Bremerton Marina this Sat - June 8th is National Marina Day

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Saturday is National Marina Day and Bremerton Marina is offering free overnight moorage (not including electricity :roll: ) for Sat night.

I'm anxious to listen to Anne & Laurence Yeadon-Jones about their latest/new Dreamspeaker Guide for our local area.

The day is full of useful presentations along with hands on Dock seminars... "Perfect Docking", "Spousal Survival", "What Happens When You Call for Help"... etc.

We plan on attending and will go over early Sat morning... weather for this weekend looks wonderful.

[EDIT] Will likely go over Friday midday as we need to get back before end of weekend for another shindig... 😉

 

[Spinner]

Spinner will be there Friday night to Sunday, should be in slip C32

 

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Our plans are in flux at this time and we may in fact get over there Friday as well. Have made reservations for Fri/Sat and was given Guest Dock P44 starboard side tie just in front of a 44-footer.

 

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Well, it's mighty quiet here at Bremerton at this time. The 44 footer Hans Christian behind us just sailed up from San Franciso in two hops! The Captain was kind enough to give me a tour of his boat. His boat has a 135 hp diesel engine and gets 2.6 gph at 7 kts! Not too bad if you ask me. He bought it new in 1989.

Mr Spinner.... The C dock is not accessible from the guest dock area.... Shame as I would walk over to meet you.

We went south through Agate Passage and was treated with a nice 'tail wind' of some 4 kts for maybe a mile. The tide/current running down the west side of Bremerton Island was weird. Sometimes we got pushed along with 3 kt current and other times got into an apposing current of 2 kts.

I believe we will bake in the Sun on Sat & Sun. 🙂

It seems my recent raw water impeller replacement was a success as engine coolant was kept at a steady 188 degF. This little cruise doubled as a test for the impeller replacement. 😉

Free WiFi at Bremerton.... Likeee this.

 

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Hey... I can see an R-29 Spinner over from me now..... Howdy..... 🙂

 

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On Saturday things/activities picked up very quickly with more boats arriving and people milling about. We were docked on P44 which is where the Ranger Tug factory boats have normally docked in the past for the Annual Ranger Tug's Rendezvous at Bremerton... so we got a fair bit of attention from passer-bys. :roll: The current is kind of strong at this Marina and at full strength would push our R-25 hard against the dock side. I've never seen my starboard side fenders compressed so much as they were and my recent addition of a midship fender was very much needed.

Spinner's MY2013 R-29 was selected for the "Perfect Docking" seminar. I was given the chance of looking at this R-29 with the Volvo Penta engine and was so envious of the engine compartment area. Half of it was empty and you can stand in the empty area without touching anything. A huge foot platform is provided. I believe this was because a particular tank was not located aft of the engine that normally obstructs a clear view of the transom and all of its various components. Access to most things is simply amazing... water impeller especially. :lol:

I attended the first two seminars; "What happens when you call for help" by a Capt. Roger Slade and the "PUGET SOUND Boater' Guide" introduction by Anne & Laurence of Dreamspeaker fame.

The talk by Roger was most illuminating... and I was partly disappointed at him saying the VHF's emergency red HELP button isn't all that its made out to be... partly because a very large percentage of people using it have not programmed their VHF radios accurately or not at all... "I'm out here and there aren't any other boats... there are three large trees on the shoreline, and I'm sinking... HELP...". :roll: It seems that this VHF radio feature was ill conceived without it being really thought out in terms of how the majority of boaters would use it.

The PUGET SOUND Boater' Guide will be out in July... first run will be 1000 books, many of which will go to Marina sponsors and of course those that pre-ordered it. They actually showed the book's LAXEY rendition entering Edmonds marina on the screen... 😉 The electronic version is in the making but that's some time away. The new Guide is laid out so that it's orientation aligns easily to the tablet landscape format. The book can be opened and both pages laid flat without damaging the books spine... Yea... one of my requirements. 🙂

We returned home late yesterday and because our two Fox Terriers were suffering greatly from 'cabin fever' we simply had to get them out for a run about. Taking them off the boat and onto dry land was a real feat as their energy was so pent up and with both pulling in opposite directions I was convinced I would be dragged/pushed into the water... so we simply grabbed immediately needed things off the boat and headed home promptly... leaving my Bremerton notes behind of course.

I left my notes on the boat so when I retrieve them I will add some more FYI items here. In the meantime here are some quick photos I took. Note the 900 HP Police boat (cost the tax payer's $400,000) that can get up to 50 mph compared to the R-29 in background. Sitting inside this Police boat was like sitting in a small jet plane.

 

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One of the points Roger made was that over the years the USCG assistance has become more and more limited and with the current Govt. sequester issue it has made things even worse. More and more water emergencies are simply being turned over to Commercial Assistance enterprises.

I have to admit I've seen less and less fly overs by the USCG helicopters these days. Used to see them all the time...

I picked up what I think is a useful set of contact numbers to be kept onboard ready for use when needing help on the water...

Note that SeaTow does not operate for the West coast of USA... was told they got little business... :roll:

The C-Tow claims they service a 1000 mile radius... but Roger was very dubious about this.

Another FYI... The BoatUS is a free application for the iPhone. It will provide you with your location... even if you're out of cell tower coverage. Below is what my iPhone showed while at home... but did have Cell coverage... so cannot say how well it would work without cell tower coverage.

Calling 911 on your mobile can also be used for emergencies... however this could increase the amount of needed communication needed by the Coast Guard folks. A story was told that a call came in from the 911 folks and it took 1 hour to get the story straight.

The book Coast Pilot (comes in various volumes... Vol 7 is for the West Coast) was recommended with emphasis on it Introduction section.

Some time was spent discussing helping others needing help. This needs to be handled carefully by you as you must not unnecessarily endanger yourself in your attempt to help. USCG does not want two boats needing help. If you offer to tow a boat for example be very careful how you do this and take note that when you tow you become liable for the boat you're towing. Having 'eyes' on the boat needing help can be very useful for the USCG.

N.B. Apparently according to Roger there's no way to test if you have your VHF programmed correctly for sending all the gory details about your boat when pressing the red DISTRESS button.... 🙁 😱

 

[Spinner]

Sue here, of Spinner! The weekend events at the Bremerton Marina were great! We enjoyed some beautiful weather and got free entertainment to boot - besides the great jazz band from the Navy, we also got to watch sailboats trying to dock at full current... Quite a sight! Nice to get together and talk Tugs, too!