NautaBytes

I had it all planned out.  I had researched it.  I had plotted my course on my IPad using the Garmin Bluechart tool and on my Garmin GPS 521s unit.  It was gonna be a 4 day trip to places up north... Blake Island and Kingston to be exact.  I had provisioned (with more food than I could eat incidentally) and got a 5 gallon jug for water (as I have challenges with the water supply on the boat at the moment) and got all my Stuff together.  I was going to leave at 9 AM and get a dock space at Blake Island Marina, because I was going in the middle of the week there would be no problem. Taken from below... it was raining....    I forgot that I live in Washington, where the weather is unpredictable, at best.  We have had WEEKS of really great weather, so weather was the last thing on my mind.  But I arrived at the marina around 8 am to RAIN and FOG.... WHAAAAAAAT?  I guess my order for good weather got lost or something.  Hoping for ...

So up to this point, I have done a lot of Day sailing.  This is fun, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to go exploring. it is one of the primary reasons that I bought the boat after all.  But where to go?  so many choices, and so many things i don't know.  Then a perfect situation appeared.  It turns out that the Foss Harbor Club (have I mentioned how much I like Foss Harbor ?) was doing a weekend trip to Dockton, which is part of the King County Park system.  If you don't know where Dockton is, it is in Quartermaster harbor, which runs between Vashon and Maury islands.  Well, Technically they are not two individual Islands as they are connected by a small spit of land that has a road on it.  Whether this is natural or man-made I don't know.  It is on the north west corner of Maury Island. A view of Dockton's many moored boats     I had been out there once before with my Brother in law, and we had lunch while we moored to wh...

You know, keeping a Blog is HARD!  I blinked and it has been a month or so since my last post!  I have been too busy having fun on the boat... I will TRY to do better.... but no guarantees!  LOL... My Friend, Colleen ready to go     I wanted to write about the next Sailing I had, as there were a couple of firsts involved.  It was a really nice day for a sail, so my friend and Vision Quest Workout buddy, Colleen came out for a sail.  the first thing I needed to do was get some diesel.  This is something I had never done before, so this was gonna be an adventure... I didn't have to go too far, the fuel dock is just about 50 feet from my slip.  This is Ben, the Fuel Guy!    I have to give Kudos to Ben, the Fuel guy at the Foss Harbor Marina. He was right there to take the bow line and stern line, and most importantly, After I had admitted to never doing this before, to have the patience to work with me and explain ...

At my front door, waiting to greet me when I got home from my trip was my new Tiller.  I had to get it made at Rudder-Craft while I was gone... the whole process takes 2 weeks... what a coincidence, that was how long I was gone!  It is beautiful!  I had it done with an epoxy finish, then a varnish... basically the best package they had.  and I also bought a tiller cover for it!  That should take care of all of those exposure problems that caused the old one to fail.     The first thing I noticed though is that I was going to have to modify this beautifully finished product, so that it would fit in the hardware.  the aft end would have to be cut to about a 60 degree angle, and when i tried to put the hardware on, I found the tiller base was about 1/4 inch too wide.... DANG!   In trying to figure out what tool to use to make the 60 degree cut, it occured to me that this might be the purfect job for my 12" sanding disc....  So I set ...