John & Rebecca Pratt's Nautical Adventures

WiFi on your boat made simple!

Marine Covers and Enclosures

Marinas to stop and visit

- Refuge Cove
- Toba Wilderness
- Stuart Island Community Dock
- Shoal Bay Government Wharf
- Lagoon Cove Marina
- New Vancouver Marina
- Sullivan Bay Marina

Informational websites

Pat's Boating in Canada

National Data Buoy Center

BC Marine Weather

Rockfish Conservation Areas

U. S. Customs and Border Protection

Favorite Links

BillPratt.com

Sierra College

Master Gardener Yolo County

Woodland High School

Woodland Chamber Singers

EcoFriendly

John & Rebecca Pratt's Summer 2026

A Dinghy of a Summer

NOTE: To read more, click on any highlighted, or underlined, words.

Sea Life around the Marina

May into June's time with the dinghy...

Do you know that there are only so many ways, and times, you can nurse an outboard motor along until it finally says, "I give up!" We needed to drop the lower unit to change the impeller and we were busy doing this one morning with the help of a friend. Many bolts, knuckles and a few words later, the lower unit finally came apart... except, the shaft did not come with it. This particular shaft remained frozen in the upper half, with the motor; which after talking with knowledgeable Honda outboard motor technicians, meant that the cost of repairing it was comparable to the cost of buying a brand new one. Um, let's see. After weighing the pros and cons and time factor, we opted for the new. Hmmmm... the specific motor with a short shaft, power tilt, remote steering, and an electric start was, of course, on back order.

It is a lot of fun watching the various birds that use our pulpit as a place to perch, not to mention the debris they might happen to leave behind. That's ok, for the most part, it is worth the watch to wipe up the waste.

This one happened to swoop down, catch a fish and then came back to show the results. Nice!

Another frequent flyer happens to be the pigeons and this one was poised perfectly in the pulpit. Beautiful.

There are multiple birds diving in the water, throughout the marina and this rare one happened to show up one day.

There are some pilings runing on the west side of the water way that seagulls and cormorants use to ruffle and dry their feathers in the wind.

And in the peace of the setting sun, they are busy drawing oil out from a specialized gland at the base of their tail to waterproof their feathers, while making them more supple as well as protected from bacteria or fungal growth.

So, more time flew by while we worked on other mini projects that included the installation of a third solar panel along with a new control panel that gives more information, housecleaning (i.e. the interior of the boat), along with maintenance and checking over of both diesels and the genset; we had much to do to keep us busy. Due to the marine environment, wiring needs to be checked on a regular basis, to ensure good connections and minimal corrosion. Plus, having been here awhile, already, defrost bothe the refrigerator and the ice maker for ice was building. Always something to do.

Underneath the water frontage walkway, at low tide, a couple of pigeons were busy looking for marine life snacks.

The green of their preenage was beautiful with the algae green background.

If they are not down on the rocks under the boardwalk, then they can be found strutting across the parking lot!

Around the marina, quite often you will see one, or more, rabbits running around.

The park that is south of the marina, also has quite a few on the grass in the early morning.

And, oh yes, there's another angrily barking sea lion, that's probably hollering at a boater at the entrance way into the Port of Edmonds. They hang around out there a lot, too.

Plus, time spent with friends up here, and our dock buddy, was an extra bonus for hanging around during the summertime in the Port of Edmonds. We were able to attend a Celebration of Life for our dear friend Judy, up here, who recently passed away unexpectedly. What a beautiful tribute to Judy and her life. We learned so much more about her wonderful personality, and, she had a smile that never quit. Wasn't that long ago we also attended Rebecca's sister Laura's, Celebration of Life with family, to bury her ashes on her favorite beach. Was a beautiful sunsetting goodbye. We did meet more of our fellow boaters on the dock and got to chat with ones we might see only once a year, if we even happened to cross paths.

A cormorant is standing in the breeze on top of one of the pilings in the water way, drying off it's feathers after a successful swim in the marina finding the balls of fish swimming around.

Not far away, a heron in flight is heading for the jetty rocks for a safe landing spot to either nap, or look for a new fishing location.

Herons find fishing off of nearby boats to generally be a successful endeavor, for they return frequently.

And, if not on boats on our dock, then, on a boat just across the water way, with a great view and they have a prime location for the balls of small fish swimming nearby.

Once they have caught their quota, they spend time preening in the sun, doing the same thing the seagulls do to protect their feathers with oil.

Or, they head for the roof top with a prime view to perch and from there, project a very grumpy attitude. When they gronk, you know it is a grumbling day.

Happened to be up early one morning and two slips down, found sea otters on the dock. When walking down, will quite often hear them slipping over the side from other boats. Caught them this time.

Yep, there they are, on the sailboat, too!

Now, we are nearing the end of June and we finally got the phone call that the outboard has arrived to be switched out with the defunk old one that is currently on our dinghy. It took a little planning to coordinate the haulout so that they could pick up our dinghy. Obviously, we had to paddle over to the haulout dock, and then off it went to WayPoint Marine for a new face lift and other needed repair work. So, more things to work on, on the boat, and explore low tides and/or wildlife all around.

Kingfisher was watching the dinghy being paddled away, as we were moving it over to the haulout location.

This is called, the captain keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of challenges... i.e. new outboard process starting.

Kevin, from WayPoint Marine, was situating the dinghy on the slings, correctly. He is a hard working young man with a great attitude, and has a second job at Jersey Mike's. Wow!

In 20 years, we have never seen our dinghy sitting high and dry on a trailer. Resting high and dry on davits, on our swim platform, but never on a trailer.

Meanwhile, back on the docks, a seagull arrives very quietly. Well, of course, it has a mouthful with no way to get a squawk out around the starfish stuck in there. Yes, eventually it will swallow that puppy by disengaging it's jaws to make it's mouth even BIGGER!

These guys became quite upset, because.....

...this guy arrived on the jetty and did not appear to want to leave anytime in the near future. Not often do we see them on the rock jetty of the marina.

Yep, this eagle hung around for quite awhile on top of one of the pilings.

July's departure, is getting closer...

La Conner tides and current

A shake down kind of summer! ...

Some days, the best laid plans, go awry; and then... stuff happens.
We were all eager, ready to take off for Canada, and our first stop was going to be in La Conner! Right?
Wrong.....
Lines were were being loosened, to get them ready to throw on board, and went to start the motors to get them warmed up. WHAT! Starboard motor would not start. The start key was buzzing but the motor was not cranking. Tried to move the shift lever to check for neutral. Wait. Shift lever is froze.
Oh nooooooo.....
Ok, start the process of elimination...
Remove cable from motor and check to see if motor is froze. No. Whew, big sigh of relief.
Remove cable from lower helm lever. Nope, lever moves freely.
Remove cable from upper helm lever. This one is moving freely too. So, it is NOT the shift levers at the upper and lower helms.
Now, remove the other cable from the upper helm. The cable inside this outer plastic sheath, moves freely. Nope, not this one.
Of course, the last cable we check is the main cable from the lower helm to the motor. Yep. Here's the problem.
Now, how to remove the cable that is inside the lower helm station (very tight space and hard to get to), going behind the wall on the starboard side, and then down through a storage area under the floorboard in front of the lower helm (another tight spot), where it then goes through the bulkhead (due to an extra cable here, there was no way to fit another cable through this hole) before going along the bulkhead in front of the starboard engine and then through some more electrical clamps, and then to the shift lever on the motor.
->->-> Ok, short break to catch some sunset pictures and relax a little.

Several days later, wish we had pictures, we not only replaced the shift cable from the lower helm to the motor, but also removal of an old throttle cable that was left in, when a new one was put in. It took a lot of nipping the zip ties and unscrewing the insulated clamps to finally figure out how to get both out. Before pulling the debunked shift cable, we wrapped a wire around one end, to pull through, in order to help us have a guide when we fed the new 16 foot cable behind walls and through holes, where the old one had been.
->->-> More time to relax and watch the sun setting west of the jetty at the end of our dock. These were all taken over different days.

Our years of working together have really paid off by making a very difficult job, much easier. Together, over the four days of pacing ourselves (remember, this is forty years of marriage and bodies are telling us that!) we actually enjoyed each step of a challenging situation and feel pretty darn good about what we accomplished, together. John not being as flexible as he used to be, Rebecca was able to squirm into some pretty tight places, reaching things that were never meant to be reached after the boat was built! Also, together, the need to check, and recheck (i.e. did I put that back on... did I tighten that nut...etc.) was alleviated to a great degree in back and forth conversations as we got things done. Although, it was sometimes hard to hear, when one is down in the engine room and the other has their head buried in a cubby hole, somewhere!

off to Poulsbo

We decided to check around and see how busy different locations were, and when we called Poulsbo, no reservation needed. Lots of room on the dock. Oops, may be a bit warmer, though. Ok, we can handle that. However, a quick side note; it is interesting how white the jetty rocks, and the roof over the dock to the north of us were becoming. There is definitely a distinct smell that has been developing in the warmer days here in Edmonds. Mind you, we have not been here in the month of July, so there are lots of things to still learn, that happen while we are gone. Due to less rain, where the seagulls perch, i.e. jetty, roofs, etc., the poop piles build up to a degree that the aroma is defintely distinct to the season!

Jetty rocks before they started getting painted with a kaleidoscope of white streaks, compliments of the seagulls.

The white streaks are the piles of poop over time! We have noticed that there are sections where there is much less whiteness. We think that is the nesting sections on the jetty.

Yup, same piles and streaks, here, too! On a foggy, misty morning, or when there is a drizzle, watching the seagulls land and then start sliding down the roof, is always good for a chuckle. Watched one half grown one, start at the top and slide clean to the edge before dropping off into flight!

I know, no association whatsoever, however, had to share prawn yummy time on 'Moonshine' with prawns fixed four different ways. Gotta get those recipes!

It was great getting out on the water with a SW heading, for Poulsbo. Not a lot of boat traffic out, but there were the diehard fishermen, busy trolling, mostly on the east side of Puget Sound. Water is smooth, no big ships cruising through and minimal boats makes for an easy cruise southwest to Agate Passage, before a starboard turn around Sandy Hook. At entrance to Liberty Bay Inlet, we steered wide around the Keyport Naval Underwater Warfare Engineering Station (NUWES) which has two piers. Recommended speed is 5 knots when pssing the south pier (the first one) and then 3 knots when passing the north pier. If there is a flashing red lights on Navy range vessels and on top of the building on the seaward end of the south pier, most likely torpedo firings are going on, or conditions generally hazardous to mariners are happening. If near the area, stop engines because some torpedoes are guided by noise and may be attracted to the boat noises. Upon entering Liberty Bay, Poulsbo is on the east shore at the very head of Liberty Bay.