Skip navigation

Category Archives: Grand Banks

Yankee is happy to be back out in the boat!

With one sunny day in the forecast for Easter weekend, we jumped at the chance to head out to Island Home for some peace and quiet. The Doodle was happy to be out on the boat again and we arrived Saturday morning to find both docks empty and enjoyed the morning all to ourselves.

It seems in our rush to leave the cabin and head down to the boat, we forgot to bring one rather important item with us…. food! We grabbed two over-priced meals from the Deli at Bayview Market, only to discover that the sausage in the biscuits and gravy had green mold growing on it. Yucko! Sadly, we were half way to the Island by the time we discovered the moldy food, which reminded us of several similar incidents in the past with inedible foods from the Deli and items well past their due date. Note to self: no more deli food from Bayview Market in Olympia!

Parking a little close for comfort at an empty marina.

We scrounged together enough food to get by until dinner (we did remember to bring dinner and wine), enjoyed the sunshine and peaceful outstation. Around mid-afteroon, a sixty foot boat showed up, and with two WIDE OPEN docks available, chose to tie up so close to Yes Please, that their anchor was darn near right over our dingy. I was pretty surprised, but they were nice people with a pair of dogs. It’s a good thing we have curtains.

We cruised back home on Easter Sunday with 25 knot winds and choppy 2-3 foot seas, but it was a most welcome and easy weekend. We cooked Easter dinner for Sherri’s mom, then I took a break and digitized a line drawing of the boat and embroidered it an extra-large Boat Tote. I’m very happy with how well my hand digitized design stitched out.

Hand digitized Grand Banks Eastbay 39, embroidered on a tote.

Custom Embroidered Grand Banks Boat Totes are available from Belmore Custom Embroidery.

Grand Banks Eastybay 39, “Yes Please” at Tugboat Annie’s for lunch.

It was a chilly 25° out this morning, but the sun was shining with lots of blue skies, so we headed down to the boathouse to get some quality time out on the water. With a freshly painted, clean hull and propellers, Yes Please idles at just shy of 6 knots. It makes me laugh sometimes that a fast idle will hit 7 knots, which used to be full cruising speed in our old trawler. My how times have changed.

The tide was high and winds were mild, so we decided to brave West Bay Marina in order to have lunch at Tugboat Annie’s on the water. The narrow main fairway is built for the small boats that the marina caters to, with random pilings and boats extending well past the finger piers that line the sides. Idling into the marina feels like you are entering a narrowing tunnel, with no way to escape, followed by a hard right turn with a pump-out dock projecting dead center into the turn.

Fortunately, Yes Please is highly maneuverable, making the turn possible without tagging the pump-out dock and after spinning the boat around, we were safely secured on the guest dock. The big signs warning that the docks are “dry” at low tides reminds me why we don’t venture here often.

Lunch was good and leaving the marina was a little easier than entering, but still required a bit of finesse to keep from tagging the pump out dock as you made the turn. All in all, a great way to spend a rare, sunny, February day on the water.

It’s been wet and windy here in the Pacific Northwest, so we have been stuck at the Cabin for the last couple of weekends. We decided to try something REALLY different.

Grand Banks ball cap, custom embroidered by Belmore Custom Embroidery

Grand Banks ball cap, custom embroidered by Belmore Custom Embroidery

Ever since we purchased Yes Please, we have had a very difficult time trying to find Grand Banks Logo gear to purchase or wear. We finally threw in the towel and just decided to make it ourselves. Obviously, there’s a bit of a learning curve involved with machine embroidery, but the mistakes have been few and I’m pleased with the results.

If you are looking for personalized embroidered items to go with your Grand Banks Yacht, contact the good folks at Belmore Custom Embroidery. They will put a smile on your face without putting a dent in your wallet.

We also decided to make up some long and short sleeve polo shirts for both “Yes Please” and our favorite cruising buddy/broker, Mike Japhet.

Grand Banks Logo, Eastbay 39 and boat name on a long sleeve polo shirt.

Foggy windows in the dawn light and the calm before the storm.

With a big Thanksgiving Dinner tucked away in our bellies, we packed up the left-overs and headed out in Yes Please to enjoy the rest of a four-day weekend holiday. The weather reports were dire, with several inches of rain and Gale Warnings in the forecast, but we were determined to unplug, rest and reset.

Arriving at Island Home, we discovered we had the place to ourselves and the dog was dancing happily down the docks, full of life and enjoying every minute of his freedom. Black Friday was spent doing a bit of Christmas Shopping online, listening to music, eating turkey and all of the trimmings, warm and safe aboard the boat. We even had a few glorious sun breaks and spent an hour playing ping pong up in the clubhouse. Having the island to ourselves for such a long weekend felt like winning the lottery.

Saturday was much the same, with meals made from the left-over Prime Rib, reading Chip Gain’s excellent book and catching up with family and friends. Sunday’s weather forecast continued to feature Gale Warnings, so I went to bed anticipating a choppy ride home.

Sunrise at Island Home on Thanksgiving Weekend

I awoke too early on Sunday to the sound of the pennant snapping in the brisk wind and large waves slapping against the hull. At first light, I was up and the blinding rain was blowing sideways when I took the dog up to to do his business. The windows of the boat were all fogged over with condensation, so I fired up the diesel heater and began to squeegee them off between sips of morning coffee. I was checking the weather (not good), when the front passed right over us and suddenly, everything calmed down.

It was eerily quiet, except for the purr of the big diesels when I fired them up and cast off to head back to Olympia. We took of advantage of the suddenly calm conditions, lack of any boat traffic and clean hull/props to spool the engines up to 1600 RPM and ran back to Olympia in record time (18 knots – 75 minutes), arriving just before the big storm. Yes Please was tucked safely away in her boat house and we were safe at home in our Log Cabin when the trees started snapping and power outages started blanketing the region.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Yes Please with our beautiful Fall Colors.

The color of the leaves turning in Autumn are beautiful in the Pacific Northwest. Our crisp night air temperatures drop down to freezing, but when the sun comes out, the reflection of the fall colors on the water is mesmerizing.

For Halloween weekend, we took advantage of calm conditions to putz out in Yes Please for some quiet time on the water. The fog as we left the dock was thick and wet, which always makes safe navigation a little challenging. Several times during the trip, we would pass close to other vessels out fishing and would see their wakes, but couldn’t see them in the fog, which makes for a great, spooky start!

Running at only 7-8 knots rather than our usual sixteen, meant it took us twice as long to get to our destination, but our timing turned out to perfect, as the sunshine broke through, just as we arrived at the dock. By the end of the afternoon, we were wearing shorts and soaking up the sunshine. What a glorious way to spend a Halloween Weekend!

Starboard Propeller before being cleaned and balanced.

With Yes Please on the hard, it was time for some serious boat maintenance. The bottom was sanded down and painted with ablative paint, the propellers were removed, cleaned up, balanced and coated with propspeed. The tailshaft from the starboard engine was pulled so the cutlass (strut) bearing could be replaced. During the purchase survey, it was noted that a chunk of wood had become wedged into the starboard cutlass bearing, which needed to be replaced during the next haulout, and here we are, at the next haulout! 😉

I also took the opportunity to change all of the engine zincs out, clean the strainers, replace hull zincs and inspect the rest of the running gear. Yes Please spent two weeks in the yard before being launched again and put away snug in her boathouse.

Propellers and shaft after cleaning and balancing.

Starboard Propeller mounted back up and ready for Propspeed.

Propspeed applied and cured on the Propeller.

Old and new pencil zincs from the Starboard Engine.

Grand Banks Eastbay 39 on the Travel Lift

Grand Banks Eastbay 39 on the Travel Lift

With Summer winding down and Autumn right at our doorsteps, its time to put Yes Please on the hard. At dawn on a calm, foggy Monday morning, I motored quietly over to the shipyard and was very pleasantly surprised to find the Travel lift warmed up and ready at 08:00 when I arrived.

There was quite a bit of marine growth on the shafts, rudders and trim tabs, but the bottom paint is still in excellent condition. A few minutes with a scraper and a pressure washer and she looked almost brand new. Yes Please will get a few fresh coats of bottom paint, just to keep it that way.

The propellers are being pulled, cleaned and balanced and we need to replace one of the Cutlass bearings, so she’ll spend a few weeks out of the water before she’s ready for a full season of winter boating.

Grand Banks Eastbay 39 on the hard

Grand Banks Eastbay 39 on the hard

Yes Please, Grand Banks Eastbay 39 sx

Yes Please, Grand Banks Eastbay 39 sx

We’re heading into a bit of Heatwave in the Pacific Northwest. Predicted High Temperatures of 106° F were forecast and air conditioning is rare here, so we headed out onto the water to keep things cool!

I also dragged along my sidemount dive gear (Scuba), because, doesn’t everyone want to squeeze themselves into 2″ thick polar fleece and then a 1/4″ neoprene drysuit when it’s 100° outside? What was I thinking???

Once in the water with the 150 lbs. of dive gear on, I wasn’t quite so warm, but I saw a lot of marine growth accumulating on the propellers and rudders. That’s what happens when a boat sits unused too long, and poor Yes Please sat for two months while we were away. Sad to see, but it’s time to pull the boat and get the bottom cleaned up and painted.

The existing bottom paint is still in pretty good shape, but I saw a few patches on the keel that are starting to accumulate growth.

Scott Boyd, enjoying the good life on Yes Please

Once back on the boat, I kept my drysuit on and took the dog swimming. Our boat neighbors were having a good time watching. Yankee would swim just fine when I took him out and let him swim back to shore, but he’s still not crazy about going into water that is deeper than his head. Oh well, maybe his Dad is the crazy one.

Once rinsed off and settled back on the boat is was time for happy hour and to celebrate life. I’d been out of the water (diving) for way too long and I enjoyed the quiet beauty of our underwater world. Life is good.

Have a great summer and get those boats out on the water where they belong.

Kayaking in Woodard Bay

The girls wanted to get the kayaks out, so we piled three of them on Yes Please and headed out for the Woodard Bay Conservation Area near Olympia. The water side of this beautiful area consists of an abandoned (and very long) railroad pier that is a nursery to hundreds of bats and several old log booms that have become a safe haven for Harbor Seals.

Sherri and Lauryn enjoying a stunning day on the water.

We anchored the boat well outside the boundaries of the Conversation Area, dropped the kayaks in the water and were immediately a popular curiosity for dozens of harbor seals. The girls lost track of the large number of young seals that would swim by them as we paddled along and were thrilled at all of the attention. They fondly refer to Harbor Seals as “puppies”.

We spent the day exploring the area and enjoyed sightings of hundreds of Great Blue Herons, Harbor Porpoises and almost no people. My kind of perfect weekend!

Yes Please, Grand Banks Eastbay 39

Yes Please, Grand Banks Eastbay 39

Hope and Squaxin Island

Blue skies, sunshine and no wind were in the marine forecast after months of nothing but rain, so we grabbed a bag of groceries and headed out for the peaceful waters of Puget Sound. We were not disappointed, even arriving at the outstation late Friday evening, just before the sun set.

The dog quickly got back into the swing of life aboard the boat. He hadn’t been aboard much this year, but as soon as the dingy was in the water (actually it wasn’t quite in the water), he jumped aboard and was all wiggles, wanting to head out exploring.

Lots of room, despite the three day weekend.

Lights out was late Friday night (about midnight), but I had my best night’s sleep in years. Why is it that we can relax, let go of life’s stress and sleep like babies when we are out on the boat?

As usual, we ate like kings, discovering that pre-cooked sausage makes for a great breakfast (without the mess) and that searing a couple of Prime Ribeyes for dinner is guaranteed to make everyone on the boat happy. Especially the dog.

Olympia Yacht Club outstation.

Sunday, we cruised slowly back to Olympia and to the mountain of chores that we had left behind. Although after two nights of peace and quiet on the boat, that mountain seems like a much smaller hill.