Day 480 & 481 Moved and more jobs done.

After spending two days in someone else's slip, we finally got moved over to "J" dock with the rest of the transients or world cruisers if you please.  We are a mishmash of folks from all over the world.  One boat is even from Switzerland.  We checked out the dock this morning and found a few empty spaces along the linear dock and took off back to Zephyr.  We undid the electrical cord and lines, started the engine and prepared to get underway.  I climbed aboard and the wind quickly blew Zephyr away from the dock.  The bad part was that Tracy was still on the dock!!!  She threw the last line on board but by then, Zephyr was to far away for her to get on.  She took off running for "J" dock while I SLOWLY motored Zephyr over.  I really took my time and she met me there along with a half dozen other boaters and we got Zephyr all tied in with no problems.  We were finally where we were supposed to be. 

Several hours later, Keith, another of our friends that works for the marina showed up and told us that an 85 foot motor yacht was coming in and had been told by the office to just pull up to "J" dock.  "There was plenty of room".  It had taken us three days to get space available for us to get on the dock and now they expected an 85 foot yacht to just pull in??  So everyone on the dock got together and we shifted the boats that were on the linear dock MUCH closer together and made enough room for him to fit.  The yacht has all the thrusters and engine power to do just about anything it pleased and she pulled in just fine and got all snugged in.  Amazingly, we had seen her while we were coming back from Alaska as we were heading South from Lopez Island on the South edge of the San Juan Islands. The reason we remember them so well is that they darn near ran us over.  We had the "right of way"(for what that is worth) as we headed South and he just kept on coming straight at us.  If we had not altered course, he would have taken us out.  We told him we remembered seeing his boat( he was just the captain).  He jokingly asked me if he had tried to run us down.  OK, he asked so I told him--"YES, you did actually".  While I know he was joking when he asked the question, I think it bothered him with my answer.  He wanted to know all the specifics of where and when it had happened.  He apologized for the incident but hey, that's all part of boating.  As long as no harm comes of it, you get on with your life(until they happen to cross your path again on land at least).  Beautiful boat.  He was going to take it to the fuel dock before he left--4200 gallons!!!  He must have a great credit limit on his charge card. 

We lowered the "guppy zinc" back into the water off the stern so that the electricity that floats in the water around the marina will attack it instead of the zinc that is attached to our boat.  A chunk of protection.

I took some time and went at the circuit board to check for more loose screws since they have caused me problems in the past.  I found several that were just a bit loose and got each and everyone of them tightened so there should be no more problems with some circuits working some times and others not.  I have a hard time thinking that the movement of the boat has made the screws loosen.  I guess it could but now that problem is gone--at least for now anyhow(I hope).

I read through the manual for our autopilot and figured out exactly how to make it work in sailing mode.  It will give us a backup system for when we are out there and want to quickly engage an auto pilot without having to hook up the Hydrovane on the stern.  If the weather gets to bad as we encountered on the trip down, we can now just flip a switch and sit back and let the machine do the job instead of further exhausting us.  I wish I had known how to do it before we left Neah Bay.  Life would have been a lot easier on the way South.

We washed down Zephyr today making sure to get all the salt water off her decks and hull with extra attention given to the hardware on board as salt water can corrode and lock up parts fast when repeatedly exposed to it.  Out with the brushes, sponges and hose and on came the water.  She looks much better now.

The weather down South is still the pits with lots of wind and tall waves so we think we will just stay here for a few more days.  The price is cheap for a slip and we have lots of friends to spend time with(plus wine here is really cheap)

Tomorrow, I'm off to a masseuse to have my back and shoulders worked on.  They have been causing me a bit of problem since I got back from Denver.  I've never had one so it should be interesting.  My therapist is actually one of our friends from our first time here in Newport.  She's worked on Tracy before.  I'll let you know tomorrow how it turns out.

I've still got a list of projects to do so the fun never stops.  I've been asked to stop over at another boat and look at their DuoGen(makes electricity on our boat).  Ours works better than theirs apparently.  I guess we will see.  It's been a long while since I have given advise instead of asking for it.

Tomorrow is another day.