Blue Bossa's Interior

12/23/10

I'm always amazed how quickly one can go from one environment to another: in just a day's driving, I have gone from a sometime rolly floating sailboat anchored amongst green islands with beautiful tree-filled scenery to a house next to a high desert mountain range, built only a few yards from a dramatic white-water river.  Another days drive and I will be in a coastal town right next to open ocean with big ocean swell, crashing waves dotted with surfers.  And, gee, in another days drive, I will go to an overly large, crowded, ugly and polluted city.

Yes, I'm taking a few weeks off to spend Christmas in Bend, Oregon; then down to Santa Cruz to play New Year's music with friends; then down to "Smell-A" to take care of business crucial to my staying retired.  It's nice to take a break from the boat every now and then; but, like anyone's home, it's nice to get back too.  But, what with the crummy weather that Washington has had, if I'm going to do any visiting and traveling on land, this is the time to do it.  I won't be able to do that when a) I sell the car, and b) I start heading Blue Bossa to Alaska, which I'm planning on doing in March.

Blue Bossa has definitely started feeling like home.  A couple of friends have wanted to see what type of environment I'm living in.  Well if you want to really see what it's like, come on up when I start heading up to Alaska - I'm always open to have some company, especially in an adventurous outing!

Anyway, this blog is just to show you all what the interior looks like after it's been lived into for awhile, especially from someone who (ahem) is not the neatest person around.

Port main cabin

Starboard main cabin w/piano

First off, walking thru the twin sliding doors (now one door with a canvas second door in front to help keep out the cold) is the big pilot house, or main cabin.  Port side (left) is a bench which can double as a single bunk.
On the starboard side (right) is the other bench which can also be a bunk.  This is the side where I put my piano on the table to practice, as it's out of the way of traffic.

Galley, during the night w/o a flash

Forward of the port side is the galley.  You have to step down to get to it, but the same ceiling for the main cabin is also shared with the galley, so you get a strong sense of being out in the open while in the galley, and can socialize with people in the main cabin.  It's not the biggest galley in the world, but it holds everything that I need. It has a big size refrigerator, along with a huge "freezer".  It also has a really old microwave oven that I hope holds together for awhile. 

Pilot house

Forward of the starboard side is the "pilot house", where one can steer, navigate and sit and watch while the boat is on its way.  It has a little foldaway bench where you can sit.  It's got a great view of what's ahead, better than when you're driving in the cockpit, but, obviously not as nice in good weather.

Going forward, the cabin ceiling drops down dramatically and the boat turns more into what most people are used to in sailboats, closed-in and darker.  Not something for claustrophobic tendencies.

Head & shower

Head w/sink

Port side is the bathroom (head), which includes the head (toilet), shower (you sit on the head to take the shower - something that I haven't used yet just because it gets everything around it wet), lots of storage space, and a faucet and basin.  My only regret with this boat is that the bathroom isn't bigger, with a completely separate shower.  Oh well, you can only do so much on a 40' sailboat.

Study

Starboard side is a study, which is completely open, with no door to close off.  It's got a bench which can slide out to accommodate a sleeper, preferably not taller than 5' and change.  I use it to store files and library and where my stereo resides.  I use my computer and sometimes read if I want to be cozy and more private.  It has a tendency to get cluttered, which you will notice with the picture which tends to chase me to the main cabin to read.  I obviously need to change my habits.

forward cabin - small but comfortable

storage locker under bunk

Forward of the head and study is the forward cabin, where I sleep.  The modified queen-size bed has a big thick cushion and I have made it even thicker with a thick pad of "temperpedic"(sp?) foam, which helps my old bones and sore muscles.  Under the bunk is a huge storage area, where I put stuff that I don't want to get wet, such as my piano, guitar, amp, as well as bulky stuff like sails and boat covers.  The forward cabin also has an LCD TV/DVD player facing forward where I can watch from the bed.  Not something that you'd want to use with a lot of people (unless you all are REALLY close friends).  But this boat was never designed to be a social platform and if I wanted to show movies in the main cabin, I'd use the computer.

Anyway, that's my home, and, as I've mentioned, I'm getting used to it.  Hopefully it will become a more emotional connection once I start having some adventures with it.

More blogs later after vacation!

Stuart Island

Stuart Island w/Reid Harbor and Provost Harbor

Reid Harbor - Blue Bossa is that spec next to the trees

 12/10/10
To time the currents right, I had to leave early at 8am to get a faster ride to Stuart Island.  I figured that I would spend the night at Reide Harbor and get an early start to Sydney, BC. 

It was a windless passage to Stuart Island weaving through what looked like inaccessible islands north of San Juan Island. Going by Spieden Island, in between Rouche Harbor which is north of San Juan Island, and Stuart Island, it looked like all cliffs along the sides, yet I saw a few cars there.  I wonder how they get them on there….no sign of docks or piers.

Stuart Island is the most northwest of the San Juan Islands, and probably the most isolated.  Apparently there are 40 people who live on the island, but when I was at Reid Harbor, the only people I saw was a crabber pulling up pots.

Testing out my waterproof camera - I need a float for it!

Reide Harbor Park - lots of picnic tables

When I started to anchor, my chain jammed in the anchor locker, forcing me to use the other anchor, which uses a small length of chain and lots of line.  I’ve never had chain pyramiding and then collapsing on itself, causing it to clump, but it sure did it this time.  On Compadre, my parents boat, there was usually a person assigned to flake the chain while the anchor was being pulled up, so that this problem wouldn’t happen.  But for a single-handed person, I would have to pull it up while washing it (smelly mud in the chain locker is no fun), then drop down to flake the chain, then go back up and repeat the process.  Sounds like a future project to figure out how to solve this problem.

I meant to explore Reid Harbor, the south side of Stuart Island, by kayak, so I launched the kayak, and paddled around, not discovering any beaches or rocky shelf to land the kayak.  But there was a nice dock with picnic tables, however it was about 3 feet high, too high for me to get off the kayak, so I paddled back to the Blue Bossa, launched the dinghy, and motored back to the dock to walk around. 

Reid Harbor pier and dock

The island is typical of the northwest, being heavily forested and hard to see around because of all the trees.  I did find a clear spot on top of a hill and took some pictures of the bay.  The dock is situated on a somewhat narrow, but steep isthmus where it is easy to walk over to Prevost Harbor, a beautiful little bay north side of the island where I would like to take another trip– very interesting.  There are also some county roads that I would like to explore, but time didn’t allow me to do it this time.  Stuart Island is very beautiful and I will have to get back to explore it some more when there is a good weather window, which seems few and far between this year.

As the weather forecast was looking pessimistic, I decided not to spend the night at Stuart but to head on over to Sydney.  At the Port of Sydney, I found the customs dock, tied up, and called customs; they just got all of the information and that was that.  The marina assigned me to a really long slip next to a bunch of mega yachts, making me feel like a 2-bedroom single level house nestled in between huge mansions.   

The Port of Sydney is very ordinary; it felt like I was at a high-priced motel with not much amenities but with super modern construction.  I guess the only reason that I would visit this place again would be to enter thru customs in Canada before going north.  Unfortunately, because the weather got crappy with lots of rain and wind, I had to stay there for two nights before zipping back to Friday Harbor. 

As it turns out, I was mislead in thinking that there was a shop in Sydney selling used charts.  Oh well...

Park Bay, Shaw Island and West Sound, Orcas Island

12/8/10

Park Bay "serenity Now!"

Looking out from Park Bay

This last weekend, I decided I needed a break from Friday Harbor.  I zipped across the San Juan channel to Park Bay, which is on the western side of Shaw Island.  It is a scenically beautiful bay, usually very quiet.  I think it’s mostly quiet because the land around it is owned by the Washington Biological Preserve; ie: no trespassing.  That’s kind of a drag as the landscape invites one to go ashore and walk around.  Despite that, the quiet is a nice respite from the relative noise of Friday Harbor, it’s only 3 miles away, and it’s well protected except from winds from the north.  I spent a very quiet day and night doing a lot of reading and fiddling around with the boat.

For those who have never been boat owners, fiddling around a boat is doing whatever to make the boat run better, or make it more comfortable.  In my case, I decided to learn new navigational software that I had just installed on my Mac.  Only until a couple of years ago, if you wanted to do navigation on your computer, you had to own a PC.  Now, with MacENC software and it’s ability to read Navionics charts, I now have all the capabilities of navigation all the way to Glacier Bay in Alaska. 

Not to say that I’m going to totally rely on that – I will also need to pick up paper charts too.  That can get really expensive, and, in fact, Canada stipulates that you need paper charts all the way up the inland passageway, which is at least 30 charts; at $20 a pop equals $600.  But I heard that there’s a book store in Sydney, on Vancouver Island, that has used charts that sell for considerably less, so I am planning next week to journey to Sydney for a couple of days, stopping by hopefully this weekend at Stuart Island, which looks very promising for exploration.  Hope I can find a good weather window.

Pole Pass

Anyway, getting back to my previous outing, I left Shaw Island the next morning and weaved my way around the Wasp Islands, poked my way up to Deer Harbor to look around, then headed southeast to go through Pole Pass.  This was not planned. I had not looked at any tide charts. But my timing was lucky.  There were no strong currents. so this notable "problem pass" was crossed without any problems.  

 After that, I headed east until I got to West Sound, and headed up, meaning to go to West Sound Village.  The hills behind West Sound Village dip down a bit which allowed a strong and cold NE wind to pipe through.  There didn’t seem to be any anchorages around there and I didn’t want to tie up to the docks, so I went NW, further up the sound, going by "Victim Island", working my way up into "Massacre Bay", and anchoring next to  “Skull Island”. Apparently there had been bloody Indian encounters on Orcas Island, way in the past, with Northern Indian tribes raiding the Lummis Indian Tribe in West Sound.  

Wasp Passage

I spent a couple of hours there exploring in the kayak.  Maybe I was psyched out with it's grisly history, but I decided I didn’t like the anchorage very well and headed back to Friday Harbor.  During that trip, I got to experience another “problem pass” by navigating through the Wasp passage before heading south to Friday Harbor.

I have to correct a mistake on my last blog.  The island that sits across Friday Harbor is Brown Island, not Bear Island.  Oh boy!  What was I smoking?  No wonder I didn’t see any bears!

Kayak!

12/3/10

I just got a kayak. It’s a sit-on-top, 13’ long, relatively skinny, but stable enough for my bulky bod.  I ordered it with a rudder kit installed, which makes a big difference in paddling; no double strokes on one side to keep on a straight line…just adjust by feet and “stay the course” (as Bush Sr. used to say). It has a really comfy seat with a tall back to help support my back on long paddles.

I had sample kayak racks that I absconded from my old job at West Marine and it’s being used to hold the kayak in place, outside of the stanchions towards the stern.  If I decide to go offshore, I would probably have to tie the kayak forward of the shrouds on the deck, but, for now, this configuration gets the kayak out of the way and it’s easier to get it on and off. 

I went for a paddle with it yesterday around the harbor and to Bear Island, a small island with cute houses along the rocks facing the town of Friday Harbor.  I didn’t see any bears, but there were cute houses, along with a cute seal that was playing around nearby.  The weather has warmed up to a fairly tropical high of 44 degrees, with low in the middle to lower 30’s.  With these temperatures in mind, along with future paddles up in Alaska way, I decided to get a dry suit (not the divers kind, which costs thousands of dollars, but a kayak drysuit).  Like wetsuits, it’s hard to get off, but hopefully I’ll get used to it.

Bear island

What I especially like about having a kayak, as well as my stand-up paddleboard, is that it will make going to a beach from the boat very easy.  I have a great inflatable dinghy with an aluminum hull and a 10 hp engine.  It really gets up and goes.  The problem is, as a single-handed sailor, it makes landing on beaches hard, especially with the large tides, as the boat weighs more than I can handle, without gouging the bottom. It’s almost impossible landing on rocky shores. Using a kayak is 1) easier on the ecology, 2) lighter to bring up the beach, 3) and is almost indestructible with it’s polyethylene skin.  Plus, it’s good exercise to paddle back and forth.

 

I finally got my “outside door” completed and installed today.  This is to combat against subfreezing temperatures and wind that I experienced a couple of weeks ago.  The canvas guy here was very clever in designing it.  Hopefully this will work when the next one comes storming along (which everyone says will happen soon).  I wonder if this is the first NE400 that’s had this done.

Not a Boston Whaler, but check out the camo outfits - real Fish hunters!

Today is the start of a salmon derby, similar to the one that happens at Santa Cruz (if the salmon season would actually open there).  The difference is that the Washington State season starts much earlier.  There are about 60 boats that have come into the harbor with lots of guys dressed up in camouflage jackets, really expensive 20-40’ powerboats with lots of downriggers (contraptions that allow the trolling lure to go really deep, where the salmon are). There was even a 35’ Boston Whaler with a trio of 250hp engines on the back and LED underwater lights to make it look jazzy at night.  It had to be at least a $400K boat.  I like Dave Ungerecht's (my old boss from West Marine) idea of fishing on nothing fancier than a kayak.

This weekend promises to be busy, so I think I’m going to leave tonight and cross the channel to anchor at Park Cove, a quiet place with lots of places to paddle.  A great place to read, listen to music and cook up some sort of soup.

Snow and Wind = low windchill factor

Snowy boat...

11/22/10

25.1 °F Blowing Snow

Windchill:	10 °F
Humidity:	69%
Wind:	22.0 mph from the NE
Wind Gust:	30.0 mph
Pressure:	29.65 in (Rising)
Visibility:	2.5 miles
Clouds:	Overcast 4900 ft (Above Ground Level)

Snowy docks...

Wintertime is here in spades.  It snowed heavily today, and now it’s stopped, but the NE winds are blowing 20-35 knots. Just now, I went outside in semi-dark (5pm) to take the bimini top off before it would destroy itself.  I was shocked to realize how cold and useless my fingers became in that wind!  I had to do the job in 2 trips, warming up my hands in between.  It’s serious enough that now I need to get a canvas maker to make a secondary inside canvas door to slow down the cold that’s coming thru the door…my little Espar heater is going has fast as it can, burning up diesel, but it’s still cold in here.  I’ve hung a comforter clamped on either side of the door inside the cabin and that’s helping, plus now I’ve added an electric heater to help out, so my fingers can hit this keyboard (at least semi-accurately).  I don’t even want to know what my electric bill will be this month.

Snowy port...

If it weren’t so darn cold, it would be kind of fun.  When I walked to the gym today, there were a few people walking on the street with smiles on their faces.  Everyone had to walk carefully, doing the icy sidewalk shuffle (at least that’s what I call it). Not many cars on the road, and the ones that were there were going really slow. I stayed at the gym for a good 3 hours, part of that enjoying their hot tub.  What luxury on a day like this!

and Snowy town

 I did my first Yoga class in a really long time…it was HARD.  Even though there is no jumping around, I was huffing and puffing!  I’ve found out that my balance is not very good, standing on one leg with my arms spinning around like a badly misaligned windmill and hopping around on one leg trying to stay up without using my other leg.  If I keep at it (3xs a week) hopefully my balance will improve.

Fisherman’s Bay

 11/10/10

Blue Bossa in Fisherman's Bay

About 3 weeks ago, I was motoring from Park’s Bay on Shaw Island to Fisherman’s Bay on Lopez Island.  I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the tides, except checking to make sure that the current was going with me. I had a really hard time figuring out where the entrance was, as it is kind of hidden; plus it was really low tide, so I couldn’t help but notice that I was starting to play around in 5-7 feet of depth and could see the bottom really clearly.  My boat draws 4.8 feet, so, after taking a hard look at the entrance, I backed out and went on to Friday Harbor (had to go back because I got a call that I had a gig that night)…but I promised myself to visit Fisherman’s as soon as possible.

Last week, the tides were nice and high, so I sailed (a bit of NW wind) to the entrance, rolled up the sails, and proceeded to motor in.  The channel was well marked, but twisted around until it opened up to a very quiet and really enclosed bay.  There were a couple of nice marinas, but I opted to anchor out.  I had to do a lot of searching amongst all of the buoys to find a clear spot to put my anchor. 

Marinas and Yacht Storage - Lopez Village to the Left

One of the problems that I’m seeing is that the San Juan Islands have a lot of buoys in the popular coves, probably for summer traffic.  During the wintertime, they keep them out, but I don’t trust them and would rather rely on my anchor.  The problem is, there’s not a lot of room to do that.

Anyway, I anchored and sat back to enjoy the quiet splendor of the bay.  It was relatively active around the marina…there were men pulling out boats for winter storage with a small lift.  I launched my dinghy to go to the dock to hike around, eventually ending up at Lopez Village, which was a quaint town about a half a mile from the docks.  It is much more spread out than Friday Harbor, with little shops and some restaurants, and a BIG supermarket (bigger than Friday Harbor).  I should, next time, dock at one of the marinas, and pull out my fold-able bike as the roads there are nice and flat for cycling.

Westside isthmus

Separating the west side of the bay to the San Juan channel is a narrow sandy isthmus that opens up to a larger peninsula forming the other side of Fisherman’s Bay entrance and where there are some beautiful houses.  The low terrain allowed some really nice sunsets.

Before I took the dinghy back to BB (Blue Bossa), I stopped at a docked fishing boat selling fish.  I purchased a nice big fillet of salmon, cooked all of it, but only ate about a third.  The other 2/3rds I decided to make a salmon stew for the next couple of days.  Chopping up a ton of vegetables along with a quart of Trader Joe’s pepper and tomato soup, beans, some herbs etc., I enjoyed another two dinner’s worth of yummy stew.  I love that stuff for winter times.  Perhaps, in my solitary wanderings,  I may become a better cook.

Life in Friday Harbor

11/20/10

A cold day in Friday Harbor, winds from the NE blowing 20+ in gusts.  Sitting in Blue Bossa, warm because I have the heater on, boat rocking around a bit because the harbor is not at it’s best with a NE wind, wind chop coming around the point and working under the floating breakwater. A lot of liveaboards, including myself, have put at least a couple of more lines out on the various fingers of the dock to keep their homes from hitting the sides of the docks hard.  It snowed last night, but the snow melted as soon as it hit the dock and boat.  Walking around town today, I had two coats on, a warm long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, long underwear, and pants, as well as thick socks, tundra hat, and gloves.  I must have looked like the fat version of the gingerbread man walking down the street.

Where does one start with a blog?  I guess my goal with this is sort of a travelogue with comments.  For the next few months, I will be based in Friday Harbor and only going out in good weather to various places in the San Juan Islands or to Canada.  But my little outings will be good to a) get away from Friday Harbor, b) learn more about Blue Bossa, c) learn more about the tides and currents and weather phenomenon in the Northwest, d) relearn the finer aspects of cruising on a boat, and finally e) enjoy the San Juans at its most uncrowded.

Friday Harbor is a self-contained little town.  Incredibly busy during the summer with crowds coming over on the ferries, seaplanes and a huge influx of yachts filling the harbor and overflowing into outside anchorages, it is quiet and peaceful during the winter season, much more to my liking.  It has all that one would need within walking distance, including a post office, pharmacy, a couple of markets, a gym, big Ace hardware store, a theater, tons of nicki-nack stores, a couple of video rental places – there’s even a small West Marine store, which I frequent a lot for small odds and ends.  Lots of restaurants of varying quality, one restaurant in particular, the Rumor Mill, sponsors a lot of different musicians either local or from outside.  I’ve even played there (more about that later).

I opted to keep my car with me for right now.  It’s handy to wander around the interior of San Juan Island (lots of parks and hiking areas), or go to the mainland to pick up big stuff that I need.  I’m also keeping it to drive down to my brother Rick’s family in Bend for Christmas.  It’s hard to get rid of wheels when you’ve lived so long with them.  I just need to gird my loins and join my nephew and niece who don’t have cars and are able to exist just fine without the expense of owning one.  But I have the ultimate “escape vehicle” (Blue Bossa), so I’ll probably need to sell it come February, before I go north by boat.

I’ve been able to play music with some of the musicians here, which has been fun.  As soon as I got settled in here, I subbed for a piano player and played at the Rumor Mill with the San Juan Jazz Quintet.  Everybody was super nice, and I made some connections.  I’ve subbed for a couple of other times, and I have 3 gigs coming up, 2 for November and 1 in December.  I would like to play more, but there isn’t a lot of stuff going on in Friday Harbor during the winter.  Such is life.

I joined up the gym for the next 3 months to see if I can gain a bit of muscle tone and lots of weight loss.  So far I’ve been doing a lot of swimming (they have a nice Olympic size indoor pool that’s warm) and some weight lifting.  I’m hoping to join a yoga class.  I would like to get in shape for a surf trip that my brother Bill and some friends have been cooking up…hopefully a trip out to Nicaragua or El Salvador during early June.  At 61, I’m feeling my age, and my surfing has dwindled down to nothing.  Now I appreciate old farts in their 70’s going out at Cowells and standing up on their surfboard.  So...loose weight and gain muscle.  Easier said than done.

The weather has been varying.  November is definitely winter time, and so far, I’ve seen the appropriate amount of bad weather, usually just rain, but occasionally a good whopper of windy conditions will come up.  So far I’ve seen a strong southerly come thru with driving rain, a really windy westerly, and finally today a strong NE wind, with sub freezing temperatures.  It’s so different here, as I am surrounded by islands whereas Santa Cruz, with the view from our old house on Princeton Street, would see wild and whooly storms with the full onslaught of the open Pacific Ocean, with its huge swells busting against West Cliff Drive, briny foam whipping down the street.  Much more dramatic.  Maybe I should spend a winter on Western Vancouver and really see the action.