There were several Ranger Tug owners we wanted to connect with while we were at Cap Sante Marina.

We’d been to Anacortes, Washington, the gateway to the San Juans Islands, several times in the past 15 years so it felt a little like a home away from home for us. After launching the boat and stowing the trailer and truck it was time to get organized for some serious PNW cruising. We needed to stock up and collect our thoughts a little. Guess the week we spent on the road took its toll. Lisa kept saying maybe we need another day to get organized so we’d not feel so rushed, plus there were several Ranger Tug owners we wanted to connect with while we were at Cap Sante Marina.

We spent a couple of days provisioning at the local Safeway, setting the dinghy up, unloading the truck, and correcting a hydro lock I created in my 4-stroke outboard. Apparently, I did not set the outboard up properly while we had it stored in the bed of our truck, which was not good for it while crossing the country. Engine oil was able to seep above the cylinder head which created the lock and therefore I could not get it started. After draining the oil from the spark plug hole, and cleaning the plug the engine fired right up, a huge sigh of relief as we plan to use it a lot on our Desolation Sound trip.

Herb and Willie, on Willie’s Tug (http://andwilliesaid.blogspot.ca) are Ranger Tug owners from Texas, we met them in 2011. We knew ahead of time they’d be docked at Cap Sante Marina and after getting semi-settled in a little, we invited them over for dinner. After enjoying the wonderful dinner Lisa prepared we spent the evening getting caught up on our boating activities since we last saw them in Bremerton Washington at a Ranger Tug Rendezvous in 2011. The time was also spent reviewing our mutual cruising plans up to Canada’s Golf Islands, Desolation Sound and beyond with a large group of Ranger Tug owners… it never gets old talking about new boating adventures with other boaters.

The day before we left Anacortes we made a trip over to the pump outstation near the entrance to the harbor. Good spot for it.

I got a tour of this boat (above). A one-of-a-kind hand-made yacht. The boat’s interior woodwork was amazing.

The evening before we left was spent getting to know the other Ranger Tug owners, Tym, on Circle T, and Ray, currently in Anacortes at an impromptu dockside happy hour. Ray and Jocelyn, on Nudibranch, organized the party, along with Herb and Willie, on Willie’s Tug, on the dock near their boats, Ray and Jocelyn cooked us some delicious salmon and halibut. Other boaters, Bob and Nita, on Nellie Too, ran down the dock earlier that day with a chart for us, they thought we could use it for our trip, we were headed out to test our autopilot but returned to the dock when we spotted them, such thoughtful people. You could meet people all day long and not meet a friendlier group than we met at Cap Sante during our stay.

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