2016-10-16 Visit to Orcas Island

Yes, I know this is supposed to be about my boat trips, but it's my blog and I can put whatever I want on it.  In any case, this trip was sort of a boat trip since I had to take a Washington State ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands.

Here's a map snippet of Orcas Island:

It's not that far from Anacortes.  I think the ferry ride took about 45 minutes.

In one of my earlier blog posts I mentioned that I met Walt Corbin while he was stuck in Bar Harbor on his boat Untethered.  At that time I mentioned that I was going to be in the Seattle area in October, and he invited me to come visit him at his home on Orcas Island.

Orcas Island is pretty remote.
The biggest town is East Sound.
Walt's main house is in a remote part of the island, on about 60 acres of woodlands.
But he also has a smaller "cottage" near East Sound, and that's where I stayed for my 3 day visit.

Here's Walt offering me an apple from one of his many apple trees.
We took a tour of his acreage.
I think he remembers every one of the more than 3000 trees he planted on that property!

Walt has numerous deer that populate his property.
Since he has so many apple trees and he can't harvest all of the apples they produce there are many left on the ground.  The deer love them.

Here's Walt's main house and a couple of his out buildings.

The main house and car port

Garage and shop

Walt has a small lumber mill which he uses for his own purposes and also allows his friends and neighbors to use.

Notice that scary looking blade that runs horizontally.
I'm glad Walt still has all his fingers!


Walt drove me up a big mountain and we stopped at a look out.
Orcas Island is indeed a beautiful area and I certainly enjoyed my visit.

2016-10-01 Naha Trip with kids

In a rare alignment of the planets we were granted permission to take all 3 grand kids out on a boat trip.  And the weather cooperated too, which at this time of year is pretty rare.

After much trip prep we got all the gear and all the people in one place and pulled out at about 10:15 PM.
We headed to one of our most favorite places, the Naha dock in the back of Naha Bay.

This is October after all, and as usual a brisk NW wind was blowing, but we persevered anyway.

We arrived at the Naha dock at about 12:45 PM.
There were a couple of smaller boats there, but still plenty of room for us to tie up.

That's one of the elements of chance in this type of adventure.
These docks are first come, first served, so sometimes we get there and there is no room for us to tie up.
If you plan and prepare for a trip assuming that you'll be at a certain place, and then you can't tie up there, you have to have a Plan B, and sometimes even a Plan C.

These are the small boats that were there when we arrived.

This is our moorage spot at the dock.

Here's the tent the kids set up near the boat.
I had my doubts that they would actually last the night out there, but they did.

Here's the new ramp at the Naha dock.
We had about 2 years with no ramp, so we are really glad to have the ramp now.

Dock fishing is something the kids never seem to tire of.

Aliyah had fun shooting the BB gun.

I took the boys up the trail and we dispatched some bottles and cans with the .22 rifle.
I neglected to get some photos, but they love it.
I asked Tyler what he wanted for Christmas, and sure enough he said a .22 rifle.
Not much chance of that - a little too young I think.

Aliyah started cleaning the back deck, and I didn't even ask her!

The Naha river floods out just around the corner from the dock and this foam builds up around the dock.  Unfortunately it does discolor the hull of the boat.

On the way home we came across a whale in Clover Pass and got some photos.
I think this might have been the closest we have been to a whale with the kids on board.
They loved it!

We were back in the stall by around 3 PM after a great trip with the grand kids.

This is probably the last trip of the year since the weather really closes in and gets bad.
It was a good one to end on.

2016-08-30 Fishing with the Hammers

One of the neat things about having a nice boat is being able to take out family and friends.
Long time friend, fishing buddy, and basketball buddy Bob Hammer asked if I would take his son Josh and his family out for a day of fishing, and you can guess what my answer was.

We took off from the harbor about 8:30 AM in overcast, calm, and light rain conditions.

We started near Vallenor Rocks and stayed there until around noon, at which time we moved over to the Clover Pass area.

It wasn't super productive as far as the fishing goes, getting only 3 Silvers in the box before pulling the gear.

We did lose a couple (or a few) at the side of the boat.

But as far as a family memory experience I think it was terrific, and I think the Hammers thought so as well.

2016-08-18 Shelter Cover Again

Spending time with grand kids is extremely important to Lisa and me.
We like to get them out into remote areas and make appropriate diversions and recreations available to them so they can have a good time.

There is no Internet or cell phone access out in these areas, so video games, text messages, and e-mails are out of the question.

We had Aliyah, age 8, and Bryan, age 10, with us on this trip.
And of course First Mate Lisa, and First Dog Bina.

Our destination was Shelter Cove again, where we had just recently been with grand son Tyler.

We pulled out on a Thursday morning around 10:45 AM.
Weather was sunny and warm, with light NW breezes.
Perfect cruising weather.

We arrived at the Shelter Cove USFS dock at about 2 PM.
This time there were dozens of sea gulls encamped on the dock.
Shooing them away was easy - cleaning up their messes was a bit harder.

I'll let the photos show what a good time we all had on this trip.

This is just a little bit of what the sea gulls left behind.
I used a stiff bristle long handled brush that I keep on the boat to scrub at least the first layer off.
It made it habitable.

Bryan and Aliyah ham it up on the dock.
You can see the long handled brush behind them.
The weather was so warm they were quite comfortable with short sleeves and no jackets.

I dropped a couple of crab pots from the dock and we actually got some.

The weather was so nice I just set up the Coleman stove right there on the dock and cooked our spaghetti dinner there.  It would have been nicer without the sea gull s**t.

Bina cleaned up the dishes so I didn't even have to wash them.
(Just kidding.)

The fire pit got a lot of use, as well as the canvas chairs.
Bryan shoots the BB gun in the background.

Shelter Cove is in Carroll Inlet, which is mostly protected.
When the weather is calm it is a really beautiful area.

Bryan likes to shoot the BB gun.

Commando Bryan with the BB gun

Dock fishing is always popular on these trips.

S'Mores are fun to cook on the fire pit.

Trips in the raft are on the agenda.

The new electric kicker doesn't go fast enough to impress the kids.

It was a great trip and I know the kids had a good time and will have good memories of it.

We pulled out about 3 PM and headed out in a light rain.
We were in the stall about 6:30 PM after a great boat trip.

2016-08-11 Fishing with Dennis Madson

Back in my "UsedTa-Job" I had a working relationship with Dennis Madson.
Dennis is an avid fisherman and he has joined me in the past for fishing adventures.
Since I have retired now it had been some time since I had heard from Dennis.
But he did contact me to ask if he and his son Taylor could come up and go fishing.
I'm always eager to go fishing, so of course I said yes.

We pulled out on a Thursday morning at about 8:30 AM in overcast but calm conditions.

We started trolling almost right away near Vallenor Point.

By noon we had a nice Chum and 2 Pinks on board.
Not terrific, but better than getting skunked.

During lunch we moved over to Camaano Point, an area I had not fished for some time.

We only got 1 Silver over there, and so around 3 PM we moved over to Tatoosh Rocks.

At Tatoosh we picked up another couple of Pinks.

By 5 PM we were trolling near Grant Island but got nothing there.

Around 6 PM we pulled gear and headed in to the Naha dock.

We cleaned the fish and had a good dinner.

Taylor shows off a nice Silver

Dennis and Taylor show off our day's catch

On Friday morning we pulled out and started trolling right away at Indian Point.
Nothing there, so we moved and made another brief stop at Grant Island before moving on once again.

The weather was nice so we bounced our way up through Clover Pass stopping at various places to try some trolling.  But it was slow going - no new fish.

We ended up out at South Vallenor Point, an area not normally fishable.
But today it was very calm, so we gave it a try.

We ended up getting 2 more Pinks in this area before trying some bottom fishing.
Bottom fishing only yielded a small Turbot, trash fish.

It was a beautiful, calm evening, so at least the weather was nice.

We pulled the gear a little before 7 PM and headed in.
We dropped the fish off at Cedars Lodge for processing, and then headed for the stall.

It was nice to get out and to reconnect with Dennis and Taylor, but it was a little disappointing to not get so many fish.  The last time they were here I think we got around 24 Silvers.

2016-07-29 Shelter Cove with Tyler and Luke

For this trip my crew was 12 year old grandson Tyler and his friend Luke.

Destination was Shelter Cove, a USFS dock in Carroll Inlet, about 25 miles from town.
There is a logging road there and a small lake about a mile and a half up the road.
It's a neat place to visit.

We pulled out about 1:15 PM and pulled into the USFS dock there at about 4:15 PM.
No one else was there so we had it to ourselves, which is nice.

This trip was all about letting the kids have safe outdoor fun.

I'll let the photos tell most of the story.

Saw this yacht on our way out

Faraway sits at the Shelter Cove USFS dock

Another view of Faraway at the dock

One of the local residents

Tyler loves my old .22 rifle

Those cans never had a chance

Luke tries his hand with the .22 rifle

Luke and Tyler had fun in the raft

The kids had fun with the fire pit

The boys setting up the tent

I gave the boys the choice of sleeping on board or setting up the tent and sleeping out on the dock. 
They chose the tent.

And of course dock fishing is always popular ..

We got a small Pink while on the way home

From all the smiles I'm pretty sure the kids had a great time.

We were back in the slip at about 7:30 PM.