Today was an errands day. Sarah had a dentist visit, I needed to order a new water heater for the rental townhouse. The errands also included a trip to Fisheries Supply for chain-length markers for the anchor chain and a replacement for the traveler line, which I broke sailing last Saturday. I feel silly having broken the traveler line, I couldn’t get the traveler to move, so I kept cranking on the winch, then snap! I had to get 96 feet of new line, which was a somewhat expensive lesson learned. It is a lesson I just can’t seem to learn. I am stuck in the “if it isn’t working, try using more FORCE!” mode of operations.

After running errands on land, we had some business to attend to on the water. We needed to take the boat to the pump out station. We’re are down to one head and one tank, because my leak fix in the starboard tank didn’t work. We moved Spice to the pump out dock easy enough. However, when I opened the cap on the black water tank, poop juice spewed out at me. I thought maybe the vent was clogged. I unclamped the vent hose to verify it was working, but the pump out was still pressurized and spewing. I am not totally sure what the cause was. I think maybe air gets trapped in the pump out hose as the tank fills. The tank vent seemed fine.

Anyway, the pressure in the pump out hose made for a nasty little complication, but Sarah suggested we just unscrew it a bit and release the air pressure without opening it so far that waste kept burbling out. That did the trick, but the ordeal threw me out of sorts.

After the pump out, we set off to log some days for my captains license. Last month, due to some bad math, I didn’t think I had a chance of getting the sea service days I needed to qualify. However, it looks like I can meet the requirements with just a few more days in May. That means I need to get started on my paper work, drug test and physical. I have to get everything submitted by 5/27 midnight, otherwise I have to take the certification test all over again.

For this day’s boat trip, we set out from Elliot Bay Marina to West Seattle to view our old house from the water. Good news, our house is sold and is set to close this month. Then, we set off to Blake Island to let out the new anchor chain and install new anchor chain-length marks.

We arrived at Blake island and had only 50 feet of chain out in 25 feet of water when the Coast Guard rolled up on our boat and announced they were boarding us for inspection. I had seen the Coast Guard near other boats in the area and I had a feeling they were coming for us too. The boarding caused me to panic and think about all of the things I thought might be out of compliance. Our blackwater discharge valves were set correctly, but they weren’t wire tied in position. We didn’t have our oil placard mounted, we didn’t have registration stickers and we just recently removed “Ten Directions” from the transom.

The coasties started going through the check list, and it turns out, we did ok. We got a warning for not have our registration and names in the right spot. The inspectors were satisfied that we weren’t pumping waste overboard. We were able to show them all proper safety equipment in good working order.

Sarah spent most of the time up forward nervously watching the anchor chain with too-little scope out. Meanwhile the coast guard RIB boat circled and watched her. Sarah heard the internal commentary on the Coast Guard rib, “It seems like she’s inspecting something.” Then the RIB looped around and announced to Sarah, “looks like its holding”. Well it might be holding, but we had less than the bare minimum out. Sarah and I were both feeling uneasy about having too little anchor chain out. Meanwhile, I was frantically running around digging up whatever item I was asked to produce. After they wrote up the paper work, I asked if we could get a picture. Lillie and the Coast Guard were happy to oblige.

Once the Coast Guard left, we ran out the rest of 290 feet of the anchor chain and marked 10 foot increments. With that done, we reeled in 200 ft, set the bridle and backed down on the anchor. Then I prepped the dinghy for a quick Blake Island beach excursion. I had to make a quick stop in the head, and on the way in, my pants pocket caught the knob of a cabinet door and ripped the hinge out of the wall, leaving the cabinet door askew and unable to close. Nothing really terrible was happening this day, but all of these little things were making me grumpy.

After dropping the dinghy in the water, I started up the engine. The engine was a bit grumpy on the start up. Maybe grumpiness is contagious? The engine was smoking a lot (that’s worrisome) and was running and idling ok, but not great. I got in and did a few full throttle laps around the big boat to work out the kinks. The smoking seemed to resolve and it was running better. Why is oil getting into the combustion chamber? I want an electric motor! I’m tired of dirty internal combustion engines. Once things seemed sorted, I returned to the boat and loaded up the family.

When we approached the beach, clunkly operations continued to plague me. I forgot how to unlatch the motor for the beaching, I ran the prop into some sand. The engine wasn’t running when I hit bottom, so no damage done. I was feeling all out of sorts. I finally raised the motor, but the boat had stopped a bit too far out. When I jumped in, I had water above my knees. That set me up for a cold and wet beach excursion.

Lillie was very excited for beach time. Once landed, she immediately set out digging holes and building sand towers. Sarah and I had a bit of dinner, and strolled up and down the beach. It was already getting late, the Coast Guard had taken up the little time we had, so after about 45 minutes we got back in the dinghy and headed back to Spice. We steamed back to Elliot Bay to tie up for the evening.

Our docking procedures are becoming rather efficient. So that’s at least one that thing seems to be working well. Sarah has been running the lines on the dock, while I maneuver the boat in. The boat came with wireless communication headsets, which help immensely. The boat is large enough that it is impossible for us to hear one another without these devices. The only complication is that Lillie sometimes dons a headset and says, “hey momma, dadda, heeyyyyyhh! Can you hear me?”.

Actual boat operations and dealing with marine traffic is smooth and low-anxiety these days. Still, boat life involves a fair amount of new surprises, many of which can feel unpleasant in the moment.