M/V Infinity

 

Before our cruising season ever began, we decided to upgrade our fenders. Dwight wanted at least six A-5 fenders for each side. A-5 fenders are 27" in diameter - over 7' in circumference. Since Gail is the primary deckhand, these are bigger than she wants to handle. And storing 12 of these just seemed like a problem waiting to happen. She finally got Dwight down to smaller, A-4 fenders (still 22" in diameter and over 5' around), but the fender manufacturer's guide still wanted more and bigger fenders for a boat over 60' in length. In desperation, Gail demanded to know whether Dwight was even certain Infinity really was 75' long.

 

Armed with a 25' tape, we hit the dock. Starting at the bow and leap-frogging the tape, we knew we would get a slightly-less-than-accurate measurement, but after laying out three lengths of the tape we still had more than one foot of boat left over. Lots more. So we tried measuring again, starting from the aft end. Same result. Slightly confused, but undaunted, we headed to Home Despot to buy a longer tape measure.

 

Armed with a 100' tape measure, we again measured the boat from bow to stern. 83'. Since that number seemed rather large to us, we measured from the end of the swim platform to the bow. 83'. The marina has since measured us at 79' but, as Dwight now explains, every mishap he's ever had has occurred with the 8' of boat he didn't know he had.

 

We are now the proud owners of four new A-4 fenders with black covers. We also kept two of our older A-5 fenders and one old F-10 fender (18" in diameter, 50" long, and 58" in circumference) - all of which now have spiffy new black covers and new black lines. Of course, now we're thinking of repainting the hull navy blue.... 

 

 

Our maiden voyage of the season was more of a sea trial than a cruise, but it was eventful enough to warrant a mention here. With Bob and Connie Wooldridge (Dwight's sister and brother-in-law), we set out to see if the repairs to the port-side fuel pump had resolved our long-standing problem with limited and then sudden and rapid increase in RPM when we where underway. Bob (a journeyman diesel mechanic) and Dwight (not) had finished reinstalling the fuel pump the day before. That job required the purchase of rigid fuel line, a tubing bender, and a flaring tool, as Cummins could not seem to find a replacement part for part of the line that appeared to have kinked. The trip was to be only an hour or two, as Connie doesn't share her brother's affinity for the sea.

 

We left dock at 10:10 a.m. with clear, sunny, but windy conditions. After exiting the marina into Puget Sound, we headed north with Gail driving, Bob and Dwight in the engine room, and Connie taking photographs of the shoreline, the Olympic Peninsula, and other boats. A short time later, after going wide open throttle and back to idle several times, we claimed success on the port fuel pump repairs. Before we could start our celebration, Dwight noticed that the starboard engine RPM were fluctuating as much as 50 rpm, rather than remaining constant. He and Bob stayed below and began trouble shooting the problem while Gail drove the boat in circles, figure-8s, and more circles so as not to stray too far from the marina in case there was a more serious problem. After an hour or two of this mind-numbing (for Gail, anyway) activity, Dwight finally gave the order to return to port. Connie had used her time productively to go below and take a nap.

 

As it turned out, the fuel filters needed to be replaced. All of them. About the time this conclusion was reached, we lost all three generators - including the one that powers the bow thruster. After spending another hour trying unsuccessfully to get at least one generator back on line, we headed back to dock without a bow thruster.

 

Did I mention it was windy? And we had no bow thruster? Fortunately, we have very helpful neighbors. One neighbor, Don, calmly took the stern line as we did our first white-knuckle docking since we lost our bow thruster while docking at Port Ludlow on February 12, 2005. Dwight pointed the bow into the wind (which was blowing us off our dock) at a 45-degree angle while Gail prayed that we wouldn't run into the dock head-on or get blown across the water into the expensive classic sailboat moored in the next slip. With the stern line covered, Gail eased off the boat and onto the dock as soon as Dwight got the boat close enough, with spring line in hand. We probably looked like professionals (Dwight claims he was never worried, given his ample docking skill), but the nausea was real as we got her safely into our slip at 3:00 p.m. 

 

Dwight has now replaced all the fuel filters and even repaired our fourth generator (the cruise generator that runs off the port engine). Needless to say, changing our fuel filters more often will take a much higher priority in the future. But at least we got a sea day out of it....

 

 

Our annual pilgrimage to TrawlerFest was our next big adventure. From a cruising perspective, this was an uneventful trip. Dwight continued to test the engines and we arrived in Poulsbo, WA less than two hours later. With working generators, docking at the F-Dock end tie was a piece of cake - especially with several willing people on hand to take the lines. Gail didn't even have to get off the boat until it was already tied up! Unfortunately, our new fenders held the boat off dock so far that our boarding gate stairs wouldn't clear the wooden rail (of the type that substitutes for cleats in many NW marinas). Once we worked that out, though, everything went smoothly. Except for Dwight throwing the spray wand for the brand-new, never-been-used-before pressure washer into Liberty Bay.

 

We loved being on the end-tie, but Isabelle's job of luring unsuspecting visitors on board during the daily Trawler Crawls became more difficult. We also had the usual power supply issues that limit us to 30 amps of electrical service. We also gave a presentation that was, to put it politely, lightly attended. We also assembled and donated two wine-themed baskets each included a bottle of our pinot noir and sauvignon blanc wines that we made on Infinity, with special TrawlerFest labels. These were auctioned off at the Saturday dinner banquet to benefit the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and brought in upwards of $150 per basket.

 

We enjoyed ourselves immensely yet again this year, learning a lot at the sessions, meeting new people, and sharing information and stories with other boaters. We particularly enjoyed meeting Sean & Louise (who live on a bus and travel the country doing volunteer work for the American Red Cross - follow them on their website) and Pat Rains, who presented on the topic of cruising Mexico and transiting the Panama Canal to Eastern Mexico (she has a published cruising guide on the topic as well). We returned home on June 10th - another uneventful trip) and are already making plans to go again next year.

 

 

The first of two Microsoft day cruises for members of the Business Search Group (BSG) was supposed to circumnavigate Bainbridge Island and return to Shilshole. Instead, with Gail grilling ribs, chicken and Boca Burgers on the upper deck, the cruise plans changed and we went instead to Poulsbo. After docking the group lunch was served just before we arrived, and 13 of the 14 guests debarked and invaded the town of Poulsbo. We sent them in search of Sluy's Bakery for their dessert, and Barb was sweet enough to bring us their world-famous coconut macaroons (yum!). And the return trip home netted us another sea day.

 

 

A quick trip to the fuel dock to purchase some biodiesel on a sunny day. On the way back to our slip, however, the sunshine and smooth water got the best of us and we just kept going south. We had commitments that evening, or who knows how far we would have gone, but we went as far south as Blake Island, circumnavigating the island and returning home, with yet one more sea day....

 

 

The second Microsoft BSG team cruise. The first cruise to Poulsbo had worked out so well that we did the same thing:  ribs, chicken, potato salad, etc. With group assistant Sam and friend Brigitte on board to help, things ran very smooth in the galley!  The group on board made a trip into Poulsbo, once again paying respects to Sluy's bakery. The weather was great and we had smooth sailing in both directions.  Another sea day on the books!

 

 

Saturday morning dawned sunny and clear, and we decided to toss the lines and go. Dwight had been talking about visiting the Everett Marina (we'd only visited from the land side), so we decided to cruise north. Docking was ideal - nearly limitless face dock - and they have 50 amp/240v power available. After deciding to head north, we called Gail's daughter, Sarah, and she joined us for dinner on the deck at Anthony's Restaurant. The sun was still out, it was warm through dinner, and the food was fabulous (and Gail didn't have to cook!).

 

Sunday morning dawned windy, cool, and cloudy. We pulled our lines and started to pull away from dock only to realize that the current pushing us onto dock was much stronger than we anticipated. After several attempts to pull away from dock (and scraping the top of our exhaust tunnel on the dock) Dwight was finally successful. Of course, as Dwight noted, the scraped paint was on the last 8' of boat he didn't (used to) know he had. ;-) The insult was that neither days' trip was long enough to get credit for a sea day.  :-(

 

 

Patty & Ray Williams were in town to house-sit for their daughter and son-in-law (Debbie and Chis) who were taking a trip following Chris' graduation from the police academy. They thought one of their other daughters and granchildren would be visiting this weekend, and so we arranged for a day cruise. The daughter/grandkids didn't make it, but Gail's folks, her brother Shawn, his friend Steve, and Gail's daughter Sarah made the trip anyway. We took a "tourist cruise" around Elliott Bay and the Seattle shoreline, enabling Sarah to snap photos of the building containing the offices of her new employer (the International Association for the Study of Pain). A few grilled ribs and cribbage games later, we had logged another sea day and enjoyed the company of our family and friends.

 

 

Another trip in search of a glipse of whales, dolphins, and other sea life to the San Juan Islands. This trip, with Gail's folks, Stu & Carol, and Patty & Ray Williams aboard, started very early on Saturday. We calculated tides and determined that if we left by 5:00 a.m. we could make the best time and have the best fuel economy to Roche Harbor, on the northwest side of San Juan Is.  While our guests were welcome to sleep in, the roar of the diesel engines encouraged them to activate the coffee pot and look on. bleary-eyed, while we left our slip to head north.

 

Just a note here:  This is our first summer with the new B-Dock configuration, which has a dock approximately 100' between the end of our finger pier and the new B-Dock. Since we're 83' (or 79' if the marina's measurement is correct) that gives us a margin of error of only 17' if we back straight out of the slip. That's probably enough, as Dwight drives pretty slow and I give him constant feedback via radio about the distances around us. But then the marina put multi-hull vessels (catamarans and tri-hulls) on the face of the dock, reducing our margin of error to zero. We must now clear our slip and immediately start turning with forward momentum to avoid hitting the boats moored on B. Dwight doesn't think it's so bad, but he can't see behind us.

 

Anyway, we got underway and were making good time until we encountered thick fog at Admiralty Inlet, then again just south of San Juan Is. Sadly, no sign of whales, and only the rare dolphin off the coast of San Juan Is.  We docked at an end-tie at the Roche Harbor Marina, without first being directed to an inside slip as we were the last time we were here. The only complication was that we wanted to do a port-side tie up so we could use the short shore power cable, so we had to effect a 180-degree turn in a very busy marina. Gail tried to get the attention of the boats behind us, beside us and in front of us, making circular motions with her arms to try to let them know we were going to turn around. Dwight finally sounded the airhorn with the signal for "danger" and started our turn. Other than a few small "fast" boats who decided they could get past us (and then changed their minds), most of the other boats gave us room, we were able to turn around. After that, Dwight pulled us into dock like a pro. Gail helped a little, maybe....

 

After docking, we took a nap and the others headed ashore to explore Roche Harbor. When we awoke, it was nearly dinner time, so we called the others to see if they were coming back to the boat for Gail's should-be-famous spaghetti. Of course, they were in a bar doing "research." We were done in time for the nightly sunset flag ceremony. The flag is lowered, the national anthem is played, and the cannon is fired (really). Very cool. 

 

Sunday morning, Stu made his infamous pancakes, Gail made bacon and sausage, Patty made a fruit compote, and we had a delightful breakfast on the boat. This had special meaning for Gail, since one of her fondest childhood memories was of her dad (Stu) getting up every Sunday morning and making pancakes for all the kids.

 

We all then bought bus tickets and took the scenic route around San Juan Is. to Friday Harbor. While the others went shopping, we checked out the marina. We all met up at the Front Street Ale House for lunch (which turned out to be dinner since we ate so much). Good food!

 

Monday morning we left Roche Harbor. As we pulled away from dock under ideal conditions, several men on the forward deck of a boat moored at the next end-tie looked on enviously. As we got closer, Gail talked briefly with them in passing:  They had no bow thruster. Ahhhh....

 

We arrived home safely, docked painlessly, and attended the Mariners' game (tickets courtesy of Corine Seitz - 7th row, behind the M's dugout) - and they won!

 

 

Yet another MSFT cruise on the year, this time for the design and product planning group for Search. By far the liveliest group of the year - from the Viking hat to beer consumption (they actually drank the beer) - we gave Poulsbo one last visit. We had a smooth trip across Puget Sound, but had an exceptionally strong outgoing tide and high wind when we tried to dock in Poulsbo (yes, next time we'll find a different location...) and we kept slipping back. Eventually, we were able to dock securely and let everyone make the required trip to Sluy's Bakery. We were met on our return by David Mowatt's wife and daughters (and if David ever tries to board or debark this vessel before three dock lines are on, he'll be banished for life!).

 

Epilogue:  Upon docking at the end of this trip Gail thought she heard a bad sound coming from the bow thruster. It continued to work and we docked safely, however, so we didn't think anything more of it. Until, that is, Dwight took Isabelle for a walk down the dock and he thought he saw something, perhaps a piece of wood, protruding from the bow thruster tunnel. We decided that, since the weather and the light was good, he would put on his scuba gear and go down and see what was going on. Turns out that during our last haul-out, Dwight removed the bow thruster propellers so he could paint the tunnel. He reinstalled the bow thruster propellers using "Never Seize" between the props and the hub. Worked real well....the starboard propeller flew right off, catching in the protective grill (intended to protect against having things pulled into the props). That's what Dwight saw when he looked down and thought he saw a piece of wood - the propeller.  The bow thruster had continued to work only because the port-side propeller remained in place. Now we're planning a yard trip sometime early in 2008, so this is probably our last post for 2007....