Not Such A Long Trip

On Friday August 5, we left the dock for a week cruising in the San Juans. Soon we found out the depth sounder did not work, so our new electronics were not doing well. We motored out to Red 2 and decided we could go to Coronet Bay and stay there for the night. We were desperate to get out on the boat! After 30 minutes, the depth sounder switched on. We discussed it, coming up with lots of reasons why it wouldn't work. Motored half way to Coronet Bay, and Jim couldn't get the AIS to work properly. We don't have big tankers on this side of the island, but he would keep messing with it. The depth sounder went off. We think that was because Jim pushed the reset button. Tied up to the float at Coronet Bay with two big sailboats and a tug. I settled into the cockpit with a book, loving it. We figured we would see if the thing worked the next day and then plan to go out under the bridge. That afternoon we watched two big power boats on the other float set up their crab cooking pots with outside cooking rings w/ propane tanks. They really had it down to a science, and they were catching the crabs right off the float!! Saturday morning we turned on the motor and electronics and no luck. We decided we had started the electronics before the motor and the surge in power caused things to reboot, so we waited till the afternoon. Then when we ran the engine, we discovered we had lots of eel grass clogging up the strainer. Picked and blew that out OK. Had another good night at the float. On Sunday morning, we started things up and WOW!@ the depth sounder came right on. I was spooked by then, so we motored back to Penn Cove to be on the hook for a night. It was fun watching the Cutty Sark go in and out and other boats anchoring around us. The next morning we were going south, but again the depth sounder didn't work, so we gave up and went home. We cut our trip short by three days, but we need to get this fixed for our next trip on Aug 23 when we plan to go south with the WINSA group. This is boring, but that's what happens when things don't work on a boat. The good thing is I still liked it! And, I stayed on my diet the whole time. Also, we bought a new dinghy with an aluminum bottom and getting in and out from the boat was easy. All good things. Yesterday I noticed we took the boat to Anacortes on April 25, my birthday, and we got it back on Jul 21. That's the summer, folks!! The Whidbey Wagners

Finally Going To Sea

Well, a long time has lapsed since our last trip out on the Karen Marie. In May we had the boat hauled out to paint the bottom and many, many problems later, we finally had her back in the water on July 21. The keel had been damaged ( we think it was before we bought the boat) and then further irritated by Jim's slip into the mud at the Swinomish Channel. The keel was hanging and damaged on the leading edge. This meant the mast was removed, keel was removed, repairs were done to the bottom, keel and reattachment. We also had a new chart plotter added, causing more problems. Anyway, we finally have the boat back and we are going out for a week, leaving tomorrow. More later as we travel about, including photos. Jim and Virginia