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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

Blog posts : "o2019 Canada 2019 Maintenance o2019 Thailand"

Canada 2019 Trip Wrap Up

When all was said and done this trip, we did 289 miles up to the Canadian Gulf Islands and back.

Early on we encountered a number of “shake down” issues – typical for a boat that hasn’t been cruising in a few years.  This is the longest trip Apsaras has made since we brought her down from Canada …

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Day 15 - Crew Promotions

When we awoke we had all spent a less than ideal night due to the sloshing about from ferry wakes.  So Dave decides to head out for the locks early.  Underway, Dave pickled the water maker again so it can sit for another year or two without being used and not get damaged.

We make the roughly 1 ho…

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Day 14 – Crew says “We Got This”

Last night discussion ensued about how we were going to make our way out of the slip this morning.  Melissa told Dave that, “we got this” and “he shouldn’t say a word” while Melissa, Jim, and Margaret readied the boat for departure and Jim backed us out of the slip.  Dave seemed dubious, but Melissa…

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Day 13 - San Juan Warmer

Breakfast this morning was steak, scrambled eggs with green onions and fresh oregano, and leftover sweet potato hash.  The kitchen might be small but its functional!

We headed into the spa at Poet’s Cove where for $25 each we can use the hot tub, steam cave, and dry infrared sauna, followed by l…

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Day 12 - Almost

There are some days you get up and after a while wonder if it might have been better to stay in bed.  Maybe it’s the nearly full moon.  This might have been one of those days.  We dropped the mooring buoy at Otter Bay and headed off to Bedwell Harbor again.  We could all use a soak in the Poet’s Cov…

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Day 11 – Quiet Day

By the time Dave and Melissa awoke, Jim had already prepped breakfast.  He had diced up sweet potato and onions for hash.  He cooked that up along side mushroom omelettes.  After which we headed out of Clam Bay headed for Otter Bay.  It’s a nice little marina where we picked up a mooring buoy.

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Day 10 – Anchoring Lessons

We awoke to grey skies at the Silva Marina.  Jim whipped us up steak and eggs using leftovers from last night, along with peach yogurt parfaits with with chopped pistachios on top.

We made the short walk to the bus stop to catch the bus into “town”.  Very scenic island.  It was pouring rain when…

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Day 9 - Jim becomes the helmsman

Last night discussion ensued about Dave teaching Jim how to back the boat out of the slip.  Tight quarter maneuvering is a challenge.  Even Melissa has never been brave enough to try it.  And frankly, why would she when she’s got Captain Dave?  Melissa suggested that maybe a lesson out in the open w…

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Day 8 – We eat better than Tom Douglas thinks

No new webs this morning!  We must be winning against the spiders!

Our plan this morning was to head into the dock and fill the water tanks, then head for the farmers market at Telegraph Harbor.  After which we would head for Ladysmith and get more groceries as our stores are running low.  Melissa…

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Day 7 – More excitement than we like

As we had a ton of leftover risotto, Jim made risotto cakes with a poached egg on top for breakfast.  Yumo!

We continue to struggle with the last code that needs to be broken in the murder mystery.  Jim has been saying that it seems like the website we are now on must be related to a whole diffe…

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Day 6 – Chef Jim Creates

Still on the dock at Ganges, it was time to head out for an anchorage.  One of our favs – Montague Harbor.  After a breakfast of pancakes and sausage we head out for the one hour hop.  After grabbing a mooring ball, Jim, Margaret and Dave all head off to the park for a walk.  Melissa stayed behind t…

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Day 5 – Whipping the boat into shape!

Today Dave awoke with a renewed determination to fix all the motors that have been misbehaving.  Truth is that motors just don’t like to sit idle.  And since Apsaras has been back in Seattle, we’ve not gone on more than a weekend trip.  So its not really very surprising that some maintenance is requ…

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Day 4 - What is a cucamelon?

Melissa awoke determined to solve some more murder game mysteries.  We begin to read through all the websites related to the game materials and find a vague reference to morse code.  This caused Jim to realize that some of the babble speak was actually morse code!  And with Dave’s help (cuz he knows…

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Day 3 - A new faucet

We awake to another gorgeous morning at medicine beach.  Breakfast was Mexican.  Reheated the leftover pulled pork with tomatillo sauce and scrambled some eggs.  That along with some small corn tortillas, cheese, and salsa – and voila!  Breakfast!

Because yesterday was such a long day under…

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Day 2 - Downhill the whole way

We start off early.  Melissa was still snoozing when Dave pulled away from the dock.  A short while later she hears “thunk” and realizes we hit something.  She jumps out of bed, only to find that the gang realized they forgot to return the marina key and we had returned to the dock.

We left …

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Day 1 - Kid Lock Adventure

I awoke early at 6:30am to start blogging.  No we haven’t even left yet, but I had to finish up the electrical systems blog post before I could clear my brain to get ready for trip blogging.  I don’t know why Dave thought that was funny.  Seems totally logical to me.

After that we packed up …

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Electrifying Upgrades

Electrical systems on boats are complicated.

There are two sets of batteries - the starter battery which starts the engine, and the house batteries which power everything else from the kitchen lights to the toilets.  You always want to isolate the starter battery from the house batteries so that …

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Day 10 – Easy Trip Home

Woke up at 7am and started getting organized for the trip home.  After breakfast we had our LPG cellulite fighting massages.  I can see a noticeable difference on my legs now.  Then our final training appointments where Anthony gave me more variations on the home workout.  And then our final lunch.…

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Day 9 – The wrong place to pick a fight

Woke up around 7am.  Have routinely been sleeping exactly 8 hours solidly and waking up refreshed.  Must be those massages.  The heat rash is looking much better, so maybe the coconut oil theory is working.  Did a bunch of email and blogging and then headed up for breakfast.  Eggs again today.  Soon…

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Day 8 – Chaos day

Awoke just before 6am this morning to a text message from Cathay Pacific saying that our flight today from Phuket to Hong Kong was canceled.  I hopped on the Cathay Pacific website to see if they had rerouted us.  No such luck.  But I could check in for the Hong Kong to Seattle leg if I wanted to.  …

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