Baby Ruth

A "Pram of Surprising Ability." So it's described by the late, great, John Gardner, "Dean of American Small Craft," and the designer. Of course, I modified the design to may own tastes. Most importantly, I converted it to be a "nesting" dinghy. Which means that I built this boat, then cut it in half so that the front section will nest in the aft section, thus making for a vastly smaller storage footprint. The two halves bolt together. You can just make out the seam between the two in the second picture.

Anyway, I started building this dinghy last year, but rarely worked on it. With Rebecca's help, I finally got the finishing touches taken care of yesterday, and we put her in the water right away. Floats, tows, rows and motors just fine, and looks better than any other dinghy we've seen yet. 

 The two sets of oarlocks are for rowing with two people aboard - using the front seat to row from, with a passenger in the rear, keeps the boat balanced and makes for a faster and easier rowing boat.

Bored, yet? Well, we're back in Friday Harbor for the day. We met up with sailing friends Jerry and Judy Roloson, here, and we're going to cruise in tandem with them for a while. They've got a big beautiful full-keeled, cutter rigged, sailboat named Gipsy Rose II. 

Next stop Prevost Harbor, on Stuart Island, then we're off to Canada (finally!)

BTW, the weather is fabulous - sunny and 70!

\

Generic islands sunset. That's mostly Canada in the background.

Rebecca at the bike rack, onshore at Fisherman Harbor, on Lopez Island.

Rebecca in the skin-on-frame kayak she built. West Sound, Orcas Island.

It's not all open water! I really like to explore the nooks and crannies, and this cove, in Garrison Bay, turned into a hidden stream, which then devolved into a creek - with a few tunnels (which, of course, I had to paddle through!). We got pretty far inland before it all petered out. This is me on the way back to the bay.

And this is me next to my car, after apparently parking it in the wrong spot for a couple of weeks. Nice.

At anchor, in the fog, one fervently hopes that the ferry is going to turn . . . .

Cruising along the N shore of Orcas Island, in perfect sailing weather.

Rebecca enjoying the sun and sea, with Turn Island almost in the background.

Visitors to our anchorage, Westcott Bay, San Juan Island. This well protected anchorage was deserted, but just around the corner, Garrison Bay - more exposed and mostly too shallow - was packed with cruising boats. We couldn't figure out why, but we enjoyed our own private cove, nonetheless.

This is the only crab we ever caught, on the last day of the season. Not quite  a keeper, but that didn't matter because she was NOT going to let go of that net! For future reference, we have ruled out tofu and peanut butter as efficient crab baits.

Some pics

Foggy Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island.

Me rowing Baby Ruth - the world's "least likely to get stolen" dinghy. It's being replaced soon, but we still like her.

It's not always foggy!

Rebecca once said that she wanted to "drive all of the time," so I let her! Looks like she still enjoys it . . . .
 

This is the new boarding ladder I built, to replace the aged and ugly plastic one that came with the boat. We hang this off the stern and it makes exiting the dinghy and the kayaks a lot easier.