Aeolus moved to Anacortes

It has been quite some time since I have posted here on this blog. Mostly this has been the result of being quite busy with work and life, though some of it relates to not having been on the boat as much,  which also relates to being busy with work and life. Too much work! Too much going on in life!

Aeolus has a new slip at Cap Sante in Anacortes, WA

Back in October we decided to move Aeolus from her long term home in Friday Harbor to Anacortes and Cap Sante Marina. We made this decision because we became fatigued by the tyranny of the San Juan ferry. It has such a constraining impact on your whole weekend, that we came to feel we were better off sacrificing proximity to convenience. Time will tell if that trade off is manageable. Instead of waiting for a ferry in Anacortes, we can now be on our boat and traveling. It is four hours from Anacortes to Jones Island. If catching the ferry, you had to be there about 30-60 minutes early, then the ride would take 1-2 hours, and then 30-45 minutes to get to your boat and get going. The time equation should be fairly comparable, and instead of being on the ferry, we get more time on our own boat!

So we did that back in October. This weekend I went up with my boys to change fluids and do some maintenance. Time for oil, transmission too, and changing of the raw water impeller.

This is the old impeller with 600 hours and 3 years old. No real sign of trouble. 

Cap Sante marina is such a vibrant and bustling nautical place. Much larger than Friday Harbor, and far more active. Whereas the boats in Friday Harbor never seem to move, the boats in Cap Sante are constantly in and out. And we notice that overall the boats at Cap Sante are much nicer, better maintained and newer. I speculate this reflects the demographics of the two places. With Friday Harbor and San Juan Island having such a disparity between the young, poor and retired wealthy. Many of the boats there are run down live a boards or seldom used vessels. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Port of Friday Harbor and may be back, but the marina differences are interesting.

Aeolus is in fine shape. Changing the transmission oil remains a breeze thanks to my installation of the oil drain hose.  The raw water impeller is an Oberdorfer and has a retaining clip that can be a bit tricky. It had been 3 years and about 600 engine hours since I last changed it but honestly, the old one looked like new. No cracking or signs of decay. Glad I changed it anyway, but next time I make take it out to 1000 hours. Need to check what Oberdorfer says.

Can't wait to go back and get out on her. This was just a maintenance trip. The boys and I had a great time, as always.