boating trips Archives

May 16, 2021May 18, 2021

We’re finally headed to the USVI!

Our channel wouldn’t be called Boating Journey if we didn’t always have a journey to get to our destination and this trip to the USVI was no exception. After postponing our bareboat charter to February 2022, we opted to keep our flights and visit all three islands in the USVI. The entry requirements seemed fairly straightforward so what could go wrong? We should know not to ask that question!

USVI Travel Portal

Before you’re allowed to enter the USVI, you must fill out the travel portal, upload your negative covid test and be approved to enter. According to the site, we needed a negative covid molecular (e.g., RT-PCR, viral or nucleic acid amplification) or an antigen (rapid) taken 5 days prior to arrival to the territory. Our friends, Ben and Maria were traveling two days before us and all of us were on a red-eye flight. Their airline stated they needed the test taken 5 days prior to departure, but when they uploaded it, it was rejected as it was actually 6 days prior to arrival.

Lots of travelers we know recommended we go to Walgreens for our test, so we made an appointment at the Tukwila location for Monday (5 days from our arrival date). When we arrived, we found out that they DO NOT do the test we needed AND the results would be ready in 7 days! Yikes. The pharmacist recommended we drive to the Burien Walgreens and when we arrived there, we were informed they don’t take same day appointments. Great!

Trying not to panic, I jumped online and immediately booked an appointment for 11am (it was now 10:25am) at Rite Aid and Scott did the same. The test was easy, as you simply pull up to the drive thru window, swap your nose and give the vial back to the tech.

After we handed our tests back, we were informed we would have our results in 7 days! OMG, this can’t be happening!

Trying not to panic now

If you search the web for rapid covid tests, there are many sites that will give you your results in a few hours for a large fee $200 to $350. Scott and I were so desperate, that we were about to sign up for one of these. Then I remembered seeing another rapid test site, called GS Labs. Before I tried booking it, I first made sure that they were CLIA approved by the USVI portal. Thank God they were! The closest lab to us, was back in Downtown Seattle, so I made an appointment for 11:30am. As we drove, I used Scott’s phone to book the appointments and in the process, I managed to book 4 appointments for myself and none for him! Luckily, they took care of everything and after about 40 min, we were all done.

Ironically as I got ready to drive away, one of the workers shouted out my name. Turns out an old high school classmate owns the business and not only that, but he’s close friends with Ben! Now remember, Ben and Maria still at this point hadn’t gotten their results and were scheduled to fly out the next day. So I called them and told them to go get another test at GS Labs (which billed our insurance, so we were not out of pocket). Two hours later, we all had our results and we were good to go! Talk about a journey.

Are we there yet?

This trip has been planned for over two years and we couldn’t wait to finally get on the plane! We flew out on Thursday night around 11:15pm and arrived in Miami the following morning.

The flight to Miami was about 6 hours and we had about a 2 hour layover before our 2 hour flight to St. Thomas.

Finally we arrived around 1:30pm (11 hours later) to St Thomas! Ben and Maria had rented a Jeep, so they picked us up. We stopped by the local Publix grocery store for some drinks and snacks, before heading to the resort.

Though the USVI are a US Territory, they drive on the left with American cars and the roads on St. Thomas are very rough and steep!

Ben took the route that Google gave us. During the rest of our trip, our drivers took a few other different ways, all of which were still pretty steep!

What you don’t see well in the route above were the hairpin switchbacks! Talk about white knuckle drive – on the left side of the road!

We were really impressed with Ben’s driving skills!

Welcome to Margaritaville!

If you do have a car, parking can be limited near the hotel. But they do have golf carts that will take you to your room.

Ben and Maria had a fabulous room up on the hill, overlooking the bay.

Unfortunately, we were not so lucky. We were in the last building and our view was of a tree. Oh well, we were still in paradise!

The rooms were great, as they were kitchenettes that came with blenders! These rooms are actually condos and so we didn’t get housekeeping service. If you want extra coffee or towels, you have to go to the front desk and ask for them.

Time for some food and drinks

After checking in, the four of us headed to 5’Oclock Somewhere for a cocktail and enjoy the view and a few appetizers. Traveling to the Caribbean from the West Coast is exhausting, but worth it in the end.

That night, we took a taxi into Red Hook and grabbed some pizza at the Island Time Pub, which was fantastic! I highly recommend it and I don’t eat pizza! Overlooking the bay at Red Hook, the view is also fantastic!

For the next 10 days, we had a lot on the itinerary and we’ll share that journey with you over the next few weeks! Be sure to subscribe to both our blog and YouTube channel for the upcoming tour!

As always, thank you for following our journey! You can also follow us on social media @BoatingJourney and use the hashtag #boatingjourney. Cheers, Scott and Ally

April 10, 2021April 10, 2021

What I’m Reading During Our Caribbean Vacation

It has been two years since Scott and I have been to the Caribbean and we are so excited about our upcoming vacation. We are headed to the US Virgin Islands in a week and this trip has had many revisions thanks to covid-19. Originally we were flying into St. Thomas to get to the British Virgin Islands LAST April 2020. Sadly, our charter was the first to be cancelled thanks to the pandemic. So we moved the trip to February 2021, in hopes we would be able to get there. Then in December, we knew February was not looking good, so we moved it again to April 2021.

Unfortunately, the quarantine rules were too restrictive for a 7 day vacation, so we moved the trip once AGAIN to February 2022 and kept our flight to St. Thomas. None of us have ever been to the US Virgin Islands, so this will be a new trip for us!

Island Hopping in the Caribbean

Scott and I are traveling with our friends Ben and Maria, who we have the charter booked with. They will arrive a few days before us and leave before us. We’ll be visiting St Thomas first, staying on the Redhook (east) end of the island. After a couple of days, we’re headed to St. Croix and then we’ll finish our trip on St. John. We’re flying to St. Croix on a puddle jumper and we’re taking the ferry to get to St. John.

Snorkeling & Relaxing by the Pool

I’ve booked a few sailing & snorkeling trips for us during our stay. We’re also planning on doing some more off the beaten path explorations of the three islands, so be sure to tune in to those episodes and blogs. Since we haven’t been on a Caribbean vacation (or any vacation for that matter) in two years, we do plan on spending a few days relaxing by the pool. My favorite thing to do while sitting by the pool, is reading books about getting off the grid. We know it will happen some day! I have three new books that I’m excited to read during our trip.

Escape from the Ordinary

Written by Julie Bradley, Escape from the Ordinary is about a couple that retires early, sells everything and sail around the world. Looking at their route, they visited Europe, Africa, Caribbean, Eastern US, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the Maldives (just to name a few! The preface also mentions their battle with raging storms (which is my biggest fear), so I’m excited to dig into this book.

French Silk on Water

Written by Patrick Hill, French Silk on Water is a story about a couple from British Columbia, who decided one day that “Life is Short – Do it Soon – Do it Now”. So they rented their home, bought a sailboat in the Great Lakes and made their way to the Bahamas. Boating down the Great Loop is a bucket list of mine. I’ve already started this book and one thing that jumped out at me, was they joined a yacht club, so they could use sister yacht club moorings. For the most part, that plan has worked, with a few exceptions. This is an easy ready and it has been fun to read about this journey on the Great Loop.

Off the Grid

Written by Captain Mark J. Reinhardt, Off the Grid is a story about how he quit the rat race and now lives for free aboard a sailboat. I wonder what will be our trigger to finally do the same? People often ask us why we don’t and the answer is, we need to be debt free before we can do that. Baby steps. The summary mentions that he was tired of the endless work hours and never-ending debt, so he decided to live rent free off the coast of Key West. I’ll be curious to find out what he did about his debt, because it never goes away. Maybe he’ll have some tips for us?

The Countdown is On!

With only twelve days until we leave, you can bet we are counting not only the days, but the hours! Scott and I have always wanted to live in the US Virgin Islands, so we are excited to see if it is what we imagined. Be sure to follow our journey on social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) @BoatingJourney for an inside peek to our trip.

As always, thank you for following our journey! Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel and watch for our upcoming episodes touring the USVI. Until next time!

Cheers,
Scott and Ally

April 4, 2021April 4, 2021

How Dogs & Boats Brought Us Together

Last weekend, Scott and I traveled to Whidbey Island to spend the day with our new “God Dog” Soleil. Ironically, it was dogs and boats that brought us together with Soleil’s parents. For the second week in a row, we took the ferry and this time we were in the very front. The trip from Mukilteo to Clinton only takes about 15 minutes.

Mac didn’t like boating

When Scott and I bought our first boat Kokomo in 2017, we assumed our golden Mac would LOVE boating with us. Unfortunately, it was not his favorite past time. Probably because it was a very long walk to the boat and at 14 years old, he wasn’t into it.

Once on the boat, he did great, mostly slept or begged for food. Mac always wanted to be by our side, so he didn’t venture far. We tried to keep his life jacket on him all the time, because he fell into the water twice. But during the summer, he was just too hot wearing it.

Sadly, we said goodbye to Mac in January 2018 and we still are “dogless”. It broke our hearts and we’re still not completely over the loss.

Could Mac be channeling his spirit?

I have had four goldens during my lifetime and they have a special place in my heart. Though I grew up with black labs, there’s something about a golden that makes you smile. Fast forward to 2019, when I was working at our Roche Harbor Rendezvous for work. It was a hot summer day and I was busy on the docks. Imagine my surprise, when a Sea Ray pulled up with a golden on the bow. I dropped everything and ran over to greet them.

I immediately fell in love with Tiller and she kept looking for me the entire weekend. Something about Tiller, reminded me so much of Mac. Her mannerisms and personality, were a clone of Mac. It was as if he was channeling his spirit through Tiller. Her owners, Marshall and Lauren agreed with me, as she would do things they hadn’t seen before (i.e. paw at me). After that weekend, I kept in touch with them and followed Tiller’s adventures on Whidbey Island and boating around Puget Sound.

Last summer, during our trip to Blaine to tour a Navigator, Lauren and Marshall, took a quick detour so I could see Tiller. What a special treat that was! It made my day! I was glad that Scott got to meet her too and see how much she acted like Mac.

The bond between dogs and boaters

There’s something unique about boat dogs and boaters. We have a bond, that others don’t understand. Perhaps it’s the challenges of dealing with a dog on the dock, or watching them take in the salty air as you cruise? Whatever it is, I love that boating introduced me to the Corson family and Tiller.

Sadly, she left for the Rainbow Bridge early this year due to cancer. I’m sure Mac was waiting to say hi and romp around. When you lose an animal, especially your heart dog, it’s devastating. I’ve always said, that new animals, don’t replace the ones that left us. They are instead, an addition to our family.

Meet Soleil

Having such a strong love for goldens, Lauren and Marshall welcomed a new golden puppy named Soleil. Scott and I were so honored to be asked to be her “God dog” parents and we headed over to Whidbey Island for a day at the beach.

I bought her a dental chew toy and Mac’s favorite woobie, a hedgehog. I think she approved.

In memory of Tiller, I had a blanket made with her on it. My niece and nephew did the same thing for me and I knew I had to do one for Lauren & Marshall. (You can make your own at Shutterfly).

Exploring Langley for the first time

First we grabbed lunch at Mukilteo Coffee Roasters and I have to say, it was one of the best sandwiches and burgers we’ve ever had. Plus, they are dog friendly! Scott and I took turns babysitting Soleil at the table.

From there, we checked out the Langley Marina. I had tried making reservations for our Bayliner 4087 a couple of years ago, but they were full. After seeing the marina and how tight it is, perhaps that turned out to be okay!

The four of us, then headed into Langley to explore a bit. Right as we pulled in, it began to pour down rain. Still, with pup in hand, we ran into Callahan’s Firehouse Gallery to check things out.

The store features all kinds of hand blown glass art pieces and gifts. We ended up buying two wishing stones – hopefully our wish comes true!

Dogs & boats, the perfect blend

Unfortunately the rain continued and it was getting too wet for all of us, including Soleil, so we called it a day when we left the gallery. Thanks to Facebook, we’re able to stay connected with Lauren and watch Soleil grow. I love that dogs and boating brought us together. Lauren and I discovered a few other small world ironies that involve goldens, bonding us even more.

Now they see Tiller channeling her spirit through Soleil. As I said earlier, a new member never replaces the ones lost, they simply are an addition to the family & the story. Thank you to Lauren & Marshall for sharing Soleil with us. It was truly a special weekend.

As always, thank you for following our journey! Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel (video below) and follow us on social @BoatingJourney. We leave for the USVI in three weeks and we’re so excited to share that journey with you. Cheers, Scott and Ally

February 13, 2021February 14, 2021

Swapping out the BVIs for the US Virgin Islands

Back in 2019, we booked a bareboat charter to the BVIs (British Virgin Islands) for March of 2020. We were the first group to be postponed due to the covid pandemic and it was probably a blessing as we may have been stuck down there. The four of us (Scott and our friends Ben & Maria) rescheduled the trip for February 2021. We were thinking that surely the pandemic would be over by then, right?

Opening up the islands to tourists

In October 2020, many of the Caribbean Islands started allowing tourists back, but under very strict guidelines. The BVIs implemented one of the strictest policies making travel there near impossible. First you had to have a negative covid test before boarding your plane. Then you received another test when landing and would then need to quarantine for four days. After four days, you take another test and if that is negative, you are allowed to tour only certain (non-tourist) locations on the island for another four days. After that, you were allowed to visit approved mooring fields and marinas on day nine.

Since our charter is only for five days, these rules would not work for us. As a result, we moved the charter to April 2021, in hopes they would ease up on the restrictions. That has not happened and it looks like they are here to stay for most of 2021. In addition, all water ports are currently closed and we were arriving by ferry from St Thomas.

Change of plans

Since we had our airfare booked (arriving in St. Thomas), the four of us decided to continue the trip and visit the US Virgin Islands. Ironically, Scott and I have traveled to many Caribbean islands, including the Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Dominica and St. Maartin, but never the US Virgin Islands.

Our plan is to stay three nights on the east end of St. Thomas, then take a flight to St. Croix. There we are staying on the northeast end for four nights. We were going to take a ferry to St. Croix, but in the end the flight was easier and much faster. From there Scott and I are heading to St. John for three nights, so it is a stretched out trip.

Boating in the US Virgin Islands

Looking at the excursions that are offered, there are a lot to choose from! Kayaking at night looks interesting and they also offer an eco kayak trip. We definitely want to go sailing and snorkeling a few times and squeeze in a sunset cocktail cruise too. If you have any recommendations of “must do” excursions in the US Virgin Islands, please let us know!

Scott and I have wanted to retire in the USVIs for a long time, so it will be interesting to see if this destination meets our expectations. We could have moved our Moorings departure from Tortola to St. Thomas now that they have a base there. But honestly, we have been waiting for years to do the BVIs and we didn’t want to swap that out for the USVIs. Maybe after we boat around in April, we might regret our decision. We’ll see.

Our trip takes off on April 23rd for ten days. We do have to complete an online profile for covid and provide a negative test before we can enter the islands. For this trip we did buy trip insurance, as things can change at any moment.

Tune in next week for a tour of a Bayliner 4788. Please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel (see Star Clipper video link below). As always, we thank you for following our journey!

Cheers, Scott and Ally

October 25, 2020October 25, 2020

2006 Meridian 411 Yacht Tour

In our last blog, we wrapped up our four day charter trip on a 2006 Meridian 411 yacht through the San Juan Islands. While we were anchored at Stuart Island we did a quick tour of the boat, so you can see what kind of layout this Meridian has.

The tour

Scott and I have been wanting to buy a Meridian yacht for a few years. We are interested in Meridian yachts that are 45′-50′ long, so this yacht was a bit small for a liveaboard. The outdoor space was great and the salon offered comfortable seating.

(Unfortunately, I also didn’t think to take official photos of the heads or flybridge, so be sure to check out our YouTube episode for the video tour.)

The galley was a bit small, but we did like that the sinks had covers, so you could make additional counter space. The fridge was a bit small and the stove top only had two burners (which were really small too). We made it work though. For breakfast, I cooked up the sausage ahead of time and kept it warm on the grill, while I used the same pans to make the eggs.

The microwave is also a convection oven, but it took up a huge part of the counter. We ended up using the top of it to store our plates and napkins. However, each time we were underway, we had to put everything away that was on the counter.

One part of the settee seat is reversible for the captain’s chair. The settee was also very small. It barely sat four people and that meant that one person always ate on the couch for each meal.

Linens for the Meridian Yacht charter

When we first got on the boat, I was surprised to see towels and linens stacked in the salon and on the beds. While your charter does come with linens and towels, the charter company now leaves them for the guests thanks to covid-19. Their sheets were not fitted, so it took us a bit longer than normal. We had also brought our own towels due to the pandemic.

Which is the Master Stateroom?

Scott and I went around and around on which room was the master on the Meridian 411 yacht. The mid-ship cabin was big, had a full walk around, a small sitting couch and two big closets. However, not only was the day head connected to it, but you could not stand up in it!! (Be sure to watch our last video for the tour of the stateroom).

The v-berth was also a queen size bed, but you have to hop up into it. It had a private head, so we finally determined that it was the master. With all of the drawers under the bed, we ended up using those to store all of our food.

Overall Impression

This yacht was definitely nicer than the Carver we had originally been booked in. It is a great cruising boat for a couple with small kids. My brother-in-law Kurt ended up sleeping on the couch in the salon and he had plenty of room.

We also like that it had somewhat good storage. Since the boat came equipped with pots, pans, utensils, etc, it took up a lot of the storage space we would normally use.

Would we rent it again? Not for more than four people. It was just too snug and difficult to prepare meals for everyone. Be sure to tune in next week, as we take you on a quick tour of Stuart Island and anchor for the first time overnight.

As always, thank you for following our journey! Be sure to subscribe to our blog and YouTube channel for future episodes. Follow us on social media @BoatingJourney.

Cheers, Scott and Ally

Click on the video below for a full tour. In hindsight, we should have recorded the tour before things go messy inside. That is easier said than done, because the tour was the last thing on our mind when we arrived to Anacortes.

September 27, 2020September 27, 2020

Our Anacortes Yacht Charter to Roche Harbor

It has been three long months since Scott and I have been boating so we finally decided to charter a yacht from Anacortes Yacht Charters and visit the San Juan Islands. We have talked to AYC many times at the Seattle Boat Show and they have a great selection of yachts from which to choose. We chose to depart from Anacortes to save time and get over to the San Juan Islands quickly.

You might ask, did we look at other charter companies? Great question – yes we did. However, this was a very last minute decision that also involved another party. We had invited my brother-in-law Kurt and his brother Cal (and girl friend Tracey) to come along. Long story short, only Cal and Tracey decided to go and our choices were pretty limited in regards to available boats around 40-45′. There is some irony to this story so keep reading!

We reserved a 40′ Carver and I sent everyone a photo and link to the yacht, which had two large staterooms.

After we reserved it, I started looking for YouTube videos of the Carver and noticed that our model (that I thought I reserved), didn’t have big staterooms. Uh ho! Sure enough, I reserved the wrong Carver! Instead of an aft cabin Carver, we had reserved a Carver 410 Sport Sedan that only had a V-berth and a small cabin for stowaways. Since it was my mistake, we’d take the small cabin.

More surprises ahead!

A week before our departure, Kurt calls and says he would like to join us. Awesome!! (Remember, he not only has years of boating experience, but he is a retired Chief Engineer for the Washington Ferries). So we love having him on board!

One problem though – this boat only has two staterooms and the couch is curved. I tried calling Anacortes Yacht Charters to see if we could upgrade to a larger boat and they said no – we would have to pay a cancellation fee.

The other bit of info I should share, is that we wanted to charter for four (4) nights, but the boat was only available for three. Unfortunately, if you reserve a boat for less than four nights, you pay extra fees as a penalty. Plus, we wanted to do a sleepover on it the night before, so we could get under way first thing in the morning. There was another fee for that! I’ll share our charter costs at the end of this blog series.

Two days before we depart, Scott sends out a group email that simply says “Bad news. The Charter company called and……..” Everyone’s heart stopped at that sentence. Luckily, he finished it by saying “…..the Carver ran aground, so they need to upgrade us to a Meridian 411”. We all sighed in relief and were thrilled! This was a much nicer boat, great layout and the couch wasn’t curved.

Packing the truck

The five us wanted to ride up together and I told everyone to pack lightly. We also wanted to drop a couple of crab pots, so Cal brought along two of his. (We didn’t know until later that the boat comes with two pots). Arriving to Cal’s house, it was obvious we may have to take two cars. But you have to know Scott; he’s the master at tetris and he made it work!

It also helps that we have a Nissan Armada and everyone fit comfortably!

Then on our way up, we asked Kurt where his sleeping bag was? (he’s sleeping on the couch). Ooops, guess who forgot to pack one! Luckily, we were just approaching Cabelas and he stopped and bought one there. Another note – the boat had plenty of spare blankets, so he didn’t need to.

Provisioning & Itinerary

Since this was a short trip, I told everyone to bring their own beverages and favorite snacks. Provisioning was really simple. When we were at a marina, we planned on eating breakfast and dinner at a restaurant to support the locals. This ended up being a good idea, as the fridge was really small compared to the one on our Bayliner 4087.

In addition, many of the cupboards were full of supplies. We ended up putting food in drawers in the master stateroom.

With only three days to explore, we kept the itinerary easy. We planned on leaving Anacortes on Monday morning and head over to Roche Harbor (26 miles) where we would stay at the marina and explore. Tuesday, we would head to Stuart Island (8 miles) and stay the night in Prevost Harbor and then head to Friday Harbor (13 miles) the next day. Had the trip been longer, we would have anchored more and explored a few more islands.

Anacortes Yacht Charter Check-In

This was our first charter (remember our BVI charter was postponed until next February), so we didn’t know what to expect. They are very strict about arrival times, so be sure to adhere to those. We arrived to the office at 4pm on Sunday and they had Scott review the paperwork and then watch a 30 minute safety video. We were all there, so we joined in. They offer free water, coffee and ice cream – so it was worth it!

From there, we met with our check-in captain on the boat at Cap Sante Marina. They were running late from the previous charter that day, so we had to wait about an hour before we could board. Since we couldn’t get a cocktail, we just walked around the marina a bit.

Once on board, she walked us through the interior and exterior of the boat. One tip I have, is be sure to video tape any instructions (i.e. turning on the generator), as they may come in handy later.

The captain also took Scott and Kurt down into the engine room – that ended up being a great idea later. The access is under the flybridge stairs, which was pretty convenient (versus lifting up the floor board in the salon).

Once you have gone through the boat, the captain will then have the crew take the boat down the fairway, turn around and dock it. One thing I was disappointed about is she didn’t ask us about our experience as boaters. We did share with her that we had many years experience, yet she didn’t give us consideration for that. For example, she told Kurt (who has owned three boats over 30 years) how to properly tie off a cleat!

A beautiful night at Cap Sante Marina

Once we unpacked, the five us relaxed and enjoyed the sunset. I had made a cold pasta salad for dinner earlier in the day and that worked out great!

The other irony of the evening, was that Simbault, the 1995 Navigator 53 Sundance yacht that we toured in July was right across from us. So far, this has been our favorite liveaboard option – we just can’t find a home for it. Watch that episode here.

The weather forecast

I have a number of weather apps on my phone and around 7pm, every alert went off. The weather was changing and now we were expecting 22knot winds and 4′ seas as we crossed the Rosario Straits and San Juan Channel. Not what you want to see. I texted our broker (who has sold many Meridians) and he assured me that the yacht could easily handle these seas.

The weather was beautiful in the marina when we woke up. Since we couldn’t check into Roche until about 12pm, we took our time leaving from Anacortes, as the trip would only be about 2 hours (even in bad weather).

As we left Anacortes and entered the Guemes Channel, things were nice and calm. We crossed the Rosario Straits and headed to the north end of Shaw. Another thing to note, is the AYC gave us a map of areas to avoid. If you run aground in any of those areas, you are not covered by insurance. To play it safe, we took no known short cuts. It was such a comfortable trip, that I forgot about the weather forecast.

I spoke too soon. As soon as we rounded Shaw Island and entered the San Juan Channel, the white caps appeared and we were in 5′ seas. The photo below doesn’t do it justice, but the footage does – so be sure to watch the video on our YouTube channel. We had the isinglass panel out, so all of us got sprayed the entire trip up the channel.

Then things go terribly wrong!

I was excited to get into Roche Harbor early, so we could all explore the sites. It’s very important that you enter the bay on the west side of Pearl Island, as the eastside is shallow. In fact, the Carver that ran aground went that way.

In the bay, you’ll find lots of boats anchored out, so it’s important to be respectful to them. Go slowly and around them, versus through the anchor field. We heard one boat on the VHF that said “hey, thanks to the idiot and your wake going thru our anchor field” and no, it wasn’t us.

Scott put the boat in neutral while he got ready to radio in for slip assignment and that’s when all hell broke loose. Immediately an alarm went off and he says “It’s our high water alarm! We’re taking on water!” Kurt and I ran down to the cockpit (I grabbed my life jacket) and he went into the engine room. At that point he told me not to panic, but we have over 2′ of water in the engine room! In the middle of the chaos, I didn’t get a chance to get a photo of it. The photo below indicates how high up the water was!

Try not to panic

There are two things that terrify me about boating – sinking and catching fire. After putting on my life jacket, I asked Kurt if I should lower the dinghy?! He calmly said, “No, let’s see if the bilge pumps start pumping the water out”. After about a minute, he said he thought the water was going down slowly. I then called Anacortes Yacht Charters (while the very loud high pitch water alarm is blaring) and tell them we are taking on water. Oddly, she asked me if we were sinking and I said no. I told her we were making our way to the dock and she said she would send out a tech in a few hours. My initial thought? Are you kidding me?!! More on that later.

Unfortunately, the marina office couldn’t hear us hailing them on the vhf due to the alarm. Thank God I’m Facebook friends with the manager and I had been messaging her all morning. I quickly sent her a note, that we needed our slip assignment asap! To make things more stressful, we had never arrived to Roche by boat, so we weren’t too sure where go to. I knew the guest docks were on the far end towards the beach and she assigned us 5A. Luckily, we went straight to it (I wasn’t sure which side of the dock we were on).

The staff at the marina was fantastic and helped us get docked and situated. Once we were secured, we checked the engine room and it was finally dry. We still didn’t know where the leak was coming from, but we did discover that the aft bilge pump did not work at all. That meant the mid and forward pumps were doing all of the work. With over 500 gallons of water pouring in, they could only pump out so fast. Now we had to wait for the technician to show up and figure out what was happening. Spending our first hour in the engine room upon our arrival, was not what we had planned! However, we were so thankful that Kurt was with us (once again – we broke down the last time we went to the San Juan Islands).

Stay tuned for our next blog, as we explore Roche Harbor and try to figure out where the leak is coming from! As always, thank you for following our journey! Please subscribe to our YouTube channel (see episode below) and follow us on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter @BoatingJourney.

Cheers, Scott & Ally

August 21, 2020August 21, 2020

We went to Summer Camp!

A few weekends ago, Scott and I spent some time at Camp Grande on Camano Island. Our friends, Ben and Maria had invited us up for a fun weekend of crabbing, playing games and campfires at their cabin.

As many of you know, my family has a home on the southeast end of Camano Island. Camp Grande is located on the northwest end of the island facing Whidbey Island and the Saratoga Passage.

What is Camp Grande?

In 1956, two families bought a 9 acre camp that featured a boat house, 24 cabins and 28 boats. They ran the camp until 1970 and then put it up for sale. It remained vacant until 1976 when a group of friends pooled their money to purchase the property. The original group of 40 shareholders, Pilchuck Association, was excited to look at Camp Grande as a possible investment. It was offered for sale at $213,000 and though it seemed like a lot of money forty+ years ago, it has proven to be a great decision. Unfortunately, the camp had fallen prey to vandalism and destruction while vacant. As a result they had a lot of work to do in order to get it back to a functional camp. Check out the full history of Camp Grande on two blogs: Beaches of Camano Island:Camp Grande and SunnyshoreStudio.

Fast forward to today. Ben’s mom and dad were original investors in the camp and that then allowed them to transfer “shares” to their children. So Ben and Maria are partners with two other families in cabin 17. They were in a different cabin originally and have since moved. Think of this as sort of a time share.

The view from their cabin is absolutely gorgeous!

Time to go crabbing!

Ben has a 12′ Smoker Craft fishing boat that he can easily trailer and use for crabbing.

We needed to check on the crab pots before low tide, so we quickly headed over to the Maple Grove boat launch about 5 minutes away. There’s no dock, so boaters simply “beach” their boats after they launch.

Scott and Ben hopped in the boat and navigated over to Camp Grande to check on the pots. After they got their haul, Ben simply tied the boat to the tall dock (where it would hopefully stay afloat during low tide).

So many crabs, clams and mussels!

Since we were having a huge seafood dinner the next day, we were thrilled that we caught our limit of ten crabs! Maria was far braver than me – she had no issue picking them up! If you recall from my other crabbing blog, there are two ways to cook/kill crab. Some people put them in the boiling water alive and then clean them; others stab them in half, clean them and then boil them. That’s how Maria prefers to do it.

After a fabulous lunch (thanks to Maria), we headed back down to the beach to get some clams and mussels for our seafood dinner. The tide was really low, so we had plenty of beach to work with. Note that you do need a license to harvest clams and mussels as well.

Beautiful sunset

Since we are accustomed to being on the east side of the island, we never get to enjoy the sunset, so this trip offered a real treat. After dinner, we built a fire and got ready for some serious star gazing! The view was stunning and magical. We had no idea what the following night would have in store for us!

A day at camp

The next day, Scott and Ben headed out to check the crab pots once again and caught three. Afterwards, we had a fantastic lunch, played some lawn games and soaked up some much needed sun. They also gave me an early birthday present – love it!!

There were so many bald eagles everywhere too! They seemed to visit us about every half hour.

After enjoying some sun, Ben and I headed out for the final trip to pull the crab pots. I tried doing the pulling, but it’s not that easy when you don’t have a pot puller. Plus Scott was making me laugh as he was filming me with the drone. Unfortunately, we only caught one crab this time. (again, we didn’t grab a photo, so this is a screenshot from the video.)

Just minutes after we got out of the boat, Ben spotted a spout in the water! A humpback whale was frolicking in the bay! Who would guess that we would get to see eagles and whales all in the same day!

The property was covered in Hydrangea plants and it was so beautiful to walk around.

A fantastic dinner with great friends and scenery!

With clams purging and Champagne ready, we were ready for an amazing feast!

One thing about Maria, is she is a fantastic cook! I pride myself on being an amazing chef, but she has me beat! We had a fine dining experience in epic surroundings. Maria made grilled lobster and shrimp skewers for our first course.

Maria also made a fantastic clam recipe. I’m not a huge clam eater – I like them very small and swimming in garlic. So when we were clamming and she kept digging for the big ones I was getting grossed out. Turns out, she guts each clam and then chops up the meat. From there she seasons them, and grills them in their shells with tomatoes and bacon. Let me tell you – they were delicious!

The irony of the dinner, was we had so many appetizers that we hardly touched the crab! Of course, I failed to get a photo of that too. We had so much left over crab, that Scott and I enjoyed a crab Louie the following night for dinner!

Sunset, stars and the moon

We finished the night with a campfire and s’mores., just as if we were at camp.

There’s something to be said about summer in the Pacific Northwest! The sunsets are pink and vibrant, the skies are filled with stars at night and the moon shines brightly.

Scott and I can’t thank Ben and Maria enough for such a fun and fabulous weekend. It’s during these trying times, that we realize how important friendships are to us. We know the four of us will have an amazing time in the BVI’s on our bareboat charter next February!

We captured some amazing video footage, including drone footage of our weekend. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and see the video below.

As always, thank you for following our story! Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter @BoatingJourney and use the hashtag #boatingjourney. Thank you for subscribing to our blog and our YouTube Channel. We’ll see you on water soon!

Cheers, Scott and Ally

August 7, 2020August 7, 2020

Whaler Life on a 170 Montauk at Camano Island

Last month, I sat down with my nephew Jake who owns a 2006 Boston Whaler 170 Montauk, to talk about beach life and how he likes his Whaler. Jake has owned the boat for three years and is the second owner of the boat. Tyee Beach is located on the east side of Camano Island facing Port Susan.

It is a private beach that is made up of mostly vacation homes. However, many people live there all-year round, including my aunt and uncle.

Crabbing, shrimping & fishing

During the summer months, everyone at the beach spends their time out on their boats crabbing, fishing and shrimping – when it’s open that is. In Washington state, we have a very limited crabbing season and shrimp season is only open about two days.

Jake uses 27″ diameter crab pots that weigh about 20lbs. As you can see in the video above, you need a boat that can handle not only the load, but the dirty work. The great thing about the Montauk line is that it is designed to handle rugged activities like fishing and crabbing.

It’s rugged enough to beach it on rocky surfaces and you don’t have to worry about the boat getting messy. Once you’re done for the day, simply hose down the deck and you’re good to go!

At the same time, the 170 Montauk offers comforts to everyone – its easy to stand in, plenty of seating with comfortable cushions, tons of storage and optional fishing packages. It also has all of the navigation you need, including fish finder and GPS. Jake also added a crab pot puller and it makes life so much easier – trust me, I know first hand.

Great Family Boat

When Jake is not out fishing, he loves to take his family out for a cruise. With a young daughter and nephews, safety is his top priority – he loves that the Whaler is unsinkable!

Jake’s 170 Montauk is outfitted with a Mercury 90 HP motor, which gets him to where he needs to be quickly! He has even taken the Montauk over to Langley on Whidbey Island, about 8 nautical miles away. At 17′ long, you feel like you are in a much bigger boat than it actually is.

The perfect boat for the Pacific Northwest

I asked Jake when he thought he might buy a different boat. He said he has no plans to buy one as of now since Whalers can last a life-time. Their durability and easy to tow feature, makes them a great boat for the Pacific Northwest.

One funny and ironic story about Jake’s Montauk is from awhile back. My family had been teasing me about not trusting their mooring ball for our own boat (Bayliner 4087). It hadn’t been tested and we didn’t know if it could hold 23,000 lbs.

Scott and I were up at the beach on a stormy night and the Montauk was tied to the mooring ball. Winds started howling around midnight and got up to 30 knots. The next morning, my aunt woke me up at 5am to an emergency! The neighbor’s Bayliner 3988 had broken from its mooring line and the Montauk not only caught it, but it held it during the wind storm! It only suffered a couple of scrapes too. That’s impressive!

Scott and I are truly blessed to be able to enjoy time up on Camano Island and the fact that we can still go boating, makes it that much better! Thank you to Jake for taking us out crabbing and getting to spend a fun day on the water. The PNW is a beautiful place to live and we’ll never take for granted the beauty we get to experience here. Be sure to check out our interview with Jake below.

As always, thank you for following our story!

Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter @BoatingJourney and use the hashtag #boatingjourney. Thank you for subscribing to our blog and our YouTube Channel. We’ll see you on water soon! Cheers, Scott and Ally

May 17, 2020June 3, 2020

Boating is finally open!

Scott and I have been spending our weekends cooped up on the boat at the marina during this quarantine. Due to the shelter order, we were not allowed to venture out and go boating. Some boaters did choose to go out and anchor, but some of the them got flack for leaving.

On May 5, 2020 the governor finally opened up recreational boating and allowed fishing to resume! Plus the weather forecast for the following weekend was hot and sunny – we’re talking mid 80’s! Scott and I both took Friday off and planned to get away for the weekend on the boat.

Where do we go?

The photo above was taken up north by Whidbey Island years ago on our old boat. We have been itching to go anchor somewhere and learn the ropes. But we’ve always wanted to have Ben and Maria on board, so we can practice for the BVI’s. By Thursday, I noticed most of the boating channels we follow on Instagram were heading out early Friday.

The more we thought about it, we decided it was not in the best interest for us to leave the first weekend that boating was open. Too much traffic and we would be better off working on the boat (sad face). But wait! It gets better and in fact, everyone who left for the weekend ended up being jealous of us. More on that later.

Weekend of boat projects

When you own a boat, you never run out of projects. Since the weather was warm and sunny, we tackled some serious cleaning projects on the boat. Another item on our to do list, was to replace the spot light that got ripped off last year. How did that happen? Well, our slip neighbor’s boat stuck out into the fairway too far (almost 5′) and their dinghy was hanging up by the davit about 6′. When we pulled out, the spotlight on the bowsprit got caught on their dinghy line and the force pulled it off, leaving the base on. We ended up using white flexi-tape to reattach it until we could get it fixed.

Looking at the photo above, you would assume, that to remove the spotlight, you would simply undo the screws. Nope, of course not. Turns out that when Bayliner produced this boat, they mounted the spot light on the top portion of the bowsprit, THEN connected the bottom portion, so there was no way to access the spot light.

We finally gave up trying to figure it out and called Emerald Harbor Marine to fix it. They ended up having to destroy the old one and mount a new one. Looks great, don’t you think?! A good tip, if you don’t already know this, is be sure to turn your spot light around (if you don’t have a cover) so that debris doesn’t break the glass while underway.

Friday evening happy hour

We invited my brother-in-law, Kurt and his girlfriend, Stacey down on Friday evening for happy hour. Kurt wanted to take another look at the dinghy engine to try and troubleshoot it. He was the chief engineer on the ferries, so he knows his stuff. We’ve all been quarantined for 60+ days, so we felt comfortable having them down. We still kept our distance and “air hugged” each other. That’s probably the hardest part of this social distancing.

If you recall from our last blog, we have had troubles getting the outboard on the dinghy to start. We replaced the fuel, fuel filters, spark plugs and cleaned out the carburetor. At first, the engine would start, but not stay on without the choke. We assumed it was the carburetor, so that’s why Scott took it apart to clean. But after all that, we couldn’t even the get engine to start.

So this time Kurt and Scott took off the outboard cover and sprayed CRC Jump Start into the carburetor as they were starting it. It finally started and Kurt realized that the idle was set too low. Once he adjusted it, it stayed running! Woot!!

This calls for a celebration. Time for happy hour and some food! We use the propane tank housing as a counter all the time. Works great!

You’ll never believe what happened next!!

The four of us were relaxing in the cockpit when we started hearing screaming. We didn’t pay much attention to it, until our neighbor Miguel, shouted over to us that there was a gray whale off our stern in the fairway! Yep, you heard that right. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get this week’s notification, of when we upload the video. It was crazy!

All of our boat neighbors who left for the weekend, were so bummed they missed out! It was about 30′ long and he just casually swam away. That was definitely a first for us and I think Elliott Bay Marina too.

Next day – time to test out the dinghy!

Keep in mind, that we’ve only used the dinghy twice since we bought the boat. We took one trip around the marina last summer and then we tried to go for a ride last Fall and it died on us just feet away from the boat. Since the weather was hot and we were home bound, might as well get some kind of boat ride in.

We grabbed the oars and pushed off, as our neighbor Miguel wished us luck.

Time for Ally to learn to fly the drone

Since it was a beautiful sunny day on Sunday, we decided to have me learn how to fly the drone. I get a bit freaked out when the drone heads out over the water, but that’s why we bought a drone. Scott did a great job explaining how things work. Now I just need practice. We’ll have the footage on our YouTube channel in upcoming episodes – so be sure subscribe!

Now was the extent of our first hot and sunny weekend. Let us know what you think? Should we be out boating now? Is it too soon? We’d love to hear from you. If you thought the whale sighting was awesome, be sure to check out our next blog and episode for more awesome encounters! Next Blog

As always, thank you for following us! Be sure to follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram @BoatingJourney, so you can see our stories and get current updates on our progress. Also, check out our YouTube channel at @BoatingJourney and subscribe for future episodes. Cheers, Scott & Ally

December 22, 2019December 27, 2019

What a year we had on our boat in 2019!

Scott and I started 2019 without a boat and with no big plans to get another one. But just one month later, things changed drastically! In February we made the announcement on a very snowy day, that we had made an offer on “Our Happy Day” and were going to sea trials . I don’t think it really sunk in that the boat was ours until we picked up the keys after our trip to the Caribbean.

Before we got the keys to the boat, we went on an epic trip with our friends Ben & Maria cruising the Leeward Islands on the Star Clipper. That trip was so much fun, that the four of us have chartered a power catamaran next April in the BVI’s.

Scott and I were excited to get home, take possession and get to know the boat. There was so much to learn, as everything was completely different than our first boat.

Ports of call

Looking back at this year, we accomplished a lot on the boat. We visited Dock Street in Tacoma, Port of Kingston, Port Orchard and Port of Bremerton.

While didn’t do as many overnight trips as we had hoped, we did spend almost every weekend boating around Elliott Bay with friends and family.

opening day of boating season — Tracey & Cal

The never ending project list

With the boat being 17 years old, it had some work that needed to be done. The project list grew pretty fast. First on the list, was getting new cockpit carpet and it turned out great!

The canvas needs to be replaced, but in the meantime, we repaired what we could.

Of course we spent a few months trying to tackle the “smell” and at one point thought our holding tanks were leaking. We ended up cleaning the bilges and they are still dry. Turns out we did have in-line filters for our holding tank vents that needed to be replaced. Hopefully, that does the trick!

Lessons learned

First on the list of lessons was for me to learn how to dock the boat. I’ve only practiced once on the yacht dock, but I hope to practice in our slip this Spring.

We also learned how to anchor! First we had to find out how much chain we had and then we headed over to Port Madison to have lunch on the hook! We plan on anchoring over night next year before we leave on our trip in April to the BVI’s.

Just getting to know the boat was a lesson in itself. This included how to cook using propane, changing out our water filters and engine maintenance. That is a never ending list. I would say most full-time boaters say it takes a year to really get to know the ins and outs of your boat.

We certainly learned a lot after we hauled out this past Fall. Scott and I had hoped to have done the work ourselves so we could learn more, but it ended up being too big of a project for us.

What a year it was

Overall, we can say we had a great year on “Our Happy Day”. Scott and I learned a lot and we created lasting memories with great friends and family. We are truly blessed that we have this opportunity – years ago we never thought we would be here.

Thank you for following us on this journey! Next year will be full of exciting things and we can’t wait to share them with you. Until then, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you and your families.

Cheers, Scott & Ally

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