Grand Coulee

Very calm night at the Blaine Marina dock last night! Up early, and had the boat on the trailer by 7am. I had a fair amount of marine growth (barnacles and algae hair) on the outboard and trim tabs. I changed the lower unit lube as I was concerned how much salt water might have leaked into the oil, since the last two lube changes I noticed some water mixed with the lube. There appeared to be some, but no worse than in the past. After cleaning up that mess, I moved the boat over to the fresh water rinse down station. Used Salt Away to flush the engine and wash down the trailer’s running gear. Spent some time trying to clean the marine growth off, but didn’t get too far with that. I was on the road by 8:20am. I had already prepped the boat pretty well for travel last night, so most the time this morning was spent changing lube and at the wash rack. I found a car wash, Kevin’s Car Wash in Ferndale, that had two high clearance bays, and a strong pressure nozzle on the hose wand. I was able to clear the marine growth with that, along with the scum line around the bottom of the boat. I enjoyed the Northern Cascades scenery along State Highway 20. I stopped at the Northern Cascade National Park Visitor Center to make my lunch. I think Bill and Mike could spend several weeks hiking all the trails in the Cascades along Hwy 20! Speaking of Bill and Mike, they spent the night I stayed at the dock on Parker Island, in Conover Cove. Last night they were in Montague Harbour. They crossed the Strait of Georgia today, and looks like they’ll spend their night in Blaine and then head east tomorrow. I drove through some off and on light rain showers, but went through a downpour as I arrived at Grand Coulee. I stopped at La Presa Mexican Restaurant for supper, here in Grand Coulee, and got permission from the manager to “boaterhome” in their parking lot tonight. And I had a special dessert. Fried chocolate ice cream. Normally I’ve only seen it served with vanilla ice cream, but they have vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate. After the rain here, a beautiful full rainbow appeared. Glad to be on solid ground again. Oh, I wanted to share a scam I received on my phone yesterday involving Fidelity Investments. I uploaded a photo of the text. I called that number, and it became apparent the guy I was speaking with, who had perfect English and sounded American, was going to ask me to withdraw my 401K and place in his account. At that point I asked him what email address was on my account. He hung up. Scary how real these scams are starting to get!Read more