Seattle Boater

Apart from sunny summer days. But it’s nice to get a beautiful clear sky on a crisp winter day. That’s today! Skies are clear it’s chilly sounds like a good day for a boat trip. That said forecast shows a small craft advisory and 4ft waves in the sound so we’ll see. Decided to head to Langley on Whidbey Island for a bite to eat for lunch and a cruise. Thought I’d try writing as I go today. It’s 10am and just leaving lake union.

Didn’t make it far down the Fremont ship canal before having to wait 15 mins while a huge barge was maneuvered around by three tug boats.

Winds are actually blowing really high so easy but a pain to keep us in the middle of the channel while we waited. Some big gusts which can make entry to the locks a challenge but the wind dropped as we entered Ballard locks and it was a breeze (pun intended)

turns out the wind was howling down the sound. Made for a fun cruise up to whidbey hitting 5-6 foot waves.

https://youtu.be/0_oKygaC2K0

Made it to Langley in a little over 2 hours. Was a lot calmer as we rounded Whidbey and got shelter from the wind. Marina staff were super friendly and put us inside the outer breakwater. No free short stay but only $15 for a few hours. Supposed to be two but they said take as long as you want.

The town of Langley is small and cute, so cute there were rabbits everywhere and they seemed to be tame not wild. Super weird we saw at least 3.

wandered the gift shops bought me some gloves as it was nippy as hell and grabbed lunch at the Bistro. Good food.

Eventually headed back and cruised back to Seattle in the sunset.

Top day!

Well on Friday out with a ton of people and the salon door decides to crap out. It was obvious one of the rollers had broken, their were ball bearings in the tracks and broken plastic. Today i fixed the sucker.

After years of salt water the bottom of the door is a little grubby. The offending wheel/ runner was somewhere in here hidden away

I removed the whole bottom track with about 8 screws into the base and slid the door down and out. Flipped it over (heavy) and could see he runner.

Removing all the screws the metal support inside holding the runner needed to come out. It is jammed in there but came out with a bit of leverage. Well quite a lot of leverage.

It was obvious. I couldn’t salvage the existing parts so decided to throw them out and see if I could make my own set up and stay at the exact same height as the original runners. Searching the local hardware store I got lucky and found just 2 of these tucked in a small drawer. Awesome find. Exactly the same size as the originals.

And decided if I drilled through the base of the door i could simply bolt straight through them.

Just need to drill the perfect hole here…

Cheap drill from the hardware store as I don’t keep one on the boat and we were away..

Bolts through.

I actually went back and redid this step above with slightly smaller bolts and using a proper countersink to get the heads flush. Pics above are not how it ended up but similar.

Tested it on the track and was perfect.

And then put everything back together.

And of course forgot to take a pic of the finished article but.

She glides effortlessly. So psyched. Took forever, 2 trips to the hardware store , Hardwicks in Seattle which is the best store ever. Rained on. But it’s done. Super pleased with myself.

About a week ago. Was too lazy to post..

Ran the boat to Kirkland planned to stay the night there, grab a few drinks and stay on the dock. It’s super quiet in the winter at the marina. And it was, we ended up on the main slip with only 2 other boats in the entire marina.

Anyhoo.

On the way over to kirkland decided to let her run wide open for a bit. Just to clean her out. Think that may have put some pressure on the injectors. Would have happened anyway but the extra pressure must have pushed her over the edge. So…

Get to the dock and can smell oil turns out it was burning diesel. Went down to the engine room and there was a little smoke. Not much and not sure where it was coming from. Under the port engine there was diesel everywhere.

Ran the engine while looking for the spray thought it would be obvious as I even had red diesel on the ceiling above the engine. But took a while to find it. Diesel was gushing out of the injector pump where the fuel lines enter it.

Waited for the engine to cool then lay down on top of the engine to get to the injectors and one nut that tightens them up was finger loose. Hoping it was just that. Headed to the boating forum for advice and discovered I needed a flare nut wrench. So would be next day before I could get one.

Ran home to the marina the next day on one engine. Never tried that and obviously the boat wants to prop steer to port all the time but found it remarkably easy to maneuver. Thrusters help 🙂

So off for tools and got a set of wrenches and a ratchet version as I knew it was going to be a bitch to get too. It was. Here are the ones I bought, $11 from harbor freight. Bargain.

I had to do some serious yoga to get port side of the port side engine but was able to, just, and that ratchet wrench worked a treat. Tightened her up. Cleaned up all the diesel from every little nook and cranny and then yoga’d back out. Started her up and ta da , all done.

Happy with myself. I am no master mechanic and I feel like anything I touch I make worse so pretty rewarding when something breaks and you fix it yourself.

Outside of the starter motor snafu. This is the only issue I have had with supernova since we got her in July. Not complaining.

We are in there somewhere…

Every year Argosy ferries does carol singing off the back of the ferry through Dec. boats lit up with lights follow the ship and float around while they sing off the back. Last night is the parade night where all the boats with lights on are encouraged to follow in a parade. Took my new team from work out.

Was an awesome night. So much food. Too much booze and great people hanging out on the water. We watched the first showing and then planned to follow the parade but it was mayhem with boats stacked up very close eventually we bailed on the parade and just floated in the middle of lake union. Much better to just chill and drink and chat.

Great night. Good people.

Little more needed but it’s a start.

Little chilly maybe a Mr buddy heater will be good for the pilot house.

In fact it works like a charm.

Note to self. Do not position right under your feet and then ignore the burning smell..

The plastic felt like marshmallow when I discovered it.

Not my greatest moment. At least it’s the little inspection port and I can just swap it out and not burnt fiberglass.

Oh well you live and learn.

Nice thanksgiving on the water though…

Long time no post. We have been using the boat a lot. But more as a condo on the water.

Night out in Town last night but felt like we needed a little hair of the dog this morning.

So off to Daniels broiler in Leschi for Happy Hour. Their slip is only 38ft but you can tie on the outside. Shady dock. Hardly any cleats and wimpy cleats at best. The dock is kind of falling apart a bit too. But it’s winter now so super quiet and no concerns about not getting the slip.

Tied up and sitting at the bar now with a nice view of grey Lake Washington and Supernova sitting pretty…

Now let’s hope the happy hour lives up to my hungover food expectations….

Took me long enough but Lucky Dog is no more….

Well finally getting the boat name changed, Lucky Dog no more. I like the name, but it’s not mine. got all the graphics off and waiting for the new ones this week..
new boat name: “Supernova” AIS already updated if you see me on the water 🙂

at the same time of the name change I took the plunge for a full detail. Man is it expensive. they are hopefully starting this Tuesday and should be done by end of week, mild compound and 3 stage waxing. fingers crossed they do a good job. the detail alone is costing half the price of the first boat I ever bought- crazy !