Journey of a Lifetime

Too bad they came to the Delta on the worst weather day in weeks! Slight rain and cool today and it will be back in the 90's this weekend.
 
Gentlemen,

Many thanks for allowing us to come along for the ride through your ventures. As always I and I'm sure others learned another thing or two from your ride.

Again many thanks and another great post!
 
Congrats to you all! Pleased you made it safe and sound, it was all very interesting to see and read about. BTW, I thought compliments to the chef were in order! The meals you mentioned looked really good and were obviously well planned! Like boating, cooking must be another love of yours:)
 
Nothing new to add in the way of photos or videos. I have some that I haven't loaded but I'm too pooped to participate right now. As I write this Doug and I are sitting in the Sacramento airport waiting for our flight to Seattle. Both of us are exhausted and looking forward to getting home. I have a 3.5 hour drive ahead of me that I'm not looking forward to but that's life in the little city. Doug has promised me a 5-hour Energy Drink once we get to Seattle so I can stay awake on the way home. I might need it.

To make a very long (10-days long) story short, this trip was pretty successful and fun by all measures. I have some final thoughts to add but that also will have to wait until tomorrow. Thanks to all of you who posted on this thread. It meant a lot to each of us to know there were many at home watching as we made the journey. In a way, having all of you out there kept us grounded. Well, maybe that was the wrong choice of words when dealing with a boat trip. What I probably should have said was it helped to keep things in perspective.

I'll check in tomorrow to post the photos and videos. Later Guys and Gals!

Tired but happy GFC
 
Glad you made it through the trip with no problems and had a great time. I really enjoyed all of the posts, pics, and videos! Thanks for sharing and keeping us up to date on the trip. Hope the rest of your journey home goes well. I look forward to reading and learning more about your once in a life time experience.

Jim
 
Last Day

We raised the anchor and pulled out of Richardson Bay under grey skies and a light sprinkle. We headed up into the bay and just slow cruised toward the new home slip for Following Seas. Here are a few pics of what it looked like….

We spotted this beautiful lighthouse home not long after leaving Richardson Bay…
aP6240076_zps1fcbed71.jpg


Here’s a shot of the happy crew as we got closer to the marina….
aP6240083_zps3c72a1c6.jpg


and here are three shots of Following Seas in her new slip…..
aP6240085_zps166c47ca.jpg


aP6240086_zps69de31c2.jpg


aP6240092_zps11191b16.jpg


and last but not least, the rumors of Stuart’s arrival must have gotten there ahead of him. Here’s his welcoming committee…
aP6240089_zps20e8e720.jpg


As we got safely into the slip and tied up there was a welcoming committee waiting. They had stretched a length of blue tape across the opening to the slip so we’d have a “finish line tape” to break as we backed in.

After getting her safely secured in the slip the cold ones were opened and a small but lively celebration started.

Here are also some videos I took on the way from Richardson Bay to the new slip….

[video=youtube;f91oIA7axAc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f91oIA7axAc[/video]

[video=youtube;SAw5W4kpfYw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAw5W4kpfYw[/video]

[video=youtube;SAw5W4kpfYw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAw5W4kpfYw[/video]

[video=youtube;ysAUYvyu2VU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysAUYvyu2VU[/video]

[video=youtube;D_CnOdU8wxI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_CnOdU8wxI[/video]

[video=youtube;pCle2KGVccQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCle2KGVccQ[/video]

[video=youtube;TGXbhezYwvM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXbhezYwvM[/video]

So that's it. Those are the last of the pics and videos of our Journey Of A Lifetime! Glad you could all join us for this little jaunt!

GFC
 
copb8tx, I don't know the exact numbers on distance but it was darn close to 1,000 miles. Stuart has the fuel numbers so hopefully he'll catch your post and add those.

Just a little tid bit of info to add on….

During our trip we posted on five threads, boatingabc, clubsearay, iboatnw, trawlerorum and baylinerownersclub. At this point those threads have been viewed 19,550 times and there are a total of 853 comments posted.

Thanks for joining with us on the trip and the postings. It makes me feel good to know there are many out there who had fun with us.
 
Very nice....enjoyed it.
 
Reflections on the Journey of a Lifetime…..

In the past when I’ve taken trips on the boat I’ve posted threads similar to this and after the trip is done I’ve come back and posted some of my thoughts and recollections of the trip. That’s what this post will be and I’m hoping it will provide some closure to a great trip for all of us.

Before I get started on this though, I’d like to thank Stuart for providing the opportunity for me to make this trip. From before I had even considered being a part of this I recognized that it would be the trip of a lifetime and it was. So Thanks Stuart. It was fun, I learned a lot, and had a great time.

I’d also like to thank Doug for being the kind of guy he is. I learned many things from him and appreciated his good nature, his ability to joke about things and to hang in there when the seas got a bit rough. As an example, while I was hanging over the galley sink depositing my breakfast, Doug was making a pulled pork sandwich. He was kind enough to ask me if making the sandwich was going to upset my stomach even more, saying he’d go up to the pilothouse to eat it if I wanted him to. It wouldn’t have bothered me, but just the fact that he thought to ask makes a huge comment about the kind of guy Doug is. I hope we get to do some boating together again in the future. I’ll let you show me around the San Juans and points north!

In one of the forums I’ve posted my ‘blog’ on someone mentioned a feeling of depression when the trip is over. He likened it to a post-partum depression. Well I can assure you right up front that none of us delivered a baby on this cruise but I am feeling a bit sad/depressed that the trip has ended.

All of the pre-trip excitement that comes with high expectations for a great cruise, the hours spent on planning to make sure you have everything you will need, the menu planning I did (more on that later) and just the excitement of the new adventure kept me on a high for several weeks. As the departure date grew nearer the smile on my ugly mug grew wider.

I went into this journey not as a new boater but as an experienced boater heading out on a new adventure. I know that at some point GW and I are going to take Beachcomber up the coast of WA and into Canada. This trip was to be, in many ways, a training mission for that. I’d never spent much time on the ocean and I’d get that experience on this trip. I’d never done any real long distance trip planning and route planning and I’d also get to do some of that on this trip.

I was going into the trip with high expectations and I was not disappointed. Yeah, we were disappointed by having to hole up in port a few days, but that’s part of boating. The rough weather we experienced on the way to Ilwaco was a bit more than I expected but with 20/20 hindsight I’m glad we encountered that rough water because now I have a better sense of what it means when they say “swells of 5’-8’ and a 1’-2’ wind chop on 10 seconds.” I know the next time I’ll stay in port if the heights of the swells + wind waves = the wave separation time. Ain’t no reason for this kid to be out there trying to prove to mama nature that I’m capable of handling anything she can throw at me.

I’d never met the other two (Stuart and Doug) I was to cruise with before we met at the boat. There’s always a bit of apprehension about being thrown into a boat with two guys you don’t know for 7-10 days. Experienced boaters have developed their own styles; their own ways of doing things. When those styles don’t fit perfectly with the styles of the other two there can be conflicts…..and there were. The good thing is the conflicts were all minor and we were able to resolve them on board. The cops didn’t think they were a big problem either. Just kidding…no cops were harmed in the making of this trip.

Following Seas performed nearly flawlessly. When you figure that Stuart just got this boat about 3 weeks before we departed and spent much of that time installing air conditioning and other equipment, it’s not surprising that he knew the boat pretty well. There were a few small glitches but nothing that couldn’t be easily rectified. For example, the porthole windows in my stateroom leaked. Not just a tiny bit, they leaked a decent size trickle. As fate would have it, there were no hangars on board so I had put my clothes on the shelf beneath the window. The one where the water ran down and soaked all my clothes. Stuart applied a couple of coats of silicone sealant around the perimeter and that fixed it. It took a couple of days for my bedding and clothes to thoroughly dry but that’s OK, I lived with it and we did OK.

We ate like kings on this trip. I had done the menu planning, bought all the food ahead of time, prepared some of it before I left home and fixed the rest of it on board as we traveled. I planned on meals for four people for 8 days. There were only 3 on board and we ate dinner out twice in Eureka so Stuart is not going to have to buy groceries for awhile for the boat because there will be lots of stuff left over. Dinner menus consisted of a beef roast, two pork roasts, a fresh halibut filet, salmon, and an assortment of fresh vegetables, corn on the cob and all sorts of snacks and cheeses. Lunches consisted of pulled pork sandwich meat made from the pork tenderloin roasts. Nobody was going to leave this boat lighter than when they first stepped aboard.

When I take off on a trip such as this I try to mentally prepare myself for any eventuality. I don’t like bad surprises when they pop up. I can gladly say that on this trip we had no bad surprises. Well except for maybe the day we were headed to Ilwaco and I gave back breakfast. That was the first time I’ve ever ralphed from motion sickness. When Doug and I hiked up to Costco in Eureka I got some killer pills to take care of that. I took them the day we left Eureka and, while the waves weren’t as large as we’d seen before, I felt no queasiness at all. Thanks Costco.

So all things considered I’d have to say that this trip was a great success. I learned a lot about long distance navigating, about rough water boat handling, food prep when the boat is rocking, and how AIS is such a benefit. I certainly won’t say that we couldn’t have made this trip without the AIS, but it was nice to have. Radar, on the other hand, was absolutely essential. I would never even try a trip like this without a good Radar and chart plotter. The importance of those two cannot be overstated. Having heat and a/c on the boat made it much more comfortable. We used both at varying times and it was nice to have them.

Following Seas is a very nicely equipped yacht. It’s about the same length (60’) as my boat but about 1.5’ wider. That additional space is very nice. It’s also a very comfortable boat. It’s hard to draw a comparison between Following Seas and Beachcomber. There are some things about this boat that I like better than mine, but also things about my boat I like better than this one. That’s natural. Would I trade? Nope. Stuart and I were talking one day and he asked me what I would change about my boat. I honestly couldn’t think of anything major that I would change because I’m very happy with Beachcomber.

Well I guess that’s about all I have to say at this time. If anyone has any specific questions about any of this or about the trip in general, fire away and I’ll respond to them.

GFC
 
Just curious, did you guys have paper charts for back up and did you do any manual plotting? Also, if it were not for fog and darkness would you still deem the radar a necessity? Many thanks again for the wonderful trip. I couldn't wait to check up on you guys every morning. We're looking forward to your trip to the north. Regards, Chris
 
Chris, we did have paper charts thanks to the generosity of our USCG mentor, Rolland. He provided us with the necessary paper charts but we never did have to use them. Stuart relied totally on his Nobletec. Being on the water it's fairly easy to plan for darkness. Not so much with fog; that can spring up most any time.

I have been caught out twice when a heavy fog settled in after my departure. One time I was just a mile or so from my destination and I made it back using the plotter. The other time I was glad I had radar on board.



Here are a few photos I took that second day. The first one shows what I could see over the bow.....nothing.
P1010024.jpg

The second shows a bridge I was passing beneath. I knew where it was and where I was in relation to it because of the radar and the plotter, but I couldn't really see the bridge until I was below it.
P1010031.jpg

This shot is interesting. If you look carefully you can see land directly in front of the boat and a tree on shore. No, I wasn't about to run aground, but what you're seeing is displayed on the radar/plotter photo shown below.
P1010036.jpg

This photo shows what I was seeing on the plotter. The purple is the radar image overlaid on top of the plotter. (The purple in the middle of the water is the radar image of the docks, and the big blur on the opposite shore is a hotel) The purple image is offset a bit from the shore due to the time delay between the radar antenna sweep and the plotter redraw of the image. I'm about to enter the entrance to the bay where the yacht club is located. The opening to the bay is only about 20 yards across and when you're crabbing against the current it requires very precise timing to make it in...even on a clear day. At the time this pic was taken I was about 50 yards from the opening. The straight line (lubber line) projecting out from the boat shows my actual heading. Due to the current I'm crabbing across the current and the arrow shows my course over ground (COG). The difference between those two lines it the angle I'm crabbing at.
P1010035.jpg

If I didn't have the radar that day I would not have attempted to enter that opening. I'd probably have had to anchor somewhere until the fog burned off. So, to answer your question about whether radar is necessary....I'd vote in favor of it if you venture far from your dock.
 
Thanks for sharing. Great post and sound like a great trip/time was had by all.
 
Now the.. Oh My God...we could have died drama after the trip. :wow:

Heres the #1 Drama Queen's post.

Yesterday, afternoon I was cleaning my detached garage and reflecting back on this trip and thinking about not having a raft and I actually had an anxiety attack. I had to go inside and sit in my recliner. I was dizzy, sweaty, clammy and pale to Lea. She suggested we go into the hospital but I talked her out of it... I took a nap and felt better afterward but am still upset.
Click to expand...

Go Aweigh2452 aka Doug, Pull up your big boy pants and get over it.

http://www.iboatnw.com/forum/showthread.php?8007-Bad-Decisions-Split-from-Journey-of-a-Lifetime

http://www.baylinerownersclub.org/forum/showthread.php?80792-Journey-s-end-post-reports


Stuart, If you are reading this ?. Come hangout on here. :smt001
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Fantastic Blog Mike! Thanks to you, Stuart and Doug for sharing this adventure of a lifetime with us! I'm glad you made it back home safely.

A trip like this is very exciting for guys like you and I who do the majority of our boating on the local rivers. It must have been a fantastic experience to be in the big water with someone who had played on that playground before. What a trip!

This week is Bluesfest. Sorry you won't be down to enjoy it! Have a wonderful Fourth of July!
 
So, I am popping around the marina this weekend and came across this Bayliner tied-up on the guest dock. Seems I have seen it before...
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    90.2 KB · Views: 272
  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    91.7 KB · Views: 271
Be carful. If he doesn't like what you say he will take his football and go home. If you mention me or any of the other guys the cross and stake will also come out.........just say'in not wanting to be mean or anything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,182
Messages
1,428,060
Members
61,088
Latest member
SGT LAT
Back
Top