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Ryan says, "uh, the rope is loose."
Not the words you want to hear when you are launching your boat and your daughter is holding the rope so the boat doesn't float out/away! The plan had been to launch with dry or nearly dry feet, at least that is what was running through my mind as I quickly emptied the pockets in my shorts and waded in nearly up to my waist in the brisk salt water.
It turned out my knot tying skills weren't in question, but my judgment to use a rope that was several years old and had been sitting out in the sun was. The rope had broken and when I reached out and grabbed the foot of rope still tied to the bow, it broke too! Oh well, this trip had been hastily planned anyway.
I bought my speedy boat several years ago and got it running about three years ago. It has spent a lot of time with the boat mechanic, trying to get it running perfect. I got the boat back from the mechanic in the spring of 2012, but with everything going on, we never put it in the water last year at all. As this summer was winding down, it STILL hadn't been in the water and I just couldn't stand it.
As it happened, my wife had an upcoming conference to attend in downtown Seattle from August 12th-14th, so I thought this might be a good time for Ryan and I to sneak over to my Dad's place on Stretch Island and 'test' the boat.
Of course the boat wasn't ready to hit the water... The last times the boat was in the water I had a seepage problem. I found the problem was a spot worn in the keel near the bow. I certainly wanted to fix it before putting it in the water again. And although the boat was running when it came home from the mechanic's, it hadn't been run since the spring of 2012.
Fixing the fiberglass was easy enough. Wouldn't call it show quality, but it is below water line and I didn't figure it would leak. Getting the boat running was another story...
It was the Friday before our Sunday departure when I brought the boat out and hooked the hose up to it. Of course it wouldn't start. Checked the fuel pump and I wasn't getting any gas. Great. Also noticed I had a bunch of wires with bad or missing insulation under the cowling. The wires I could patch (and did), but how was I going to be able to rebuild the fuel pump on this almost 40 year old motor? What were the odds a local Mercury dealer in Yakima would have the rebuild kit I needed in stock?
Saturday morning I headed to the one dealer I was aware of. At first the answer was 'no, but we can order it for you'. Once I explained it was now or never, with the boat going back into storage if I couldn't get it out in the next few days, the guy started doing some research and did come up with the needed diaphragm. But he didn't have the right gaskets, and I figured worse case I could buy some gasket material and make my own. As it turned out, there was another Mercury dealer just a few blocks away and he had the gaskets. A quick trip home, a quick assembly, and a quick stab at the starter, and she fired. Woo Hoo! Still one minor problem... the boat wasn't registered for this year. Honestly, I've run around the Southern Puget Sound for years and have never seen any law enforcement, but I did want to play by the rules. Luckily I was able to renew it online and while I didn't have the new stickers, I had a receipt showing I had paid!
Ryan and I drove over on Sunday afternoon. We actually went over White Pass since it is a nice drive and has great views. Turned out to not be such a great idea as traffic up through Chehalis was stop and go for miles. This is a good reminder of why I don't live on the west side of Washington! After arriving at my Dad's place, I found my trailer wiring dragging on the ground and broken... I'd had no lights for awhile, and probably the whole way up through Chehalis...
We launched the boat on Monday morning. Before we came over, I had wondered how we were going to do this. The marina is about two miles from my Dad's and I didn't want to leave my truck there the entire time. Bikes! We hadn't been doing any riding, so this would give us another element to our adventure! So after the boat was in the water, I parked the truck and we drove the boat around and moored it in Vineyard Cove (private beach access where Dad's place is), then jumped on the bikes and rode back to the marina for the truck/trailer.
Ryan and I biking over to the marina to retrieve our truck/trailer.
At the marina.
Showing Ryan a map of the Southern Puget Sound and where we are.
After getting back to the beach house, we made ourselves a picnic lunch and hit the water! Destination, McMicken Island, a State Park just to the east of Harstine Island.
Upon arriving at McMicken, we circled around to the west side where I knew there was a sand bar we could beach on. The sand bar has a steep side and a not so steep side. This picture is of us on the not so steep side...
And that was a mistake! The tide was headed out and the rate was fast enough that we almost had to wait until the tide came back in to refloat it! (We did get it floating again and I moved it around to the other side!)
Once we moved the boat, I felt comfortable leaving it for awhile so we could hike the island. There are a few trails, but I was interested in the one that looped the perimeter. It was a neat little hike and could be spooky at night with the large trees, lots of exposed roots, and almost tunnel-like trails.
After the hike, we refloated the boat and cruised around Herron Island, down to Allyn, and then back to Stretch Island.
On day two we packed another picnic lunch and hit the water, destination Jarrell Cove State Park.
Harstine Island is on the left and the mainland is on the right.
Stretch Island is straight back behind us.
Since it was well before lunch time, we decided to burn some gas by heading down to the Harstine Island Bridge... once there we decided to keep going and turn around by Hammersley Inlet... and then decided to go a bit farther and circle Hope Island.
This is one of two public docks at Jarrell's Cove State Park.
Before lunch, we hiked the trails in the Park, and then sat in the boat and ate. (Note the two cabin cruisers tied up at the dock. The state charges moorage fees for people that want to camp at the dock or use the bouys provided.)
Ryan wants to take the boat and go row.
Dad wants to know how fast it would go with our 85hp Merc on it!
This is Jarrell's Cove Marina across from the State Park.
Once we left Jarrell's Cove, we ran at full throttle back past Stretch, and planned to circle Treasure Island before heading to the house... but when the engine started to stumble, I knew we needed a change of plan... and we cut under the Stretch Island Bridge (which was getting a bit iffy as the tide was headed out) and back to the cove. (The stumble was a nearly empty 6-gal tank... and the other 6-gal was nearly empty from yesterday and I planned to use it to get the boat to the boat launch.)
We reversed the previous day's plan... drove truck/trailer/bikes to marina, biked back, boated to marina, loaded and came back... and still had a bit of time before we headed off to see Despicable Me 2!
We had a great trip, with fantastic weather, and even spotted some cool sea life: One harbor porpoise, one harbor seal, and one orca whale!
(The negative note is the boat STILL isn't running right. Can't go to full throttle from a stop without tapping the choke. Arghh!)
