Desolation Sound 2022 | Finally on our way!

It’s been an interesting week or so. I’ll summarize our activities since my last post…and then I’ll get to the interesting part.

Summary Sept. 6 - 9

First – happy third birthday (yesterday) to our grandson Malcolm! XOXOXO (Sorry weren’t there to help celebrate.)

We caught up to the Z’s at Roche as the Fluid Motion Rendezvous commenced – it was fun to see 200+ Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats come into the marina from our anchorage in Roche Harbor. Saw some familiar faces and boats.

We moved on to Friday Harbor on Thursday, then Nick rode his bike back to Roche on Friday morning to pick up the SIM card. We successfully moved from Verizon to T Mobile – after some tediously long phone calls. I don’t think I’ve ever seen all 5 bars light up on my phone!

Beautiful and breezy Friday Harbor:

Trip to San Juan Brewing:

Not long after we after we docked in Friday Harbor (in breezy conditions again!), I looked up to see a green AT pull into the marina. Salish Nomad returning from Alaska! Really good to catch up with Jean and Dave for a bit. We look forward to spending more time with them in the future to hear details about their trip. They said it was cold and rainy a lot of the time.

Troubles at Cap Sante

We pulled out of Friday Harbor Saturday morning, headed to Anacortes and the Cap Sante marina to gather with the Waggoner Cruising Guide team. This was a get-together for the Waggoner staff and volunteer Field Correspondents – a chance to meet each other, help with some guide-related brainstorming, and hear from some guest speakers.

ToG needed a good scrubbing so as soon as we pulled in, we got busy cleaning.

To set this next scene, I’ll point out a few things. Firstly, we were assigned to the south side of C dock. Typically, we request the north side, or another dock altogether, because the adjacent B dock is filled with commercial boats that tend to motor in and out of the fairway too fast for our liking. We were almost hit last year – I’ve mentioned this before. Since we were part of a gathering, and I knew the marina would be full, I did not make this request this time. What are the chances something would happen, right?

Secondly, we had to back in for a starboard tie – not something we normally do but sometimes we don’t have a choice.

So, we were both busily cleaning the boat, me in the cockpit and Nick somewhere on the dock side. As I was squatting down scrubbing, I felt a hard jolt, which knocked me to my knees. I called out to Nick and asked if someone just hit us. YEP! A boat I had seen a few minutes before – I remember because I made a judgement about the woman standing in the stern holding a small child with no life jacket – and which had been just kind of hovering in the fairway, hit our anchor with its pot puller pole. The person at the helm had absolutely no control over the boat. There was no current or breeze that we noticed. Nick had run to the bow of ToG and was talking to a man standing in the stern, who apologized…and did nothing to help. The boat came against the finger piling and Nick laid down on his back on our bow and used his legs to keep the boat from hitting us again. I was watching (while frantically trying to grab our boat hook, which was really of no use in this situation) and all I could see was that metal bar, aligned with Nick and moving toward him. Fortunately, the captain finally got the boat away from our boat and moved down the fairway. We found zero damage to our boat. And Nick avoided being decapitated by the bar. Lucky!

The surprising thing we found out a little later, was that this boat – the Blue Agave – was not on the B dock, but was another transient guest on the south side of C dock. It looks like a working boat – a big metal split hull thing. Nick put our larger yellow buoy on the anchor pulpit and we kept the boat hook handy.

We saw a large number of people get on the boat the next morning and stood watch, but they moved out and back in later with no mishaps that we know of. We did talk with a couple in a Ranger that we know, who were in the slip next to Blue Agave, as well as someone else who came over to try and help, and they both reported the boat sideways in the fairway.

We talked with the marina about moving but since they didn’t have another slip open for that night, we decided to stay put. A side note: one of the dock hands told us this boat has been problematic for her before. We made sure the marina staff were aware of the problem.

Oy vey!

So…we attended the Waggoner gathering on Sunday – really good! The three guest speakers were excellent.

Then, at almost exactly midnight, I thought Nick was getting up to use the head but then I heard, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING! GET THE *UCK OFF MY BOAT!" Yep, some dude tried to climb on board at midnight! He said he though it was his friend’s American Tug. He didn’t seem particularly inebriated. He apologized and went on his way. We don’t know his intentions, really, and it was disconcerting. We reported that too.

This is an argument for locked gates at Cap Sante.

ToG departed Anacortes early yesterday, meeting Coorie Doon at Poets Cove to clear customs, and then both boats met up at Otter Bay Marina on North Pender Island. Lovely little marina! Took a dip in the pool – at least Jeanie and I did. Had happy hour aboard CD – nice to catch up with our boating buddies.

On our way today!