Day 444 & 445 In PT and off and running.

We made it into Port Townsend yesterday about 1300 after leaving Watmough Bay in fog.  We had visibility of about 100 feet when we left it it didn't even start to clear until we were half way to PT.  I sat on the companionway stairs and watched the radar for traffic and the computer screen for the bigger AIS targets that were heading anywhere near us.  The AIS has a range of well over 20 miles while the radar was set for a 3 mile range.  We "saw" ships on the radar but never with our eyes until we cleared the fog.  The blips passed us in the shadows and mist.  

About half way down Whidbey Island when it finally cleared away and we were in sunshine.  I called ahead to Boat Haven in Port Townsend for a slip and was assigned B111.  As we enter and looked for it, we found that the companion boat in the slip was a houseboat.  A BIG house boat.  There was little chance of us fitting into that slip.  I called and got reassigned to another slip.  Clear on both docks so there was no chance of us hitting anyone.  We tied up and took off running.

First to West Marine to drop off some gifts we bought for the great folks there.  It was busy so we went across the street to Sea J's restaurant for lunch.  Great burgers.  While there, Tom(the manager of West Marine) came in for lunch so he sat with us and we swapped stories of the past three months.  Afterwards, we dropped off the gifts, bought some stuff and picked up our car that they had allowed us to store beside their store and headed out.  First, drop off the Honda generator to start getting it fixed.  It won't start.

Next, the car wash to get the poor car cleaned.  The birds down by the bay had loved it, as had the spiders and wasps.  All had made nice nests on her and none wanted to leave.  We soaped her twice just to get everything off.

Next, off to Port Townsend Rigging to pick up the Hydrovane steering assembly we'll be installing on Zephyrs stern.  This way, once the sails or up, we can set the steering gear for a direction and it will steer us along with out our help.  And she uses no electricity as does the Simrad Autopilot system we have now.  We also discussed changing out the fittings on the forestaysail stay so it can be removed and stowed on deck when we only want to use the Genoa sail.  Dan(the owner) would stop by Zephyr in the morning to see what we had.

Over to the storage locker to drop off the Hydrovane and then over to the Sea Marine yard to see our friends, Poppy, Jennie and Doug.   The boat yard was less than half full where as the yard at Boat Haven (where we are getting pulled) was just about full.  Apparently, Matt(one of the owners) the man that I have talked about in the past as being a real jerk(keeping the blog PG rated) had ticked off so many customers and local workers that no one, other than his employees will do work at his yard.  He has apparently yelled at Dan(owns Port Townsend Rigging) so he refuses to go back there to do any work.  He's yelled at Brion Toss( the man who did our rigging) and he won't do work there nor recommend any people that he is doing work on to go there and his company office is right down the street.  He'd rather go a few miles and work on the boat than 100 yards just because of how he was treated.  Boaters have been bringing in their boats, getting an estimate of the repairs and having them put right back in the water as their prices have been out of sight.  That, plus how we were treated is why we are at Boat Haven for our repairs.

Both Poppy and Jenny as well as Doug expect to launch their boats within the next two weeks just to get them out of there.  Rumors are that they will be closing in about a month.  No loss, except for their workers who have been first rate.

Over for dinner at Shanghai--chicken curry, sweet and sour pork and pork fried rice.  A feast!!  We then walked the docks looking at other boats for fun.  One of the boats at Sea Marines docks was the Mapleleaf that they (Sea Marine) have been working on for the past two years.  They had launched her back in January and were now back for repairs and do overs as thing weren't working.  Heck, the owners had only spent over $400,000 on her already.  What did they expect?  Good workmanship?

Back to Zephyr and we pulled out the satellite dish for a change.  It's the first tv we've watched in months.  Not surprisingly, there was just about nothing on.  We haven't missed it much.

Today, While we waited for Dan from Port Townsend Rigging, we decided to clean out the anchor locker as mud from all the anchoring we had been doing was slowly seeping into our bilge and starting to cause a bit of a stink below decks.  Tracy has a great nose for this stuff.  We tried to just spray water in, but instead of flowing through the bilge in the boat, it just created a nice pool below in the locker.  So, I pulled out the anchor and chain and put them on the dock and then pulled everything out of the locker and started poking the bottom of the locker to try and unplug the drain area.  Tracy was inside working the bilge pump.  It finally broke free and filthy, disgusting, smelly water flowed into Zephyrs bilge under the main salon floor.  The pump pumped most of it out.  Tomorrow, I get to go back down(into the bilge) there and clean out all the mud that is now down there.  Everything was put back in the anchor locker(ok, we did throw out some stuff) and Dan showed up about 1110 to look at the rigging.  He's found a lesser expensive source for what we needed and is going to order in all the parts we need.  We unrolled the Genoa since it had been binding and he made some suggestion of correcting it.  We fixed and corrected the problem and rolled it back in.  

A quick lunch and we were off for Silverdale with all its shops.  But first, we had to stop at QFC in Port Hadlock just down the road.  We'd ordered in a case of sugar free Tang and they had gotten it in while we were gone.  We'd told them we would be back and they held it for us.  I told them to try and get two more cases if they could.  Hey, this stuff has no calories, keeps for ever and tastes great.  Second stop, Petsmart for the kids.  Then off to Costco to check prices on some things.  Over to Kohl's for some serious clothes shopping.  Most of our clothes are either worn out or no longer fit.  While there, we got a phone call from Boat Haven.  They had had a cancellation and wanted to know if we wanted to have Zephyr hauled out TOMORROW at 1100?  You bet we do.  That's 11 days ahead of schedule.  We can get more done and still be ready to go at our projected date of August 20th at the latest to await the proper winds to head South down the Pacific coast.  YEAH!!!

Back to Costco for some restocking.  We didn't buy a lot as we know we will be going back again before I take the car back to Colorado for storage.  We'll need to take a full inventory of what we have on board to better fill the lockers for the up coming trip South.   

We hit Walmart in Paulsbo on the way back and got home in 25 knot winds for the walk back to Zephyr.  Everything got stowed and we settled in for a short evening before bed.  I'm headed there now so stay tuned for more tomorrow after our haul out.   With luck, I'll be able to have some photos of how it's done.

Stay tuned.  More to come.