Greetings all!
Roberta and I are back on the boat. We had to leave the boat for a month to take care of some business, but are now ready to start the summer cruising. Sadly, it will be a short year due to our late start.
And, even worse, I’m not expecting the blog to be particularly interesting this year. Roberta even asked, “Why are you going to write a blog? We’re not doing anything exciting.” She is right about that. My guess is that we won’t be going very far; perhaps no more than a hundred miles north of where we’re sitting now.
That said, we are planning to have FUN!
Yesterday while walking the docks I spoke briefly with another Nordhavn owner. We were talking about cruising plans and I mentioned that we’d be planning to transport Sans Souci to the east coast at the end of the season, and asked if he’d ever consider cruising another part of the world.
He didn’t have to think before responding, “Why would you ever leave the Pacific NW? This is the best cruising in the world!”
Having cruised over 25 countries I can confirm what he said. You could cruise between here and Alaska for a lifetime and not be bored. And in fact, that’s exactly what most of the boaters around me do. There are many reasons for this: Clean water, protected waters, sunshine in summer, sheltered bays to drop the anchor, welcoming marinas, wildlife, fishing, and all the natural beauty you could ever want.
I’m not sure I can explain why we ever left the Pacific NW or why we’re contemplating leaving it again. Cruising internationally is expensive and in many ways not very practical. Anyone who has been following my blog for years knows some of the challenges we’ve faced. Weather, wind, swell, lack of good anchorages, cultural problems, language problems, immigration problems, Med Mooring challenges, etc. The list is of infinite length.
Perhaps a psychologist could answer the question better than I, but I’ll take a quick stab at it.
I like warm water cruising. Summers in the northwest aren’t bad, but the water never really warms up. We found one bay last year where the water did get into the 70s, but generally speaking swimming is out of the question. And, I confess that I liked it in the Med. Whenever I’m on the boat I constantly am thinking about wanting to get the boat back to Europe. In particular, I’d like to get the boat back to Montenegro, a small country from where Croatia, Malta, Italy and Greece are easily reached for summer cruising.
As for Roberta, she loves adventure. She grew up wanting to be an archeologist. Being able to drop the anchor in places like Turkey fascinates her. And, whereas I’m focused on getting the boat to southern Europe, she dreams about taking the boat to Ireland and Northern Europe.
Our current plan, which is “written in sand at low tide”, is to mosey over the next few years back to Europe. Exactly how we’ll get there, or when, we don’t know. I’m in touch with a group of other Nordhavn owners with similar cruising plans, in hopes we can put together a group to cross the Atlantic together.
Our first step will be to transport the boat to the east coast later this year and then cruise the east coast next summer. Where we’ll finish next summer, or exactly where we’ll cruise, we do not know. Anything is possible. And, that’s the great thing about boating!
With that preamble… Let’s talk about July 4th
We’re currently at our “home marina”, Roche Harbor, on San Juan Island, about 80 miles north of Seattle. We have a long history with this marina.
Back in my working days (over 20 years ago) we used to “fly up” on Fridays hang out on the boat, and fly back to reality on Monday mornings. On three day weekends we’d take the boat a few miles away for some anchoring. Lots of the boats in this marina are used as weekend retreats.
Regular visitors to Roche Harbor will enjoy the video above and will notice something unusual. Kenmore Air always lands in the bay in front of the marina. From time to time I’ll wonder how they can find a spot given all the boats in the bay. But, this time, the pilot didn’t even try. He just bypassed the bay and landed in the entrance channel. We had a bit of a bounce on the way in as we crossed a wake but were standing on the dock in front of our boat within 45 minutes of departing Seattle.
Roche is an incredible marina. In fact, it is much more than a marina. Here are just a few of the hundreds of things that make it special:
The video above shows just one of the many activities on the docks for July 4th. Everyone, on virtually every boat, had their barbecue going. In the evening there was one of the best fireworks shows I’ve ever seen, and we had a front row seat from the back deck of Sans Souci.
And, a couple of things for those of you interested in technical stuff
Recently I gave a presentation at a Nordhavn event on “communications in far a way places” talking about the various ways of getting internet while on a boat. (Click here) to see the slides I used. Taken out of context they may not make sense.
I hope all of you also had a great 4th of July!
Ken and Roberta Williams
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68
Roberta and I are back on the boat. We had to leave the boat for a month to take care of some business, but are now ready to start the summer cruising. Sadly, it will be a short year due to our late start.
And, even worse, I’m not expecting the blog to be particularly interesting this year. Roberta even asked, “Why are you going to write a blog? We’re not doing anything exciting.” She is right about that. My guess is that we won’t be going very far; perhaps no more than a hundred miles north of where we’re sitting now.
That said, we are planning to have FUN!
Yesterday while walking the docks I spoke briefly with another Nordhavn owner. We were talking about cruising plans and I mentioned that we’d be planning to transport Sans Souci to the east coast at the end of the season, and asked if he’d ever consider cruising another part of the world.
He didn’t have to think before responding, “Why would you ever leave the Pacific NW? This is the best cruising in the world!”
Having cruised over 25 countries I can confirm what he said. You could cruise between here and Alaska for a lifetime and not be bored. And in fact, that’s exactly what most of the boaters around me do. There are many reasons for this: Clean water, protected waters, sunshine in summer, sheltered bays to drop the anchor, welcoming marinas, wildlife, fishing, and all the natural beauty you could ever want.
Perhaps a psychologist could answer the question better than I, but I’ll take a quick stab at it.
I like warm water cruising. Summers in the northwest aren’t bad, but the water never really warms up. We found one bay last year where the water did get into the 70s, but generally speaking swimming is out of the question. And, I confess that I liked it in the Med. Whenever I’m on the boat I constantly am thinking about wanting to get the boat back to Europe. In particular, I’d like to get the boat back to Montenegro, a small country from where Croatia, Malta, Italy and Greece are easily reached for summer cruising.
Our current plan, which is “written in sand at low tide”, is to mosey over the next few years back to Europe. Exactly how we’ll get there, or when, we don’t know. I’m in touch with a group of other Nordhavn owners with similar cruising plans, in hopes we can put together a group to cross the Atlantic together.
Our first step will be to transport the boat to the east coast later this year and then cruise the east coast next summer. Where we’ll finish next summer, or exactly where we’ll cruise, we do not know. Anything is possible. And, that’s the great thing about boating!
With that preamble… Let’s talk about July 4th
We’re currently at our “home marina”, Roche Harbor, on San Juan Island, about 80 miles north of Seattle. We have a long history with this marina.
Back in my working days (over 20 years ago) we used to “fly up” on Fridays hang out on the boat, and fly back to reality on Monday mornings. On three day weekends we’d take the boat a few miles away for some anchoring. Lots of the boats in this marina are used as weekend retreats.
- A grocery store on the dock
- Customs has an office on the dock (we are on the Canadian border)
- Trash pickup at the end of every dock
- A black water pump out boat (called the Phecal Freak) that comes to your boat on command
- A wonderful anchorage in front of the marina. Even though we have our own slip, we’ve been known to anchor in the bay in front of the marina, just for fun
- Three restaurants in the marina
- Really nice helpful staff.
- A long history. In operation over 100 years!
- Constant action in the marina. It’s a social place, not just a boat parking lot
Ken and Roberta Williams
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68
Post Views: 787
7 Responses
SUBJECT: RE: [Kensblog] July 4th at Roche Harbor
I loved every word; I’m only <10 nm to your east . You also convinced me why you’d got back to the Med (Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Italy)!
Have a wonderful Summer; thanks for sharing.
-HSW>
H.S. Wright III | Chairman & Founderhttp://www.shgllc.com (http://www.shgllc.com) =””>
Seattle Hospitality Group
p: 206-674-3020 | f: 206-674-3023
http://www.shgllc.com (http://www.shgllc.com)
From: Passagemaking with a Nordhavn [mailto:blogcomments-NEDTY@[…]]
Sent: Thursday, July 5, 2018 14:33
T
SUBJECT: RE: [Kensblog] July 4th at Roche Harbor
Your stuff is never boring, I really look forward to them
From: Passagemaking with a Nordhavn
Sent: Thursday, July 5, 2018 5:33 PM
To: dougpaper@[…]
Subject: [Kensblog] July 4th at Roche Harbor
Hi Ken,
Would love to see more technical entries (I know it bores some people) but they are great for us technical engineering folks. Also would like to see some longer running videos if possible as well. I would be interested in a little overview of the more commercial radar units or even system while running. I hope you get to test out your STAR system and have a good write up on how it works and operation.
Thanks for all the info and blog entries you do for us land locked people.
Chris
SUBJECT: Re: [Kensblog] July 4th at Roche Harbor
HI KEN…SO ENJOY HEARING ABOUT YOUR TRAVELS AND FUTURE ADVENTURES. WE MET PRIOR TO THE ORIGINAL FUBAR CRUSE ON YOUR DOCK IN ROCHE AND THEN AGAIN IN SAN DIEGO. WE HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING YOUR ADVENTURES SINCE. MOST OF THE TIME I KNOW JUST HOW YOU MIGHT FEEL.
PLEASE CONTINUE AND DO SO IN GOOD HEALTH AND SAFETY…PETE PATMAN, DEL REY YACHT CLUB
________________________________
From: Passagemaking with a Nordhavn
SUBJECT: Re: [Kensblog] July 4th at Roche Harbor
Ken,
We always enjoy your blogs—even though you may not see much excitement in them, for us it is a re-visiting of places where we have been and loved. I agree with your assessment—and we have cruised in 37 different countries—the PNW is probably the best of all!
Bob Austin, Pensacola, FL.
SUBJECT: Re: [Kensblog] July 4th at Roche Harbor
Thank you Ken sounds like this is going to be a fun trip, enjoy. We just spent a week on National Geographic lindblad up the inland passage to glacier bay, in alaska, fabulous, every day was sunny! Miss you at Caleta, your house is a disaster and still far from ready,
Keeps changing his mind, very hard on neighbors. Have fun, thinking of you from Lake Tahoe
Pauline B Tusher y Tomas
http://WWW.BRONZESBYPAULINE.COM
Hope you are able to blog really enjoy reading your posts! The water landing video was really cool to watch. Have a safe and fun summer 🙂