Back to Anacortes, April 10th

We arrived back in Anacortes to get the final work done, mostly the dinghy installed on the top deck. It is a terrific town, and the "jumping off" point for the "Islands". We need our dinghy badly, so that we can anchor out and tender ashore as we head back up to the islands, so here we are again in Anacortes. Great people, restaurants, and shops..


This is the marina, Cape Sante Boat Haven, which is our temporary mailing address for packages (software and a new hard-drive for the laptop failure). Some things never change.


Rhododendren blooming here, at every street corner. Not sure why they love it here, but probably the mild temps, good rain, and long days???


Here is Undoc'd at the marina, but before the dinghy installed...


And the sailboat side of the marina...


The jog-bike path runs 8 miles along the coast, and is well decorated along the way..


The heavily loaded arch of Undock'd


Jogging south, we came upon this well decorated "driftwood plaque" on the trail...a little of everything.


A clock in downtown Anacortes


The real seamen say that a good captain always does his own splicing. Lee Simpson of the Sonata gave me intense hands-on instruction today and then demanded that I use the skill immediately splicing a bridle for the anchor. The two fixed loops were my first two splicing attempts, and the splice around a thimble my 3rd and 4th. They look good, but we'll see how they hold up under anchor...The idea is that you hook the shackle (above the thimbles) to the anchor chain, and the two thimble to the shackle. Then the other ends of the lines are cleated to the boat on either side. This "cushions" the boat against movement against the anchor during the night.


And finally, the dinghy is on-board! She flys, at about 25 mph, and is stable enough to stand on the gunwale. Very happy with it, since it will be used muchly...the crane that launches it has a hydraulic fluid leak that has to be sorted out, but they assure me that help is on the way.

The engine company, Volvo, sends someone to personally instruct an owner in the operations of, maintenance of, and understanding of the engine. He arrived today and we had a ball.... WOT (wide open throttle) was necessary to establish baselines for performance and with a real pro in the pilothouse, it was quite an experience. Chris stayed in town while we had real high-speed fun on the boat. Not long after, the watermaker rep asked if he could do the same instruction on the operation of the Village Marine Tec watermaker. This little machine, well secured in the engine room, will make 22 gallons per hour of perfect water. So water is limitless as long as you have power...this really makes you feel self-contained. The only instruction left is with the Generator, an 8KW Northern Lights. This will happen soon, and then it's home-free!!