Leaving for the San Juan’s 2007

CB 15 September, 2007
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We’ve been back almost a month, so I thought I should actually get off my butt and put something up here about the trip.

Last year Tawn’s parents came with us on the trip, this year one of my nephews, Cleveland, came out from Pennsylvania to visit and go on the trip with us. He got here on August 9th and we showed him the sights around Seattle.

This is Cleve:

Cleveland

We spent the day on Friday running last minute errands and getting the boat ready to go, so the second Tawn got home from work we could take off. Which is exactly what we did. The engine was running and all but two dock lines were untied when she came walking down the dock from work.

We took a number of pictures on the trip, all of which can be found here: www.flickr.com/chickenbone

The first destination of the trip was a short 12 mile hop west thru Agate Passage to Poulsbo for the annual Lats and Atts party. We’ve been going to this party every August for the last four years and most of our friends have as well. So it’s usually a pretty good time. This year was no exception.

Not a lot of wind and since we got such a late start we wanted to get there as quickly as we could so we motored the entire way. Tawn slept…..

I’ve mentioned this before, and if you’ve ever driven a boat yourself you know first hand that the hardest part of boat handling is docking and/or manuevering the boat in a tight space. It’s not at all like parking a car. It’s not impossible and for the most part everyone, myself included, does a pretty good job of it. There are alot of things at play that can make it difficult, but the three biggest factors, in my book at least, that make docking(parking) a boat alot harder are:

  • Wind
  • Current
  • Witnesses

On a perfectly calm day, with no current and no one standing around on the docks watching you. It is practically impossible to fuck up a docking procedure. Add a little wind and things get a little harder, but with time and practice, it is easily mastered. The same goes with current. Combined those two and the problems are doubled but again, easily overcome with practice and confidence. Add in that third factor (Witnesses) and everything seems to go out the window. It’s just like anything else, if you screw something up, there is always someone there to see you do it. :)

Now I’m not setting this up to tell you a story of me screwing up docking the boat. I simply wanted to put that info out there so I could describe the scene at the dock at the Poulsbo Marina when we got there on Friday evening for the Lats and Atts Party. As we were motoring in to Liberty Bay, we called my buddy Scotty, who was gonna try and save us a spot on the docks. The reason being, the party was expected to have over 100 boats show up and we wanted to make sure we could get in.

Scotty tells us that they have a spot for us, right on the end of the dock, tieing up along side another friend of ours boat.

“Cool” I think to myself. End of the dock means, no tight space maneuvering required. Just line it up and slide along side the other boat and stop. Easy cheesy!

As we approach the marina I can hear music and see all the flags flying….looks like another big party!

Party dock

“Oh look!” Says Tawn, “Music man Dave is playing on the deck of the that big Catamaran!”

And of course if Dave is playing, then of there is gonna be a crowd watching. But I can’t be bothered with that right now. I need to find Lorien (The boat we are supposed to be trying up to). So I scan the dock ends, looking for Lorien…….shit!….I see her. Right there, tied up directly in front of the Catamaran that the Band is playing on. Which is right in front of 50+ people (witnesses) watching the band play on the catamaran, directly behind the boat I am supposed to tie up too.

Luckily for me, there is no wind, no current. So with the exception of 50+ witnesses this should be easy. Standing on the deck of Lorien ready to catch our lines is Rich, Dave, Rhonda & Echo. This will be easy. I do a quick circle to get the boat lined up better and slowed down, ready to dock.

Friends are waving, calling out to say hi. Dave is playing a Jimmy Buffett song, everyone is watching him play as I slowly glide up to the dock. I half hear the song, but my full attention is on the task at hand. “Please, don’t screw up” I tell myself. Just then, just as I’m on final approach the song ends, and so, with nothing else to do, the crowd stops watching Dave and turns their attention to my boat. No Pressure….NO PRESSURE!!

I stuck the landing, perfect 10! But damn, I was sweating a little bit. :) hehehe, sorry for the tease.

Anyway, the party was great and we had an awesome time. We got up early on Sunday and headed north towards the San Juan Islands.

I’ll post again with the details of the trip later.

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I don’t feel 40??

CB 6 July, 2007
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I’m probably not the first person in the world to say this, but I never thought I would be a 40 year old. I don’t feel old, or like a person that I picture a 40 year old to be. What ever, just thought I’d start this post off that way.

As you can probably guess by now, I just recently turned 40 years old. As recently as 3 days ago on July 4th in fact. Having a birthday on the fourth of July has provided me with (to date) 39 really fun birthdays. I say 39 instead of 40 because on the day before my 20th birthday I bit through my tongue and had to get 6 stiches (IN my freakin tongue). Needless to say, the next day and many days after…really sucked.

This year however did not.

Both me and Tawn had to work on saturday, but that gave us sunday, monday, tuesday & wednesday off. So we loaded up the boat with food and booze and took off in search of fun and adventure.

As usual, you can follow the trip here via this crappy little map.

Saturday evening found us tied up behind our old friends (Scott and Angie) on Ghost, on the west side of Blake Island. We had a great fire on the beach and made s’mores…oh and some beer. Getting tied up to the mooring as we first arrived ended up with a slighting miscalculation on the amount of current on my part which resulted in our boat hitting Ghost. The damage was minor on both boats. Nothing a little sanding of the teak won’t fix. And as Scotty said “Luckily you hit a friend and not some random asshole”. Whether or not he really meant it, it made me feel better at the time. :) Thanks Scotty!

It still sucks to flub up a landing like that, but moving that slow in current in a full keeled boat can get tricky. This time I missed, but I did learn from it.

We left Blake island the next morning (Sunday, July 1st) and headed to Manzanita Bay on Bainbridge Island. There was absolutly no wind, so we motored the entire way there. Once there we did AB-SOLUT-LY nothing, which on occasion is one of my favorite things todo. Especially at anchor. I did take a dinghy ride up a small river as far as I could after a power nap in the hammock. But other than that, nothing.

The next morning (Monday, July 2nd) we got up and headed for Liberty Bay to meet up with Scott and Angie on Ghost. The wind was up and we sailed all the way to the raft up…..almost. Dave and Rhonda 0n Scepter were there and rafted up. So we tied off to them. The wind continued to build and after a small anchor dragging, we decided it would be prudent to set out a second anchor. Liberty Bay is a large bay, but on the 3rd of july it fills up and there is little room to move. So we dropped our anchor to give ourselves a little piece of mind.

Poulsbo is a small town that sets at the head of Liberty Bay. Every year on the 3rd of July they put on a fireworks show. Which is why we and about 200 other boats ended up there all at once. We spent the next 2 days hanging out and meeting up with our boating friends or just eating and drinking and watching the fireworks on the 3rd. I also got a very cool telescope from the crew of Ghost for my B-day, with our boat name engraved on the side. Very cool, every pirate ship needs one of these.

My buddy Dan showed up on his boat, the Blue Monkey II, later on the 3rd and another friend Mike showed up on his boat and they both tied up to our raft and the party was officially on. After the fireworks we stayed up late into the night drinking and singing, complete with guitar and harmonica accompaniment. None of which was really any good, but we were told, that what it lacked in quality, we more that made up for in loudness. Oh well, it sounded good to us at the time.

Wednesday brought with it abit of a hangover and a wake up call that was earlier than we really wanted but everyone wanted to get get back to Seattle fairly early. Ghost and Scepter broke of the raft up first and headed for home. After some coffee on shore, we cast Mike and Dan adrift we head for home ourselves. We motored all the way through Agate Passage until we go into Port Madison, but after bobbing around with no wind we motored out until we were out into the wind and had an awesome sail the rest of the way home.

Tawn had to run an errand (pick up Cheese cake for my bday party), so me and Dan jumped in the dinghy and headed through the locks and on in to Lake Union, grabbing more beer along the way, so we could meet up with Tawn at our friends Rich and Echo’s new boat for a fourth of July BBQ….and cheese cake. :)

The fireworks were awesome! A bunch of friends showed up. Rich and Echo’s new boat is awesome and I got some pretty cool gifts from Rich and Echo and Dave and Rhonda.

All in all a great bday weekend.

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Anchor Retrieval Expedition ’07 (A.R.E) (CB)

CB 19 April, 2007
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Ok, this story took place a couple weeks ago, the last weekend of March.

It all actually got it’s start late last summer. August 2nd to be exact. To summarize, last August during our vacation in the San Juan Islands, we sailed into Blind bay on Shaw island to see our friends Scott and Angie on thier boat “Ghost”. Scotty had somehow gotten his anchor absolutly stuck on the bottom. Despite our best efforts, we could not break the anchor free. The only option we were left with was to cut his anchor chain and mark the spot with a buoy, with the wishful promise of returning one day to retrieve the anchor.

Over the winter we would get togather have a few beers/rums and retell the lost anchor story to each other or any innocent bystander that happened to be standing too close. At some point between the end of September and the beginning of March a plan was hatched to retrieve the anchor. That plan, along with more than a few others for retrieval trips were suggested and forgotten about. Some time in March a solid plan had come togather. Emails were sent, phone calls made, and work schedules updated. We decided to do it.

Initially there were to be 12 expedition team members, but as with such things, the final epiditionary force numbered a solid 4. We forged on none the less.

When “A Day” finally arrived, me and Scotty left Seattle early (10:30am) to get up to Shaw island and setup base camp. Dave and Rich would follow later in the afternoon with the dive gear and dinghy, which was all packed into and on top of Rich’s truck.

We got camp setup in no time and the first beers of many were opened. We made a few important logisitical decisions, such as which tree would be the designated “Pee tree”. This is an important step in setting up a base camp on any major expedition, trust me. We got the firewood gathered and a fire built, as well as scouted out the beach below the campsite. Not one beer was spilt at all during this crucial initial phase. Not even the one I was carrying as we climbed down the cliff from the campsite to the beach below.

Dave and Rich arrived to a well found camp and we settled in for a long night of bullshitting, beer drinking and music. Dave and Scott on Guitar, Rich on the Ukelallee and me on Harmonica. Oddly enough we did not see any wildlife at all the entire weekend. Not sure if it was due to our “music” or that Shaw island just does not have a raccoon problem.

After pounds of bacon and eggs cooked over the fire we headed to the dive site. While Dave and I got our dive gear sorted out and put on. Rich and Scotty took the dinghy out to the spot where Scotty thought the Anchor should be. They returned just as we were suited up and reported that they found the bouy we left last summer and that it was still attached to his anchor chain. Scotty even brought his underwater video camara and was able to spot the chain on the bottom and that is was drapped over some sort of cage.

Suggested dinghy load limit be damned, we all loaded into the dinghy along with all the dive gear and puttered out to the site of the anchor. We had so much wieght in the dinghy, that water was pouring in over the sides and well as through the centerboard hole in the bottom like a fountain. After me and dave slipped over the side in to the water, Rich started bailing like mad.

We followed the buoy line down and spotted not a cage but an entire sunken 50 foot fishing boat. We did not expect that. The Anchor was jammed underneath the keel of the boat and the anchor chain was wrapped up and around the front of the boat. We were able to unwrap the chain easy enough. But getting the anchor it’s self unstuck from the bottom of the boat was a real pain in the ass. Pushing and pulling on it kicked up a huge mess of silt and mud with made it impossible to see what we were doing. We worked at it for awhile then surface to formulate a new plan and go back down and try again. I was able to attach a line to the anchor with a D-ring and we used the dinghy and engine to try and pull the anchore free but that did not work. After that we needed a break and a new tank of air. So Scotty towed us back to shore.

Once on shore, Rich headed back to camp in the truck to get the fire stoked up so we could warm up when we were done. Me, Scotty and Dave headed back out for a second dive. We were actually going to just go out and retreive the line and reattach it to the buoy and write it off as a failure. But once out there we decide to get the anchor not matter what.

This time instead of pulling from just one side of the boat. I went on the Starboard side and pushed as Dave went to the port side and pulled. The anchor popped right out after a few minutes of effort. SUCCESS!!! We surfaced and Scotty pulled the Anchor up and into the Dinghy. High Fives all around. A quick dive down to try the float to the boat as a warning to others and we headed back to shore and camp.

We talked to a local that lived across the road from the beach and he told us that boat sank about 5 years ago and has been there ever since. It is not marked on any charts, so I informed the coastguard and NOAA of it and hopefully it will be marked on future charts.

We headed back to camp to warm up and celebrate our success, with more music, beer and chili!

What a great weekend!! And as always, I have pictures, but have not uploaded them yet.

Posted in Adventures, CB, Maps, Scuba, Weekend trips | 1 Comment

7th Annual Pub Crawl/Death March (CB)

CB 18 March, 2007
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*The only Death March officially sanctioned by the Unofficial Death March Commitiee

Every year on or around St. Patty’s day we do a Pub Crawl/Death March. It’s much like your average Pub Crawl but in our’s someone dies by the end…. Not really, but holy shit, it sure as hell feels like it the next day.

The pub crawl is not always held on the actual St. Patty’s day. This year however it did. Which forced us to change up the Marching orders (list of bars we visit). The reason for the change up this year was due to the fact that most of the “Irish” bars were charging a cover and since cover charges are not in the spirit of Pub Crawl/Death March we made a slight change this year. We removed Fado’s and Kell’s. As well as a Rendevous, and Floydd’s. Fado’s and Kell’s were charging a cover, Rendevous has closed since last year and Floyd’s…..they are dead to us!!

So here is this years line up:

  • McCormick’s 11-12am
  • FOX Sports Grill 12-1pm
  • The Pike Pub and Brewery 1-2pm
  • Pike Place Bar & Grill 2-3pm
  • Blarney Stone Pub 3-4pm
  • Lava Lounge 4-5pm
  • 5 Points Cafe 5-6pm
  • Liquid Lounge (EMP) 6-7pm
  • Jabu’s Pub 7-8pm
  • The Spectator 8-9pm
  • Ozzie’s 9-10pm

Check out this link for a map of the whole route.


As you can see from the schedule above we spend approx. one hour at each establishment. And that is about the only rule. The smart Pub Crawler limits it to one drink per bar followed by a water. But the rookie pub crawler has to learn this leason the hard way. In the immortal words of Dan”It’s a marathon, not a sprint”.

Lots of fun was had by all and as soon as the camaraman emails me the photos from the night, I’ll put a couple of them up here.

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