September 2026 – Caro Babbo

8.5% for increased margin (Broken Boat Blues, Part 2)

Blake Island Marina, 17-SEP-2026 – Another $1000 all together to get the cutlass bearing fixed. I could have done it in 90 minutes.

But I would have needed a machine shop for part of it. And I definitely would have needed a lift. That’s about $800. The extra two hundred isn’t too bad to swallow when you look at it that way.

Stuck inside of Dockton with the Boat Repair Blues Again

Dockton, Quartermaster Harbor, WA – 10-SEP-2026 – We arrived on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend – last weekend – to visit my friend John Riley. To see him again and work on his boat a bit. It was good to see him. He arranged a mooring ball for us. He came over for breakfast and dinner, I rowed over to his boat and he rowed over to ours. When we cast off the mooring ball on Tuesday, it sounded like someone had attached a coffee can full of bolts under the cockpit.

Chaffles and Eagle Island

Eagle Island, Puget Sound, WA 6-SEP-2026 6:45 AM – ‘‘Get me the dog blanket, please,’’ says Jennifer as she settles into the cockpit to drink coffee, read the NYT and look at the seals.

This our fourth day at Eagle Island (after three nights). It is an island one can walk around in ten minutes at low tide and there are no eagles. Across the sound from us is part of greater Tacoma, north is a prison island, and south Anderson Island connected to Seattle by ferry. There are three mooring balls, one on this (east) side and two on the west. This time of year there are generally mooring balls available. The bottom here has very good holding so one can just drop an anchor if there isn’t a mooring ball available and then there is no limit on how long you can stay.