Airship | Boat Projects and Island Hopping

We’ve been in the San Juans for just over a week now as we work to get Airship ready to head to Alaska next month. We’ve been gathering spares and checking things off our Boat – To Do list, but we got enough done and the wind finally settled down so we headed out to Sucia Island for a night in Shallow Bay on Monday night.

Aerial photo from Kevin’s Mavic:

We met up with some new friends (their first San Juan Island cruising with their new American Tug 395), and decided to meet again in Roche Harbor the next day. We had a great dinner at McMillin’s that night and then watched the moon come up behind the “Our Lady of Good Voyage” chapel afterwards:


The next day was sunny and gorgeous, so we left Roche Harbor in the morning and cruised down the west side of San Juan Island looking for whales. (Saw no whales.)

We went back and picked up some parts that had arrived in Anacortes, and then cruised over to Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island for the night. We didn’t do much there besides make dinner and sleep (it was late and rainy when we got in) and in the morning before the wind REALLY picked up, we went back to Anacortes for more parts and projects. We finished up yesterday with enough time to head out to Cypress again (this time to the Cypress Head anchorage). Here we are, another shot from from the Mavic:


We had a lovely sunset last night, and slept well in the gentle rocking.

It’s beautiful again today so we decided to stay another night. We have a couple more organizational projects than can just as well be done out here as they can in the marina, so why not?

Here are the some of the boat projects we’ve accomplished this week:

  1. Install new outboard on the dinghy (vroom!!)
  2. Install new dinghy seat (with storage!)
  3. Change main engine secondary fuel filter (this was WAY more difficult than expected!)
  4. Change main engine zincs
  5. Change generator primary fuel filter
  6. Change generator raw water impeller
  7. Replace macerator pump
  8. Gather new miscellaneous spare parts
  9. Clean out cockpit locker and lazarette
  10. Clean out interior lockers

It feels good to get some interior organization done as well as all the normal maintenance stuff. We’re taking quite a few things off the boat that we aren’t using (or haven’t used recently)…making room for the new cool gadgets we may NEED when we see ’em!