I always have some excuse for not doing projects, maintenance, or repairs on the boat. It might be too cold or wet. There might be more pressing issues with home or family. Or, it may be someone called with a more interesting proposition just as I was about to get started. Whatever the case, eventually the accumulation of time and distraction comes into focus, looking a lot like neglect. There are many things that need to be done before the season arrives, and we all know how quickly time sneaks up on us.
A lot of life has passed under our bridge in the last year; and many of the things I normally do for Sea Lab at the end of one season in preparation for the next got left un-done last year. For example, I always change the oil at the end of the boating season, and fill the tanks with fuel and stabilizer—last year I just didn’t. So, this April, when we got approval to move into a rare slip opening at a new marina, neither Sea Lab nor I were ready. I like doing as much of my own maintenance as possible and, after watching several YouTube videos, I decided that replacing the impeller was within my range of skills and set about accomplishing the task(s) along with the regular oil change procedure.
With supplies purchased, I returned to begin work in the light drizzle of the day. The oil and filter change went okay except for the fact that I did not have the proper filter wrench to tighten the filter fully in its awkward position. With a Sharpie pen, I wrote “filter not tight” on blue masking tape and stuck it to the steering wheel so that it would be impossible to forget to close that loop before starting the motor. Then I moved onto the next task until I could acquire the proper tool.
My changing of the impeller was similarly stymied by a tool I lacked. I knew I had a 6mm Allen wrench somewhere, but we have been living between two houses for a year now while we fix up our retirement place in Grapeview; going back and forth between there and Auburn, I never know where anything is! I texted my neighbor down the street, and he thought he had a 6mm and he soon arrived with a good ol’ rusty one. I wire-brushed it clean enough to be functional and quickly proceeded to snap the head of the bolt off with it. Damnation!
After careful consideration, I decided not to proceed with getting salted bolts out and went to the boat shop in Belfair to plead my case. The friendly staff there told me that if I brought the boat today, they could probably get the work done within a week, unless they had to order parts, then who knows how long it would be.
Back home we ran, hurrying to beat the 2 o’clock deadline, only to discover that I had neglected to put the new trailer light on where someone at the ramp had smashed it to bits when they backed into it. Luckily, I had the new one and that went on smoothly—I even had all the necessary tools! We hitched up and headed to town where we got all checked in and, as we were leaving, the man asked, “The keys are in the ignition?” which prompted a forehead slap, self-inflicted. One more trip home resolved that situation and, after reminding him that the filter was not tight and making sure that information was on the work order, we went home where I could do something useful like mow the lawn. I couldn’t go too far wrong with that job!
After a week of hoping they wouldn’t have to order parts, I got the call. The boat was ready. It only cost me $165 to get that snapped off bolt out… lesson learned. We brought her home and began working off the other items on the list, one of which had been bugging me for a while. There was an old motor lock on the 15hp kicker that was rusty and the lock was frozen up. After many rounds of penetrating oil had failed, I decided the only way was to drill the lock barrel out in the difficult-to-access position it was in. Once again, I consulted YouTube where it was deemed possible, if not easy, to drill a lock. Thus began five hours of toil until I had the shredded mess of the former motor lock off of there. Another lesson learned.
By now I felt like I had cleared the highest hurdles before me, and getting into the water started to look more achievable. I replaced a rusted-out horn and spliced a ground wire that had pulled out from the anchor light. I still couldn’t figure out why the windlass seemed jammed up, but we could always go back to hand deployment of the anchor so I wasn’t going to let that one stop me. Cleaned up with rack installed and kayaks mounted, we set off on a beautiful Sunday morning for high tide at the boat ramp. Let’s go!
Arriving at the Port of Grapeview ramp, which is adjacent to the Fair Harbor Marina, right at high tide we found one of the geoduck harvesting boats tied up there waiting for the truck to come and pick up their ducks. It turns out they had engine trouble, and their harvesting equipment had failed at the beginning of their day. The skipper told me they were scheduled to harvest 800 and their equipment failed after only harvesting 9. I guess boat things break for everyone, not just me. The truck came and went, and they pulled off the dock on their auxiliary outboards.
It was our turn. We dropped in easily and without incident, and headed straight over to the fuel dock where we met Kelly Granger—who owns and operates Fair Harbor Marina with his wife Cindy—to talk over our slip arrangement. He’s also the owner of a marine products company, and showed us his Nomar Bumper dock fendering system that lined our new slip, making it unnecessary to deploy fenders each time we return. Now that’s a nice amenity!
After fueling, we had planned to run out for a spin around Case Inlet, so we started up and headed off the dock for our first time in what seemed like a very long while. Out of the inlet between Stretch Island and Reach Islands (Reach is locally known as Treasure Island), we slowly motored the short distance to Stretch Point State Park. As we approached, the motor spluttered and abruptly died. Tekla gave me that surprised questioning look and I immediately thought, “Oh no! The old gas did go bad!” Running back to the motor I saw the priming bulb on the fuel line had collapsed. Whew… I just forgot to turn the fuel tank selector switch on. I re-primed and it started right up. We puttered around the mooring buoys off the beach of the park right in our backyard before heading out to get up on plane and shake out the cobwebs on glassy water, enjoying the smooth arching turns of our wake all the while. We explored the coastline a little, and then ran out to the middle and shut down to drift a while to relax and marvel at the quiet lack of traffic.
Deciding we had more grass to mow, we headed back toward our slip and we felt very fortunate to live so close to this environment, our house and home slip are only a three minute drive apart. We’ve never had it so good!
Fenderless, we motored slowly down the fairway into Sea Lab’s new slip, bumped gently up to the dock, and cleated her home. With any luck, there will be a lot more time off the dock in our future.
Dennis, Tekla, and Tim Tim the sailor dog recently changed their home cruising waters from Tacoma to Case Inlet.
