Just got back from San Juan islands!!

[dive4it]

Well, let me just say....it was Awesome!! We Launched out of Squalicom Harbor in Bellingham Wa. (seven hour drive for me from Oregon). Rounding out of the harbor, I sent up the cloth and had a great time in 15 kt. winds on a pretty high reach. We had another sailboat traveling with us (San Juan 24) and I really noticed their ability to reach closer into the wind....they left us behind. We sailed for a couple of hours until we got into the lee of Guemes island, dropped sails (furled the head sail and dropped the main) and motored to Pelican bay looking for an empty mooring ball....no luck. So we found safe anchorage in Eagle bay on Cypress island amongst the dozen or so other boats. A nice evening spent on the hook, inflated the dinghy and went for a ten mile hike on the island. Pretty cool seeing the old cabins from the original homesteaders and the eagles soaring on the cliff sides. Next morning we pulled the hook and headed for Friday Harbor via Obstruction Pass. Our friends tried their hand at trolling for salmon but he was new to the game and only caught two starfish and a rock (think his diver was a little too effective?). We arrived around noon to Friday and our reserved slips were still occupied so we found an empty private mooring ball outside the marina and clipped on for a bit to feed my crew (of 1 that eats like a horse). The radio call came in and our slip became available....motoring slowly through a slew of boats, we arrived and tied up for the stay. The cheeseburgers were great at the open grill on shore and we spent the afternoon browsing around town and getting supplies. Next morning, off to Roche Harbor. We ended up sailing most of the way, experiencing 15 kt. winds as we rounded the North end of San Juan....we were having so much fun, we sailed right past Pearl island, then Battleship island before I realized we went way too far. No problem, we just turned around and headed into the harbor....What a beautiful place!! We were met at the slip by three nicely uniformed young guys and gals that happily caught our lines and tied up off. If you've never been to Roche, it's worth the stop....we got such a good feeling from all the friendly people. I looked at my buddy and mentioned that this was probably a nice neighborhood until us "Klampets" moved in. We were nestled amongst 6 million dollar yachts everywhere....not that it mattered as everyone was so nice. We decided to do some exploring around town and checked out multiple lots for sale overlooking the harbor. A nice dinner at the grill and a few drinks dockside lended to a good night's sleep.

[u12fly]

Sounds like a great time, wish we could have tagged along... dag gone "work" always getting in the way of play time. We are heading out to the lake for this weekend - weatherman says it will be in the 90's, winds forcast to be light.so plan on a little kick back time and swimming.

[dive4it]

The next morning we started off for British Columbia, planning on sailing/motoring down the West edge of San Juan island in hope to catch a few sightings of the orca pods feeding in the area. After picking our way through Henry island and Hanbury point, we poked into Haro Straight to find the water surface was absolute glass, as far as you could see not a single ripple. Of course no ripple meant no wind so we just motored along at 6kt's or so and enjoyed the ride. We decided to make a diagonal B line across the straight down to Cadboro point and into the Baynes channel. Along the way we were joined by multiple pods of porpoises but no sign of the killer whales. Picking our course around the chain islands, we entered into the Straights of Juan De fu@ and got a trickle of the sea's winds. Not enough to make much time by sail so we just continued to motor around the light house on Trial island, snapped some photos and prepared for the shipping lanes into Victoria Harbor. Entering the outer Harbor, with our friends ahead of us, we got to enjoy all the float planes on aproach, buzzing directly overhead and landing in the bay. At one point, a large motor yacht came along our side, pulled right in front of us (like 20 feet) and literally stopped!! About 25, well, Japanese tourists I assume, were on the stern deck....each one with camera in hand snapping pictures of us, flashes going off like mad. I really had to take some evasive turns and kill, then rev the thottle to avoid hitting them. I thought it pretty odd at the time, just as we got out of collision danger, the harbor police came squirting out of some hiding spot and busted the yacht. As we passed by you could see the skipper waving his arms and the police, obviously angry, demanded him to shut off the engine and prepare to be boarded. We didn't stick around to see what happened but I'm sure it was because of his idiotic menouver. Entering into middle, then inner harbor, we idled to the customs dock to clear. More in a minute.

[dive4it]

Sounds like a great time, wish we could have tagged along... dag gone "work" always getting in the way of play time. We are heading out to the lake for this weekend - weatherman says it will be in the 90's, winds forcast to be light.so plan on a little kick back time and swimming.

I hear you C. I've got to work on Saturday this weekend and looks like I'm stuck at the Dropzone on Sunday with a pile of tandem students to take up on their first skydives.

JT

[dive4it]

Customs is a funny thing in Victoria harbor, we pull up to a dock and there is a lone telephone on the fenced dock. You pick up the phone and just sit there and wait until someone picks up on the other end. When they do, they ask all the usual questions and what not, vegetable, firearms, etc. There we two customs officers inspecting a medium sized power yacht when we got there. Our friends cleared even though they admitted to bringing a cooler full of vegies and apples....no problem. As soon as I gave them my name and passport, they told me to stand by....I overheard some squack on the officer's radio and next thing I know the guy on the phone told me not to move and to hand the phone to the uniform. They spoke for a minute or two and the two officers looked at me and said "do you have anything on board that we need to know about?" I'm not sure what triggered it, maybe that I was banned from Canada a few years ago but that's been timed out by now....maybe they saw that I had multiple concealed weapons permits (for multiple states), who knows but both female officers gloved up and gave the boat a very in depth search. It felt like they were really looking for something in peticular but to no avail. They gave us our entry number and we were off to the docks. Now, Victoria is a beautiful place as you all know, but we had the best slips in the harbor. The Busker's festival was going on last week, look it up on the net....hundreds of street performers come from all over the world to do their juggling, acrobatics, comedy, etc. Our view gave us front row seats to three stages and the giant ivy covered Empress Hotel. It was amazing, not to mention all the fine dining that we enjoyed during our three days and two night's stay. The admiral came in by ferry on the second evening of Victoria to join us for the rest of the trip....it was nice to have her aboard. Another wonderful dinner in town and off to sleep.

[dive4it]

Day 6: Left Victoria mid morning with plans to head East to Cattle pass and either into Mackaye Harbor or Fishermen's Bay on Lopez....stupid move....just realized we have to clear customs coming back into the U.S. Good thing I remembered before heading that direction. Looks like it's back to Roche Harbor for us. It's ok, I really wanted the Admiral to experience Roche anyway. Be aware!! Tips for clearing customs When arriving at the customs dock....only the skipper may get off the boat until all crew is cleared!! I took all three of our passports into the office along with our boat registration and our Canada customs clearance number. The three officers were stone cold and had no sense of humor at all. Our friends docked and the skipper got off with pasports....his admiral hopped off the boat to tie the stern line and one of the officers flipped out!! He ran out of the office and started yelling at her to get back on the boat....Now!! It got them an automatic vessel search and a $5,000 fine!! After some sweet talking, the officer reduced it to a warning but flagged his passport, saying that a second infraction like that will be a mandatory $10,000 fine, no get out of jail free cards. So, lesson learned....keep all crew on board until you've cleared everyone through customs.
We had a wonderful time at Roche with the winning attitudes of all the staff and lunch at the grill on the Harbor. Dinner was at the fancy resturant hotel with the legendary "Fuzzy Duck" mixed drinks. I'm glad I installed the drop down flat screen DVD player since we've watched numerous movies in the evenings at this point.

[dive4it]

Day 7:
We left Roche fairly late in the morning 9:30am....This time we cut the corner on the East side of Pearl island since it was high tide with no threat of grounding in the shallows. Our plan was to head toward Sucia and see how we felt about going further when we got there. The seas were angry today with 4 foot rollers and 3 foot chop. I unfurled the genoa only (as I did the day before with following winds) and clipped along at a steady 5.5 knots for most of the trip. Did I mention how much I love the furling system? It makes things so dang easy. I'm thinking either lazy jacks or furling main next. It was so frustrating to watch our friends on the other boat constantly hanking on between their genoa and storm jib....no topping lift main, etc. The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed....if not for the courage of the fearless....ok, it started getting a little nasty as we passed the protection of Sucia islands many harbors. Our friends were healing to 45 plus degrees, dipping his sail more than once....at one point he pinepoled to a 360 degree turn. I thought he was showing off until I saw them both reach down and put on their PFD's....through binnoculers, I saw their eyes as big as saucers. A few minutes later, it happened again!! This time he dropped sails and motored the rest of the way. Since we had such a long drive to get home, I wanted to stay closer to Bellingham so we could get an early jump on the day....we settled on Clark islands East cove....not the best idea in the world but turned out ok. We found two mooring balls in the cove and each took one. Dinner was cooked on board and we had a nice feast. The rollers continued the entire night, as we were swinging like crazy, they would hit us broadside every thirty seconds or so and rock the hull out of us....all freekin' night long. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep.

[dive4it]

Day 8: Early morning for us. I let the crew sleep as I untied from the ball and quietly motored over to our friends. His head poked out of the hatch with a thumbs up, indicating that they were ready to go as well. We had a nice combination of motoring and sailing back into Bellingham bay, weather was on our side today. After an uneventful trailering and draining of the ballast, we de-rigged the mast and I gave it four increasingly aggressive MacBumps. The boat didn't budge on the trailer on bit. I even dipped it back in the water to try and coax it closer to the stops....that made it worse and was now a good 5 inches from it's perch. I threw some luggage in the forward berth to get a little tongue weight, the drive up proved to be a handful with fishtailing boat down every hill. I had to really plan my spacing as I had to literally accelerate out of each swaying event. It got exhausting on the way up, never able to rest for a moment in fear that it would be all over the place (especially because we arrived at Bellingham at 1:30 in the morning to start the trip). The drive home wasn't quite as bad, still a little swaying. I lend the ineffectivness of the Macbump to my bottom paint. I tried dish soap and everything. I'm going to re-fabricate my entire winch system and put it on top as seen in the mods section. All in all....What an awesome cruise!! I'm heading back in 8 days to do it all over again, only with different stops and different crew.

JT

[fouz]

I know most do the Mac bump but I didn't have any luck with it.

We do the Mac shake. Works good so far. Takes a few extra seconds.

Load boat.
Pull up the ramp 1 or 2 feet. ( boat slides back 1 or 2 inches)
Tighten up the winch while shaking the crap out of the boat.
Repeat about 4 times.
Done.

Glad you had a nice trip.

[u12fly]

Day 8: .... the drive up proved to be a handful with fishtailing boat down every hill...

Yes that is exhausting as it makes one nervous and on edge esspecially driving at night. I've only had the trailer take-off on a fishtail once, I determined that the boat was too aft loaded, I had my fresh water tank 35 Gal+ full. Now I don't trailer with more then 20 Gal and I have re-aranged things so I have heavy items like the spare anchor etc. up in the bow.

... I'm heading back in 8 days to do it all over again, only with different stops and different crew.

JT

I guess the fear of being chased by the sea police, arreseted by boarder patrol, knocked off the boat in heavy sea, and getting swong off the road by a rampent trailer has forced the old crew into some reservations of re-enlisting

Chris.

[dive4it]

I guess the fear of being chased by the sea police, arreseted by boarder patrol, knocked off the boat in heavy sea, and getting swong off the road by a rampent trailer has forced the old crew into some reservations of re-enlisting

Chris.[/quote]

Oh, I'm sure they'd go again if asked. This new crew had been planning this for months with me and couldn't make it on the last trip due to new jobs. They are all kinds of excited to go on this next run. Maybe I'll post why I was banned from Canada for two years....but on another thread.

JT

[dive4it]

I know most do the Mac bump but I didn't have any luck with it.

We do the Mac shake. Works good so far. Takes a few extra seconds.

Load boat.
Pull up the ramp 1 or 2 feet. ( boat slides back 1 or 2 inches)
Tighten up the winch while shaking the crap out of the boat.
Repeat about 4 times.
Done.

Glad you had a nice trip.

I'll give the MacWiggle a try....wiggle wiggle wiggle, just like the badger commercials. Anything is better than the boat doing the wiggle down the freeway.

JT

[u12fly]

Yup, getting the boat farther up the trailer on the trailer really helps with the CG. Have you tried liquid rollers :

I plan on converting my front V bunk to an actual roller, that is were most of the issue seems to be when pulling my out of the water... but that needs to be a winter project.

[Scottie]

I rubbed a bar of soap on the bunks in the parking lot last time just before I retrieved the boat and it seemed to work well. Might keep the bunks clean too.

[dive4it]

I rubbed a bar of soap on the bunks in the parking lot last time just before I retrieved the boat and it seemed to work well. Might keep the bunks clean too.

I'm willing to try just about anything. Maybe the bar soap would stay on the bunks a little longer too.

JT