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Keep talking about the Keys, we're going to be on Big Pine boatless for a couple of weeks, then to Key West for 5 days. You're getting me excited about being there again. There is an interesting little marina on Big Pine right at the bridge to No Name Key. It is called the Old Wooden Bridge...

A couple of my favorites of the earlier days on the B.C. coast are Spilsbury's Coast and the Accidental Airline by Howard White and Jim Spilsbury. Jim Spilsbury had one of the first radio sales and service businesses on the B.C. coast. He ran it out of his boat and visited all the remote areas...

Congratulations Ken, I remember well the day I went over the Columbia Bar with you and your son to go coho fishing. He was a good boy then and sounds like he's a good man now. He certainly picked a thriving trade. Us baby boomers are going to keep his generation of health care professionals...

I have good radar mounted high up and I've also had the experience of having someone come out of the fog at a high rate of speed that my radar didn't catch. You may see a dozen boats moving on your radar, but that doesn't mean that it's catching all of them. Lyle

So here's my radar story. The first Sunday morning of October, we were coming back from Sucia Island to Anacortes. There was a little fog when we left Sucia but by the time we reached Lawrence Point on Orcas it turned into zero visibility. Because we were creeping along at about 5-6 knots...

Another great book if you can find it is "Cruising Guide to the West Coast of Vancouver Island" by Don Watmough. I think it was last published in 1998, but may be available on the used market. It is unique because of all of the aerial photos showing the areas he's describing and the history of...

Tom, The only time we've experienced that feeling to any extreme was coming back to Nanaimo across Georgia Strait in some 3 footers with an occasional 4 on the beam. Shelley was running the boat, so she wasn't bothered by it. A couple of times I said if this gets any rougher you're going to...

I looked at one before we bought our bigger boat. The layout would be fine for two people, not great for more than two. We wanted space for at least four, with an occasional six, so the Pacific wouldn't work for us. They also seemed a little overpriced at the time for what you got. That has...

The west coast of Vancouver Island is my favorite place in the world. By kayak, C-Dory and foot we have explored a bit of it. I've been as far north as Brooks Peninsula and as far south as Barkley Sound. All of it is beautiful, exciting and wild. Places to be careful of include the tip of...

Hi Bill, A good place to go for info on this style and size of boat is www.trawlerforum.com. Lots of people there with that style of boat. As usual with a boating forum, there are a lot of strong opinions, but many members have the kind of boat that you're contemplating. Lyle

Wow Les, Did you ever stir up a hornet's nest. My suggestion is to skip all of the intervening steps over the next 15 years and just build the 45 footer now. That will allow you to have berths for 8 and 2 heads with showers. You can cruise with your extended family and have a table for 8 on...

Hi Pat, What an ordeal. I'm sorry we were traveling. We just got back this weekend. If we would have been home we could have made your time in the Yakima Valley a little easier. We were pretty much off the grid on the boat and I didn't know the extent of your issues and schedule until I...

Sometimes I think those of us in the Northwest get a little jaded about the San Juan Islands. We have a boat (not our C-Dory) in charter out of Anacortes. It's interesting to see how excited people from other areas are about the San Juan's. A couple just flew back to Texas today after...

Hi Tom, We'll be there if at all possible. If we stacked your dad's boat and our boat together, we could get a lot of people under cover if it rained. Lyle

Greg, That's a great trip you're planning. We're leaving Anacortes on 9/2, also for 17 days in B.C. We no longer have our 25, but miss it. So, if you see a bigger boat named Bessie charging toward you, it's us. We're taking a different route than you. We're going through the Gulf Islands to...

Tom, I don't want to throw you a curve, but how about Blakely Island Marina. The C-Brat event used to be held there in July before it moved to Bellingham and always had a good turn out. Lyle

Bill, Thanks for the story and the link to the pepper spray. We have been running further from home recently, into areas in which we don't know the dogs. I have bear spray at home, but it is too big to carry when running. It looks like the one you use will work for us. I'm ordering some...

"To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence." -- Friedrich Nietzsche Mike, am I hearing Mom's footsteps coming down the hall? Lyle

I'm not offering Tom's services, but he helped me buy our 14. I saw the ad at a dealer and almost bought it sight unseen because of the price and limited availability of the 14. Because it was close to Tom, I asked him to take a look at it. Tom knows C-Dorys and I trust his judgement. He was...

Wow, haven't seen a political discussion on here for a while. The only problem that I have with this discussion is that we're always arguing between the right and the left, but the leaders on both the right and left are lying to us. They're lying to us because we can't handle the truth. We...