Saturday morning the sun rose over Blakely Island to a beautiful, but calm, morning. The only sound when I awoke were the sprinkler heads watering the spectacularly manicured hillside next to the marina. Today's trip would close the loop and bring us back to Anacortes and Cap Sante Boat Haven where the whole trip began some two weeks and somewhere around 200 miles ago. As always when sailing in the San Juans or Gulf Islands, the currents dictated our departure time. The previous evening's review of the charts, current atlas and tide tables said 8:00am would give us the  best overall timing to get to our destination. The folks at Blakely took pity on us coffee drinkers and opened the store early for us so we could get our "fix" before we set off. It was greatly appreciated!
 
0800 and all seven boats motored into Peavine Pass heading for the Rosario Straight. As soon as the straight came into view it was obvious that there was some wind there. Larry looked over from the cockpit of Corndog with a big grin on his face and pumped his fist a few times in excitement knowing that we'd at least get to do some sailing on our last day. I could relate, totally. Crews scrambled to get the canvass up and within minutes not an outboard was heard. Crossing Rosario was good sailing, as it has been the three other times I have had the opportunity. Mother Rosario must have a soft spot for Montys! As soon as we reached the other side.....calm settled in again. Ugh! I'll admit I was the first to drop the outboard and fire it up. Unfortunately, our upcoming road trip home demanded that we keep making time towards Anacortes. One thing I am known far and wide for is taking a long time to get our boat road ready and we needed to get on the road and get some miles behind us before the day was done. So, we motored on.  Once again  between Cypress and Sinclair Islands the breeze freshened, right on the nose. We silenced the 9.9 and enjoyed a half hour of upwind sailing until we reached the Bellingham Channel. That was it. Calm again. This time when the YammerHammer thumped to life, it was for the duration. As we motored around the top of Guemes Island, 'Jo and I decided to get a jump on the de-rigging process. While she handled the tiller I scrambled around the boat removing and storing everything I could without dropping the rig on top of us. By the time we reached the Cap Sante breakwater we had a pretty good head start on process.
 
One by one all the boats arrived. A couple got slips for the night and decided to get hauled out the next day. The rest began the process of getting ready for the hoist trip to the trailer.
 
We were out of the water by mid afternoon. Handshakes, hugs, goodbyes, and "see ya laters" were exchanged. We tried to express to Larry Yake our appreciation of all the work that he put into creating this gettogether and his skill "herding the cats." He's the greatest and it is a privilege to know him and have sailed with him. Thanks Larry!!!
 
We made it past Snoqualamie Pass the first night and spent the evening in the camper at beautiful rest area. The next day got us to Twin Falls, Idaho, and last night we crashed (not literally) at a small campground in Leed's Utah (right near Zion). We arrived home in Lake Havasu, AZ around 2pm this afternoon to a cool 112 degrees....(but it's a dry heat! yeah right!).

Somewhere beautiful on the 1500 mile trip home

Our trip is over. What a great three weeks. Thanks to Josh and the crew at SCA for letting us blog it here. I know that all three people that read it ( Jo's mom, brother, and sister) enjoyed it! hahaha.
 
If you haven't taken advantage of your trailersailer's ability to cover miles at 60mph to get to new cruising grounds, we'd recommend it. You'll see beautiful places and meet some of the nicest people you can ever imagine.
 
Fair winds from the crew of Dauntless, from here in Lake Havasu City, AZ.
 
Casting off,

Sean, 'Jo, and yes, of course, Bosun   :-)

PS
(over the next couple of weeks we'll put a lot more pictures and description of the two week trip on our website at www.havasumontgomerys.piczo.com

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WOW!!  What a neat event to attend!
 
The folks at the Oklahoma City Boat Club really know how to throw a party.  I’m so glad that Pammie had me fly down, in spite of the fact that Saturday was our Eleven Year Anniversary.  Hopefully, I’ll figure out some suitable way to make that up to her.
 
Four Blackwatch made the gathering.  This was not terrible, but we had eight boats lined up a couple of months ago, that would have been truly amazing.  Various problems and conflicts pared the fleet down to the four in attendance.  Gary Saunders and Kent Johnson are both members of OCBC, and this was the impetus to try to gather the fleet at the club’s annual Lighthouse Charity Regatta.

Chuck Roach brought his wife Sally, and his Blackwatch #40, from Wichita KS.  This boat crossed the Florida Straits to Cuba, averaging 5.5 knots for the crossing. Honest, Chuck has pictures to prove it!

Chuck & Sally Roach

Harry Rowe’s #69 made the trip from Stockton, MO.  Harry was kind enough to pick me up at the airport, with the boat in tow!  That created a bit of head-turning!!
 

Harry slaved for many, many hours in 105 degree Oklahoma heat trying to get #69 in the water, to no avail.  The final straw was when the main halyard ended up at the masthead late Saturday.

Kent Johnson is a member of OCBC, and owns the second Blackwatch produced, #02
 

Kent Johnson sorting out a line in preparation for our Saturday sail.  Kent was a tremendous help to all of us, helping Harry with his boat, taking us "boatless” folks sailing, and providing my return transportation to the airp0rt Monday morning.

Gary Saunders is the owner of #52 and is the person who originally suggested that we utilize the OCBC Lighthouse Charity Regatta as our venue for the Blackwatch Fleet Gathering. I’m really glad that he and the Commodore of OCBC, Ann Kilpatrick, made such a convincing argument in favor of their facility.  EVERYTHING was completely outstanding!

 

Gary Saunders, Harry Rowe, Sally & Chuck Roach, and Kent Johnson relaxing on the deck (we must have somehow managed to temporarily get Harry in out of the heat)

Other Clan members in attendance, sans boats:
 

Jerry Fruit and his wife Vikki traveled from San Marcos Texas to join us.  Jerry was planning to bring #81 to the event, but a schedule conflict prevented.  They flew in to OKC Saturday morning to join us.

Norm Lansky and his wife Leslie drove from New Orleans to be with us. Norm owns KITTYHAWK, the only known Blackwatch rigged as a gaff-cat. “The second #1”

 

Your humble report, Dave McFate, Valley View, Ohio.
 

"Rock Star" dockage was provided for "The Fleet" in the basin in front of the Clubhouse.

Three Blackwatch in the basin, and Harry’s boat would have made four.  Next year, I really think we might be able to get ten, perhaps a dozen.  Wouldn’t that be something?
 
I cannot express how much I appreciate the effort that all these folks put in to making this Gathering possible.  And heartfelt thanks to the Officers and members of The Oklahoma City Boat Club who provided such a warm welcome and simply  made everything perfect for this rag-tag bunch of Blackwatch folks. I hope we can do it again… maybe next June for the SECOND Gathering of the Fleet & ‘The FIRST Blackwatch Nationals’. 
 
More later when I get the FILM processed (yes, I know, but I’m an old Navy Photomate, can’t seem to make the jump to digital.  These were all taken with my son’s little Olympus)
 
—Dave McFate
 

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Checking in this afternoon from Blakely Island Marina Store.  Last night at Roche Harbor we were docked at the farthest dock from the resort and the wireless signal was really poor. So, to get you up to date:
 
After our wet ride to Port Sydney on Wed, we spent the day exploring the town. Sydney is a delight and a spot that Jo and I surely want to return to. Larry showed me a "Boater's Exchange" store just up from the marina that was like diving into a treasure chest of used sailboat parts. This place had everything—if you had the patience to look for it. Inside it was like one of those giant mining dump trucks ( you know, the ones that can hold 30 cars?) dumped its load of used boat parts on a store the size of your local Circle K. It was fun to rummage around in.

 

A Dog's Life Aboard!

Gary H. had his favorite Greek restaurant that we all trekked uptown to for dinner. Mmmmmm. It was a good call. We even found out that there is a difference between baked and steamed spaghetti.
 
The plan for yesterday was an early departure to cross the Haro Straight with light currents to get to Roche Harbor and check into customs. Overnight, I was awakened numerous times by downpours on the deck and we awoke to stormy looking skies and an ominous forecast. The Haro Straight has a reputation of being exceptionally nasty when the winds oppose the currents. That's exactly what it looked like might be setting up. If we were going to make a run for it we needed to do it pronto before the ebb tide really got going. As a group we pored over the tide/current data, weather reports and charts and evaluated how much of a rough ride we were willing to deal with. Eventually, we decided to wait until the tides and currents turned, around 1pm, and make a run for it when the wind and currents were running the same general direction. Depending on what forecast you listened to, winds were forecast to be 10-20, and possibly more.
 
The later departure gave crews a few more hours to enjoy Sydney and skippers a few more hours to fret about the upcoming crossing. Knowing that we could turn back if we needed to I went ahead with preparations. One thing I decided to do was to eliminate our dinghy as a potential problem. Our previous encounter in the Haro Straight last week had the dinghy surfing up to and crashing into the back of the boat, turning sideways and making me worry that we might flip it. This time, we packed the dinghy up and brought it aboard . Problem solved! Many crews pre-tied in reefs in the main and secured everything for a potential rough crossing.
 
1 pm arrived and the fleet, like clockwork, cast off dock lines and headed out. As if we were being watched over and the weather Gods felt repentant for the wet ride the day before, a blue hole opened up over top of us. The sun's warmth felt awesome. We wouldn't be able to see the conditions in the Haro until we sailed a few miles, around Sydney Spit, and stuck our noses out into it. Right off the bat conditions were good. We were sailing a reach over to Sydney Spit with a full main and a blade jib making around 5-6 knots. Seas here were no problem but we were protected by Sydney Island and still the question remained, how would the Straight be?
 
As we rounded the Spit the wind freshened and we busted through a few tide rips, but the seas were pretty mellow and the boatspeed just kept on increasing. Although the currents should have been pushing us north, it seemed that they were from our stern adding to our speed. Crews were shaking out reefs right and left and hauling up headsails.

The Fleet Crossing Haro Straight at 7+ knots and more!

The sailing was great as the boat was 100% powered up but fully controllable and the knot meter was going off the scale. All the boats reported that they were holding speeds in the 7+ knot range, with long bouts in the 8+ knot region and surges over 9!  On Dauntless, we peaked out at 9.2 knots. It was great!  All that worrying and it turned out that the sailing was great. We covered the 11.5 miles in an hour and 45 minutes. That included getting in and out of port! Everyone agreed that it was one of the best sails they have ever had. Jo and I sailed all the way into Roche Harbor.

Everyone tied up safe at Roche

Roche Harbor, if you haven't been there, is the playground of the rich. I am not exaggerating. As you walk the docks there are new yachts for sale tied up like an auto dealership on the water. What do the window stickers on them say? Well, we briefly looked at the four tied up by the head of the dock and they were $890,000.00...2,800,000.00  and 3.8 million. The harbor is full of these kind of boats. Amazing. I don't know what all these people do, but they must do it well!

 

 Roche Harbor

Yeah, our boats are down there...but you'll never find 'em!

We cleared U.S. Customs at Roche as we were now back in U.S. Waters. Two of the 8 boats were searched and I'm happy to report that they were clean! The difference between dealing with U.S. Customs vs dealing with Canadian Customs was huge. I'll only speak for myself , but suffice it to say that it seemed the Canadians were a lot happier to have us around.
 
Everyone milled around , watched the Lowering of the Colors Ceremony and then ended up back at the boats. Out came cans of crackers, cheese, wine, soda, pretzels, peanuts, etc. and we had our own little dock party sitting Indian style on the dock as the millionaires watched from the decks of their superyachts. Unbeknownst to them, we were the richest people in the world enjoying our special friendships for the 13th evening in a row. Life is good.
 
This morning was an early 7:30am cast off from Roche for Blakely Island Marina. Blakely is a special place. We love it here. It's tiny and beautiful. It was a clear windless morning.
 

Tom, Della, and Booji motoring to Roche
 

We motored in a group.  Jo and I took a side trip to Shaw Island and visited the small market on the island that has been operational since the beginning of the century along the way.  Arriving at Peavine Pass we had to negotiate about a 3 knot current into the entrance to Blakely. One by one the Montys arrived. This will be our last full day together. Most crews are relaxing today. Some are starting getting things ready to transfer from "boatlife" back to "landlife". Laundry, cleaning up and preparations to get the boats hoisted out.
 

Jim on Grace relaxin' at Blakely

 

Fred shows us how it's done at Blakely's Ice Cream Parlor

Crews relax together at Blakely 

Tomorrow we close the loop. Anacortes. The beginning and the end. Honestly, it's a bittersweet day. Yes, I know that this life is not reality for me. It's an escape from daily life. It's a time to make new, and strengthen old friendships. It's been a time to reflect about what's important, and what's not.  In some ways the two weeks has flown by and in others it seems like we've been on the boat for an eternity. Even though this trip pales in comparison to many journeys that sailors around the world have taken, it is still a feeling of accomplishment to complete it. But, that feeling of accomplishment comes with the realization that it is almost over for now. The now 7 boats remaining of the original 16 that started the trip will end their journey tomorrow. Once we hit Anacortes everyone will be busy getting ready to hit the road to get back to their respective homes.  Jo and I  are going to try to get to Anacortes, get the boat loaded, and be on the road by evening for the 1500 mile trip home.  Probably won't be time to post. We'll check in from somewhere along the road home with a final report. 

 

Bosun says..."that's enough bloggin' dad. Time for a walk"
 
Casting off
Sean, Jo, and Bosun, and the Montgomery Group
M23 Dauntless
 

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Just got this question from the new owner of an American Fiberglass 16-foot daysailor...

 

I am hoping you can help me by answering my question or pointing me in the direction of someone who can. I recently purchased a 16’ 1975 American Fiberglass daysailer that has a water ballast system that I am not sure how to operate. The boat has a hole/plug in the lower transom and two hole/plugs in the cockpit. It would seem to me that I should open the plug in the transom and the plugs in the cockpit until water begins to come in the cockpit holes and then replace the plugs in all of the openings. This would fill the water tank and be certain the air was removed from the tank. The previous owner told me just to leave all of the plugs in place and the water ballast fills itself through some valve. When I leave all of the plugs in place I do get water in the ballast tank however I can not find a valve anywhere unless it is in the centerboard area. I am thinking I have a leak into the water ballast tank which I can not find.

 

I can not find much information about these water ballast systems and the company that made this boat is out of this business. I was hoping that you may provide some insight or point me in the direction of someone who can.

 

Thank You

 

Here is a picture of a sistership...

 

The interesting thing is that I can't find any information about this boat being fitted with water ballast! Bouancy tanks, yes. Water ballast, no.

 Can anyone out there shed any light on this question?

 

Thanks!

 

Capt'n Pauley

 

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Just a quick to to let you know. for reason known only to them, Josh and Craig have decided to let me post to the Small Craft Advisor blog.

 Many of you know me as the Technical Editor of SCA. I've got a pretty good background with epoxy, polymer lumber and wood. I've a good understanding of the ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Coucil) regs and standards and have been acive in restoring and sailing small craft. I still own and sail Ternabout, my 1972 Matilda 20. 

I'm a memeber of SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) and USPS (United States Power Squadrons) with a rank of Past Lieutenant Commander and grade of Advanced Pilot.

 I'm currently based at the head of Chesapeake Bay in a little town called North East, Maryland. It's located on the Northeast River (yes, that's rignt, the town is two words and river is one - go figure).

I'd welcome any maintenance, operation or restoration questions and will do my best to answer them or find the answer.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Capt'n Pauley

 

 

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The truck may be dead, and my spirits were really low, but Pammie tells me, "You better go."
 
Sometimes, if you DO wait until the very last minute, things work out.  Delta airlines, arriving in Oklahoma City at 10:05 Friday morning.  Harry, Blackwatch #69, has offered to pick me up at the airport, and we'll get his mast stepped first thing.

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Checking in tonight from Port Sydney, Canada.
 
Yesterday we had a great day at Maple Bay Marina. The staff there made us feel so welcome. Right off the bat, Jesse at the fuel dock helped us out and told us how he'd been waiting for us to arrive. Then, after moving from the fuel dock to the slip, Carol, the Manager of the marina came down to the boat to meet us. As we walked up the dock and up to the restaurant area, they had even made a sign proclaiming "Welcome Montgomery Owners' Sailboat Group"!  Wow, how cool is that. Wagoner's Cruising Guide proclaims that Maple Bay Marina has probably the cleanest and best maintained facilities for cruiser's in the Gulf Islands. What we found confirms that. Add to that the friendliness of the staff and this place is a "must stop" to add to your itinerary if you ever come up here. Bald eagles soar over this place all the time. We saw three!

Picturesque Maple Bay Marina

At the back of the marina are floating houses...now that's living!!
 

Dauntless and Sea Cutter tied up with the floating houses in the background 

We ate dinner as a group at the Marina Restaurant and tried to get to bed "early" as we were planning an 8:00am departure in order to catch the ebbing current to help drive us to Port Sydney.
 
Last night Jo and I got to see the luminescence in the water. Late at night, after dark, if you disturb the water in any way , it lights up in a brilliant green glow from all the little microscopic life in the water emitting  light when stimulated. It was really cool to see.
 
This morning, what we have been pretty much avoiding, finally caught up with us. We  awoke to the sound of rain on the cabin top. Steady rain. I checked our weather radar that is part of our Garmin unit and it was obvious that there was not waiting it out. It was raining, it was going to continue raining for some time, and it was going to start raining harder soon. Out came the foulies. Everyone bundled up and we slipped out dock lines at 8 for Port Sydney. Currents and tides are a huge concern up here and we wanted to take full advantage of the ebbing tide , especially since we had some narrows to get though.The narrows are where the currents get the strongest and we sure wanted to be going the same direction and not fighting  the currents through them.

Larry goes over the harbor layout of Port Sydney with crews that had not been there before just before departing

Tom and Della motor through pouring rain...notice their dog "Booji" peaking out of the green garbage bag/rain coat.

John and Julie on the M23 Dreamtime motoring along  in the rain with low clouds hanging in the hills

 

Bosun, who rode most of the way in the cabin, checking to make sure that things are being handled correctly in the cockpit.
 

We took John's Passage on the way to Port Sydney. It is a pretty narrow passage. Navigating through it was a little interesting. The currents had us pushing through there at speeds approaching 8 knots and getting pushed all over the place. The currents not only were causing our heading to veer one way and then the other, but they even caused the boat to rock quite a bit as the keel moved from one direction of current to another. It took a  lot of rudder and power to keep the boat positioned in the center channel of the narrow passage.
 
Oddly enough, not long after arriving at Sydney, the rain stopped and changed to scattered showers. We spent the day cruising around town checking the place out.

Port of Sydney Offices

Seaside walk and park at the top of the marina docks, looking towards Sydney Spit.
 

John and Julie's M23

Beautiful flower pots at the top of every piling. Dauntless in her slip

Another GREAT marina with super friendly folks. The town is a bustling little nautical town. A few of us spent an hour in a boat parts consignment store that you could probably find parts for any possible project on which you  might be working. Everyone took time to get all there gear dried out after the long wet motoring passage.  Another group dinner tonight at a local greek restaurant that is a favorite of Gary's, and now it's time to wind down the day and get ready to head back to U.S. waters tomorrow. In the morning we plan to head to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island, weather permitting. It's blowing pretty hard tonight. We'll have to see how the Haro Straight looks in the morning.
 
So that's it for now.
 
We'll check in from Roche (hopefully tomorrow)
 
Sean, Jo, and Bosun
Montgomery Group
M23 "Dauntless"

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Well... that's a year of my life I'll never get back.
 
First out of the chute, no brakes on the trailer, well, that's not exactly right, no brake LIGHTS on the truck, which means there is no electrical signal to the trailer brakes.  The brakes all worked just fine, but I'm not driving 1060 miles manually engaging the trailer brakes, and then the small matter of lights might be a problem as well... Turned around and went back to the barn.
 
Checked everything I could think of and eventually discovered that the brake light switch took a dump on me.  When was the last time anyone has actually had the switch fail??
 
Down to the auto parts shop, 36 bucks and WAIT for the delivery guy to fetch the piece (made for 25 cents in China no doubt) from the warehouse... I get the part at like 3:00 pm.
 
Back home, test the switch; It works, get it installed and adjusted.  Verify that the lights and trailer brakes actually work.  Load Pammie back in the truck and away we go.  It's 3:30pm.
 
OK, we're only six hours behind schedule, but what the heck.  Nothing else can go wrong, right?
 
OK, it's hot has the dickens up here today, and we get maybe 40 miles in and the air conditioner dies!  OK, inconvenient, but we roll down the windows and catch some breeze.
 
It's gonna be a HOT trip, it's something like 110 degrees in Oklahoma right now, but maybe when we get there we have a few days and we can get it fixed for the return trip.
 
What's next???  Oh, nothing really, just a transmission overtemp indicator, follow soon thereafter by a "Service Engine Soon" lamp blazing on the dash.  We haven't made it a hundred miles.  Stop in Mansfield OH and catch a shop at ten miutes to closing time.  We chck things out and come up with a blown fuse on the A/C fan control, but it's still pumping hot air.  The trans overtemp light goes out, I reset the Check Engine light and we staart heading back to the interstate.  Before we make it to the interchange the overtemp is back on, and I give up.  We turned North and headed back home.
 
'lil Bit is back in the drive, and I'm not sure what I'm gonna do next.  But I'm thinking the OKC trip is pretty well out of the question right now.  Damn shame.
 
Dave
#77
 

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Checking in from Maple Bay Marina this afternoon. Looks like we've got somewhere around 120 nautical miles under the keels so far. Eight boats remain in the fleet, 3 M23s and 5 M17s. Everyone else has had to go back to reality already. Luckily, for the rest of us, we get to continue to play for a while longer.
 
Our sail from Ganges to Montague Harbor had some decent wind. It was a short sail but fun nonetheless.

John and Julie onboard the M23 Dream Time sailing to Montague Harbor.

Montague proved to be another stunningly beautiful stop. When we arrived the Government Dock at the marine park was already full. Most of our fleet was grabbing mooring balls. We elected to grab a slip at the Montague Marina right next door. Right about the time we secured a slip, dock space at the Govt Dock became available but since we already had secured the marina slip we decided to stay.
 
Luckily for me we just missed having a major/minor tragedy. The marina had assigned us a slip over the radio and indicated that it was a starboard side tie, bow in. We usually tow the dinghy off the starboard stern cleat. As we've done so many times before, 'Jo helped me move the dinghy over to the Port side and shorten its lead so it'd be close in to the boat while maneuvering in the marina. As we approached the dock the wind as setting us off. My usual tactic to handle that is to carry a little more speed into the dock, approaching it at a fairly steep angle. I use the outboard with the steering lock released and as we approach the dock I turn the outboard hard over to the side the dock is on and use reverse to slow the boat as well as to pull the stern to the dock at the same time. It seems to work well for me, with a little practice you can get the boat to come to a complete stop at the same time it is parallel to the dock and if you do it right your mate can leisurely just step across with a line.  Well, I did it, and it worked...kind of. But, just after I hit reverse and started pulling the stern around the motor came to an abrupt stop. My inattention to details allowed the dinghy bridle to get caught by the prop. Fortunately we had the dock made and the motor was still going fairly low rpm before it caught the webbing. Once we were secure I sheepishly went back to look at what damage I had caused. Surely the webbing was trash, maybe the prop...did it get the dinghy itself???  I was Super lucky on all counts. After unwrapping 2 full wraps from between the prop hub and lower unit case...no damage...to anything!  Dodged a bullet there!

So you want fresh crab?...How bout buying it right off the boat?!

Jo and I spent a quiet afternoon on the boat at the marina. Later, while Jo caught up on some reading and relaxing, Bosun and I hiked over to the Government Dock where some of the Monty group had gotten dock space. After dinner, the three of us got in the dingy and motored over to say hi to the other crew that were out on the mooring balls. Some of the crew took the famous "school bus" to the pub on the interior of the island. The big thing on the bus is that they play, and everyone sings, Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill" all the way to the pub. They reported having a great time.

Life aboard...

Sunset at Montague Marina

Negative Tide = Steep ramps!

 
In the morning we moved over to the Govt Dock which was now open and the whole group gathered before heading out for Conover Cove on Wallace Island. The tides right now are huge with negative Low Tides making for some VERY steep ramps and thin water.

Gary, Sean and Bosun just before leaving Montague Harbor

Monty Fleet (8 boats now) gathered and ready to head out for Wallace Island

After a brief skippers meeting the fleet set out for Conover Cove on Wallace Island. Now wind to speak of this morning. We motored all the way. Arriving at Conover we found, just as the cruising guides promised, thin water at low tide. Fortunately, there was just enough water to get the 23s through the entrance although it was a bit sketchy. A couple 17s that took routes slightly to the right or left of what we did reported touching bottom. As for us, we pulled the rudder up halfway and pussy-footed our way through at about a half of a knot with the sounder reporting as shallow as 4 feet. It was worth it. Conover was a snug little anchorage with a Government Dock that had enough space, JUST, for the whole crew. All 8 boats were able to tie up.

 

We got everyone tied up to the dock, otherwise this cove requires short scope anchoring with stern lines to be run ashore.
 

There is an abandoned house on the island that visiting cruisers leave signs indicating their visit. Most signs are carved on driftwood, of which there is an abundance on these islands. Some are VERY creative. We found the one left by the Montgomery Group that visited in '06.
 

Visiting Cruisers' signs

Every island has had great hiking. Conover was no exception. The scenery is hard to describe. This is the southern most point of the island looking out over the waters we had just sailed to get there.

For the first time this trip we had a fairly early start planned for the next morning in order to make best use of the tides/currents to get us to Maple Bay.  Most crews ate an early dinner and then hit the sack in preparation for Tues morning.
 

Eldor and Dorothy cooking aboard Motu-iti.
 

So , now I need to go out and hike around here (Maple Bay) and get some pics.  We had a windless trip here. saw lots of seals, big tugboats with huge barges, and a few bald eagles. Tomorrow morning we're heading to the town of Sydney. Should be able to check in from there.

 Jo drivin' us to Maple Bay this morning.

Weather has been great (except light wind lately). Maybe rain tomorrow. We'll check in from Sydney.
 
—Sean, 'Jo, and Bosun
 

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Big News!
 
A miracle happened and we managed to get ‘Gathering’ Tee Shirts on order.  These should be arriving in Oklahoma city on Friday, just in time for the arrival of the fleet.
 
Tee Front (pocket):

Tee Back:
 

 

‘lil Bit is pretty much ready to go… I think.  Still have some packing to do, and then strike & secure the mast for transport.  I stepped the mast on Sunday, mostly to make sure that all of the lines were on the correct sides of the spreaders.  When the winter cover goes on I pull the spreaders and the mast makes a nice ridge-pole for the tarp.  Unfortunately, I never seem to remember to group the halyards in ‘before’ and ‘after’ bundles, and it’s really a pain to sort out after the mast is up.   As luck would have it, I got it right on first guess.  Having the mast up also cleared off the cabin top & deck to allow for a bit of cleaning, and gave me a chance to verify mast lighting & the radio.  All systems check out OK.
 
I changed oil & filter in the Montero, greased the trailer hubs, checked all of the tires, and I believe we’re good to go.
 
We will get the boat fully provisioned and strike the mast Tuesday.  The goal is to have everything hooked up and pointed out the drive on Tuesday night.   Wednesday is a 587 mile leg to Eureka, MO for an overnight stop.
 
More news from the road as conditions permit,
 
Dave   
 
David J. McFate

Blackwatch #77, ‘lil Bit
 

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