Want to go for a boat ride?

[wyrman]

Steve's kind of the "man" for brokers there, isn't he?
I met him at Roche Harbor a few years, he was super nice. Invited us to the Sea Ray rendezvous even though we weren't LUSR customers.

 

[The Bill Collector]

Steve's kind of the "man" for brokers there, isn't he?
I met him at Roche Harbor a few years, he was super nice. Invited us to the Sea Ray rendezvous even though we weren't LUSR customers.

We have not bought anything other than parts from them but have attended SR events for 15 years.

 

[Gofirstclass]

And we still haven’t heard what the replacement cost of said elbow was - as promised.

I got the final bill today for all the repairs to Beachcomber for the failure of that street ell.

Total cost for the parts and labor that included two "house calls" to the boat, the first to disassemble things and the second to put it all back together and add the coolant was..(are you ready for this???)

Zero. Zip. Nada.

Now, to all of you who thumbed your noses at my thread about setting up strong relationships with your mechanics and other service people, this is why I recommended you set up those relationships.

Now by way of full disclosure, we will take them out to dinner at a restaurant that we save for very nice events. I'd much rather spend my money on a nice evening with friends than just paying for a service call and some parts.

 

[GnrlPatton]

Hey Mike, I passed LUSR/Union Marine this afternoon on my way out to the sound for a few weeks and was reminded of this thread so checked to see if Beachcomber was there, and sure enough there she was! Pretty boat, I'm sure you will miss her. Sorry for the sideways pics, uploaded on my mobile....

 

[Gofirstclass]

General, thanks <SNIFF> for posting that <SNIFF> photo of my baby, err, I mean Beachcomber sitting contentedly at the dock. <SNIFF><SNIFF>

 

[Gofirstclass]

I was going through some of the photos on my phone and found two videos and a few assorted photos that didn't get posted earlier so I uploaded the videos and am posting them here. I'll upload the photos tomorrow I hope, and I say that because I'm still working on the honey do list.
This one was taken as we're leaving Ilwaco and heading out to cross the bar. Those waves are on the bar and are waiting to grab us!

This one is from that afternoon as we're running about 24kts down the Strait of Juan de Fuca heading to Port Angeles. This was taken from inside the salon. It was too rocky to trust my tired old legs to keep me up if I stood out in the cockpit.

 

[Gofirstclass]

Here's a shot of the miles we'd traveled to get to Tom's dock where we spent one night. This was the next morning as we were heading back out to the Columbia River.

These darn small fishing boats kept gettting in the way...

An old, abandoned cannery along the river....

A shot of Astoria, OR where we pulled in to top off the fuel. I don't know if anybody has mentioned this, but while we were tied up at the fuel dock a young guy in about a 24' aluminum fishing boat loaded with people who had chartered with him came in too hot and was about to ram the back of the swim platform. A guy in the front of his boat jumped off onto the swim platform and put his body between the aluminum boat and my swim platform and in doing so saved a lot of damage. All we ended up with was a small chip in the gelcoat. I was pi$$ed off enough to have ripped the boat driver a new one but decided to let it go and just chewed on him for a minute or two.

Beachcomber's first view of the Pacific. We're still in the Columbia on our way to the marina at Ilwaco.

Here's Tom at the helm as we were making our way up the coast. Once we got away from the effects of the Columbia (which took us about 20 miles IIRC) we were left with gentle rolling swells about 4' high with almost no wind chop on top. Nice cruising waters in anyone's book.

Our happy crew. Me, Tom and Jim. Without these guys along to pitch in I could not have made this trip.

Tom's Scotch glass at the end of the day after we got into Seattle.

Your happy/sad captain. Happy because we made it in one piece, sad because that would be my last night aboard Beachcomber.

I've said many times since this trip that if a guy has to give up a boat he REALLY likes, you couldn't find a better, or more fitting end than to do it on a long and pleasant journey like ours was.

 

[Gofirstclass]

As a fitting way of closing out this long tale, we finally got our schedules aligned with Jim (the boat yard owner who repaired my boat after the first unsuccessful start) and his wife and took them to dinner.

It was much nicer spending a couple of hours wining and dining them than it would have been just watching him work on the boat.

I consider Jim and Mel to be good friends; much more than just the boat mechanic.

Jim, thanks for all the love you gave us when the boat was broken down. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.