Return to WhimSea's Home Port. Where WhimSea Takes Us - May 2016

Archives for: May 2016

05/31/16

Permalink 06:53:53 pm, Categories: Adventures, 846 words   English (US)

Memorial Day 2016

What a beautiful weeekend.

It was to be the first long weekend for the season and our first starting from Washburn Marina after years at Knife River. We had a few extra days and hoped to get out to the islands before the rest of the boating community and securing a dock for the night. We knew our radar was having issues and that the marina hadn't had a chance to look at it yet and looked with trepidation at the fog as we drove through to Washburn.

Friday morning dawned with a little fog, but enough we could see across the bay, so we decided to head out. Radar or no radar. The clouds looked amazing on the crossing to the island, coming across the sky like waves. Given the wind direction and speed, we motored out to Stockton and secured a place on the dock for the evening. The boys were excited to be back at the beach again and we spent time chasing sticks and throwing rocks into the water. I swear, the boy is planning to fill up the lake on his own. It was a little cool that evening, but no one minded. We were on the boat and on the water. Where we are meant to be.

Saturday morning and we saw that the new dinghy was full of water! Apparently the plug had popped out during our crossing. So we brought her ashore and emptied her out. While we were ashore, the other boats in the harbor left so we thought we would move to the other dock as it is more comfortable. No dice. The engine wouldn't start! Troy spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what was going on, but we were not able to get her started. Now we would need to formulate a plan to sail out of the harbor and back to the marina. It is very disheartening to have diesel problems so early in the season. It isn't like this is our first time without it, but this shouldn't be happening. We are bummed. But the boys made the best of it with playing around with the dinghy. Dylan got his first lesson as coxswain and was doing really well.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear which is awesome given the forecast to date! The boys decided to take out the dinghy out. First Troy with the sails up and then he and Dylan. Poor Bug got left behind and was very disappointed by it. But he got over it. They had a great time sailing about the harbor and even got yelled at by the Park Rangers for 'sailing in the harbor', even though they are the ones who honked at them and sent them in! Oh well. The wind picked up during the day and we helped a few folks to dock that day and even got a chance to meet some new people which is always good. We decided to stay another day as the weather would not be right for sailing out of the harbor anyway.

Monday and the weather is grand! Others came in throughout the day yesterday and filled up the harbor but by early morning, most folks were gone and it was just us and a couple from Washburn left at the dock. We decided to turn WhimSea around on the dock, making it easier to sail out of the harbor and avoid both the big rocks at the end of the dock and the shoaling in the bay. Given we had pulled a boat off the shoal in previous years, it was a big concern. But we sailed out without issue and soon had both sails up and were heading towards the marina.

We debated about the idea of sailing into Washburn marina. Troy being of the opinion we should, me, not so much. It is a little scary to think of having no propulsion and having to stop the boat. We called Black Warrior Marina and arranged for a tow in. We were lucky to get wind the entire way back, even though we had to beat the entire distance, the sun was shining on us at least!

Black Warrior brought us in as pretty as you please and got us to the dock on the wall. There were storms predicted for Monday evening and into Tuesday so it is good that we decided to cut our vacation a little short, especially without a running diesel. Now we can only hope that the marina finds the problem soon and resolves it without a huge bill at the end!

I have to say that I am very lucky to have Troy. Not only did he bring us back without any concern, he kept everyone's spirits up, acting as if having no diesel was no big deal, even though I knew it frustrated him to no end. The boy didn't even realize anything big was happening. There was still plenty of fun on the beach, in the forepeak wrestling and in the dinghy.

Where WhimSea Takes Us

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