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Yankee feels right at home in the cockpit.

Yankee feels right at home in the cockpit.

The sun came out and we decided to take our seven month old puppy out on the boat for the first time. He has gone from an eight pound fluff ball in October to a sixty six pound big boy in just five months! Fortunately, he is still very young, which makes getting him used to the boat that much easier!

Yankee was very comfortable on the boat, until the big engines rumbled to life. All the noise and vibration had him concerned for a minute, but he quickly calmed back down and enjoyed our trip from Olympia to Jarrell’s Cove State Park. He likes to sit in the cockpit and watch the water flow by the hull.

Yankee getting some love from Sherri Ernsberger in Pickering Passage.

Yankee getting some love from Sherri Ernsberger in Pickering Passage.

When we arrived at Jarrell’s Cove, there was only one boat on the dock, so we grabbed a choice spot on the end of the dock and secured the boat. The dog had a great time exploring the state park and was easy and comfortable on the boat. It’s almost like he was born to be a boat dog.

I was unsure about the water depths around the dock, since I remembered a lot of shoaling in the area at low tide. However, the park rangers have posted a very nice diagram of both docks, with depths at zero tide, which I will post below. While at the dock, I finally had time to replace the lame Raymarine Depth Sounder Module (DSM) and the re-furbished one that I installed is working like a champ.

Lauren and Yankee soaking up some sun.

Lauren and Yankee soaking up some sun.

Jarrell’s cove state park is a beautiful gem, hidden away at the very North end of Harstine Island. We will be back and so will Yankee. There is plenty of depth at the docks in all but serious minus tides (see below) and the cove is full of new mooring buoys with room for lots of boats.

The cove is also very well protected from the wind and we had friends that were taking a beating down by Hope Island, so we invited them up to enjoy the peaceful serenity at Jarrell’s Cove.

Jarrels.longdock

Jarrels..cove.tdock

AIS track of Yes Please

AIS track of Yes Please

After updating the Raymarine AIS transceiver with new firmware and modifying the information being broadcast about the boat, I wanted to verify that the unit was working correctly. When we returned from a recent trip to Hope Island, I looked up the boat’s MMSI number via Marine Traffic to see if they had picked up the new boat name.

I was pleasantly surprised that they were tracking the boat so far South in Puget Sound and that they had the new boat name registered. I’m always impressed when new technology works the way it is supposed to!

Irrational Xantrex Inverter Display

Irrational Xantrex 2512 Inverter Display

One of the minor annoyances listed as a deficiency on the survey was the control panel for the Xantrex Inverter. As Matt Harris so eloquently put it, “the inverter remote control panel display readout is irrational.” Indeed it was and apparently always has been (see photo).

According to the previous owner, the inverter works perfectly, but the display has always been scrambled and no one had been able to fix it. Hmmmm.

I read through a bunch of Xantrex manuals, which are guaranteed to put you right to sleep, no matter how restless you might be. Apparently, the particular model number of the Inverter on Yes Please doesn’t actually exist (P2512M), and a scrambled display is often the result of communication faults between the inverter and display. The solution, hit the reset button (reset to factory defaults).

Non-srambled Xantrex display after the reset

Non-srambled Xantrex display after the reset

Granted, hitting a button that resets to factory defaults is a little scary, since you can’t tell what those factory defaults are, but the button was pushed, the display reset and who would have guessed, problem solved. Now I can at least see what the darn thing is doing!

Yes Please on her first buoy at Hope Island.

Yes Please on her first buoy at Hope Island.

We spent our first night out on Yes Please after a quick trip to Hope Island. It has probably been about 7 years since I’ve been able to pick up and use a mooring buoy (previous boats were too big) and I was delighted at how easy it was.

It was Sherri’s first attempt at snagging a buoy and she accomplished it like a pro, easy and smooth despite the strong currents. We set up a short bridle, turned off the engines and did what boats do, relaxed and enjoyed the quiet. Over the course of our two nights out on the boat, we tested all the systems we hadn’t used yet and were extremely pleased how well everything worked. The stove cooked, the diesel furnace warmed us up, the davit was easy, the dingy started right up, the generator quietly gurgled and we had a wonderful time.

Sherri Ernsberger worshipping the sun at Hope Island.

First mate, Sherri Ernsberger, worshipping the sun on the last day of Winter, at Hope Island.

I was especially pleased with how well the batteries performed. They are ten year old AGM’s that I am planning on replacing soon, but held their charge overnight with only a 0.1 volt drop, even with lots of lights, the fridge, pumps and iphone chargers running all night. Excellent!!

We slept like babies and did NOT want to head back to civilization on Sunday morning.

Yes Please, new boat name, is applied to transom.

Yes Please, new boat name, is applied to transom.

The sun briefly appeared on Friday, so I stopped by the boat at lunch time to remove the remaining vinyl from the transom and clean up the goo with some Acetone. After work, Sherri and I positioned the new graphics on the stern and began peeling and rubbing the new boat name into position.

The larger Yes Please name went onto the transom pretty easily, which was surprising given it was three layers of vinyl. The home port graphics were a little trickier (Olympia, WA) due to the small letters. I’ll have to replace the “O” in Olympia at some point, but I am pleased with the results.

After the hard (not) work of renaming the boat, we braved the Fourth Ave Tavern to watch Andrew Landers and the Strugglesville Band. The music was magnificent and that part of Olympia is always entertaining, to say the least.

Queen sized bed with 3 inch memory gel topper.

Queen sized bed with 3 inch memory gel topper.

Our first night on Yes Please was a little restless because the mattress was thin and a little on the hard side. A quick trip to Costco for a 3″ memory foam topper along with a down mattress pad/cover and we were off to very sound sleep.

The memory foam was a little difficult to work with as it had to be shaped around the odd corners of the mattress. Sherri took a new serrated knife to the foam and it turned out really well. The fleece sheets also made the bed super comfy and toasty warm.

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Raymarine Electronics at the helm of Yes Please.

Raymarine Electronics at the helm of Yes Please.

I have never been a big fan of Raymarine Electronics. Almost all of the charter boats that I have operated came equipped with them, so I am familiar with how they work. I also see them on a lot of local boats, so am guessing it is a popular brand.

Yes Please came equipped with Raymarine Electronics, so it was time to re-program the AIS unit with the new boat name (formerly Maverick) and to troubleshoot a very annoying alarm that constantly pops up that the “connection to the DSM module has been lost”. The first order of business was to find the modules, then figure out how to access them. It took a bit of hard pulling on the Autopilot, and eventually the dash popped off and I was able to see how things were hooked up.

DSM and Sea Talk modules

DSM and Sea Talk modules

My mini-usb cable turned out to be a little too short, which necessitated holding the laptop with one hand while typing with the other. Eventually, I was able to re-program the AIS unit with the new “Yes Please” boat name and then updated the AIS firmware to the latest version. This was very easy to do using the ProAIS software and USB drivers. I was also glad the laptop batteries were in good shape, since I forgot the power cable. DOH!

Next, I updated the E120 chart plotter to the latest version of firmware, which helped with troubleshooting the Raymarine SeaTalk network issues. Then I began to investigate the dropping DSM module error that constantly appears.

AIS module well hidden below the helm.

AIS module well hidden below the helm.

It turns out that the Raymarine Depth Sounder Module (DSM300) was the victim of very poor engineering. The Ray supplied power cable is too thin (insufficient gauge) to handle the 8 amps of load required. As a result, when the DSM pings, it attempts to draw 8 Amps of current through the too thin wire, which drops the voltage below the unit’s minimum voltage set point (obviously set too high), so the unit drops out and restarts. Wow, engineering has fallen a long way since Raytheon invented the Magnetron (radar) during WWII!

Grand Banks Eastbay 39 Sx

Grand Banks Eastbay 39 sx

We picked up our new boat in Seattle and cruised home to Olympia. There were gale warnings in the Marine Forecast, so we used the extra speed to our advantage to get home just as the big winds arrived. It was a pleasant cruise at about 16 knots that would have taken us an entire day in the old 7 knot trawler.

Our new boat, named Yes Please, is a 2007 Grand Banks Eastbay 39 sx.

The Galley area of Yes Please

The Galley area of Yes Please

She sports a pair of Cummins QSC8.3 liter engines that put out 490 HP each. The interior is laid out perfectly for a cruising couple, with no wasted space and not a lot of extra storage, which I am hoping keeps down the clutter. The new boat is a perfect weekend boat, which will also work well for multi-week trips up to the islands.

Hull Inspection haulout at Seaview, Shilshole.

Hull Inspection haulout at Seaview, Shilshole.

Matt Harris and Kevin Ambrose did the surveys on the new boat. Both the hull survey and mechanical survey went very well, with the only surprise being a chunk of wood jammed into the starboard cutlass bearing (strut). It took a lot of work with chisels, pliers, knives and finally a packing puller to get the wood chunk out, but once removed the bearing seemed solid.

During the Sea Trial, we hit 28 knots at full throttle and found the boat cruised comfortably at 20 knots. Kevin noted that the engines were in “like new” condition and purred underway. The Smartcraft monitor made checking the engine parameters underway very easy.

28 knots in choppy seas is pretty impressive

28 knots in choppy seas is pretty impressive

All the zincs were replaced while the boat was hanging in the slings at Seaview. I was very impressed at how quickly and professionally Seaview handled the haulout, repair and zinc replacement.

Shopping for a new boat is always a lot of fun. Yachtworld is bookmarked and several boats that are for sale there piqued my interest. With the Boat Show approaching at the end of January, we made several trips to Seattle and Anacortes to look at boats.

I am primarily looking for something a little smaller (around 40′ instead of Sea Eagle’s 50′), that can go a little faster and is a little easier to maintain. The boat should be better at weekend trips, with the option of a few annual long range trips as well.

I looked at a couple of Nordhavn 40’s, but they are just too small and felt crowded to me. I love the Nordhavn quality and engineering, but am thinking I won’t buy another Nordy until I retire and want to only go seven knots again.

American Tug 41

American Tug 41

We looked at (and tried to purchase) an American Tug, which is a well built boat with the Master Stateroom amidship where it belongs. They want a lot of money for those tugs and I quickly bowed out of a bidding war.

We looked at a couple of Nordic Tugs, which are also very nice boats. However, the word on the net is that the wave slap on the hard chines while at anchor is simply “diabolical”. The boat also seemed a bit tippy as people walked around the decks.

Coastal Craft

Coastal Craft

I checked out a Coastal Craft, which are beautiful, aluminum hulled boats that are built just over the border in Canada. I thought seriously about buying one, but they are more $$ than a Nordhavn.

We fell in love with a Hans Christiansen Independence Trawler named Carolina. She’s beautiful, very old, built like a tank, but slow and I wasn’t ready to take on an old slow boat again. Such a shame.

Carolina

Carolina

We really liked a friend’s Fathom Trawler that is for sale after doing the Great Loop twice. It had almost everything we wanted in a boat, but just didn’t feel right.

Many of the boats we looked at in December and January will be at the boat show in Seattle. Side by side comparisons will no doubt narrow the field of possibilities to a select few. Stay tuned…