Category: MV Ghost

Mid Rosario straight, groceries on board, boat washed on the outside and a chicken roasting in the oven.  The inside of he boat is a disaster, pretty much more of a varnishing and electronics workshop more than living space.  But chugging along at 8.4 knots, the chicken starting to smell good and 45 minutes until sunset I should have just enough time to tuck inside Thatcher pass and find a place to hang on the anchor for the night.   

I’ll have all day tomorrow to get organized and put back together.  Right now, onwards literally into the sunset.

Ghost out. 

 

Normally, I’m one to take on a couple hundred gallons of diesel and point the bow North.  This time, I’m trying something a little different.  We’ll just call it an outline.  Subject to change at will.

 

 

Meals to Shopping
List conversion

 

 

07:30 and underway. The crew is well rested, over fed and in good spirits. Less than a foot chop, sunshine and little wind.

09:00. Home port is in sight. 7.9 gallons burned since Friday.

With luck it is early enough that nobody will notice I’m landing barefoot and in pajamas.

Luck was not with me. The channel was running just over 4 knots and I did not feel I could safely get in. I sat and jogged in the current for about an hour, enough time for the current to drop to just over 3 knots and plenty of time to see exactly what it was doing next to the new breakwater. I made it in without fanfare, but there is a rather narrow line that will be required to follow when the current is chugging. With the full moon, we were pushing a good ten foot of water in the exchange.

The amazing thing that I find about boating in the northwest is no matter how long you have been out there, there are still places I have not been. Less than an hour from my home port even, here I swing in Inati bay on Lummi island.

There is only one other boat in the bay, a fellow Tollycraft anchored near a small waterfall.

There is a beautiful beach…

This looks like some sort of log careen..

Waking up this morning with a beautiful sunrise, a bit of frost on the decks, birds chirping and flat calm. Ive seen this all before, yet somehow its just as impressive as the first time. For the first cruise of the season, I’m reminded why we do this.

Cypress island is only a stones throw from my home port, I ran no more than 7 knots last evening to get here and burned almost a gallon of fuel over about 45 minutes it seemed. Trying to decide whether to stay here another night. With no generator, I’ll have to run the main engines to heat up water for a shower anyway, and put a little charge back to the battery.

It seems crazy to even think of moving from such a spot when you think about it, yet this is the fortune we have in this part of the world.

Reviewing my log book today, and Nobeltec I’m counting roughly 50 days on the water this season and over 900 nautical miles travelled.  Nobeltec recored 870 miles since March and the sad thing is that I did not have it running every day.  For me, this has been a banner year for boating and probably not one I will repeat again soon.

Coming home from telegraph is a long haul at 8 knots. I decided to clear customs at Roche so I would have some options and not have to worry about making anacortes at any particular time frame.

I ran into Gary on Done Workin on his way out of Roche. Looks like we both had an efficient clearance. Heading towards wasp passage I decided to check out Jones island which I have not actually stopped at in about ten years. Jones of course is famous for it’s friendly small deer and equally aggressive raccoons.

The park dock was open so I decided spending the night was a much better plan than going home. I scrounged dinner out of what ever was left in the pantry and tried out the new halo on the xbox. Home can wait another day.

Incidentally the docks noted to be gone by 9am the next morning as they were being replaced. It will be interesting to see what the replacement looks like as the existing docks were still in good condition

Spent Friday and sat in telegraph harbor with the Canadian Tolly cruisers. Rhonda took Friday off and drove up with her dad. We had a great time. The Tolly cruisers really know how to put on a great event.

For those who have never been to Wallace, it has a rather unusual custom.  There is a small hut where over the years, individual boaters have left their mark on a piece of driftwood and over time, they have accumulated.  Now, there are thousands.  Well…a thousand and one…:)

Thursday morning has me waking up in the hands of bandits. Little furry four legged bandits wearing masks. I’m counting a dozen raccoons pillaging the beach this morning

I left Anacortes yesterday at 9am. The water was calm but sometimes nearly foggy. A sort of thick spooky haze though I had visibility of nearly six miles. Not bad. I found myself fighting the current and burning unplanned fuel through the morning as I wound my way through Thatcher pass, past Upright head then squirting into San Juan Channel through Wasp Passage. The thick haze continued across the open expanse of Boundary Pass where my timing of commercial traffic was perfect as a freighter just rounded Turn point out of view as I crossed. There is good network coverage at the South end of Boundary so I used shipfinder on my iPhone to look for any upcoming AIS targets out of sight and found none, radar confirmed the same so away I went.

I was able to clear Canadian customs in Bedwell without fanfare. I bet I was not tied up at the docks for more than 15 minutes before being on my way again. While the currents eased up the trip wound up at around 7.5 hours.

Conover cove is a pretty tight and shallow spot. Jollymon, Enough time, and Go Dot were at the dock. I took the last stern tie to the west and anchored up. Steve Monrad was nice enough to come out in the rain and run out my stern line for me. That was fantastic. I thoroughly sounded 10 foot of depth around my anchorage before getting secured. I looked up tide for chemainus and found we would only be losing 4 feet of water. Later dock talk suggested the real number was 7 feet, leaving her keel in the mud. I sunk a lead line before going to bed and found I actually had 12 feet under my keel and those two extra feet matter. This morning I lead line about 5 feet. Wondering what is going on with tides and currents pro which shipped with Nobeltec I investigated further this morning. I found two different tide stations for chemainus, one agreed with other nearby stations the other was clearly wrong. Both shared the same lag/long. The moral of this story is to check more than one station as clearly mistakes in the information are possible.