Apologies for posts being a little out of order, but yours truly has been quite busy. We left Bainbridge the third week of July. The trip began somewhat inauspiciously. The Poulsbo Marina near us generally has the best fuel prices. We checked that morning and they did. So we motored over there and called the fuel dock. They confirmed the price and then said "wait, oh geez, we just ran out." [GRUMBLING on my end.] They explained to us that they might get some fuel later that day, or for sure the next morning. Our plan had been to go to Port Ludlow after fueling up. I wish I hadn't been so determined to save that money. They ended up not getting fuel that day, and since we had already waited this long we decided to anchor and fuel up in the morning. Which we did and then departed for points North. We saw that it was going to be too windy to cross the strait, so we just headed North and said we will figure it out. An hour or so later we were a few miles South of Point No Point. (Gotta love these names, eh?) Deb and I were both in our helm chairs, looking straight ahead, watching for logs/debris, when we heard quite a "clunk." The next sound was silence as my heart skipped a few beats. We slowed down, went into neutral. Just for drill I checked all the bilge pumps on the Maretron, none running. Once we were up and running again we felt a distinct vibration, that got worse with RPM increase. It only began at about 9 knots, it wasn't hard to live with, but I felt bad for our baby. I called my Hampton guys and they felt we might have hit a deadhead and I should get a diver to look at it. In the meantime they recommended I check the rudder strut bolts. These have double nuts and are torqued to 145 lbs. I found none loose. Plan B. Or maybe C? Called Port Townsend (where ironically some neighbors/boaters had asked us to come for dinner anyway) and found space, as well as a diver. We got tied up around 6 pm and the diver showed up promptly. I told him what the issue was and he said he would look the hull and running gear over completely. When he reappeared he said "wow, that is one clean bottom and solid boat. I don't see any dings in your props, your rudders are solid, nothing is out of place. I saw two barnacles." We caught a cab to dinner with our friends Doug and Susie and had a very nice dinner in town. Afterward, it was raining (of course, we are in Port Townsend in late July, so it has to be rainy and cold, right?), and no taxis to be found. We glumly walked back to the marina in the rain. The next morning we were in good shape as far as wind goes and departed. We played with different speeds to feel out the vibration, which had the gall to not leave us during the night! My Hampton guys said I might want to consider hauling out, but I really just couldn't bear the thought. We motored up to Roche Harbor but by the time we got there the wind had come up again, and it was forecast up to 25 knots that night. We thought about going to Garrison, but that was too far in this wind to tender back to the hotel for dinner with friends Ron and Kim. A very sturdy small ship was clearing customs as we searched for our anchor spot. A Dauntless, called "Undaunted," how clever.
We tried anchoring near the Seattle YC station, but the anchor wouldn't hold. We then tried a position fairly close to the marina, tucked up against the North side. We got a good bite, backing down with both engines. I think the guy behind us was a bit freaked. Have been there many times myself. Great dinner at the hotel as usual, fun company. Also ran into Bob & Pat, owners of a 720 Endurance. Ironically we would shadow them much of the trip and always be a day or two behind them. As we took the tender back to Mahalo I got the image above (top of this post). All seems calm, doesn't it? Tomorrow we would head to Canada.
1 Comment
Captain
11/2/2019 08:25:39 pm
Love the picture and comments and kind words. We do love our small ship. Departing for Europe next months.
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