KEEPING BUSY IN FRIDAY HARBOR

Our boat moored in Friday Harbor

Greeting from Friday Harbor.  Pat and I have been here for six weeks now and are enjoying it so far.  The spot we are moored in looks right straight out into the bay here so we see all the pleasure boats and ferry boats coming and going.  I was surprised to see so many large super yachts so late in the season.  Many are from the British Virgin Islands.  I suspect that they are coming down from being up in Alaska for the summer and the people on board are the crew.  The owners have all flown back home.

A Otter coming into  the dock

Right across the dock from us is where all the sea planes land. It was quite busy the last part of October but has slowed up to maybe one or two a day.  This picture is of a Otter and it has a turbine engine with a reversing prop.  It was quite a sight the first time I saw a float plane go backwards.  Most of the planes we see belong to Kenmore Air in Seattle.

The ferry arriving in Friday Harbor

Of course the ferries come and go all day long.  There is one that stays overnight here and they start the engines at 5:00 am and leave at 6:00 am.
We have our car here and have rode the ferry to Anacortes three times so far for various appointments.  The ride takes about an hour.

Engine room of Aye Aye Sir

My big project this winter is a refurbishing of the engine room.  Back in 2007 I had a turbo leak exhaust into this space and I never completely got it cleaned up. So all the walls and ceiling need to be washed and repainted.  Also the engines are in need of fresh paint too.  When everything is clean and painted it's lots easier to see any leaks.  Some of the hoses will be replaced and a couple of gaskets are weeping some fluids.  About 3 weeks into the project I pinched a nerve in my back so that has slowed me down somewhat.

Our new diesel heater

The other big project this winter was to install a diesel heater in the salon.  Our existing diesel furnace heats the boat fine but the air blowing out into the salon makes way to much noise.  This little heater makes no noise at all and really heats up the salon and wheel house.  I had a fuel tank below the seating in the wheel house that had never been used and it is higher than the stove so I plumbed into it so gravity feeds the fuel to the stove ( no fuel pump required ).  I also bought a small fan to set on top of the stove.  The hot air makes the blades turn too so no power required there either. So no external power is required to operate this heater.  So far so good.










Pat has been keeping busy with various craft projects and her knitting.  She also found a good massage therapist which helps with her fibermyalgia. Every Thursday we take our male dog Max to a training class here in town.  He has to much aggression when on the leash so we need to break him of this.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!  Russ, and Pat