Think boating's serene? Here is today...

Imagine if the wealth of all the marinas of the world could go to some significant purpose. Boats, except for real (work) boats, are about envy.

A first: toilet flush instructions. To read, because of an intervening handicapped rail, you have to get right down close to the bowl you presumably just befouled. And it took me quite awhile to develop a theory for what it sought to tell us.

On arrival at the Bellingham marina, i went to the Visitor Check-in Station, which is like a self-register campground thing, you fill out a form, put $$ in an envelope. However it said that during biz hours i could pay by credit card at the harbor office. This i preferred. Odd it didnt say where the office is. So i asked around, no one i encountered had a clear idea, with various suggestions that didnt pan out. But before too long i came to the truly luxurious offices of the Port of Bellingham. This must be it. But no, the corporate receptionist said i was looking for the Harbor Master. She gave me a number to call. The man who answered was nice, but i got the impression he'd never done this before. He even had to "change computers". But we went thru all the CC-pay details (you know the drill) for the $31.50 bill for 2 nites. I asked for lock-gate-key-code ("o yes", he said, "you'll need that"). Set.

To the showers!

I entered the code. Door still locked, and i thot i heard a man's voice inside. OK, i'll wait. 10 minutes, try again, this time a dog barks inside. Odd. Repeat per 10minutes. I think i'm pretty patient. After full 40minutes, this time i apply insistent pounding, and the young male occupant finally exits, fully clothed and organized, with dog, says he's sorry took so long, but doesnt seem to mean it.

The oddest thing about this is there actually multiple showers in there. Maybe he and the dog were using them all?

But i wasnt there yet. Finally inside, it turns out they arent free. I need quarters, 4 at a time. And it doesnt say what that gets you.

I have no quarters.

Reluctantly, i abandon the room, fearful some other guy (or even with dog) might occupy, lock the door. I know there's a change machine nearby.

But as change machines go, this 1 behaves very oddly, and rejects all my $1s.

So, reluctantly, dressed in working rags, carrying my towel and change of clothes, i enter the adjacent very fancy marina restaurant to beg for change.

The receptionist is very good to me. She takes my $5. "How many do you need?" I don't know, so i ask for all quarters.

She heads toward the bar. I stand with my towel and clothes as the Sophisticated pass. She returns with a handful of quarters and a single $1 bill.

"He didnt have enough," she reports, "Wait, i'll try another place."

"No", I say gratefully, "maybe this'll be enuf. If i come back soon naked, you'll know it was not."

I did return soon, but fully fresh-clothed for dinner, with wonderful friends Mitch/Anita.

Quiet uneventful nite on the boat.

Today up early, walk into nearby town, thru the homeless encampment at the Rescue Mission, to coffee place, very sophisticated, $3 for 16oz and they give it to you in the brew carafe that you pour yourself into the small cup. I researched canadian charts online. Not drinking fast enuf i guess, now the carafe is cold, i ask the nice lady if she can heat it up? Well, no, they have no way to do that. Sorry. As i was the only customer at times and i'd left big tip, i dont think it was just that she wanted me out. No matter, coffee cold is good too.

Mitch came by, picked me up, we go to West Marine (the REI of the boating world) to pick up my order (a 2nd anchor and rode [rope and chain connecting anchor to boat], fancy offshore PFD, strobe, manual bail pump) and have a hot dog. (They're celebrating something.)

Problem: they have no Canadian charts. Which i sorta knew, from online, but paper charts are required in Canada (unlike US, where electronic charts are downloadable for free), and i'd put off getting them. Because i put off everything. But now here it is i need them, and according to online, the only 2 places that sell them in Bellingham are closed weekends.

It's the weekend.

But Mitch checks on his phone, as i check again on mine, and we get different results, his phone says 1 place is open. We go there, and it is indeed. And they have canada charts.

This is a store packed floor to ceiling with marine recreation stuff, with much staff and many customers. We are directed to a counter in back, to ancient 70-something man whose charge, by all appearances, is fishing licenses and charts.

He's handling another customer, but he tells me look over the chart-catalog map, compare it to a handwritten list of howmany they have in stock, and report back. "If it says '0', that's how many we have."

So i examine the map that shows the boundaries of charts. The print is very small and with my vision i needed to get right up close. Realize that the map on the right is for small-scale charts that cover same area as the large-scale charts on the left, and that both are but a small part of the total waters thru which i'll pass. So i was intently involved as he handled the fishing license applicant, tho i was vaguely aware that that was taking forever. But it was all very folksy, as fishing licenses should be.

I decided on my list for the 1st part of Canada (maybe i won't get beyond that, whadya think?), but he still wasnt done, so i just continued on up the coast, nothing else to do.

Finally he was done, and i handed in my list, assuring him that these were all non-0, per his instructions.

He was a really nice old character.

He turned to a metal grid rack of rolled charts, searched, took 1 roll down. Each roll was secured each end by a triple-looped rubber band, and a handwritten paper scrap inserted under 1 band with the chart#, and an another #, which i realized must be the number of copies of that chart# which were within this roll.

He searched thru the rack and took down the rolls associated with each of the 10 chart#s i'd specified.

Then he commenced to process each individual chart#...

• Remove the 2 rubber bands.
• Unroll, separating 1 copy.
• Roll the separated copy, set it aside.
• Re-band the source roll, replace it to the rack.
• White out the chart's quantity on summary sheet, write in a new number.

It was taking forever.

i really appreciated Mitch's patience. "What are you doing the rest of the afternoon?" i asked.

"Maybe," he answered, "THIS."

There were now 2 other folks waiting. "Where are you going?" one inquired.

I told him i was afraid to say.

Obviously this good clerk had his system, which i resisted interfering, but finally after half the stack i volunteered that maybe we could help?

To his credit he permitted us the tasks to unroll the rolls and separate the 1 chart each.

It about tripled the output.

In this past life stupid inefficiency drove me absolutely insane, but lately: it's just pleasant to experience, and recall.

 

Glancing at the calendar, surprise, i left only YESTERDAY. Here it is only Day 2, but i feel like it's a very long, good, time.

This, 5/3, is the Big Day.

but this is funny... I figured i'd better give the boat a wash before i leave, since it may not have 1 for awhile. There on the windshield is big white SPLAT from some disgusting seagull! I go at it with the brush and find: it's INSIDE the glass; it's the spray from the new salad dressing i had to force open last eve!

My truck will stay at Hanna's house, related to my friend Mitch, he's arranged she'll keep it til his sister arrives in a couple weeks, at which time she'll drive it to his house, where it'll stay until my supposed return. People are so amazing, so helpful! Til she gets off work, i tread water: put the latest registration stickers on the boat. Buy a squeegee for the windshield. Stare.

We do the truck transfer and i am off.

The vision, you may recall, was me effortlessly running my powerboat thru Canadian/Alaska Wilderness Islands. That part i'm sure will be easy. The buying-the-boat and all the prep has been the nitemare.

Nitemare almost over.

Off we go.

I get SpotX into Tracking mode. Cathy follows the map it makes, updated per 5minutes.

(Here's ANOTHER map that i'll try to keep updated.)

There are several routes to Bellingham, i choose a shortcut thru long narrow Swinomish Channel.

It may'v been shorter distance, but wasnt a lot faster; much of it was "No Wake", which means go VERY slow so i don't make waves that will rock boats docked along the way. Those parts were official. Along much of the long channel also were seen less official No Wake advisories, along rip-rapped shorelines rimmed by expensive homes. (One rich guy had a huge white red-lettered 'No Wake' banner draped from his deck.) Their sentiment motivated probably by fear of their artificial shorelines washing away; or maybe motor noise. Altho' i ~complied, i didnt feel sorry for these folks, the developer destroyed the wetland, and they bot into it.

Meanwhile Cathy's reporting (we have good cell contact) that i'm not moving. Checking the SpotX, i find it's gone into 'Tracking Paused' mode for some reason. Do not buy a SpotX, i'm really disappointed in it. One problem is the buttons: they're hard to push, and you're supposed to hold them down for some# of seconds to make them activate. It can be a long time before icons show. So i am left with a feeling that i don't know what's going on. Imagine this scenario: I hold down the Track button many seconds. No icon appears. So i release & try again. Maybe in fact the icon doesnt appear until it goes thru its lengthly satellite-contact process. Completing that, it finds i've pushed th button a 2nd time, which means turn Tracking off. I dont know if that's what's happening, but it feels that way. Either it doesnt work, or there's a user-interface issue. I reboot it once, Tracking comes back, but before long is back to Paused. Frustrating. It would be very cool to have a good automated accurate map of my progress.

Now out in the open water again, this feels better. Clouds have parted to sun. The precise water surface condition varies constantly, but truly this sea couldnt be more friendly. Big ships are anchored here & there nearer the shore. A huge herd of floating black/white water birds take flight. A seal bobs.

(Excuse the photos' artistic quality, hard to steer and take pictures same time.)

Mid-afternoon, Bellingham appears around the point. I find my way to the marina entrance, worried there'll be no space for me at the Visitor Dock, but there is, and i ease carefully in. Docking isnt easy: there's wind, current, my incompetence, ... and everyone's watching. But i do pretty well, save 1 excessive sudden engine roar reversing, damn, o well. Arrived, woohoo.

And suddenly i feel so out of place! Yachties sipping intoxicating beverages on the fantails. Me dressed as i always do: working rags. And as i step out to the dock, tie up, and look down on my good boat, it appears as my accomodations always do: chaos. Made worse because i removed all the curtains! I'm not a curtain kinda guy, for what do i need curtains, partial blocking my view out even when open, when i'll be anchoring in the remote north woods wilderness? O, except today. I am the Hillbilly at the Cocktail Party.

But i learned in Fiji you can't avoid embarassment, you can only laugh with the others and move on.

Downright FRIGID today. I loaded up everything from my truck into the boat. It fit! yay.

Tomorrow i'll boat to Bellingham WA. Called the marina there, they say it's first-come-first-serve. Of course i can anchor somewhere, but i need to pickup stuff at West Marine, it'll be so much easier if i'm docked.

Chilly, windy, sunny. Still hanging at Oak Harbor Marina, buying stuff, trying to get things done.

Started the outboard for the first time, idled for 10minutes, 1st step in the break-in process.

1 of my biggest concerns is battery power to start the engine. If that's all it did, that wouldnt be so bad, but in the engine-off hours, i have electronic devices to charge (computer, celfon, SpotX communicator), and lights (cabin light occasionally, and "anchor light" which is a white light atop the cabin to ward off collisions when anchored. (You'd think boats running around at nite would have headlights, but that's not generally the way it's done.) I have 2 marine 12-volt batteries for the engines and the electric power. Also, even the outboard has an alternator capable of charging the batts. Still worried, today i bought a cute little 12v lawnmower battery, only ~$22 at WalMart [honest i never shop at WalMart], it'll charge during the day when the engine's running, then run my devices and the anchor lite at nite, no drain on the main batts.

O and i bot a roll of that super-sealer tape on TV where the guy saws his boat in half and tapes it back together. For when i hit a log or rocks.

We've worked it out among my supporting people here: Hanna will pickup my pickup friday, then i'll boat to Bellingham, where i'll spend a few days, rendezvous with wonderful Mitch/Anita, and pickup stuff i had shipped there: raft, anchor, chain, fancy PFD, etc. Hopefully get the Canadian charts i need too.

Today talked to several inspirational folks. They say i'll have a great time.