Captain’s Log: Day 14, Covid-19 Symptom Free

March 19 – April 2

We hope everyone is staying healthy and safe in this dark period of time!!

Yes, our 2nd self isolation period is over…..Day 14 and symptom free…yea!!!! We first self isolated in California after our Alaska Iditarod trip in mid March and now recently, after traveling from California to Mystic in Seattle Lake Union. I have to say we are both a bit tired of doing self-isolating but it has to be done, so we grin and bear it. But, as one friend pointed out, each time you go out…..we went to Walgreen’s for a prescription, Fisheries for some boat parts, and a local grocery store, in the last 14 days…..do you need to start your 14-day all over????

We have found doing Facetime or “Hangout” happy hours is something to look forward to each day. Cruising is so social that being cooped up is well, dull & boring. These HH help us stay connected and give us some laughs!! The marina is full but no one is on their boats so it’s very quiet and lonely….perfect for self isolating tho!! We also have been walking…but Seattle is still cold, windy and rainy so we have to pick our spots in between raindrops.

You might ask, gee John….why did you travel to Seattle (at the time a Covid-19 hotspot) versus staying in Ca…why risk the exposure…..good question…read on….

It seems we are have good news, bad news on several fronts!!

Flybridge Enclosure: Good news, Canvas Supply has continued to work, being an “essential” business due to agriculture contracts. Bad news, they were supposed to be done April 1, now it might, might, fingers-crossed be done end of April….ugh. It’s good news they continue to be healthy, but the company has made it volunteer work so they currently have only a skeleton crew working. But, good news, we only had this slip at Emerald Landing until March 30th (major reason why we had to come back to Seattle), but luckily, the 50′ tender for one of the mega-yachts in the marina has been delayed so we can now have the slip until the end of April!!!!

Bad news, it turns out that we need to go back to Platypus Marine in Port Angeles for some warranty paint work. All 3 cockpit doors have started to blister. Somehow water has gotten into each door, then when it got some sun on the doors, the water maybe steamed and permeated back out the paint….which caused blistering. Chris from Platypus came out and made the diagnosis. So, we need to go back, remove all 3 doors, dry out, determine and fix how the water penetrated and then apply a barrier coat and repaint …..ugh!!! We were going back to Platypus anyway to have the swim transom staples installed so we will get both jobs done at the same time….maybe a week or so of work!!

Bad news, the Selene Rendezvous at the end of April has been canceled….and worse news, Wayne and Sharon who were going to join us have had to cancel their trip as well….ugh!! But, good news, we don’t have to do our presentation so the stress, pita to develop the presentation has been delayed for a year. But, to let you know how bored I’ve gotten, I’m actually working on the presentation. First thing I did was to work with Mark to update the Selene Position Map. We started to use this position map in 2010 when Mark first developed the map, so we needed to fill in our positions from 2006 – 2010….yep, pretty tedious to reenter all those points…ugh. But, the map looks good….take a look:

https://www.seleneowners.org/SO_guest_map.php?boatid=51

I will also post a picture on our website on this post!

Bad news…..the Canadian border is closed so we can’t get to our slip in the Port Sidney Marina in British Columbia. And to further rub it in, we had to sign a one-year contract which starts April 1. So, we have the crappy honor of paying for 2 slips now…..here at Emerald Landing while we are stuck getting work done, and now the new slip in Sidney BC. We knew this was going to be the case, but it is the price one seems to have to deal with since there are so few available slips in the Seattle area….arghhhhhhh!!!

Boat stuff: I’ve mainly been doing engine room yearly maintenance….change fuel, Racor and coolant filters, cleaning air filters, changing zincs, greasing et al. But, it seems some projects are giving me fits….for instance: changing the Cummins fuel filter….absolutely would not come off….scraped every knuckle trying with all my force….after 2 hours and selling the boat 20 times, I did the punch-a-hole-screwdriver trick…only to get a full face diesel shower…I just started laughing at that point….went outside to change my clothes…like no one is in the marina so who cares:))))

I did diagnose the bow thruster failure to bad batteries. Good news, Battery Systems now has our new Northstar batteries and will deliver to Mystic. Bad news, their driver will not help me take out the old ones. Bad news again…we have been unable to find 2 strong young men to come and lift out the old ones and lift in the new batteries…each weigh 150 pounds so not something Kathy and I can do…the hunt for strong backs continues….

Good news Whatcom Electric in Bellingham has our 2 rebuilt Balmar batteries and Cummins starter. Bad news, they can not deliver to Mystic so we have to find a way to get to Bellingham…like 90nm away….so, we will most likely rent a car and go pickup….but then again, Seattle is in lockdown mode…ugh!!!

Kathy has been busy learning how to do delivery….yep and it didn’t take her too long to figure it out:)))) Total Wine, Costco and Fred Meyer’s all now have delivered successfully. It’s maybe 10% higher in cost, but hey, we didn’t have to take an Uber or mingle with the virus/masses!! Kathy has also been working on kid proofing Mystic in anticipation of Dave/Dana’s and the grandkid trip in June….what do you think the odds are that will happen now???

And finally….we are in a quandary on our African Safari in August. Natural Habitat has canceled all trips through May 15 and so far the August trips are still good. But, again, what are the odds and even if they do travel, do we want to take the risk….all stress points to be sorted over the next month or so.

The Plan: Sit and wait, hope Canvas Supply employees stay healthy and keep working on our project….and if all goes well, the end of April do the one day passage to Port Angeles for the cockpit door repair and staple installation!!!

Hope everyone stays healthy and safe!!

Project/walking/still symptom free John

Our cruising route from 2005-2019. Circumnavigated the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean

I bent the handle on this oil filter wrench putting so much force on it trying to remove the Cummin ‘s fuel filter….yikes!!!

Bradie and Stephanie making the pattern

Making a pattern for the Flybridge enclosure

View of downtown Seattle from one of our walks

View of the old Gasworks station in Lake Union

Mystic Moon is just behind the building on the left

The Space Needle on the right!

One day we had a hail storm…yep, big excitement in self isolation:)))

We were giving a toast to Casey, Jo and Dottie’s mom, age 100, who recently passed away:((

—