25 May 19

And so the 2019 season begins. To bring you back up to speed, after moving the boat to Anacortes, WA, during the winter of 2018, we spent the summer of 2018 cruising the Canadian Pacific NW as far north as Rivers Inlet; see the 2018 blog entries for details.  

We spent last night in Port Townsend, WA and caught the early morning ferry across to Whidbey Island, then drove north to Anacortes, arriving at 11:00. “c’est le bon” had already been moved (on 20 May) from the storage yard at the marina to the North Island Marine services to sort out some electrical and electronic issues that plagued us late last year. We handed over a gallon of bottom paint and then checked into the Marina Hotel to bide our time until launch day, on Tuesday, 28 May. The original plan was for us to use this next 3 days to apply the bottom paint ourselves and do a few other boat chores prior to launch, but that got changed by North Island Boat, who are also checking on the previously mentioned electronic and electrical issues that plagued us for the last couple of months of last years season: 1) the AIS transmitter was not working, although I could receive AIS signals from other boats and 2) every time we started the main engine, the chart plotter and all other electronics would shut down and re-start. North Island determined that the AIS antenna had a fault; that is being replaced. They also thought that either the house and/or engine start batteries had a bad cell or two, so they moved the boat over to their yard to facilitate removal and replacement of batteries. Further investigation confirmed that the batteries were OK, but that someone had at some time (presumably before we bought the boat) put an electrical jumper between the two switches that control the house and start batteries, so that all these batteries were paralleled all the time; this meant that every time we started the main engine, the voltage drop on the house batteries was enough to shut down all the electronics. They have removed the jumper, so hopefully that problem is behind us now. I had also already worked out that the generator start battery, which also powers the two electric jib sheet trimming winches, does not recharge unless the generator is running; i.e., it does not recharge when either the main engine is running or when we are plugged into shore power. The correction of this obvious design flaw is on the list of things to do next winter. Anyway, with “c’est le bon” in the North Island Boat yard, I cannot do the bottom job; however, they are going to do it for me for the price I would otherwise have had to spend to move it back to the DIY yard. So, it all kind of works out about even.  

It was raining when we got to Anacortes and the rain persisted for most of the day. We lounged around Starbucks for most of the mid-day, until we could check into the hotel. In the last 10 days, we drove 3060 miles, visited 4 national parks/monuments and an excellent maritime museum in Astoria. Now we are in Anacortes and ready for a rest. After we checked into the hotel, we had dinner at Anthony’s down by the Cap Sante Marina, followed by a nice walk along the docks, checking out the competition.

26 May 19

With nothing particular to do today, we slept in. We finally ambled down to town for a late breakfast at Island Cafe. After a quick stop in the Marine Hardware shop on Commercial for this year’s tide and current tables, we went for a nice long walk at the Fidalgo Point state park. On the way back to town after the walk, I stopped by North Island Boat and confirmed that they were taking advantage of today’s beautiful weather by getting the bottom coat applied. Then, it was down to the Market at Anacortes for a quick, light lunch and onto the laundromat to do a week’s worth of laundry. For dinner, we stopped into Rockfish Grill.

27 May 19

We had a late breakfast at Island Cafe, very nice. Then, we hopped in the car and, for no particular reason, drove to Mount Baker Recreational Area. It was a beautiful drive through the western Cascades. On the way back, we drove through La Conner to have a quick look. It is worth a night’s stop on our way south to Seattle if time and weather permit.