Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Point Roberts USA to Anacortes Washington July 29th- to 31st, 2008.

It was a blustery day when we left Point Roberts and the wind was already creating small white caps as we entered the Straight of Georgia. About a mile from the marina we had a rather startling event. All along our trip we have been watchful of crab pot buoys, and as we entered the straight there was an orange buoy about 50 yards off our starboard bow. We assumed we had plenty of space, but hidden in the wind chop was a line of small, fist sized buoys attached to a fishing net. When she saw them, Alexus immediately threw the transmissions into neutral, but as our momentum carried us across the fishing line we began to drag the net. We had stopped the props from turning, but unfortunately had still managed to catch the line and net in the props and rudder. The fisherman and his son came over in their small boat and we apologized profusely for snagging their net. He was quite understanding and took part of the net and tied it to his boat to see if he could pull it loose. It did not free and ended up just pulling us along. Alexus decided to take a look and went into the boat to change into her dive gear. The fisherman and his son were very concerned for her safety and kept telling me to tell her to just cut the net. She first entered the water in her wet suit and snorkel just to take a look, and again both the fisherman and his son were concerned about her getting caught in the net. She came back up and decided to use her scuba tank and gear in order to free the props and rudder. I asked her, how would I know if she were in trouble? She talked about taking another line down and giving a distinct tug if she was in trouble. It did not seem wise to have anything else in the water. We agreed that since she had an hour of air that she had 10 minutes to clear the nets from the props and rudders, and if she was not topside by then, I would radio the Coast Guard. Well, it took about five minutes for her to free the rudder and prop and the net drifted lose from the boat. It was pretty chewed up so we asked him what it would cost to repair the net. He said about $400. We felt really bad about not seeing the line and decided to give him $500 for his trouble. It was also important that they never once complained and were more concerned about Alexus’ safety through the whole thing. He had said he was not having much luck any way. So we figure he made $500 dollars that day and spent his day in port repairing the net and drinking beer. After that rather significant delay, we continued on our way with no further complications into our favorite home port away from home, Anacortes.
We spent three full days in Anacortes getting laundry done, cleaning up the boat and spending time with our friends Neal and Eva Small. We were lucky in meeting up with them again. They had just returned from taking their friends out to cruise the San Juan Islands on their boat Kapalua and were back in Anacortes provisioning and cleaning their boat. Neal had mentioned that they might have sold their boat, but they did not hear back from the gentleman that was interested. We also had the guys from Anacortes Marine look at the auto pilot as it was making an over adjustment when in a certain function. We also were able to get all of the wine and liquor we had left with Willa who works in the harbor masters office. Since we would not be crossing a boarder again we restocked the boat with our wine we brought when we leased out the house. It was a good break and a comfortable port.

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