We had a slow morning today – the weather was gray and uninviting, even though clearing was forecast. I went for a walk up to the ferry terminal and although it wasn’t raining at the time, the moisture in the air was thick and clung to my clothes. In the distance I could barely make out a container ship cruising towards Seattle. The Edmonds ferry emerged from the distant fog behind it on its way to Kingston. We decided fairly early that a good time to get underway would be tomorrow. There’s no point in crossing the shipping lanes on radar when we 
have plenty of time, and clearer skies will eventually arrive. I strolled up to the office to deposit our garbage and pay for another night’s moorage.
We had a late breakfast, which Erin retitled brunch, of a sausage and green onion frittata. As usual, it was yummy and compliments went to the chef. A little later, Ray, Erin and I walked into town to look around and see what we could see. We browsed a couple of shops where Erin picked up a couple of trinkets, and got lattes to bring back to the boat. The rain continued, but unlike yesterday it varied between very light rain and a mist that was almost suspended in mid air.
Now that we had the afternoon, we decided a grocery store run was in order – a perfect reason to take the electric car that was here for our use. The acquisition was relatively painless, requiring just a photo
copy of my driver’s license and a signature that I’d bring it back in one piece or it was mine. Coincidentally, waiting in line for the next ferry we saw a Tesla Roadster, an electric car with considerably more moxie. It is powered by about 6900 lithium ion laptop batteries driving a 248 horsepower electric motor. It can do 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds and go 248 miles on a single charge. Our car, on the other hand, was basically a two seat enclosed golf cart with a small truck bed in the back. It had a rocker switch for forward and reverse, a brake and an accelerator pedal. We left via the only route out – down the sidewalk through the waterfront park, into the parking lot and eventually to the highway. We crossed the main drag, which was clogged with cars from an unloading ferry, and took the back roads up to the QFC store, sometimes reaching speeds of 20 mph. Henery’s Hardware was right next to the grocery store, so we went in there first to pick up a couple of things. We had forgotten to bring along Tribble’s scratching post and I had an idea for a substitute. Since her post at home is just a length of sisal rope wrapped around a post, I bought a small roll of quarter inch sisal to wrap around the post that holds up the dinette table. Her food and water dishes are already under there, as is her carrier, so it’d be both convenient and out of the way. My reading glasses had just broken this morning as well, and I found a selection there, 2 for $10, so picked up a couple peepers. We went on to the grocery store for a few supplies and buzzed on back to the boat. Ray and I wound the sisal around the post while Tribble watched from on top of her carrier. She was content to let me pass the roll of rope behind the post, but when Ray did it she smacked him good. But, our effort met with her approval and she initiated it shortly thereafter.
The computer had a technical glitch this morning while I was doing a little route planning and photo editing. Within a 15 or 20 minute time span, I had 3 BSOD’s (Blue Screen Of Death) where the computer crashed and rebooted itself unceremoniously. Some diagnostics revealed that a driver for RAID technology, which I’m not using, was missing. I downloaded the driver and installed it, and the BSOD’s stopped occurring. Problem solved, or so I thought. I later went back to my navigation software, and found that the vector charts, the digital representations where the text and symbols remain upright while the chart turns, would no longer display. Our digital charts were purchased back in 2002 in preparation for our trip to Alaska, and coincide with version 6.5 of the Nobeltec software. I’m now running version 9.2 via an upgrade, and this version technically does not accept the charts of our vintage. But, by installing 6.5, then the charts, then the upgrade to 9.x minus the very last one, I was able to get it all to work. Apparently the driver I had installed screwed up the works somehow. I did a system restore back to before the driver upgrade, and voila! – our charts came back. So far the BSOD has not recurred so that’s still a mystery. The raster charts, the scanned duplicates of paper charts, still displayed, we have our old laptop along as a backup, as well as paper charts – and we’re not going anywhere we haven’t been before so I’m not too worried about it.
We dined in style tonight. Erin thawed some pork chops and prepared them in a sauce of peaches, onions and rum. Oh boy, were they good! They were accompanied by white new potatoes and fresh green beans cooked with a few onions and bacon bits. I should have taken a picture – it looked as good as it tasted.
We all walked the dock after dinner, but there weren’t many boats to look at. I’d say the marina is less than 25% occupied this evening. It’s a great facility with reasonable rates, and the free wifi is top notch – reliable and fast. Tomorrow we’re heading north up Saratoga Passage, between Whidbey and Camano Islands. We’ll either go through the Swinomish Channel to LaConner, or if the timing is right, continue on through Deception Pass and across Rosario Strait to the San Juan Islands. In either case, we probably won’t be updating the blog with any regularity for a few days.
Tonight we played several rounds of Chicken Foot dominos, with Erin coming out the winner. Trav and Barb’s teak table was the playing field tonight, with our two recliners pulled up to it for seating. We hadn’t played that variation for quite some time so had some fun getting back into it.
have plenty of time, and clearer skies will eventually arrive. I strolled up to the office to deposit our garbage and pay for another night’s moorage.We had a late breakfast, which Erin retitled brunch, of a sausage and green onion frittata. As usual, it was yummy and compliments went to the chef. A little later, Ray, Erin and I walked into town to look around and see what we could see. We browsed a couple of shops where Erin picked up a couple of trinkets, and got lattes to bring back to the boat. The rain continued, but unlike yesterday it varied between very light rain and a mist that was almost suspended in mid air.
Now that we had the afternoon, we decided a grocery store run was in order – a perfect reason to take the electric car that was here for our use. The acquisition was relatively painless, requiring just a photo
copy of my driver’s license and a signature that I’d bring it back in one piece or it was mine. Coincidentally, waiting in line for the next ferry we saw a Tesla Roadster, an electric car with considerably more moxie. It is powered by about 6900 lithium ion laptop batteries driving a 248 horsepower electric motor. It can do 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds and go 248 miles on a single charge. Our car, on the other hand, was basically a two seat enclosed golf cart with a small truck bed in the back. It had a rocker switch for forward and reverse, a brake and an accelerator pedal. We left via the only route out – down the sidewalk through the waterfront park, into the parking lot and eventually to the highway. We crossed the main drag, which was clogged with cars from an unloading ferry, and took the back roads up to the QFC store, sometimes reaching speeds of 20 mph. Henery’s Hardware was right next to the grocery store, so we went in there first to pick up a couple of things. We had forgotten to bring along Tribble’s scratching post and I had an idea for a substitute. Since her post at home is just a length of sisal rope wrapped around a post, I bought a small roll of quarter inch sisal to wrap around the post that holds up the dinette table. Her food and water dishes are already under there, as is her carrier, so it’d be both convenient and out of the way. My reading glasses had just broken this morning as well, and I found a selection there, 2 for $10, so picked up a couple peepers. We went on to the grocery store for a few supplies and buzzed on back to the boat. Ray and I wound the sisal around the post while Tribble watched from on top of her carrier. She was content to let me pass the roll of rope behind the post, but when Ray did it she smacked him good. But, our effort met with her approval and she initiated it shortly thereafter.The computer had a technical glitch this morning while I was doing a little route planning and photo editing. Within a 15 or 20 minute time span, I had 3 BSOD’s (Blue Screen Of Death) where the computer crashed and rebooted itself unceremoniously. Some diagnostics revealed that a driver for RAID technology, which I’m not using, was missing. I downloaded the driver and installed it, and the BSOD’s stopped occurring. Problem solved, or so I thought. I later went back to my navigation software, and found that the vector charts, the digital representations where the text and symbols remain upright while the chart turns, would no longer display. Our digital charts were purchased back in 2002 in preparation for our trip to Alaska, and coincide with version 6.5 of the Nobeltec software. I’m now running version 9.2 via an upgrade, and this version technically does not accept the charts of our vintage. But, by installing 6.5, then the charts, then the upgrade to 9.x minus the very last one, I was able to get it all to work. Apparently the driver I had installed screwed up the works somehow. I did a system restore back to before the driver upgrade, and voila! – our charts came back. So far the BSOD has not recurred so that’s still a mystery. The raster charts, the scanned duplicates of paper charts, still displayed, we have our old laptop along as a backup, as well as paper charts – and we’re not going anywhere we haven’t been before so I’m not too worried about it.
We dined in style tonight. Erin thawed some pork chops and prepared them in a sauce of peaches, onions and rum. Oh boy, were they good! They were accompanied by white new potatoes and fresh green beans cooked with a few onions and bacon bits. I should have taken a picture – it looked as good as it tasted.
We all walked the dock after dinner, but there weren’t many boats to look at. I’d say the marina is less than 25% occupied this evening. It’s a great facility with reasonable rates, and the free wifi is top notch – reliable and fast. Tomorrow we’re heading north up Saratoga Passage, between Whidbey and Camano Islands. We’ll either go through the Swinomish Channel to LaConner, or if the timing is right, continue on through Deception Pass and across Rosario Strait to the San Juan Islands. In either case, we probably won’t be updating the blog with any regularity for a few days.
Tonight we played several rounds of Chicken Foot dominos, with Erin coming out the winner. Trav and Barb’s teak table was the playing field tonight, with our two recliners pulled up to it for seating. We hadn’t played that variation for quite some time so had some fun getting back into it.
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