Elliott Bay Marina is a wonderful place to keep a boat, but docking can be difficult—the fairways are narrow, as are the slips. And the slips are oriented east-west while the winds are typically from the north or the south, so if any wind is blowing, it’s against the side of the boat as we back it in. North winds are worse, because they blow us towards the boat beside us rather than the finger peer. Yesterday morning when we returned to the marina, the winds were blowing 17 knots from the north with gusts to 19.

We had the boat turned perpendicular to the fairway ready to back into the slip. We have no bow thruster so, when there is a crosswind, we need to lean the bow slightly into the wind as we work backwards into slip. I shifted the port engine into reverse and felt the cable break, leaving us without port transmission control.  I ran down to the lower helm and, mysteriously, it too broke. Now we have a problem.  We’re sideways in the fairway with only a few feet on either end of the boat separating us from collision. 

A two-engine boat with only one operating prop sounds easy. You would guess it’s not worse than a single prop boat. But with the prop biased over on one side of the hull, it’s remarkable how poorly the boat responds to the helm and actually turns and, with a strong wind, the boat simply won’t turn into it. Our first focus was keeping away from other boats and to keep the boat centered in the fairway as we gained speed sideways driven by the brisk wind. That done, we starting backing and filling in an attempt to get the boat turned around with limited fore and aft clearance. The boat slowly came around bit by bit and, after 5 or 6 iterations of backing and filling, it did straighten out. By this time many spectators were along either side of the fairway. Once straight in the fairway, with the wind behind us, the boat actually was fairly easy to manage.

We took the boat around to the outside guest dock where there is much more space and landed there to make repairs. We did have a spare transmission shift cable, but the parts connecting it to both the upper helm and lower helm shifters had broken. A quick trip to Fisheries Supply solved that.

The next challenge was running the new cable. The cable runs on a circuitous route through an incredibly narrow slot between the two windows in the salon. After much effort and WD-40, we finally managed to pull the new cable through, taped to the old cable, and got everything connected up and working again.

Four hours later, after lunch and repairs, we glided back into our slip. The wind was still brisk and from the north but it’s amazing how much less exciting it is to land with everything operational.

Thinking about it later, we couldn’t figure out why the parts connecting both ends of the throttle cable could have broken, and were concerned we might have a transmission problem. And then we realized—the cable must have seized, causing the fly bridge end to break when we shifted. When I tried shifting down below, that broke the other end.

We’ve had cable failures before. They typically rust up and get stiffer and stiffer but continue to operate. To have a cable fail without warning and lock up so tight the cable ends break off is quite unusual.  Yet another argument to keep speed moderate when near other boats in that you could experience an unexpected failure at any time.

At the southern end of Laredo Channel, several bays and waterways indent the shoreline along Princess Royal Island. Some appear on the chart as possible anchorages, but most feel open and exposed. Hague Point Lagoon is a notable exception. The almost land-locked basin has a somewhat tricky entrance, but inside is sheltered anchorage with room for several boats, and a hike with spectacular views.

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Like many Puget Sound boaters, we’ve passed Point No Point dozens of times on our way to and from places north of Seattle.  The last time was on a sunny, warm day with calm winds. It was time for lunch, so we decided to stop there. We found good anchoring depths and holding on the south side, and had lunch on deck while watching a variety of vessels pass to our east.

Most of the land south of the point is either part of the Point No Point Lighthouse and Park or is DNR beach. Woods line the shore, so it’s a private-feeling, nice anchorage. After lunch, we took the dinghy ashore. The wonderful soft-sand beach that ringed the park was popular. People were out walking, fishing, building sandcastles, paddling, sunbathing and throwing sticks for some very wet puppies.

The Point No Point Light Station, completed in 1879, is among the oldest in the Puget Sound. The lighthouse itself is no longer in service—in 2006 the Coast Guard installed a modern, low-maintenance light—but most of the original buildings and equipment are still in place, including the original fresnel lens. The Friends of Point No Point Lightouse maintain the site and open it to the public. We weren’t allowed up into the lantern room, but we could see the lens from down below.

While few houses are south of the point, the land to the north is quite built-up. An old 1920’s resort and boat launch, now in disrepair, was partway down the beach. WDFW owns the property and plans to restore the boat launch and possibly the buildings.

This month James finally became a US citizen, after a nearly three-year delay. We’d both applied in late 2005 and were interviewed in early 2006. I was approved in a couple of months and became a citizen in the summer of 2006. James, however, went into application limbo pending an FBI name check, but eventually was approved as part of a class-action lawsuit.

Our overriding interest in citizenship was the ability to vote, but citizenship actually is required for a number of things in the nautical world. Some boat loans and insurance policies require that a vessel be documented, and some countries allow entry by boat only on documented vessels. Non-citizens, however, cannot document a vessel, nor pilot a documented vessel out of the country. Only citizens are eligible for USCG licenses other than the OUPV (or “6-pack”). And twice we’ve missed opportunities to tour a US navy nuclear submarine because we weren’t citizens.

The Lake Union Boats Afloat Show seminar schedule has just been posted. We’ll be presenting some of our favorite destinations between Victoria and Bella Bella, along with and tips and techniques for improved boating safety and comfort, at 11am on Saturday September 13^th. One area we’ll highlight is the Dodwell Group, our name for the group of island off the southern tip of Campbell Island in Queen Charlotte Sound. The Dodwell Group has several good anchorages and is excellent dinghy territory.