Anacortes – Riveted

Random Pics around Anacortes

Laura Domela — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 22:46:37 +0000

We’ve just been hanging in Anacortes and working from Airship, since the weather’s been such crap this week. Looks like we’ll get a window tomorrow to head over to Friday Harbor for Thanksgiving, and then we should be able to get back in relatively settled seas on Saturday. I’ve been snapping photos as we go on our errands or for lunch…

Crows in a weepy tree:

John L. Sullivan – 1st American Sports Hero:

Cap Sante Marina:

…and Frida Kahlo, with Diego eyebrows (at Frida’s Gourmet Mexican Food on Commercial Street):

We’ve been super productive, work-wise, but we’re looking forward to getting out of the marina tomorrow!

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.

We’re Back!

Laura Domela — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 05:09:44 +0000

We left our beautiful anchorage at Cabbage and Tumbo Islands yesterday morning (after a very rolly, sleepless night…oh well, we can sleep later) and headed for Anacortes. It was foggy a lot of the time, but on and off. Here’s Orcas Island sticking up out of the fog bank, during one of the “off” times:

Sun. Trees. Fog. Water.

Returning home after months of cruising to incredible locations is always bittersweet. Here are some numbers for you!

This summer we were on board for 150 days/nights, we cruised 3700.3 nautical miles, and we spent 625.46 hours underway.
Last summer, we were on board for 129 days/night, we cruised 3131 nautical miles, and we spent 527 hours underway.
Last night was Night #480 spent aboard since we purchased Airship on the 23rd of September 2014. That’s 480 days out of 735 days. That’s 65% of our time spent on Airship.

We’re back in Anacortes now, doing boat stuff. Cleaning the boat. Scheduling a haul out and new bottom paint and zincs for the boat. Looking at bigger boats…that kind of stuff.

Airship to Alaska | Day 1 | Anacortes to Roche Harbor

Laura Domela — Sun, 08 May 2016 16:18:34 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016 – Here we go again!

We were finished with all of our boat projects and provisioning a little sooner than we expected, so we decided to head out a couple days early. We left Cap Sante in Anacortes and cruised over to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island today. We figured we'd rather do the one load of laundry we had left over here instead of at Cap Sante. It's beautiful here, and now we're just that much closer to Canada.

The weather started out a little dreary, but morphed into a gorgeous day.

Airship, all expedition-ready!

I guess we've never been to Roche Harbor in the "On Season" (which started Friday, apparently). The moorage was $65 for tonight…not $30-something as it normally is when we're here (in the Off Season). But we did have the very charming Hailey come out to our boat to take our payment right there, rather than having to go over to office to pay. Also, there are now trash cans right ON the dock…no walking up to the top to take your trash. So there's all THAT going for the On Season. :)

We did Mother's Day festivities with my mom last Sunday (brunch, some copter aerials of her home in Kelso, WA, etc.). Here are a couple of the copter shots (that's my mom in the second photo, throwing the ball for her three White Shepherds):

Kevin flew the copter while I used my iPhone and the other controller to control the camera and take photos. It was fantastic! We'll do more of this on our trip north (and show you the setup next time…it's very cool!)

Hawk on a mast, back in Anacortes:

We're going to cook dinner on Airship tonight (risotto, kale, mushrooms) and probably before dinner we'll head to the upper deck and sip an Aperol Spritz while enjoying the sunset, and the first(ish) night of our second trip up the Inside Passage to SE Alaska. We're super excited, and glad to have you along with us again!

The plan for tomorrow is to clear customs in Bedwell Harbor on Pender Island, and then stay tomorrow night in Ganges Harbour on Salt Spring Island.

Today's route from Anacortes over to Roche Harbor. 4 hours 27 minutes, 27 nautical miles:

Back in Anacortes

Laura Domela — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 14:05:55 +0000

The view from our deck last night, post boat show.

There are a bunch of neat boats up here at the annual Anacortes Boat Show. If you're nearby, come check it out! As you can see, the weather is perfect boat show weather!

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):

Hanging with Friends in the San Juan Islands

Laura Domela — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:28:41 +0000

Part Two

We said goodbye to Sissy and Bob on Thursday morning in Anacortes and spent the day working and doing a few errands. Our friends Becki and Stephen drove up from Portland and met up with us on Thursday night. On Friday morning we headed out for Sucia Island where we'd again meet up with our friend Sam in Fossil Bay.

Anacortes to Fossil Bay on Sucia Island (21 nautical miles, 3 hours 15 minutes):

Hiking around on Sucia Island:

Shallow Cove:

Echo Bay panorama:

Saturday morning sunrise at Fossil Bay:

After a late breakfast we headed over to Patos Island for a little hike out to the lighthouse. I took no photos of the lighthouse this time, but you can click here or here if you need a refresher.

Dinghy on shore in Active Cove (where there used to be two mooring balls, but now there's only one):

The paved part of the trail to the lighthouse:

Looking out toward Orcas Island:

After we'd hiked around and watched the seals for a while, we headed back to Airship and continued over to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island.

Sucia Island to Patos Island to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island (21.5 nautical miles, 3 hours):

Roche Harbor Resort:

We walked up to the sculpture garden, which is kind of neat overall, but this was definitely NOT my favorite sculpture there. At all. (Apologies to whoever made this…but for some reason it feels more like a nightmare than the happy childhood moment I think it's supposed to represent.) Eeek.

Okay I can't look at it anymore.

Chapel on the hill:

We had a delicious dinner at McMillin's Dining Room on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning after breakfast we hiked up to show Becki & Stephen the trippy mausoleum in the forest:

Here's a link to a past post about Roche Harbor and the mausoleum, if you want more info.

The weather was a bit foggy and gray on Sunday morning as we left Roche Harbor and headed back to Anacortes.

Chapel reflection:

We saw lots of porpoises, many seals, all kinds of birds, but no orcas or humpbacks.

Roche Harbor back to Anacortes (27.4 nautical miles, 3 hours 53 minutes):

We said goodbye to Becki and Stephen, washed off the boat, and then decided that since we still had a few hours of daylight, we'd head over to Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island for the night (or maybe two) before heading back to Portland.

Anacortes to Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island (8 nautical miles, 1 hour 9 minutes):

It was so quiet here last night, and there's only one other boat moored on the other side of the bay. Today it's foggy and gray and a little drizzly, but it's a perfect day for getting a lot of work done (and maybe putting out a couple crab traps).

Happy Monday!

Ganges Harbour, BC to Anacortes, WA

Laura Domela — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 02:55:59 +0000

We left Ganges Harbour on Salt Spring Island this morning around 7:30am. Last night's dinner at the Hastings House Bistro with our friends Michael and Nancy was a great time! I'm so glad we were able to stop here and meet up with them before heading home.

The sky was clear and blue and the water was still as we began our cruise back to Anacortes. Ganges Harbour was the first stop on Day 1 of our trip to Alaska with the Waggoner Flotilla in May, so it's cool that we're here for the last night before going back to Anacortes.

No waterspouts today!

Oh right, I think I only posted the waterspout thing on facebook. Yesterday when I refreshed the weather forecast, this popped up:

Eeeek!

Our cruise today was beautiful and chill the whole way. We may have missed the high season in the San Juan Islands, but there were still quite a few pleasure boats out for a Monday at the end of September. I'm sure the gorgeous weather today had something to do with that.

Today's route (45 nautical miles):

(The break in the path is when the iPad crashed. Awwwww.)

We cleared customs this time by phone, thanks to our new I-68 we completed before we left in May. I just called the 800 number, gave some info, answered some questions, got the clearance number, and just like that we were cleared and we scooted into our marina just like we'd never left. Pretty neat!

We had such an amazing trip north, and we're so grateful to have had you guys following along with us. More to come…soon!

Returning to Anacortes from the Gulf Islands

Laura Domela — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 01:02:39 +0000

I forgot to post these photos the other day of our return trip from the Gulf Islands to Anacortes. It was a beautiful, smooth cruise the whole way.

More eagles:

More seals and sea lions:

We arrived at our slip, called Customs, and the whole clearing process was pretty easy and convenient.

Here's our return route from Cabbage Island to Fidalgo Island/Anacortes: