Weekend with the yacht club

While our daughter is still getting snow several times a week (she really doesn't like snow by the way) in Welland Ontario we have been enjoying near record high temperatures here in the Seattle area.  The spring flowers are going strong including the tulips in the Skagit Valley.

This weekend we went on a "cruise" with our yacht club ( http://www.mukilteoyachtclub.com/ ) to Bell Street Marina along the Seattle water front. 

Our initial reason for joining a yacht club was to save money on moorage especially during the winter months when we prefer to stay at a dock rather than use the dingy to get to shore in the rain. We pay about $175/year for the yacht club dues and save an average of $50 every time we tie up at a reciprocal club's dock.  In the long run we have found the group to be the type folks we enjoy hanging around with and so we have gotten into the social functions as well.

While talking to another couple in the group we learned that they have been in our private "fan club" for a number of years.  It seems that back in 2000 when we took our MacGregor 26X sailboat up the inside passage they also owned a MacGregor 26X and followed us the whole time on the blog we wrote as we headed north. They told us that there was quite a discussion going with the naysayers back home letting everyone know that there was no way we would make it to Skagway (we did - you can read the old blog if you click the link on the port side of this blog included in the Our Boating History section).  Later they attended a session where we spoke about the trip and were pleased to see us in "real life".

My other excitement of the past month has been getting my technician followed shortly by my general amateur radio (AKA: ham) license (KI7CKD).  There is not a lot of chatter up in this part of the world on the marine SSB frequencies and I wanted to get comfortable with the high frequency (HF) radio that I had installed and make sure it was functioning correctly, by getting the ham license I can legally talk to other amateur operators.  So far my most distant contact has been in southern California.

On the flip side my electronic frustration has been with backup cameras.  I installed a camera on the mast and the boat came with one in the cockpit.  My hope is that we can monitor traffic behind us visually as well as on radar without walking outside or to the back of the boat. So far my pictures range from good to flickery to frequently cutting out. Hmmmmmmmm, back connections? Too cheap of cameras for the environment???  I'll keep working on it but it is so typical of boat projects where nothing works the first time and if it does it makes me highly suspicious.

On a similar note, I think I have finally gotten the final gremlin out of the wing (auxiliary) engine.  After doing a fair amount of work on it a few months back we have gotten it to run smoothly once it gets past periodic hard starting and surging at startup.  I have been convinced for some time that the issue was air in the fuel line just before it entered the engine but haven't been able to find the source.  In my experience with gasoline engines when a diaphragm type fuel pump fails it is pretty much an all or none scenario. I think in this case that a tiny leak through the diaphragm was allowing air to enter the line (and diesel to drain into the oil sump) while the engine sat.  In any case, after going to a new diesel lift pump the engine started yesterday on the first turn over and "purred like a kitten".  Yay!! (I hope)