patjames.com

Where the music matters

Patrick James — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 18:17:03 +0000

Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antenna bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free

__

One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity, yeah

I enjoy listening to music …

"Sooke to Shilshole and Final Thoughts on the Barkley Sound Trip"

Patrick James — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 16:05:02 +0000

Leaving Sooke we were surrounded by the local sport fishermen as we steamed out at 4:45 AM. The forecast was for light to variable winds, and there was talk of going all the way home in one final day. I was skeptical and declared we would decide when we …

"Bamfield and Sooke, Round Two"

pat — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 23:25:26 +0000

The return journey is on as we return to Bamfield and our same old spot at the end of John's barge at the Harbourside Lodge. John's docks were chock full (that being a total of about 6 boats) with fishermen cleaning, vacuum sealing, and cooking their catches. We saw several …

"Effingham Bay"

pat — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 00:26:28 +0000

Day 7 of the Barkley Sound trip took us from Ucluelet to Effingham Bay.

On our way out of Ucluelet we saw a tree that had at least eight eagles whirling around it. Did some more fishing on our way back to the Broken Group to hit Effingham Bay with …

"Barkley Sound Day 6: Ucluelet"

pat — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 15:11:28 +0000

On route to Ucluelet, what did we do? You got it, MORE FISHING. The chartplotter's fishing charts revealed a few promising rock piles where sure enough, many rockfish were lurking waiting to strike on our MacDeep jigging lures purchased in Bamfield. We fished off one island featuring a resident eagle …

"Pinkerton Islands"

pat — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 14:55:55 +0000

Barkley Sound trip day 5, the Pinkerton Islands

We did some more fishing before making the very short hop into the Pinkerton Islands, described in the Douglas guidebook as "virtually bombproof." The Pinekrtons are just north of the Broken Group and are not part of the protected marine sanctuary and …

"Joe's Bay"

pat — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 15:16:00 +0000

As we set out at a decent hour ("no more of these bullshit 4 AM departures" declared one member of the crew) with full tanks to explore the islands, there was a great breeze blowing just outside the protection of Bamfield Inlet. We tacked back and forth to clear the …

"Sooke to Bamfield"

pat — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 21:59:55 +0000

Barkley Sound Trip Day 3, Sooke to Bamfield

It is about 75 nautical miles from Sooke to Bamfield. It is a looong ways, at best about a 12 hour journey, with much of it in the Pacific Ocean.

This was the long stretch, through the whole length of the Strait …

"Victoria to Sooke"

pat — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 00:48:01 +0000

This is day two of the 2018 Barkley Sound trip.

Day 2: Victoria to Sooke

Sooke is a short hop from Victoria, only about 15 miles. We left early enough to catch the current ebbing through Race Passage past the famous Race Rocks, giving us a good three knot speed …

"Trip to Barkley Sound Day 1"

pat — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 22:28:41 +0000

I'm breaking this trip report up into one post per day. This first one has no photos as nothing photo-worthy happened on day 1, and in fact much of what happened that day is probably best forgotten. More on that later. If you stick with the subsequent posts, I promise …

"Deck Update"

pat — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 20:20:20 +0000

I've been hard at work trying to maintain my commitment to deck maintenance discipline. I don't want to just flush all of the hard prep work I did this past summer down the drain due to lack of upkeep.

So far this year I give myself an A on leaf …

"Deck Maintenance, 2017"

pat — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 23:49:27 +0000

After a stunner of a summer with really no rain to speak of, I finally got on my deferred deck maintenance. Although the photographic and blog evidence doesn't lie, I am astounded to realize that the last time I stained the deck was just about exactly two years ago.

I …

"2017 Family Cruise to the South Sound"

pat — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 21:34:17 +0000

Last summer's cruise was kind of an epic cruise, at least by our standards. Five different crews, about a month total duration, and Kenmore Air crew swaps at Princess Louisa Inlet. The year after a cruise like that, we go more low-key. For example when we went to Desolation Sound …

"Cockpit coaming fiberglass repairs"

pat — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 19:55:21 +0000

When I purchased Aeolus it had four separate jacks, fittings, and mounts on the port side inner cockpit coaming. I used all of them at one time or another, but always found their placement problematic at best and their utility marginal. The Pretorien cockpit is already pretty tight, and it …

"2017 Summer Cruise Prequel"

pat — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 00:09:28 +0000

The family summer cruise this year is to Olympia, doing up the south sound. That didn't seem like quite enough to me so I put the word out I was looking to do a 5 - 9 day cruise to the San Juan Islands. I was fortunate and received a favorable …

"You Can't Touch This: Stainless Lobster"

pat — Sat, 22 Jul 2017 22:56:04 +0000

As with every year, the weeks before the cruise are filled with boat projects that really should have been done in February. Some day that will happen.

Last year, one of the 11th hour projects was to replace the fridge compressor and evaporator and install a cool little gizmo that …

"Red Skeleton gets a brain transplant"

pat — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:13:31 +0000

I think this is Red Skeleton's fourth year. Last year I grew more and more dissatisfied with Red's performance and vowed to make some updates. My three goals were:

Make the lip synch of the jaw movements more closely match the audio
Replace moving parts in the electronics that might …

"DIY Speakers"

pat — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 18:54:31 +0000

Fair warning: this is going to be a long read. It's my blog and I'll be verbose if I want to, and I am known to fly off on tangents. Executive summary:

I'm building some speakers. Later I plan to build a tube amp to pair with them.
The design …

"Summer of the deck"

pat — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 21:51:48 +0000

As we close out the summer, I realize that if this summer was to have a theme for me it would be "the summer of the deck."

We had an ipe deck built for our 10th wedding anniversary present to ourselves. That was 12 years ago. "You can just let …

"Cruise Day 8: Lund to Tenedos Bay"

pat — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 21:56:28 +0000

We steamed north with a destination of Tenedos Bay. Tenedos would turn out to be our favorite anchorage of the trip. It was spectacular and very rewarding to pull around the corner of Sarah Point and into the entrance of Desolation Sound. The mountains were beautiful, rising straight up from …

"Cruise Day 7: Garden Bay to Lund"

pat — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 21:31:01 +0000

It has been a while but I’m going to pick up this slowly developing marine travelogue again with our journey from Garden Bay to Lund. We got off to an early start that should put us into Lund around 1:00 PM. It was clear it was going to …

"Day 6: Garden Bay at Pender Harbor"

pat — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 18:25:43 +0000

Heading out from Nanaimo to cross the Strait of Georgia you need to check the status of Whiskey Golf. Whiskey Golf is a test range where the navy conducts torpedo test firing. If it is active, and you will never know until the day of, then you need to make …

"Day 4 and 5: Onward to Nanaimo"

pat — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 16:09:49 +0000

Onward to Nanaimo! This is where the trip gets interesting for me because we are breaking new ground. Today we transit Dodd Narrows, as famous a tidal passage in its area as Desolation Pass is for those who mostly cruise the US islands.

We spend the day blowing through, or …

"2013 Cruise Day 3: Poet's Cove at Bedwell Harbor"

pat — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 19:09:46 +0000

Next stop Bedwell Harbor. We have to clear customs somewhere. The pro-forma itinerary called for it to be Sidney because it also has easy provisioning at a decent grocery store. Our last stay at Sidney left us less than enchanted with it as a destination. It has some nice bookstores …

"2013 Desolation Sound Cruise Highlights"

pat — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 18:36:59 +0000

This is a highlights and summary post. I intend to publish some additional posts on specific locations. All of these posts are made after the fact. I took some notes on the cruise but didn't want to spend that precious time pecking away on the keyboard for hours every day …

"On the Nanaimo Bar Trail"

pat — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 14:30:40 +0000

I've long been a big fan of the Nanaimo bars sold at our neighborhood Ken's Market. What a delightful confection. Kim and I contemplated making them once, but as Boromir might say:

It involves a double boiler and takes more than a day what with the need for stuff to …

"Canada Customs 2013"

pat — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 15:01:54 +0000

This will be a quick note on our customs experience this year. We cleared at Bedwell Harbor, the scene of my serious tongue lashing two years ago for having wayyyy more alcohol on board than I declared, and more than I even knew I had thanks to my crew of …

"On Nautical Sewing"

pat — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 00:58:33 +0000

I've been doing a few sewing projects over the last month. I love to make things, whether they are made of 1's and 0's, wood, motors and PCBs, or...fabric and thread. Sewing is a skill that has a high utility value. There are all sorts of custom thingies you …

"Brew day: GFG Pale Ale"

pat — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 23:00:00 +0000

I haven't brewed in a long time. Not since Memorial Day weekend. A good chunk of that batch never made it back from Dave's bachelor party weekend at White Pass. All of my kegs went dry about a month ago and I've been living the nightmare of having to purchase …

"Clamps"

pat — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 18:46:34 +0000

I just finished a small home improvement project: putting an 8 foot shelf and closet rod in Cathy's closet. It was a big upgrade for her clothing storage efficacy.

Now I am in the cleanup phase, putting all of the shop back into as much order as it ever gets …