SO WHAT DID YOU DO WITH OR ON YOUR C-DORY TODAY??

I didn't get the boat in the water, but I did manage to uninstall the 10ish year old Lowrance X15 unit that I used as a backup for my Raymarine C80, and replaced it with a Hummingbird 757. The wiring harness was a lot simpler and cleaner than the Lowrance, and the unit itself is a lot smarter than the older technology. When I put power on, it locked on within 45 seconds. The old Lowrance had me setting time zones, doing a GPS search/initialization and other such gyrations.

I hope to get up to Lake Merwin this Wednesday to check out the sonar, plus maybe add some kokanee to the larder.

Steve
 
I spent Friday evening with the former managers of Blakely Island Marina. For those of you who are newer, we use to do the summer gathering at that marina. Rick and Norma are still on Blakely and doing fine.
Was able to get my limit of crab both days. I sure love those fresh crab. Weather was wonderful and the water was calm, doesn't get much better than that.

Fred
 
Have been reading the "Broughton's thread" and wishing we were in the far off exotic places too. Then to help feel better we drove to John Wayne Marina, (3.5 miles) and launched SleepyC, and went to Sequim Bay State Park (2.25 miles) to do some research, (dock float is fixed, no more 90 second grunting from the float wheels - as the tides continue to go up and down) and to see how many people you can put on the float before it sinks, (don't know for sure, but 42 high schoolers in Outdoor Ed and 17 adults and 4 dogs) didn't phase it so it should be OK to plan a huge C-Brat get together on for this early Fall. (See upcoming Sequim Bay State Park CBGT thread). Put 9 miles on the boat plus 2 - 10 minute warmups on the twin 40's. Wonderful time with some good friends; met some new friends from Bend and Portland OR, and watched a ton of too little crabs get fed. Cost of the gas, ~$6, the food $20 and the weekend, PRICELESS!

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Yesterday, we returned from a delightful short cruise from Everett to Port Orchard. We spent Thursday and Friday night at the Port Orchard Marina and enjoyed walking about town, taking the foot ferry over to Bremerton for a self guided tour on the destroyer USS Turner Joy and relishing a relaxing mode. We were awestruck by the cleanliness of the restrooms at the Port Orchard Marina....(have never encountered any that were so well maintained). Additionally, the showers are FREE! On our way home yesterday we cruised briefly into Poulsbo for several "sinful" purchases at the local bakery.
 
Just another wonderful weekend in the San Juans for Pat and Patty and Daydream! I took Friday off, we got up to Hilton Harbor in Bellingham on Thursday evening about 7:00 p.m., the boat was in the water tied up at the float waiting for us. We burned a bit of fossil fuel to get to Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island, where we hooked up with Bill and El on Halcyon. Friday heading out of Eagle Harbor I hailed a Tomcat on the VHF - no response from the Tomcat, but Bess-C (Lyle and Shelly) come back! So we all headed over to Olga on Orcas to our favorite little place, the Olga Cafe. Discovered some more terrific music for the boat, James Hardman's piano CDs. James has the studio upstairs at the Olga Cafe. He used to be a ranger for the state parks, but now he paints and composes. Dropped the crab pots out in front of Olga, got three nice dungies in a couple of hours. On with Halcyon and Bess-C to Sucia, where we anchored up in Shallow Bay. Saturday we cruised to Patos, where we had the crab, some bread, salad and wine up on the picnic table - what a treat! We decided to try Clark Island for the evening, and headed over there. Our little group got bigger when David and Kate cruised out on Anna Leigh to meet us. The east side of Clark was too exposed and rough. The west side looked better, but the current was running really strong, so we decided to head to Rolfe Cove on Matia, where we all anchored in close to shore and stern tied for the night. Sunday morning all of us except Halcyon headed home, with yet more great C-Dory San Juan weekend memories!
 
Caryn and I are ending another day on the Canoe Journey. Today we left Port Townsend, Caryn paddling non-stop to Sequim, me driving C-Dancer to John Wayne Marina. Guess who has the hard job and who has the easy one? :lol:

Harvey and Deena from Sleepy-C were kind of enough to join us in the afternoon with the kind offer to drive us to the beach where some of the canoes landed just west of Sequim and then to the dinner to hear some beautiful native songs and eat some great food. I know Harvey took lots of pictures of the canoes, maybe he'll post some. Thank you so much Harv and Deena for your hospitality. We had a great time spending the afternoon with you!

We also saw Paul and Verla from JC Lately, first I saw them heading the other way near Protection Island and then we saw them at John Wayne Marina. They loaded their boat on the trailer, visited for a short while, left and then returned a couple of hours later to see the canoes.

Tomorrow Caryn heads up the strait to Port Angeles, lays over an extra day and then the most challenging leg of the trip will be on Friday morning when her Indian Cedar Canoe will cross the strait, headed for Vancouver Island near Victoria. I have to admit, I'm a little nervous just because you never know what the sea conditions hold in store for you. Wish us luck. The journey ends in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island on Monday.

Peter & Caryn
C-Dancer
 
Caryn and I are ending another day on the Canoe Journey. Today we left Port Townsend, Caryn paddling non-stop to Sequim, nearly 20 miles, me driving C-Dancer to John Wayne Marina. Guess who has the hard job and who has the easy one? :lol:

Harvey and Deena from Sleepy-C were kind of enough to join us in the afternoon with the kind offer to drive us to the beach where some of the canoes landed just west of Sequim and then to the dinner to hear some beautiful native songs and eat some great food. I know Harvey took lots of pictures of the canoes, maybe he'll post some. Thank you so much Harv and Deena for your hospitality. We had a great time spending the afternoon with you!

We also saw Paul and Verla from JC Lately, first I saw them heading the other way near Protection Island and then we saw them at John Wayne Marina. They loaded their boat on the trailer, visited for a short while, left and then returned a couple of hours later to see the canoes.

Tomorrow Caryn heads up the strait to Port Angeles, lays over an extra day and then the most challenging leg of the trip will be on Friday morning when her Indian Cedar Canoe will cross the strait, headed for Vancouver Island near Victoria. I have to admit, I'm a little nervous just because you never know what the sea conditions hold in store for you. Wish us luck. The journey ends in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island on Monday.

Peter & Caryn
C-Dancer
 
Peter,

It was great to see C-Dancer, you and Caryn again. What a privilege for us to join you for a bit, and get to share in some of the tradition. And to hear the singing. (Even just now thinking about the songs and the singing it sends chill down my spine.) Sure hope we can see you Friday morning before you start across. We will keep you both, and the Canoe Journey troup in our prayers, for calm waters, soft breezes and safe passages, and hope to hear along the way, how the rest of the trip goes.

I will try and get some pictures into the album, but I havn't had much luck with that lately (again).

Thanks for letting us help just a tiny bit.

Harvey & Deena
SleepyC
 
We haven't been able to get out this summer because of parental health issues. However, things are better now and we took the opportunity to get to the boat last Thursday and head for the San Juans on Friday morning. As Pat noted above, we had the good fortune to hear him on the radio hailing another boat. We replied and found that Pat and Patty on Daydream and El and Bill on Halcyon we just ahead of us. We met up and we had a great time cruising and anchoring out with them. They introduced us to Shallow Bay on Friday night and Active Cove on Patos on Saturday.

Then David and Kate on Anna Leigh met up with us and we all spent Saturday night in Rolf Cove on Matia. We were planning on heading back on Saturday night, so we were a little unprepared for the Saturday night meal. Patty cooked a great salmon dinner and Pat and Patty graciously shared their meal with us.

What a wonderful C-Dory weekend. Perfect weather, a chance meeting with friends and new coves explored.
Lyle
 
We have been following the progress of the Canoe Journey to Cowichan this week, and have had the priveledge of joining one of our own C-Brats, Peter and Caryn on C-Dancer several times as they participate, (Caryn as a puller, and Peter as a ~support boat. This morning a scheduled launch from Port Angeles Hollywood Beach a 0500, got us up and on the road at 0330 to tow SleepyC :moon to PA and launch. To allow time for a very slow commute to the beach along the Port Angeles industrial front, and arrive before the action was over we put in at 0415 and it was still quite dark. I could see the water, pillings, dolphins, and bouy's thanks to the industrial lighting if I stood and watched out the open center window, (too much reflection from the light from the chart plotter even on night light mode). We did our first dark launch, and before daylight run, first time ever even close to needing the running lights, and were able to get some hopefully adequate pictures. The canoes are gorgeous, the pullers songs in the morning fog send chills down my spine, and the guts to take off across 25 miles of Juan de Fuca in a paddle craft, even with several pullers per canoe is amazing.

Thanks Peter & Caryn (C-Dancer) for allowing us to be a very small part of the experience.

Harvey & Deena
SleepyC :moon
 
Busy Weekend on the boat, Well sort of. It was parked by the house all day, but we got some boat projects finished. A velcroed bug screen for the forward hatch cover. And a digital weather system with Atomic time, date and day, barometric pressure and trending, forecast, remote unit with alarm clock, timer and remote temp sensor for the cooler (in a ziplock bag). Pictures coming later.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Saturday I spent the better part of the day installing a Raymarine S-1000 auto pilot. As everyone has said the install was ridiculously simple. Sunday I played with it all day. It was truly plug and play and worked well with my Humminbird 797 plotter. The bleeding process was very simple and I did it by myself. I've heard others say you need help with this but I really don't know what the help would do other than moral support. Having never owned or operated and auto pilot I don't have anything to compare it too but I'm real happy with the way it functions. The kit they send with it had nearly everything you would need even including wrenches for the hydraulic lines and drill bit for mounting holes. The only thing I needed to supply was 18' of # 12 ground wire and a spade and ring lug. I mounted the pump on the back of the helm bulkhead which with the length of the hydraulic lines this was the only option. The only thing that protrudes into the v-berth area is the clear bleeder hose. If I had to do it again I might use a 90 degree fitting on it at the back of the steering. It's really a non issue as it only protrudes about 6 inches at the top and the factory cover covers it. The pump wasn't nearly as noisy as what I had prepared myself for. Once initiated it would troll down to around 2 MPH GPS or a little less before loosing control. I purchased the unit from BOE Marine and it was around $825 with free shipping. I figure I'll save that much pretty quickly in gas as I'm pretty comfortable with it cruising at displacement speed where my fuel flow meter was showing 9 MPG. Typically I get around 3 MPG. It makes slow cruising alot easier.
 
Spent a couple of hours on the CAT yesterday.

Determined that the stbd bilge pump IS working, at least on automatic. Unsnapped it from the mount and pulled it up into the cockpit. It hurts if you stick your finger into the bottom of it and it comes on! :roll: Still doesn't work with the manual switch on the dash and I can't find another fuse to check. The little indicator light on the rocker switch does come on. The wallas doesn't work either, haven't found that fuse either!

Also started wiring the pier and running water out there. We have water and power at the head of the pier, buried it when we built the new house. I have #6 sized three conductor copper with a ground ($3.50 a foot, about 500' of it :roll: ) , the buriable type with a 60amp breaker here in the house. The water is run down there with a freeze proof hydrant at the head of the pier. Right now I run a generator on the pier to power the boat lift, a PITA so I'm looking forward to getting this power installed!

It'll be back up around 90+ today so I'll wait and do a little in the evening. Unfortunately, this working full time gets in the way, at least I do it from home! Haven't been into the office in DC or No. VA for 6 months! And, I can look out the window and see the boat on the lift!

Charlie
 
Captains Cat said:
It hurts if you stick your finger into the bottom of it and it comes on! :roll: Hey I'll second that :oops:
Click to expand...
 
Wow, a long time with no posts in this thread!

First I got Crabby Lou nicely put away for the time being. Charged the battery and put her on a little Schumacher automatic battery maintainer. Filled the oil tank for the trusty old Johnson 40 two stroke, should be good for another season. All nicely tucked away under the Sunbrella cover I got from Fred. I plan to take her up to Birch Bay the next time we go that way, the last time at Patos Island when the tide was out, I saw a huge bed of mussels on the rocks - would make a great excuse for a boat ride to run over to harvest a big bucket full of them!

Then I added Stabil and topped off the gas tank on Daydream. It was easier to bring the gas to the boat than the boat to the gas, used the dandy little siphon with the glass ball on one end, works great, didn't spill a drop. Local gas is $3.19, a dang bit cheaper than the $5.29 gas from Halls Crossing Marina on Lake Powell! Then I put a piece of angle aluminum inside one of the cockpit floor hatch covers, now it closes much better! Will do the other side another day, didn't have enough stainless bolts and nuts to do both sides. Still need a cover for Daydream. Have to figure this one out pretty soon.

It has been a great sunny weekend here. We had a bit too much to do at home to head out boating, but this sure would have been an awesome weekend for Andrews Bay on Lake Washington!
 
We took a beautiful hour-long ride today, the long way around Casco Bay's islands and then up the Royal River to the ramp where we hauled C for Two for the winter.

On the way we used the Wallas for heat for the first time, and it was very comfortable in the cabin. Made some coffee too, and even though the wind was high and the seas were bumpy, the brackets on the Wallas held the pan of water tightly.

Seems like boating season was way too short!
 
Wild Blue will come out of storage tomorrow. I was feeling kinda blue, then our neighbor came over and invited us out on his 36' sailing catamaran. It was an absolutely spectacular day in the Tropical Tip: temps in the 80s, crispy blue sky, dolphins and pelicans. Oh my.

What's that Rolling Stones song? Oh yeah: you can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need. :mrgreen:

Supper at a beach bar and grill. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Left the dock at Bayside Marine in Everett around 11:00 am. The fog was the thickest I have ever been in. Came out into the river and could not see either side, just a solid wall of fog. Got close to the west bank of the river, opposite side of the Marina and slowly made my way out .
Then once out in the bay, but still in the fog turned towards what I thought was Gedney Island, but after a few minutes realized that I was instead heading North - not West - got back on track and then motored out of the fog.
Went out to Possession Point, South end of Widbey Island, and did some fishing, caught a small wild coho, and a big scallop, both released unharmed. Water temp around 50 degrees, but the Sun did come out.
Fog was burned off when I came in at 4:00, had a nice look at the Aircraft Carrier Lincoln. Back at the dock at 4:30.
Cheers,
Tom
 
Sunday Oct. 19th I spent about 4 hours at the Bayside Marina with Sea Coaster on a rack. I had a Seattle metal shop make 4" x 7" plates to add strength to my cleats in case of being towed or towing. A fellow CG Aux member brought his drill and knowledge and now all 5 cleats have metal plates underneath the fiberglass and have longer screws now.

My next project is to change out the hatch covers to the larger ones so my wiring stays dry. The engineer friend looked at the current ones and commented that what is there now cannot possibly keep the insides dry because in places the rubber gasket doesn't even touch the slot. I could not remember if it requires cutting and if so where, so did not proceed.

After the fog disappeared it was another beautiful day here in the NW.
Anne
 
Back
Top