“Kinship” away again...

Finally got away from the dock for a couple weeks. Going to try and spend some time in the Gulf Islands and San Juans. Left this morning around 6:30. Nice morning, with light air.

My tachometer is refusing to give me a reading this morning giving me a “Sim no J39 data” error. This happens occasionally and will resolve itself eventually.

The mountain was out as we were leaving the Harbor. Nice morning.

Forgot to show the mountain.

Beautiful start to the day and trip. Enjoy! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Thank you. Nice shots!

dhays said:

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Forgot to show the mountain.

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Beautiful curvaceous glow to your morning

Dave, don't you know it's not nice to make others jealous on a Sunday morning?


Thanks for taking us along on your journey. Beautiful photos and I hope there are more to come.

Lots of boats out salmon fishing. Had to carefully snake my way through a whole gaggle of boats clustered around the West Point buoy. I saw a few netting some nice fish. A bit hazy out here today. Looks like some smoke.

For some reason my boat speed is way down. I don’t think I am facing any time of significant current, but I’m running over a knot slower than what I would normally be running at my current RPM and fuel burn.

One possibility would be that my RPM and fuel burn numbers are incorrect. I don’t think so as when I don’t get them it is simply an all or nothing thing.

Possibly I picked up a line, pot, or something that I am dragging.

Dirty bottom, I don’t think so as if has been regularly cleaned by the diver.

GPS reading faulty? Not likely.

Still no ideas on slow speed. My wife had the idea of doing a 180 and see if the speed picked up thereby eliminating current as a culprit. We did it and we saw an increase of at least a 1/2 knot. However, it just doesn't make sense because the slow speed was consistent for the rest of the day.

I tried to use my GoPro to see if I was dragging anything and didn't see anything. (Too cold and windy to risk swimming under for a look and I don't have a mask anyway).

I am open to any ideas.

dirty bottom or prop seems the most likely, or you picked up a crab trap line.


Any vibration in the drive line?


Can the engine make full RPM when wide open, assuming it could before? If it can't, that would be another indication that it's drag of some sort.


And what about fuel and water load? That will definitely make a difference of some amount.

twistedtree said:

dirty bottom or prop seems the most likely, or you picked up a crab trap line.


Any vibration in the drive line?


Can the engine make full RPM when wide open, assuming it could before? If it can't, that would be another indication that it's drag of some sort.


And what about fuel and water load? That will definitely make a difference of some amount.

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Thanks twisted.

No vibration that I can feel at any RPM. Engine still makes the rated RPM at full power. Full water and half fuel, so not exactly light but not really heavier than normal.

It certainly could be a dirty hull and running gear. I just checked at it has been 3 months since my last cleaning. It is cleaned every 3 months and this summer has been unusually warm. I should have asked the diver to do me ahead of schedule in advance of this trip. If get brave I may go under and take a look, but damn this water is cold and I don’t have a mask.

It will be a good test of ablative paint, if that’s what you have. Maybe it will improve with Miles.

Hard, not ablative. I am a slow boat after all.

Spent last night at Oak Harbor. I've never been there before and we were hoping to get a slip, but no such luck. We ended up anchoring in the bay in front of the Marina with a bunch of other boats. It was a pretty tight fit. I put out 100' of chain and the full length of my bridle. We had 20knot winds coming off the strait over night and being so close to the other boats I didn't sleep really well. No one dragged anchor so all was good.

Did you try backing up? Not sure of your local conditions, but I get weeds around my prop/rudder in some areas which are easy cleared by backing up aggressively for a couple of boatlengths.

Jeff F said:

Did you try backing up? Not sure of your local conditions, but I get weeds around my prop/rudder in some areas which are easy cleared by backing up aggressively for a couple of boatlengths.

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Well, I did when I went into the Oak Harbor Marina and turned around and left. Also when I dropped anchor. Hard to tell with the currents today, but it may be better this morning.

I could have picked up some kelp leaving Gig Harbor yesterday.

Have a safe and fun cruise! I still want to cruise around your neck of the woods some day.

Surprised there was not space in Oak, usually space available, but it is a Holiday wkend.

The plan was to go through the Swinomish then across Rosario to Lopez. I finally figured out that the reason my wife wanted to go that route was that she was afraid if Deception Pass. Not sure why but I explained that there are only 3 routes out of Puget Sound. She doesn't like Juan de Fuca Strait, and if she is afraid of Deception, that leaves us only one option. There are times when Swinomish isn't viable. So I talked her into it. Neither one of us have been through before as the timing wasn't good. Today, it was ideal.

Slack was predicted at 10:15am. I hit it at 10:17. Looks like the prediction was a few minutes early as we still had a bit of flood against us. The Pass is fine, the number of large cruisers blasting by within a boat length, not much.

The Southern part of Rosario is a bit rolly from the swells coming down Juan de Fuca but not too bad. Not sure where we will end up tonight but I think my wife would like to try Fisherman's Bay.

Hunter Bay, at the SE side of Lopez is a great anchorage, just to sit back and relax. Fishermans Bay has lots to do, tie up or anchor, both good options. Entry to Bay requires attention and some water!

We ended up at Spencer’s Spit State Park. The wind is out of the North and all 4 mooring buoys on the South side were open. We snagged the one furthest to the East and then the others quickly filled up.

We went for a walk around the spit and my wife found an agate on the beach. That made her vacation right there. We may check out Fisherman’s Bay tomorrow, or might clear customs and find a spot on the CA side.

we did the same route a few weeks ago. I've always loved Spencer Spit. We tied up in Fishermans Bay for a few days after that, at Island Marine Center. Walked down the street to the Lopez Islander resort for dinner one night. The one non-fun experience was getting up at 2 a.m to take one of the dogs for a walk. As we headed up the dock, she mistook the wind blown mung and junk that can gather in a slip for actual ground and stepped out on it...strait to the bottom. Jumping in to help her out was one of my least favorite parts of the trip. Have a fun trip.

Nice trip and pics. We just got back from 14 days in the San Juans and Guld Islands. Our very first time and it was everything I had dreamed it could be. Anchoring in Tod Inlet for a couple of nights and hiking out to catch the bus to Victoria and walking through Butchart Gardens at night was by far my favorite.

Very smokey for the first few days but it cleared up and remained perfect for the following 10 days.

Enjoy!

ctjstr said:

we did the same route a few weeks ago. I've always loved Spencer Spit. We tied up in Fishermans Bay for a few days after that, at Island Marine Center. Walked down the street to the Lopez Islander resort for dinner one night. The one non-fun experience was getting up at 2 a.m to take one of the dogs for a walk. As we headed up the dock, she mistook the wind blown mung and junk that can gather in a slip for actual ground and stepped out on it...strait to the bottom. Jumping in to help her out was one of my least favorite parts of the trip. Have a fun trip.

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Lol, that is funny. I’m sure not at the time however. I did that once as a very little kid. Took a running jump to land on what I thought was sawdust. Big surprise!

Flat calm right now. just got finished trying to paddle board for the first time. We picked up a couple inflatable SUPs because we thought the kids might like it. I only fell in once, the water temperature is good motivation. I didn’t last very long. After a while my legs started to fatigue and quiver so I paddled back to the boat. 15 years ago I could run for 30 miles. Now 30 minutes of SUP and I’m whooped.

we rented a couple kayaks from the vendor at Spencer Spit. had a great time, but like you, tired faster than I thought. Guys at the rental place were nice enough to pry me out of the kayak at the end, so all was good. Photo above looks like the same place.

Now I'm officially jealous. Enjoy!

I looked it up and think I saw the water temp is like mid 50s?? I would have a heart attack if I fell in that. [emoji948]

We are heading out Thursday morning. Probably going to Sucia then Rosario. Maybe we will see you around..

cardude01 said:

I looked it up and think I saw the water temp is like mid 50s?? I would have a heart attack if I fell in that. [emoji948]

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Mid 50’s would be a bit above the average summer temps. Upper 40s is the average winter temps. However, you can get pockets of warmer water. When I fell in today it was definitely warmer than the typical 53 degrees, maybe not by much but a little makes a big difference.

My wife decided that she wanted some dock time today so we went to Deer Harbor Marina. I’ve not been here before so why not? Nice Marina although it was a very tight turn to get into the assigned slip. The fairways are wide, but the entrance to the fairway is very narrow. We were assigned the first slip on the right. Fortunately, I had a few inches to stair both fore and aft.

As it happens, there is a wooden boat festival right now. They had a sailboat race of the woodies as we were coming in. Beautiful boats! Lots of very nice old powered vessels as well. A number of original Monk Sr. Designs built in the Puget Sound area.

Hi Dhays!

I really miss the San Juans it looks like a nice cruise.

Cheers!