Adventures of the Shorebilly Too

Wow, what a couple of days.  We could not be more blessed with this trip.  If you were to imagine a trip where everything explodes with wonder and amazement, this would be it.  Here we go: July 16: Terri's "tot lot" friend from age 5 joined us with her husband for a trip to Friday Harbor.  They are delightful people that anyone wants on their boat.  Both are retired successful Microsoft engineers who see the world from the lens of "what can be".    We took them to Friday Harbor.  This is Terri and my third time there so we felt confident in the trip.  Lunch was at the San Juan Brewery at the top of the island.  I broke every "Terri Rule" and had the fried chicken sandwich.  WOW, simply the best chicken between two pieces of bread I have ever had.  WOW, WOW, WOW. Terri and Diana Friends for life (60+ years and counting) July 17 Yesterday, we headed to Deer Harbor on a recommendation of another Aspen owner.  It was an itty b...

July 14 So a couple of more days have passed.  Yesterday, the Shorebilly Too remained in the shop.  Aspen was scratching their heads with no real answers to the Mabru (heat pump) problem. With nothing better to do, Terri and I headed to Coupeville.  This was a quaint little town on Skagit Bay about 40 minutes from Anacortes.  The entire town was ~ 4 blocks deep by 5 blocks long.  The shops were set up for suckers ... errr... tourists like us.   Lunch was at Toby's.  It is a local dive bar that actually had great food.  We over ate. (Lunch at Toby's and yes, it does seem that I often have a beer in my hands ...) In the category of "small world": I was walking down the main street of Coupeville and I's shocked to hear my name called out.  Turning I see the gal of a couple Terri and I had met the night before in Anacortes. Another "small world" happened a few days ago.  Terri went into a shop wearing here University of Delaware shirt....

July 13 Yesterday (Tuesday July 12th)  We brought the boat back to Anacortes with the punch list I described.  It was decided to pull the boat and take it back to the factory.  That was the entire reason for doing the shake out cruise so all in all, the plan is working perfectly.  Think of getting a new boat like this very much the same as getting a new house.  Even with the highest quality builder, there will be items to be addressed. Before the boat headed to the shop, we had time for another cruise around the San Juan Islands.  Just so stinking pretty, but in addition to the beauty ... the boating is very different from what we are used to.  For example, the currents are off the charts.  The Shorebilly can be running at ~19mph and round an island and either slow down to 15 or speed up 23mph. I never change the throttle.  The issue is that the tide change due to the pacific influence passes around the island.  Not dissimilar to how air...

 July 11: I am caught up on the post so we will see if I can be more brief than the last one.  To start this off on a positive note,  I will talk about all the good first and then get to the challenges. The positive: We woke up in Roche Harbor.  WOW.  Really nice.  The church, "Our Lady of Good Voyage" rang it's bells across the harbor for all to hear.  Beautiful.   After a quick breakfast on the boat, we launched the dingy and headed into town.  It was even prettier than the night before.     Terri wanted to see the sculpture gardens.  20 Acres of every imaginable outdoor sculpture type imaginable; stone, concrete, wood, metal, fish net ... However,  Terri seem to think that this sculpture was somehow reflective of me ... I don't get it.  Do you? Strange ...  All I know is that the insects are really really big and BITE! Enough with the silliness.  It was time to head back to Anacortes and meet wi...

So this is Terri and my first attempt at a blog.  Many people are asking for details of our trip and encouraged us down this path.  No promises here, but here goes.  This first blog will be longer due to covering multiple days.  Future ones will be shorter I promise.   Background: This past Thursday, July 7th we were introduced to our new family member the Shorebilly Too.  The S2 is an Aspen C108 built in Burlington WA.  When we arrived it was sitting at the Cap Santa Marina in Anacortes WA just waiting for us. Thursday was mechanical training.  This boat is a step function over our past experience in terms of sophistication.  There are a lot of systems to learn.  One of the really pleasant surprises was to learn that the DC based air conditioning can reverse cycle giving us heat.  Therefore the boat has both an electric and gas hearing system.  The electric will be great when on shore power. The training was supposed to ...