On a beautiful fall day in late September my younger son joined us as we moved Amberjackthrough the Ballard a locks and into Seattle Yacht Club Portage Bay for our winter moorage. Couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day and as we add on the years I am thoughtful about how lucky I am. Most of you don’t get up this way so I’ll see if I can post a few images from our cruising this summer.
Sunset in Friday Harbor. I think this was the evening the Kenmore Air flight crashed at Sucia island.
Seaplane zeroing in for a landing at Ganges Harbour
Seaplane meet up at Ganges Harbour. They park here for the night.
Amberjack at the dock in Sidney BC
The slow pace of life on Henry Island in the San Juan’s
Waiting out the fog in Port Townsend WA on the way south
The Pacific NW is an area on my bucket list to boat. I have been causally looking for a deal on a trawler or other liveaboard to buy so that we could spend a couple of seasons boating the area.
Rick Ott
Fly N Fish
1969 B31 Flybridge
Hull # Don't have a clue
Rick-Plenty of fuel, large water tanks and a big freezer. Resupply can get chancey north of Nanaimo BC. Plus a large primary anchorage with lots of scope (chain) and a good source of dry heat will get you pretty much anywhere. You will be able to wait out bad weather. Plenty of that as well as plenty of snug coves up here.
One of the most fun things that I have done was to get my Sea Plane license. It was over a weekend at Jack Brown's Sea Plane Base. If anyone has a pilots license, then getting a Sea Plane license is a good way to take advantage of the Bi Annual Flight Review and have a lot of fun doing it.
A land pilot takes off in a relatively straight line. A Sea Plane pilot can take off in a circle in a small pond. Now that is exciting.
Rick Ott
Fly N Fish
1969 B31 Flybridge
Hull # Don't have a clue
Both my brothers, and a brother in-law are pilots with their float endorsements.
I get up with them from time to time.
A big regret of mine is not having made the time to get licensed myself.
I guess @ 61yrs old there's still time, but I know my window of opportunity is getting smaller.
John Swick wrote: ↑Oct 17th, '26, 08:30
Amen Rick,
Both my brothers, and a brother in-law are pilots with their float endorsements.
I get up with them from time to time.
A big regret of mine is not having made the time to get licensed myself.
I guess @ 61yrs old there's still time, but I know my window of opportunity is getting smaller.
John
John,
Times have changed since I got my license but I'd say go for it. You've already got a leg up with your brothers being pilots and you would likely pick it up pretty quickly. Reluctantly, I just sold my plane this year. The Bertram has taken precedence and I wasn't using the plane enough to justify keeping the plane. A man can only have so many mistresses before the burden is to great.
Rick Ott
Fly N Fish
1969 B31 Flybridge
Hull # Don't have a clue
Thank you Doug, I enjoyed watching...and hearing. It would be something to fly into a place so scenic...maybe one day.
Rick, for whatever reason I looked at what it takes to get a float endorsement. I have had little interest in flying, except when in a plane. Several things took me by surprise. The amount of time to get an endorsement is less than I'd expect...I'd think LOTS to learn about water conditions especially for someone not familiar. Then again if your a pilot the elevator should be making all the floors, or at least the most of the important ones. If looking to fly a seaplane there also may be some water background and experience.
Anyway...back to surprises. What really jumped out as a big HUH... Glassy Calm conditions are not great for landings nor take offs. I'd have thought the exact opposite. Reading a bit about it does makes sense, but still way outside my experience, interesting read. Then again skimming over the rough water landings and takeoffs do not seem like a great option either. What does one do when conditions say...a water landing does not seem like a good option. My guess is one way or another the plane and surface of the earth need to meet. Fly elsewhere? Sure, good forecasts before taking off...but if like the forecasts are what I am used t getting.
...and I think my big takeaway is how many times I read the words flip and nose dive. Definitely an incentive to get it right.
When I got my seaplane endorsement, I was flying a Super Cub. I had never flown a stick even though, I probably had 12 or 13,000 hours at the time. My young instructor had a birth defect and only one arm. He spun the prop to crank the Super Cub. I remember the first morning and he says we are going to land on that pond down there. I says, you're kidding right, that pond is too damn small! He says nope its just the right size. I say OK but how are we going to be able to take off? He's you're about to find out. I land and taxi around a bit and my instructor tells me OK I want you to take off in a circle and keep spiraling up until we clear the trees.
Thats exactly what I did. It was a very strange feeling circling around on the water building up enough airspeed to get airborne.
Rick Ott
Fly N Fish
1969 B31 Flybridge
Hull # Don't have a clue
I'm guessing the plane doesn't have the power to climb without stalling so you need to gain airspeed slowly in an upward helix to gain altitude and speed?
If so, I guess its like me machining big holes when light on power. I program a circular helix tool path down into work piece taking what the machine and tool can handle from wall and depth as it goes down n around. Goes to finding a different way to skin a cat.
Although if I stall machine it just alarms out, stops, may break a tool, may mark the work piece if unlucky.
Tony Meola wrote: ↑Oct 20th, '26, 21:11
After reading this, I have to convince my nephew, who is a pilot, to get certified for Sea Planes. Sounds pretty cool.
Tony,
I don't know where you nephew is located but I highly recommend Jack Brown's Sea Plane Base in central Florida. Its a weekend course and as I mentioned its a certificate upgrade which counts in lieu of the Biannual Flight Review.
Rick Ott
Fly N Fish
1969 B31 Flybridge
Hull # Don't have a clue
