Cap Sante Marina – Riveted

Hanging Out in Anacortes

Laura Domela — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 01:25:53 +0000

Since we got back from Sucia Island on Tuesday, we’ve just been hanging out in Anacortes doing some boat projects and some other work. We changed the oil and filter, changed the fuel filters, changed the impeller…we’ve still got a windshield wiper to replace as well as the engine zincs and maybe the transmission fluid…just doing the regular maintenance projects. It’s nice to do these things after the big summer Alaska trip instead of before, so we’ve got time while boppin’ around the San Juans to make sure there are no maintenance-induced problems.

When we went to Sucia on Sunday (our first outing since getting back in the water), we noticed our engine (a Yanmar 6BY3 260HP) temperature was running a few degrees hotter than normal, and when we throttled back as we went into the Matia Island anchorage for a few minutes to check it out, the temp rose up another couple degrees before going back down to normalish after we were back at our regular cruise RPM. Same thing on our way back to Cap Sante, so I cleaned the sea strainer where the raw water comes in from outside to cool the engine in case it was clogged (it wasn’t…there was pretty much nothing in there) and we changed the raw water impeller just in case it was starting to fail (it looked good other than one tiny crack at the base of one of the veins). We haven’t had the chance to run it again with new impeller, but we’re fairly certain nothing else has changed in the system, so it’s a little curious why the hotter temp. No alarms are going off, but when things are consistent over a long period of time and they change, even slightly, I like to know why they change. (Update below.)

In the meantime, Kevin went to San Jose to give a keynote speech for one of our clients, and I got a bunch of work done here at the boat. It’s been windy and rainy until today, and so today, I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went for a nice long walk.

This is the trail that goes out to the point here at Cap Sante:

Some great trees here on this trail (and a whole bunch of fresh dill!):

This is looking toward the breakwater and the entrance to the marina:

If you zoom in, you can see the rough water flowing in through the two jetties:

Great day to go sailing! There was about a 20 kt wind…sky clear, sunny and gorgeous. Tough to be here working while the sailboats kept going past. Pesky sailors!

The forecast through Sunday is supposed to be pretty windy, so we’ll likely stay put until we head to my mom’s on Sunday (unless things change for Saturday and we can sneak out for a bit).

Update — news on the temperature mystery! It was an easy one, too, which is nice since that isn’t always the case. A little over a year ago, we had a very minor coolant leak (tiny amounts of coolant were showing up in the bilge). We had the shop take a look at it, and they found and fixed a leak at a hose clamp. After that, the engine temps seemed normal and stable, and the coolant overflow reservoir was consistently about half full. Then, recently, as we mentioned above, we started noticing that our temperature was running a few degrees higher at cruise than before. Looking at the overflow bottle, the coolant level still looked good. Raw water flow seemed good but we replaced the impeller anyway. We realized (in the middle of the night the other night) that we hadn’t checked the coolant level in the engine itself. So in the morning, we got up and…surprise! We were able to add a fair amount of coolant to the engine. So apparently, when the repairs were done to fix the leak, no coolant was added to the engine itself…they had just added to the overflow reservoir, and because the engine runs at such low and steady temperature, with the air gap there wasn’t enough expansion and contraction to move fluid back and forth to the overflow. With the coolant topped off, we took Airship out for some testing. At our normal cruise, we were showing 3-4 degrees cooler than our normal temps. So not only is the issue fixed, we’re running a little cooler now, even.

Moral of the story: Know your baselines, and pay attention when something changes. And don’t depend on the overflow reservoir to give you all of the information you need about your coolant. There are lots of reasons it could be wrong: faulty pressure caps, leaky hoses, etc.

Oh, Just Boring Stuff

Laura Domela — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 14:44:55 +0000

We've been kickin' it on Airship back in Anacortes for a few days just working and doing a few boat projects. We've looked at a few new boats and a few used boats (thinking about the "one size up" we'd like to get to store guests more comfortably…and stuff…guests and stuff).

The past two days have had gale warnings and some stronger-than-usual winds, but honestly it hasn't seemed that bad. The clouds today are haulin' fast across the view off the stern while I work though:

Today is Kevin's birthday! We're working here on the boat this morning, and then later on we'll head up to Lummi Island (by car) and we'll stay tonight at The Willows Inn. Looking forward to another incredible, creative meal by Blaine Wetzel. Here's a post from the last time we were at The Willows.

There's a mooring buoy out front of The Willows, but so far we've never stayed there. It's not a very protected anchorage, and the weather isn't exactly calm this week. One of these days though it would be fun to anchor or moor out front and dinghy in to dinner.

Matia Island to Anacortes

Laura Domela — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 12:40:00 +0000

After hiking (and ALL THOSE MUSHROOMS) yesterday morning, we left Matia Island and decided to take our time getting back to Anacortes. We went the long way 'round the west side of Orcas Island. We didn't see any whales, but it was a lovely cruise.

Oh yeah, this was the sky at sunrise Sunday morning at Matia:

Airship, from the hiking trail:

Mount Baker and friends toward the end of the day in Guemes Channel:

Even the refinery looked cool:

As we approached the marina though…that's when the sky went crazy. Such a great sunset!

Here's today's route (32.5 nautical miles):

Working Boats and Solar Panels

Laura Domela — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 20:24:51 +0000

Today we've just been hanging out on the boat working while the solar panel install is happening. It's super windy (last night was 30mph gusting to 50mph, woohoo!) and there's been some rain, but this afternoon the sun happened to come out right when it was a good time for a work break, so we went out to wander the docks.

Also, solar panels!!

Now we've got two 140 watt solar panels on the roof and a charge controller to help keep the battieries topped off during the day so we won't need to run the generator as often. Sweet!

The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow so we may take Airship out for another cruise around some islands. (And as soon as it's dry enough for long enough, I've got the boat name decal ready to apply!)

An Unexpected Break in the Weather

Laura Domela — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 00:18:44 +0000

All weekend it's been super stormy up here in Anacortes. It's been fine, since we had projects to work on and no plans to go out on the boat. (Plus, one of the solar panels is not yet attached to the roof of the pilot house.)

Stormy view out the front pilot house window:

Somewhere around 3pm this afternoon it stopped raining and I thought I'd go out and work on cleaning the dinghy. It's got a bit of diesel exhaust staining on the port side of its bow and I found some biodegradable stuff that works pretty well to remove it. Kevin came out and helped me for a bit, but pretty soon the sky was really clearing up nicely. The radar showed that most of the precipitation had gone past us, so we decided to go out for a little cruise. Kevin strapped the solar panel securely to the roof and off we went.

This is what the little pump out island (dump station for boats) looks like, in case you wondered:

Big ship at anchor outside the marina:

It was calm and gorgeous out! We thought we'd just go around Guemes Island, but we headed for a little private island called Vendovi instead, went up toward Lummi a bit, then headed back towards home. (And we saw so many porpoises today!)

The south tip of Lummi Island:

With the new inverter, Kevin was able to make us cappuccinos while underway without turning on the generator. Sweet!

The sky as we were on our way back to the marina was incredible.

Same big ship, looking a little post-apocalyptic:

Back into the marina:

Kevin docked us like a boss and now we're sipping martinis and having a little snack of pickled herring and some good Gouda (feeling pretty Nordic here now). The halibut is cooking and I'm sauteeing some baby shiitakes and baby bok choy (neither had the chance for a full life, so sad), along with some of the leftover chorizo, zucchini, and clams from last night.

The halibut has a marinade of lime juice, olive oil, mustard, Italian parsley, salt and pepper.

Wow, both of these dishes have the same color pallete. Oh well.

We’re on a Boat!

Laura Domela — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:59:09 +0000

On Tuesday morning we got up early and headed to Anacortes to stay our first night on our new boat "Airship" before meeting up with Capt. Jack DeFriel first thing Wednesday morning for a couple days of on-the-water training.

Tuesday evening sunset from the back of Airship:

It rained pretty good that first night on the boat and sometime in the middle of the night the wind picked up a bit. From bed (in the bow of the boat) I could hear a little bit of the bow line as it pulled occasionally as the boat moved, but then there was this clangy sound right above our heads.

Cling, clang, cling, clang.

Hang on! There's nothing that should be making that sound on this boat. I pictured the topside of the boat and remembered there was a little Nordic Tug flag/burgee attached to the front of the rail on the bow and said to Kevin (one of the times we were tossing around, awake) that I knew what that noise was and that in the morning, that flag was coming off. Kevin replied, "In the morning, my butt" as he put on jeans and went out in the dark and rain to remove the flag. We slept well the rest of the night.

Yesterday and today we spent all day training with Capt. Jack and it has been such a blast. We've learned and done so much! We practiced docking techniques in different conditions (purist-style, without using our bow or stern thrusters), learned how to grab on to a mooring buoy, how to anchor, how to launch the dingy and go ashore and where to pay for the state park moorages (it's just like a campground, with no host), how to pump out the black water tank (so much easier than in the Airstream!) and just generally got a good deal of hands on experience using our boat while someone very knowledgable was there to help, guide, and answer questions…a very valuable two days with Jack and we'd do it all over again.

This morning (after a whole lot of docking practice, and both of us taking turns anchoring while the other one drove the boat) we headed out to James Island to anchor and launch the dinghy to go ashore. There are many spots up here in the San Juan Islands to anchor or moor your boat for the night. We went to the back side of James Island where we expected there to be some mooring buoys, but there were none, and just a very small dock, so we dropped our anchor in about 15 ft of water and called it good.

We launched the dinghy and headed over to the dock:

James Island is shaped like an hourglass, pinched in the middle. You walk up the dock and there's a little path across to the other side (and a hiking trail around the island).

We walked across the pinched part to see the other side (where there were supposed to be four mooring buoys, but there was only one). Capt. Jack said it was a pretty roll-y mooring anyway, so you'd have your privacy, but you'd be rollin'!

Captain Jack:

Walking back to the dock gave us a nice photo op of our new boat. Isn't "she" pretty? (See? I'm workin' on it.)

This is a great spot to come for a picnic. There were two kayaks beached and three people were up at one of the picnic tables having lunch. There are fire rings and it's a nice sheltered cove. We plan to explore MANY places like this with our boat in the future.

On the way back to the Cap Sante Marina at Anacortes, we were the stand-on boat (the boat with the right of way) as a ferry was overtaking us. It was cool…the ferry just chilled out a little bit and crossed behind us as soon as we were far enough past him (not that far, really):

Ferry, passing behind us:

It's been such a wonderful few days. The weather has (surprisingly) cooperated nicely, and we really lucked out finding Capt. Jack to help introduce us to our boat. If you ever need to learn a boat…hire Capt. Jack!

Tomorrow we think we'll head over to Friday Harbor for a night, and then maybe moor or anchor in some other cove somewhere for the next night. We need to practice our new skills!