A North Channel Ranger Tugs Rendezvous

It is often stated that the North Channel is some of the best inland cruising you’ll find anywhere. We could not agree more! It is, after all, in our boating backyard. Lisa and I talked about the possibility of having a Ranger Tugs/Cutwater Rendezvous in the North Channel shortly after we bought our red tug several years ago. With that in mind, we approached Jeff Messmer at Ranger Tugs while we were cruising in the Pacific Northwest last summer. By fall the Ranger Tugs/Cutwater North Channel Rendezvous was put into full planning mode. Jeff and I contacted several dealers in the area, Reed Yacht Sales and Lefroy Harbour Marine and Resorts. We got them on board as sponsors for the rendezvous. Dates for the three-day event were set at that point and we slowly worked out the details during the winter months. It didn’t take long to make the decision on the location for the rendezvous. Little Current is geared towards accommodating boaters traveling through the area. The local businesses we worked with, for food and give aways, were very generous and helpful. They made the whole process seem like a breeze.

The town of Little Current, on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada, is a central spot and hub of activity for boaters. A nice location for boaters to provision and meet other boaters while soaking up the fantastic cruising opportunities of Canada’s beautiful North Channel.

Kismet (above) has a nice view of the marina from her cockpit.

Tugnuts helping one another out on the docks today. Annie, onboard Gentle Lady, is getting help from another tug owner. This really highlights what a boating rendezvous is all about. Lots of activities, food, and presentations. You gotta love sharing and caring.

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Ranger Tugs North Channel Rendezvous Welcomed 14 Tugs and One Cutwater!

Ranger Tugs arrived all morning at the town docks in Little Current until all fifteen boats (35 people) were secure in their slips. Introductions continued all day as we met people from all over the United States (8 boats) and Canada (7 boats) – 14 Ranger Tugs and one Cutwater. The boat coming from the farthest distance in the U.S. was from Texas and the farthest Canadian boat hailed from Alberta. Many different people, tastes, and personalities all share one common passion, their Ranger Tugs/Cutwater boats.

Carolyn, on Pour House (above), brought a big pan of ribs for consumption by the hungry boaters at the scheduled potluck.

Soon after arriving and getting settled at the town docks, everyone was busy getting a dish ready for the potluck that night. Mind you this was no ordinary potluck! It is truly amazing what elaborate and delicious dishes can be made on our little tugs.

Lots of smiling faces during the first day of the Ranger Tugs North Channel Rendezvous!

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Downtown Seattle is within close proximity to everything we could possibly need during our stay.

As we approached the final weeks of our PNW cruising adventure, I asked Lisa if there was one place she wanted to visit before our trip came to a close. Unsurprisingly she said, “Downtown Seattle of course.” That’s why we positioned ourselves at the Bainbridge Island anchorage. We stayed for two nights there waiting for an available slip at Bell Harbor Marina, before we made the short 8-mile trip across Puget Sound into Elliott Bay and finally to the Port of Seattle’s Bell Harbor Marina. The reason we like docking in downtown Seattle is that everything we could possibly need is within 10 blocks or so of the marina. This proximity provides us with an endless amount of activities. Our favorite is the Pike Place Market.. of course.

While waiting for our slip to open up at the marina, we cruised around the harbor and happened upon two-year-old Serene, one of the world’s largest private super-yachts.

Jim was amazed at the variety of beer selections at the World Market during our first walk into town.

On top of our list, when visiting Seattle, is the famous Pike Place Market. With everything from fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs, brightly colored bouquets of flowers, homemade pastries, pasta, and mountains of freshly caught seafood, Pike Place Market is the “bomb.” Opened in 1907 and holding the distinction as the oldest continuously operated public farmers market in the country, this attraction is a must-see when visiting Seattle. Our love for the market formed years ago – first when Lisa lived on Queen Anne Hill, (just north of the downtown area during the 1970s), and again when we, together, spent a winter, in 2007/2008, renting a room in a B&B on Capitol Hill. We were waiting for our Fathom 40 to be built. During that time we’d visit the market once a week to procure produce, fresh fish, and assorted accouterments. We’d return to the B&B to put together a feast from our finds – we like to revive that ritual whenever we visit downtown Seattle.

This was our first taste of Jack’s smoked salmon candy. Wow, delicious!

The Bubble Gum Wall, a local landmark in downtown Seattle, is located in Post Alley under the Pike Place Market by the box office for the Market Theater. The old brick wall, 15 feet high and 50 feet long, is covered several inches thick with used bubble gum. The tradition continues after theatre workers twice scraped the gum away only to have it reappear. The growing gum wall was finally left to grow on its own and was declared a tourist attraction around 1999.

Pastries for breakfast and freshly baked bread is always procured at our favorite, Three Girls Bakery (above).

We bought halibut for our dinner that night. It was fun deciding where and what to buy.

The next day we walked down to Pioneer Square, close to where the Seattle Seahawks CenturyLink Field and Seattle Mariner’s Safeco Stadium are located. That afternoon, unbeknownst to us, the Seahawks had a home game. This was not to be any home game as sometime during the game they were going to try to set a record for the “Loudest Outdoor Sports Stadium.” As we sat in the cockpit of our boat later in the day the roar of the crowd was loud and we were a good mile away. They did end up getting a 136.6 decibel sound record at that game and Seattle went on to win the game and become SuperBowl Champions.

Years ago, during our stay at the B&B, we discovered Uwajimaya, the 35,000 sq. ft. Asian market located in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. Similar to our experience at the Pike Place Market, visiting Uwajimaya is a visual treat. With an abundance of interesting produce, unusual seafood, and all things Asian, this Asian market is more like visiting a living cultural museum.

Another walk to Pioneer Square brought us to an old-time favorite, the Glasshouse Studio. Founded by good friends back in the 70s, under new ownership it survives the ups and downs of today’s economy. We thought the window display looked like a richly blooming garden with bright and colorful, organically crafted glass.

Lots of driftwood piling up at the marina… daily. If you don’t want it banging on the hull of your boat you just drag it out of the water and set it on the dock.

When we spent the winter in Seattle several years ago, our favorite happy hour spot was Ray’s Boathouse, a waterfront restaurant we are totally hooked on.

Earlier in the week, we made arrangements to visit Ranger Tug owners Bruce and Vickie at their downtown Seattle condo. Upon entering their lovely home, the stunning views from their picture windows captured our attention. Elliot Bay, downtown Seattle and off in the distance, the majestic Olympic Mountains presented themselves for our viewing pleasure. After meeting their two beautiful Bengal cats, our conversation quickly turned to boating. We discussed our cruises up to British Columbia (we both traveled with the 2013 Ranger Tugs Desolation Sound Cruise), and future boating plans. After romancing one of Bruce’s artfully prepared martinis, we all walked back down toward Pike Place Market to one of Bruce and Vickie’s favorite restaurants for dinner. After dinner, we said our goodbyes  – the next day we waved goodbye to Seattle as we left Bell Harbor for the trip to Anacortes where we would prepare Kismet to come out of the water.

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Thomas James – Visit with an Exchange of Boat Tours!

While cruising through the Killarney Channel, on our way to Collins Inlet, we received a call on our VHF. After switching to channel 68, Bill, the guy hailing us, told us that, as he was standing on the balcony of his channel-side home, he noticed our red Ranger Tug slowly cruising by. He said he was so excited to see the “cute tug” he’d love to have a tour and chat with us about it as he had never seen one in person before.

As we were trying to figure out his location, we spotted him, with the binoculars, on his balcony taking photos of our boat as Lisa (unknowingly) was, at the very same time, taking photos of his Thomas James schooner docked in front of his house. We made soft plans to meet the next day on our return from Georgian Bay as we’ll need to pass by Killarney again to get to our next destination, Baie Fine.

After our short trek to Collins Inlet, we returned to Killarney the next day for a much-needed pump out at the Killarney Mountain Lodge before we headed over to Bill, and his wife, Kathy’s, dock to meet them in person, give them a tour of our Kismet in exchange for one on the Thomas James. Bill explained that they’ve been thinking of purchasing a small trawler like ours to cruise the North Channel, Georgian Bay, Trent Severn, and Erie Canal. They were happy for the opportunity to see our Ranger Tug up close and get our thoughts on how, and why, the boat worked for us.

After our visit to the Thomas James and as we’re heading towards Baie Fine, I thought of all the wonderful experiences we’ve had meeting people all over the world while boating around the United States. We could tell immediately that Bill and Kathy (above), are true adventurers all the way around. While at their dock, we felt the excitement and richness of their experiences and left, after a nice visit, taking that feeling with us. Thanks, Bill and Kathy!

Kismet (below) is shoving off the dock the Thomas James calls home.

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We never addressed the issue of bottom painting our Ranger Tug until one day, while taking our boat out of the water in Ft Myers Beach; we were surprised by the excessive growth of barnacles on the hull of Kismet. We recognized the problem and we wanted to take care of it ASAP. After arranging to have our boat hauled by 3D, a self-service boat yard in Key West, I began researching how to clean the hull and what to apply to help the process along and what kind of paint we might need. Because we use our boat in salt and fresh water, trailer it and, at times, it will sit out of the water, we found we needed to have a hard ablative paint for our particular usage.

After leaving Marathon and arriving in Key West, we launched our boat on Stock Island and cruised the short distance to the 3D Boat Yard to have Kismet hauled out by a travel lift for the first time. After a thorough power washing and initial scraping, the boat was settled onto jack stands and wood blocks for three days of bottom prep and painting “fun.”

This was our “home” for three days while I worked on this nasty chore and the sea breeze and the water view helped ease the pain a little during our stay.

Our first dilemma? How I was going to clean the remaining stubborn barnacle scales from the entire underneath the hull of the boat? It was a mess and seemed almost a daunting task. Lisa did some online research and finally found a product called On & Off and boy what a time-saver it turned out to be. After being brushed on the hull the product instantly goes to work and dissolves, the barnacle residue. I applied the On & Off solution by brush, let it work a bit, then I scraped a little and rinsed. I did this two times on the entire hull, three times in a few tough spots.

The bottom line is, it’s really better to take care of the bottom painting chore before this happens and, in our case, we should have done it a lot sooner.

Lisa kept me drinking lots of water (above – here I am asking for more) and reminded me to wear my mask and gloves to keep all the chemicals and fumes off my body and out of my lungs. I had prepared ahead of time by procuring old clothes from the local Goodwill store; I will throw them away in a few days.

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Lisa and I gave a great deal of thought to the purchase of our Ranger Tug and GMC tow truck but, until recently, we never gave much thought to the dinghy we’d need and how we’d transport it on and off of the water. We finally had some boating downtime over the holidays and were able to do some research after a great deal of thought settled on a small 7′ 7″ Achilles inflatable, with a soft bottom, made of Hypalon material and powered by a Tohatsu 4 HP 4 stroke outboard. It arrived in a neat little package (above). We wanted to have a dinghy that was lightweight, narrower than our boat, and one that was easy to disassemble and stow when it came time to trailer our boat to a new cruising ground.

With the dinghy purchase accomplished, our next mission was to figure out how to transport it while underway on the water. We’ve used the davit system davit before, where the dinghy mounts at the rear of the transom and folds up to it, and is supported by stays (below and below-left). With this option, you either have to take the outboard off and stow it in the cockpit or purchase an adaptor that lets the outboard pivot to stay in an upright position when the dinghy is pulled up from the water. The problem with the davit option is that the uprighted dinghy hinders the view off the transom while cruising.

Our research provided another interesting mounting option made by Hurley Marine called a Hurley Davit (above-right). This option lets you pull the dinghy up onto the transom horizontally by providing support extensions that come off the swim platform. I think this is a viable option however I have no personal experience and have not seen many in use. We came across this boat, Tuggin Aweigh, at the Florida Ranger Tug February 2012 Rendezvous at Moss Marina in Fort Myers Beach.

In the meantime we’ve decided, while our research continues, to tow our dinghy behind Kismet while we’re cruising. No reason to rush into making a hasty decision before we know more about the options available.

The trick to towing the dinghy is to use a floating nylon line and a couple of floats to keep the tow line out of the prop. Sailors, being the frugal bunch they are, have been doing it this way for years. So, as long as the dinghy is towed far enough behind the boat (out of our wake) and we pull it up to the swim platform when slowing down or before docking or anchoring, I don’t see any reason why this won’t work, at least until we come up with a better option.

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