Wintering in Poulsbo

The Port of Poulsbo has become the winter home for M/V Cloud Nine.  Poulsbo offers a more active marina, an accessible downtown with major shopping district within walking distance, and a lower moorage price during the winter months than what we were paying at the John Wayne Marina in Sequim.

With the sale of Jerry's house in November, we no longer needed to stay around Sequim and decided a different choice for winter sounded good.   All of the boats mooring for winter are docked on the F Dock, leaving the E Dock for guest moorage.  Poulsbo does limit liveaboards for winter, but we do have a few others here on F Dock.  

I can't say enough about how much we are loving being here in Poulsbo for the winter. We've enjoyed watching groups from nearby yacht clubs come in for a weekend, as well as the occasional large yacht arriving for a day or two.

We arrived on a Saturday and were greeted by a large group of boats from a yacht club in the Southern Puget Sound area.  All of their boats were decorated with Christmas lights, and it was quite a festive welcome to Poulsbo.  Downtown Poulsbo has many activities during the holiday season and we've been treated to carolers walking the streets, a horse-drawn carriage on the weekends offering rides to the shoppers, Santa and Mrs. Claus walking the downtown area, and a display of lights to put any Scrooge into the festive spirit.  The Poulsbo Yacht Club put on a Christmas Lighted Boat parade that was quite impressive with the number of boats participating, the elaborate decorating done by the boat owners, and the number of viewers on the walkway overlooking the marina.

One special night the Argosy ships from Seattle arrived for their annual Christmas Ship Festival.  Three ships, all decked out with Christmas Lights, arrived at the marina, one with Christmas music playing through its outside speakers.  Guests arrived at the marina and were directed to their ship for their cruise.  As the ships left the marina, carolers on the biggest ship performed a short concert for all of us in the marina to enjoy.  The music could be heard into the downtown area, too.  The boats took off for their two hours of cruising, returning later in the evening, and once again we were treated to Christmas music until the boats left at about 10:00 p.m., returning to the home base in Seattle.

December 19th we woke to snow here in Poulsbo.  Quite a beautiful sight.  We were happy to be on the boat and not having to be in a car driving anywhere.  





Christmas found us over in Edmonds to visit with Jerry's son, Sean.  The crossing was a bit of a bumpy ride from swells, along with a rather large wake from one of the passing cargo ships that had some wine glasses flying out of their "secure" spot.  We have since switched to stainless steel wine goblets after the 12 wine glasses we bought for $10 from Costco all broke over a period of a few months. We love the new goblets as they hold 10 oz. to the top, so you can give a nice 8 oz. pour of wine.  We have not noticed any difference drinking out of stainless steel.  However, you may have to be the judge on whether or not we have a wine palate.

The sun came out for a short period while in Edmonds and we enjoyed the view of some of the  Olympic mountains from our moorage.  Dinner at Anthonys, always a treat, added to the festive feeling, as the entire restaurant was decorated with lights, and the Edmonds Yacht Club had their boats lit up directly below the restaurant windows. 

 




We are looking forward to 2013 and would like to wish everyone the best for the New Year.  We hope to see many of you out cruising during the coming year. 

Power Management 101

With our Indian summer behind us, temperatures are rapidly dropping, and I am getting a quick study on how to stay warm in the boat.  As stated earlier in the blog, Jerry has the experience of living on a boat for four years, so he knew what was coming.  Me?  This is a whole new experience, and it's not just turning a dial on the furnace to a higher temperature.  Running ceramic heaters all over the boat doesn't work either because the dreaded "30 amps maximum" on our boat is used up very quickly with a couple of electric heaters going.  

For those of you never living on a boat before in the Pacific Northwest, one must become a power-use watcher, vigilantly checking the electric panel to make sure you are staying under the 30 amps available.  Having the water heater on uses 10 amps while it's heating water, so do you want hot water available all the time?  Probably not, if the other option is being cold.  So, we turn the water heater on 30 minutes before we want to wash dishes or shower, otherwise it is in the off position.  The lovely ceramic heaters mentioned above?  They use at least 10 amps if at the 1500 watt position. Running the electric drip coffee maker? Check the panel so you don't throw the breaker.  Do you need to re-heat your cup of coffee in the microwave?  You'd better turn off one of your heaters. 

I could go on and on, but you probably are getting the drift.  Power Management 101 is the class I'm currently taking on this boat. But that's not all.  We're deciding to be assertive and try to improve the boat's ability to maintain the heat inside by adding insulation.  Waking up in the morning and having the boat's inside temperature just one degree warmer than the outside temperature is unacceptable (so says the woman used to a warm house)!

A marina friend, David Cooper, who is also a captain on a ship near Cook's Inlet, happened to be back in Sequim on a break from his regular job and stopped by to share with us some new insulation he found.  It's called Prodex and is approximately 3/8" thick with foil on either side and comes in either 24" or 48" width rolls.  

Prodex insulation in the 24" wide roll

It has an 'R' value of 15.6.  It's installed with a double-stick tape, and let me tell you, this sticky tape sticks to anything and everything.  [Click the word 'Prodex" above to go to the website; they sell the tape there, too.]

So, installation of the insulation has begun on Cloud Nine, starting in the salon, followed by the v-berth, and finally the pilot house.  Of course, this means having to replace all of the header fabric and not just the salon's, but we didn't have anything to do at the moment, so why not.  [Wish I had smiley faces to insert here, as I'd insert the winking "you've-got-to-be-kidding" face.]

Salon ceiling with Prodex insulation installed

The good news is that after the salon ceiling was insulated, our temperature the next morning was 10 degrees warmer than the outside temperature and that was still running only a small 750 watt heater during the night.  Obviously, as the night temperatures drop lower, we'll need to run the heater at 1500 watts (if not add the Dickinson diesel furnace into the mix, too).

Next up for keeping the heat in the boat?  Insulated curtains!  Get to sewing woman!

Until next time,

Nancy

To Bremerton & Back

Warm weather was sticking around and we had a full 8-10 days available before Nancy's next work commitment, so we decided to head out for another cruise and take advantage of this extended summer in Sequim.  The last few summers have been anything BUT a summer.  So maybe we've finally returned to "normal" here in the Pacific NW.  In any case, with no plans, no "have to's" (other than being back by a certain date), we take off heading south this time to explore more of Puget Sound. 

Approaching Point Wilson near Port Townsend.

 First stop was Pt. Hudson Marina in Port Townsend.  We love Port Townsend and the marina is so close to town.  The day was really hot, but we still walked through town, stopping at a few stores to browse, stopping at our favorite wine store for a bottle of port, and then on the Sirens, a local pub, on the 3rd floor of an old downtown building, with a deck on the south side looking over the water.  It's a great place to relax on a hot day and have a drink.  The deck is normally packed, but we were lucky this day, getting a table.  Later we returned to the boat and cooked up some King Salmon that was given to Nancy by one of her clients.  Fresh!  Yummy!  How better can life get?!

Channel markers lined up for entering Mats Mats Bay.

 Next day we continued our journey south, stopping at Mats Mats Bay for a lunch break.  Mats Mats Bay has a very narrow entrance, and you have to turn into the entrance once the two markers are lined up.  Then once in the channel, stay in the center as you make a dog leg towards the entrance of the bay.  We dropped anchor near the fishery, made lunch, and enjoyed the quiet and charm of this small bay.  

Part of Mats Mats Bay; quite a secluded little bay!

We continued on south after lunch towards our next stop, Kingston.  Kingston is a very popular stop in Puget Sound, directly west of Edmonds, and on a ferry route.  Kingston is normally filled up during the summer, especially on weekends when there is a Farmers Market on Saturday mornings and concerts in the park adjacent to the marina on Saturday nights.  We got lucky this day, getting a slip for the night.  Next morning, we walked into town to mail our voter ballots and get some groceries at the local IGA.

Heading down Agate Pass towards Poulsbo.

We were in no hurry to continue south as we knew our next stop would be Poulsbo.  We have always loved driving to Poulsbo, walking the quaint Scandinavian village, and walking the docks.  This time, however, would be our first time visiting with our boat, so we knew we'd need a couple of nights to fully enjoy our stay. 

The Scandanavian welcome sign coming into Poulsbo

We met a lovely couple, Jay & Barb, in Poulsbo, who moor their boat in Everett.  We enjoyed spending our evenings visiting with them, and Barb and Nancy even headed into town together the last morning for one more shopping trip (Nancy making out well at their second hand store).

The local Indian Casino with fancy totem pole.

Saying good-bye to hopefully new friends, we continued our journey south, briefly passing Bremerton and the US Destroyer Turner Joy.  We headed north under two bridges connecting Bremerton to the Olympic Peninsula and then made a left into Oyster Bay.  Waggoner's Cruising Guide recommended this bay, anchoring on the west side along a "dense forest".  Well, shall we say dense forest is a touch over-exaggeration, as it was a treed area, but had a parking lot at the end of the road and then a walking path through the treed area.  We saw and heard voices all afternoon, barking dogs for hours that evening, and we lost the sun at about 6:00 p.m. because of the trees.  If we choose to anchor in this bay again, we'll consider the east side nearer the houses.  At least we'd have the sun for a few more hours.

The morning greeted us with hundreds of jellyfish

Jerry did put the fishing pole to use that afternoon, catching a couple of dog fishes about 3 feet long.  Both were cut free and he realized this bay wasn't the best place for fishing.

Next morning we headed out, heading to the unknown, when we again approached Bremerton.  We weren't sure where to go next, the day was quite warm (hot actually) and the idea of a tour of the destroyer Turner Joy and dinner at Anthony's called us into the Bremerton marina.  The marina is brand new and beautiful.  The town has worked hard at rebuilding this area, and has a collection of fountains in the area where children can play in the water.  The one negative about the marina, however, is that the breakwater is open to ferry wake and the first two docks just inside the south entrance are subject to the wakes.  We moved our boat after realizing we didn't want to bounce around all night.  The marina staff is quite warm and welcoming, one boater mentioning that they drove him to the store a few miles away and would not take a tip for the service.

Dinner at Anthony's was fabulous and we had a window seat and got to look down on Cloud Nine while we dined and ate.

The next morning we began our slow trip back home checking out Manzanita Bay east of Poulsbo along the way.  Waggoner's Cruising Guide wrote that it was good, overnight shelter with excellent holding ground.  

Being that it was a Saturday, Agate Pass was full of boaters, and added to that were swimmers at the north end of Agate Pass.  Boaters coming from the north were unaware and a traffic jam occurred as too many boaters from the south, along with the swimmers and their flotilla, met up with very fast boats wanting to enter from the north.  The US Coast Guard Auxillary, who were present for the swimming event, should have been on Channel 16 warning boaters in the area.

We continued northward and stopped briefly at Kingston to see if there were any available slips, but the dreaded "Reserved" signs were on all of the empty slips.  That meant a longer day at the wheel continuing northward around Point No Point and into Port Ludlow.  We anchored out at the southwest corner of the bay, enjoying our stay immensely and hoping to return again soon.  The next morning, we watched an otter family of four frolicking in the water nearby.  We got the kayaks down and went kayaking into the inner harbor, where we were treated to an enormous star fish, as well as other smaller versions of various colors and even an orange sea cucumber.

Seals near Fort Flagler

We eventually left for the day, heading toward Port Townsend, but this time we ventured down to Mystery Bay on Marrowstone Island to see what this area was like.  We didn't like the meandering approach into the area around Fort Flagler as it twisted and had some narrow and shallow areas.  Being a weekend day, there were a lot of boaters and families around the beaches at Fort Flagler as well as further down in Mystery Bay.  None of these places looked relaxing for the night, so we called Point Hudson and got a slip again with them.  We celebrated our last night out on our voyage with drinks and dinner at Sirens.  The heat spell was continuing, and so on our way back to the boat, we swung into the ice cream shop to get some ice cream to enjoy.

Our final morning found us once again returning to Sequim.  We both wished we had more time out and look forward to the day when we can leave Sequim forever and go wherever we want every day!