Back to being an island boy...

Certainly not a tropical island.

We drove north from the Seattle area today, in the more typical PNW drizzly conditions. Destination: Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. Not knowing what the demand would be for the ferry, we arrived an hour and a half early, and we weren't the first ones in line...


Trying to get into the island spirit, we kicked back and read and surfed while waiting for the ferry. Easy to say that when this is a once in a great while thing for us. They started loading the ferry about 12 minutes before the scheduled departure...


It was interesting watching the guy guide in vehicles, deciding on the fly which lane they should head to.


We wound up close to the front on the port side.


If it hadn't been raining, I might have just picked the car up and carried it under my arm and just paid as a walk-on. ;-)

Once underway, we went upstairs to the comfortable seating. Joan pulled up Maps on her iPhone to check the route, I went for the Navionics marine app...



The water was smooth as glass on the ride over; we only saw one boat out moving around...


A 42' Nordic Tug - a good looking boat that looked kinda small from this perspective.

This may be old hat to folks who live here, but the ferry ride was a treat for us. It took off right on time and pulled into the dock at Friday Harbor right on time.

We were in Friday Harbor nearly 6 years ago on our boat. It looks quite different this time of year: very few people out and about...


We walked the docks for a bit (the rain stopped) - saw a couple C-Dorys, reminisced about where we had last been on the docks, and enjoyed seeing the boats. We passed one other person out on the dock while we were there. Yep, it's quiet here. We visited with a nice guy in the Harbormaster's Office - very friendly and informative.

Time for supper; we set off in search of an Italian restaurant our friend Tom told us about. He couldn't remember the name of the place, but Friday Harbor isn't that big... a half our later, I stopped at a convenience store to ask. "Oh, that must be Vinnie's. It's good food." He gave me directions. Yeah, "Take a left by the ferry" didn't pan out for us, so Joan Googled it. Never would have found it, since it sits off the street and has no signage that you can see until you are right in front of the place. Of course, it was closed. I had my mouth ready for Italian, so we went to... Kung Fu Pizza. Chinese and pizza. Sounds odd, but the pizza was outstanding. And the Chinese menu looked good, too. We may have to go back tomorrow to try that out.

We visited with the young man who waited on us about life in Friday Harbor - he was originally from Florida and couldn't say enough good about this place and the people who call it home.

The room we are in for the next couple nights is compact, but very liveable. Right across the street from the place we were told to go for "the best breakfast in town." And, they have a hot tub. I can't imagine there'll be a crowd in there tonight. Quite a different pace from the past few days.

The Purchase...

Some of our friends seem to think we came here to buy another boat. Truly, Wild Blue suits us just fine. But, today, we did the "In The Water" portion of the boat show...


BIG boats. I don't think Big Red is up to towing these. ;-) And for our sailing friends, yes, we checked out the sailing options...


A 27' Hunter was the smallest boat there. For the power side of things, a North American 28 was the smallest thing on the water. We did look at some bigger stuff, too...


This one has a little more walking around space than Wild Blue. Without getting crazy, I did pick out my "If I Win The Lottery" boat...


And, inside...


Joan was feeling pretty comfortable at the helm of this one...


I nearly got a nosebleed after the climb to that upper helm.

Lots of fun. Oh, and that purchase... it wasn't a boat, but we did buy a couple of neat do-dads for quick deployment of fenders; seems that we pick up some of those at every boat show we go to... and sometimes they actually work. We bought a few more little odds and ends; I enjoy seeing "the better mousetrap" that inventors come up with for things that we didn't even know we needed.

The new Raymarine chartplotters are impressive. I haven't worn ours out, yet; but when I do, these will deserve strong consideration.

It's been fun seeing folks, checking out new boats, and getting a chance to be immersed in the type of boats that we enjoy... even if none of them were C-Dorys.

Still going...

The party last night was big fun. About 60 like-minded C-Dory folks. Some of us went by bus to Pat and David's Tap Room...


There was music by one of our own C-Brats, Peter and company...


Not just music - AMAZING musicianship by all 5 guys!

Good food and lively conversation...


Sorry I didn't get more photos; it was 3/4 of the way into the evening before I even thought to pull out the camera. The C-Brats are a great bunch of people... united by the boats we drive, unique and friendly. A lot like the forum itself. It was the opportunity to renew some old friendships and meet a lot of folks that we knew by their posts on the forum. Great to be able to put the faces and voices with the names and the writing.

This morning, it was lunch in the lobby area, with more visiting, and now we're off to look at boats and boat stuff again.

Adventures in boat show attending...

Even though the show didn't start 'till 11:00, we were excited to get out and about. Nobody told me I was gonna have to start the day like this...


Yep - ice on the windows. The traffic was pretty thick on I-5 as we got close to downtown. The last time we were here, I commented on how polite other drivers were to us... not so much today, but that might be the California plates on our rental car!!

We drove around downtown a bit, got our tickets, then parked the car. $11... on a square footage basis, they are getting a good price for this Speck...


I cursed at the size of the car when we picked it up... not much else would have fit into that skinny parking space.

And, here we are at the boat show! We stood in line, waiting for the doors to open. Did I mention that it was cold? No? It was. Good thing we didn't leave our coats in the car, but then we had to carry them around all day.

An overview...


I was not surprised to discover that there wasn't a single C-Dory on display at the show. Disappointed, but not surprised. One of the most active displays is the Ranger Tug area...


Since we were some of the first ones in the door, we were able to get that shot before it filled up with people. We were able to say hi to Jeff Messmer (we bought our C-Dory from him when he was with C-Dory - he's a VP at Ranger and doing a fine job of taking care of owners) and tour through the boats; one of each model on display. While they all look good, the new 31 was getting a LOT of attention...


VERY cool cockpit seats that fold out from the sides. Of course, the big attraction of that model is the new command bridge...


One of the really great things about coming here is the opportunity to see friends... and Joe and Ruth are some of the nicest people you will ever meet...


We walked our feet off, made it past many of the displays, visited some of the folks at the various booths, and barely made it through this part of the show before we had to head back to the hotel to catch the bus to the C-Dory gathering this evening.

I did stop at the Hinckley display to check out the beautiful picnic boat...


They must be selling like hotcakes, cause that guy you see in the photo was barely able to look up from his computer to acknowledge me. It is a beautiful boat, but I would have to get surgery to have my nose turned up in order to buy one. Or maybe get an ascot? That is a stereo-type, and he was playing the part to the hilt.

Looking forward to seeing lots of C-Dory friends tonight and doing more boat show looking tomorrow.

Spoiled...

I admit it: I'm spoiled. We took a flight out of Phoenix today... left the coach 3 hours early for a 3 hour flight. You never know what the traffic will be like for the 25 minute (normally) drive to the airport. You're supposed to check in 2 hours early. Then stand in line to get undressed and go through security, then hope to find a seat at the gate... where you will wait for another hour and 45 minutes.

We were a bit late getting out... seems we didn't have a crew for the airplane. "Hey, anyone here know how to fly a 737?" ;-)

The flight itself was fine; Southwest still makes you stand in line a couple times before you get on the plane, then you hope to find two seats together... unless you pay an extra $10 each to "check in" early... and you'll still stand in line a couple times.

There was snow on the mountains on the way north, when we could see between the clouds. Only partly cloudy as we made our approach into SeaTac... a rare bit of sunshine. I like to think I brought that with me, but I know it won't last.

The luggage came fairly expeditiously, only a 25 minute wait. Then, we schlepped the luggage outside to wait for a rental car bus... and waited another 25 minutes. The rental rate on the car (looking to get the least expensive option) was $67 for the 5 days we'll be using it... then add on the taxes (not the insurance)... a fuel charge (bring the car back empty and it's not a bad deal)... and that total comes to... $188. Seriously? The car is a Chevy Speck; no, not really - it's an Aveo. That's an old Indian term that means: car made from tin foil and a moped motor. My fault - I did say, "the least expensive option." Seriously, the glove box on Big Red has more room in it than this little popcorn fart of a car.

The iPad found our way to the hotel, where we waited in line for... any guesses? Yep, about 25 minutes. It's a nice place, but there were two couple in front of us and only one person at the front desk... until it was our turn, then they added another person at the desk.

Oh, the spoiled part? We used to fly everywhere, get rental cars, and stay in nice hotels. It's been a while since we've had to do that... traveling by boat or RV is so much easier: you only pack once, you have all your stuff with you, your own potty, kitchen, seating, and bed. And, you can use any of those amenities while enroute.

Traveling this way reminds me of how spoiled I've become. Flying isn't fun anymore; hell, it isn't even interesting. People-watching while in line showed darn few people with smiles on their face. We're here for some fun stuff (boat show, C-Brat gathering, and some "recon" for this summer), but the getting here was more of a chore than a pleasure. Yep, I'm spoiled.

Dry wash...

An oxymoron. Like, jumbo shrimp, or rap music.

At the RV show we attended in the Rio Grande Valley, I bought a waterless wash kit. It has a great extending brush that uses attached miracle cloths to put some of the "stuff" on it, then rotate it to the dry side to wipe it off. That's the premise.

In use... well, it works. I did over half the coach yesterday in less than an hour, then finished it up today. Maybe a bit less work than scrubbing the exterior down with soapy water, rinsing it, then drying it. But, the big deal with it is a lot of RV parks do not let you wash your rig on the site. After a day or three or 4 on the road, the coach gets pretty grubby. I was concerned that dirt would get ground into the finish, but if there is grit on there, I think I would still wash it with water before using this stuff.

Keep in mind where we are... this is the same park that doesn't allow cargo trailers. Oh, you can have a shed, a dog run, or leave your crap all over your site, but you can't have a nice-looking cargo trailer to keep it all contained out of site. But, I digress... I have no doubt that we would get a demerit, or be shunned, or get some sort of black mark on our permanent record if we tried to wash the coach. In spite of that, I did use some soap and water in a bucket and then a brief hosing with fresh water to knock the bugs off before using the waterless wash... and that worked really well.

It is now an hour after a finished the coach... and the sky is looking pretty dark off to the southwest. Sheesh!

Down...

Settled in, got to spend the evening with our sweet daughter and son-in-law. We need to do some cleaning on the Love Shack, after 1,300 miles of road grime. I'll have more time to figure out what's going on with the landing gear jacks. Hoping to find some time for kicking back, too. ;-)