Captain’s log: Slowly Cruising San Juan Islands and Waiting

May 31 – June 12

Hi All,

Yep, still in the San Juan Islands….just waiting for the new dinghy and Canadian border to open up….neither seems a real possibility….ugh, ugh, ugh!!!

We have anchored at Reid Harbor, Sucia Island, Westcott Bay, 2 nights in Friday Harbor marina, and now at Blind Bay on Shaw Island. All the anchorages have been nice, but admittedly we are very spoiled and well, these places are just ok….not much critter action and except for Sucia which is a state park, fairly developed with surrounding houses. There are a few boats just hanging as we are but we understand maybe 20-30% of normal. The Friday Harbor marina and town were the quietest we have ever seen….more like winter….we did not have a reservation and the transient dock had plenty of room….wow!!!

But, as I was writing this blog on Thursday, the 11th, in comes 3 Selenes to Blind Bay…..Spirit, Paige Marie, and Wild Blue….wow. We had met Patrick on Spirit in Sitka last year. It turns out they had done a 5 day mini-cruise and were going back to Anacortes on Friday. Observing appropriate social distancing, we all gathered in our dinghies behind Paige Marie for happy hour. Wow….this is the part of cruising we have sorely missed….it was so much fun again!!!! All 3 of the boats had planned to go to Alaska this year but were all sort of resigned to not happening this year. It turns out Alex and Pat on Wild Blue had the same Highfield dinghy experience with the Seattle distributor and had to order their dinghy from the distributor in Vancouver, BC….and, it is stuck in Vancouver with border closed….ugh!!!!

So….the latest on the dinghy. Steve Guyer is a nice guy who hates to deliver bad news. He would not return phone calls or text messages. I finally left a fairly stern voice message and he called right back…hmmm!!! The first words were…..”I’ll give you your money back”….I don’t want that, just tell me the truth…well, everything I have told you since May 1 (even just last week) has been wrong….your boat is still in Florida…ok, Steve, just stop, I’m a big boy, just tell me what are the issues….well, there are not enough boats to deliver to the West Coast…the dinghy business has just dried up…I think I have a trusted trucker that will pick up next Thursday (yesterday) but who knows if that will happen…..and soooo we wait. I called again on said Thursday and guess what….he had not heard anything,…let me make a call and I’ll find out…..he does call back…good news…the boats are at the truckers warehouse, they are loading and will leave for the West Coast on Monday, 6/15 for a 6/22 delivery to Guyer….he needs 2 days to outfit so maybe by 6/24 or 25th…..we shall see!!!!

Canadian border…..who knows….we have heard it will open on 6/21 and then we have heard Canada does not want to open…maybe not until in the fall….I mean who can blame them….we have way too many Americans (certainly a minority but a large contingency) selfishly in denial and breaking all appropriate social distancing practices….it is quite embarrassing. Other countries have proven you can re-open the economy safely but you must practice good social distancing….but obviously not in America. Why is wearing a mask et al a sign of weakness versus caring for your fellow American….I just don’t get it…and so….we wait some more!!!

Yes….my attitude still sucks. In fact, Kathy has agreed to go back to California and see the family once we get the new dinghy and we’ll park Mystic somewhere. If the Canadian border does not open then we do not have a slip so we might have to go back to Port Angeles….who knows. The Sidney marina continues to not let us out of our contract. They want to wait to see if the border opens on 6/21…..ugh!!!!

Boat Stuff: ODG, this is definitely the year of LEAKS….ugh!!! First the watermaker…..I have spent 2.5 full days in the Lazarette…yep, more cold yoga and still have no joy….whaaaaaaaa. We have had up to 5 different leaks….fixed 4 (one required a new fitting from ACE Hardware in Friday Harbor so we routed the leak into a bucket so we could make water and not get the Laz soaked) but the last one is a crack in the manifold that brings all the various hoses and sensors together. I’m not sure how the crack happened….it’s made of Duralon plastic….a type of hard plastic. I had to replace the fitting below the cracked fitting so maybe I did something, or it could just be from age and heat….who knows. The crack is on the outside and I tried to repair with some marine JB Weld epoxy. The epoxy helped but we are still leaking maybe 1 quart/hour. We are ordering the various parts and hope to get it all fixed next week. (we will probably take Mystic to some marina in Seattle next week to collect the parts and make repairs)

ER leak: this one is from the Groco fresh water strainer before the fresh water pump. I started seeing water in the bilge….not good…took me a while but finally saw drips out of the outlet hose connection. It looked like the hose end had cracked as water was coming out of the lower hose clamp. So, I cut off the bad end and luckily had enough hose to make a new connection. But, broke several hose clamps trying to get tight enough…think the hose has gotten old and is too hard. But wait….closer inspection shows a crack on the strainer housing….more leaks and cracks…ugh. This is actually a new strainer installed maybe 2 years ago…WTH….but it has maybe 5-10 spider cracks….hmmm. We do have an old strainer housing so at some point I’ll try again and be careful not to crack anything and might even have to change the hose….arghhhhhhh!!!!

Coolant leak: In the process of trying to fix the fresh water strainer leak I go into the ER one morning and there is coolant in the bilge….not what you want to see….spend several minutes looking for the leak….finally find the new heater hose the mechanics installed last January coming from the Cummins….when we are underway or even using the Kabola we can heat the water in the hot water tank….well, either both hose clamps came loose….not likely….or the mechanics forgot to tighten properly….more likely. But wait, where did all the coolant go…light bulb time….looked in the master bilge and yep, lots of coolant….flows through the limber hole….ugh, ugh, ugh!!! We always carry 5-gals of coolant which is good…we had lost ~3 gals…yikes!!!!

Maretron Airmar Transducer: what is it with depth transducers??? As you recall we had lost 2 out of 3 depth transducers over the years but replaced all while on the hard getting Mystic painted. Well, the Airmar transducer is faulty we think. From day one it has given false readouts maybe 20% of the time. We talked with Airmar and finally their support said “it is under warranty, let’s send you a new one and try again”…ok, so Greg @ YSNW is making that happen for us!!!

That’s it for now….hope all is well, and please stay safe and keep your fellow Americans safe as well!!!

John
Mystic Moon
Blind Bay Shaw Island

View from the shore on Sucia Island….Mystic in the middle far out

Beach on north side of Island

Campers on the beach….the kids had just been lingcod fishing…2 & 4 years old….reminded us our our kids and now the grandkids!!!

Along the shore on one of our hikes. Pretty day!! Mystic is on the right!

The end of one of our hikes!!

View looking out of Echo Bay on Sucia Island

Kathy enjoying our Flybridge enclosure

Fort Garrison on San Juan Island…we anchored in Westcott Bay close by….nice little hike but really nothing to see except the empty buildings

Our first restaurant since early March…..San Juan Brewery in Friday Harbor…..very clean, all doors/windows open and observing social distancing…we could take our masks off at the table!!