Like to add our thanks to ALL (Organizers, Ranger Tugs, Tugnuts, all the Vendors, and especially Garmin) for making this weekend meeting useful, memorable and a hankering for the next one in Anacortes Cape Sante next year. The weather held wonderfully with Sunday departure about 20ºF cooler (64ºF). Sunday the wind was up and blowing from the South.
We set off around 7:30am with 4 Tugs in front of us who were making their way up to Anacortes via La Conner. Even the the sun had risen it was still obscured by cloud so we kept our Navigation lights glowing for maybe 45 mins. We trailed the 4 leading Tugs for about a 1 mile keeping them in sight at all times. After we all got past Agate Passage and through Port Madison and into Puget Sound the wind became stronger from the south and blowing to the NW and we started rolling. To ease the ride we took a more direct easterly course straight across over to Richland heights and then turned North with the seas following behind us and less wind all the way back to Edmonds.
I used our Garmin auto pilot and the various tweaks the Garmin technician had performed during a brief sea trial at Bremerton we found that the Chart plotter GPS heading and the Auto Pilot's heading were pretty much spot on in agreement (previously had always been about 20 to 25ºM off). The boat icon was also perfectly aligned with the 5212 Chartplotter's "Guide To" course line. What the Garmin technician essential did during the sea trial was to reset North Heading and re-calibrated the Auto Pilot's compass using the Auto Pilot Dealer Wizard's Sea Trial menu/setting. This was all that was required to resolve things for us. I noted that with the new software (v7.4) one does not have to press the two soft buttons simultaneously any long to get into the Dealer Wizard menu... as Garmin said in their 2 hour seminar -- we want to strive for SIMPLICITY.
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The only stressful moment during this weekend was when walking our Wire Hair Fox Terrier Jake (14 months) along the outer Bremerton breakwater pier. With me a little distracted and not look at Jake, Jake saw a sea gull perched on the breakwater outer wall. Jake ran at it, jumped and was in full flight when the sea gull flew off. However, with Jake in full flight there was no turning back and over the breakwater wall he went -- right into the drink. By the time I noticed things I saw Jake disappearing over the wall. Holly cow I thought and rushed over to the wall and was just able to grab his collar while Jake was frantically paddling with his front legs. Another Tugnut who saw the whole episode of Jake flying with ears flapping rushed over to help and with his longer arm reach than mine we pulled Jake up and back over the breakwater wall to safety. Woweeee, Jake's very first sea water experience. He seemed unabashed, shook the salt water off and looked around for more sea gulls -- no way as far as I was concerned. Home with you my lad and let's tell 1st Mate you ran through a sprinkler system...
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The various great dogs at the meeting made for good discussions with other owners and it sure helps breaking the ice, so to speak. It always does amaze me how many Tugnuts take along their 4-legged friends.
Jake says bye to all the other dogs he met... and claims to be the only one to hurdle across the breakwater wall with ease.
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BTW... Jake and I did 'fess up to 1st Mate... but will not post what she exclaimed. :roll:
I hope all had a safe journey back to wherever and we look forward to another meeting next year at Anacortes.
Oh, and one other note worth mentioning. I had applied Crystal Fusion (
http://www.crystalfusiontechnologies.com) to my R-25's front windows (some 8 applications per window) about a week ago. I report here that the sea water spray simply runs off with ease and the use of the wipers under light spray conditions was completely unnecessary.
