up here but we know it's out there because we've seen pictures in old issues of National Geographic and we can see the mountains and things on radar.

Marin's right. Sorry...can't keep outa this. The South Island in particular is really Godzone, and sometimes I wounder why I ever left. Now if I could figure a way of transporting Lotus to the Marlborough Sounds without costing an arm and a leg on the one hand - or braving the Tasman sea on the other.....hmmmm...?

Transmitter collars on otters?*

That's a disgusting invasion of nature.

LMAO....I can't believe this!** LMAO

Walt,Your'e sounding a bit like a teenager. What does LMAO mean???
I think the radar blips looking like otters playing is funny too but generally experimenting with, playing with, harassing and interfering with wildlife is not good for THEM. Unfortunately my opinion is not shared by many Alaskans.

Eric:

I'm sure Marin knows what I am laughing at so I'll defer at this time. If he should decide to answer your question, that's fine with me.

Peter B wrote:

or braving the Tasman sea on the other.....hmmmm...?

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Is the Tasman Sea the place that was featured in a popular YouTube clip years ago showing a good-size ferry being pitched around like a cork?* Most of the captions with the clip were wrong and associated the shot with a bunch of incorrect places.* But I did find a souce that accurately identified the location of the ship and said that the sea conditions that were giving the ship such a wild ride were actually fairly common.

On the other hand, I recall the accurate location was the channel between the north and south islands in New Zealand, so maybe the Tasman Sea is not the right name....

*

Eric---

Transponder collars on river otters is not the only offense against wildlife up here.

Many of the marinas in this area are participating in an experimental program being run by the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab to fit seagulls with a sort of diaper device. The problem is that seagulls (apparently---I'm just quoting from the study description) have no conscious control over when they defecate. When there is enough accumulated "stuff" in their system it is evacuated automatically-- the bird doesn't do anything consciously. This is why--- the study says--- that seagulls so often poop immediately after takeoff. The change in their body position and the muscle effort being expended for flight serve to expel the waste from the end of their digestive tract.

Where this is a problem is in marinas and aound piers, container yards, fish processing plants, etc. where the birds tend to perch on the surrounding structures for long periods of time. When they take off they let go, and this lands on the boats, cranes, vehicles, and people working in these locations.

The Applied Physics Lab (don't ask my why they ended up with this project) was contracted to find a way to reduce or elminate the problem without eliminating the seagulls (which are a protected species). The answer was this electronic diaper thing.

It straps to the bird in a way that does not interfere with its ability to fly, walk, or float on the water. It catches and stores a single defecation when the bird is in flight. There is a tiny laser transmitter on the diaper aimed down and slightly ahead of the bird. Somehow this beam and the associated chip coding can determine when the bird is about to fly over open water with no obstructions like boats, etc. in it. When it senses this, the diaper automatically releases the defecation load it has collected and the poop falls into the water without hitting anything or anyone.

A fair number of gulls in Squalicum Marina are fitted with this device. It is made to be very difficult to see, blending in color and shape to the bird itself. I have been told by our marina management that since the electro-diapers as they're called have been fitted to more and more birds, the amount of seagull poo on the marina buidlings and boats has been noticeably reduced.

I was pretty skeptical of the whole deal but maybe there's something to it. We'll see......





-- Edited by Marin on Thursday 2nd of September 2010 07:23:14 PM

Thanks for the post Marin but I still say we should leave the birds, animals and fish alone*(unless we're eating them of course). Ha Ha . Kinda makes me think we've got too few problems and too much money to be worried about sea gull crap. Did some politician get his boat crapped on more than once?

I'm trying real hard to stay out of this! (LOL)

nomadwilly wrote:


Kinda makes me think we've got too few problems and too much money to be worried about sea gull crap. Did some politician get his boat crapped on more than once?

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Who knows what sparks ideas like this.* Probably lawyers painting a nighmare scenario*of*people slipping on seagull crap and suing the [crap] out of a marina or the Port of Seattle or whatever.**You can imagine the headline...**"Seagull dropping causes Port crane operator fatality."*

I guess one way to look at it*is that no matter how kooky an idea like this*seems it provides employment to a bunch of people.

Here's another one that I just read about that could be beneficial up in your area maybe.* Anyone who's been reading the Seattle papers or watching the local news is probably aware of the increase in black bear encounters in many of the neighborhoods surrounding the city.* So far nobody's been hurt but King County Animal Control has gotten a grant (probably some of Obama's economic stimulus money) to conduct preliminary tests in conjunction with Bose of an audible warning device.* As I understand it, this system is an adaptation of the Bose iPod SoundDock but without the iPod.* Its curved*case has been modified to match the countour of a bear's neck in such a way as to not hinder the animal's movement at all.

A*sensor of some*sort is mounted on the collar holding the*SoundDock and it can detect*the presence of a house from some distance.** I think they said 100 yards but I don't remember.* Nor do*I know what the sensor is tuned into that distinguishes a house from something like a car.

In any event, if the bear wanders within the sensor's range of*the house, the SoundDock, which has a battery recharged by a*small solar wafer, turns on and begins to play "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits at maximum volume.* According to the blurb in the paper, this does two things.* It alerts anyone in the area that there's a bear present, and it scares the hell out of the bear which begins to run away from the sound.* Since the sound is coming from the bear, it will continue to run until it moves beyond sensor range of the house*at which point*the SoundDock shuts off.

According to the article the prototype BearDock, as it's called, had been tested very successfully on a young male black bear that was trucked into a neighborhood*near Bose's headquarters in*Framingham, Mass and released.**A section of the neighborhood had been fenced off to prevent the bear from escaping the control area.

A larger test involving a number of wild black bears in the foothills of King County is planned for next*spring, which is when the bears are most likely to enter neighborhoods in search of food before the ripening of berries and other plants draws them back into the woods.

Who knows what will happen with this idea, but if you're mucking about in your yard and you suddenly hear "Money for Nothing" crank up, head for your front door.

No, I'm not writing a book on the history of PT boats. There are plenty of those now. I'm writing what for want of a better term is a novel-based-on-a-true-story. It's about a specific mission in WWII that used an Elco PT boat.

I was told about this mission back in the late 1970s when I flew four men who had crewed the boat on an aerial tour of Pearl Harbor (you could do that in those days). We sort of hit it off--- I'd been fascinated with PT boats since I was a little kid and read "They Were Expendable"--- so we hung out for a few evenings before they went home. They told me about this mission they'd been on. It was a hell of a story--- they'd had to sign non-disclosure papers after it but figured after 30 years nobody would care--- and I've been wanting for decades to write it up. Now that my Kenmore book is done and out there I've started on the PT book. I was only told the basics of the mission, so making a readable story out of it requires the bulk of the story, the characters, etc to be created from scratch.

I'm real big on accuracy*so I*researched PTs to learn the details of the boats and life on and with the boats and how to operate them*all through the 1990s when I was working on the Kenmore book.* But I didn't want to get into the PT story for fear I'd abandon the Kenmore story. But I interviewed dozens of PT vets, my wife and I went to PT crew reunions, we were invited to ride on the only restored PT boat powered by the original Packard engines-- it was the wrong kind of PT for my story*but it was the right kind of engine.* I wanted to hear them and smell them and be next to them when they were running full bore and all that.* I got permission one winter in the late 90s to spend an entire afternoon crawling around in the restored Elco PT in Fall River, Mass to get a feel for the boat and the spaces in it, and so on.

My job schedule doesn't give me as much time to work on the book as I'd like but it's so far been an ejoyable experience to write, and the people who've read the first several chapters say they really like it. So we'll see. But don't hold your breath.......

-- Edited by Marin on Friday 3rd of September 2010 09:02:22 PM

I read years ago in a Wall Street Journal (I think) article about Clancy that prior to Hunt for Red October, he had had only one thing published in his life and that was a letter to a local newspaper editor. When he completed Red October--- which I still feel is the best book he's written--- nobody was interested in publishing it. Finally the Naval Institute Press agreed to publish it. It went pretty much unnoticed until Ronald Reagan read it and talked about it.