I left Eagle Harbor this morning, racing out the channel to keep ahead of the 8am Bainbridge-to-Seattle ferry, but losing. Still, I managed to stay out of her way and she was not obliged to yell at me with those three, embarrassingly loud warning blasts.

I've decided to condemn my house battery, since it just doesn't hold enough power to support my needs at anchor for even a day anymore. Ten years of service, even mostly at the dock, has just left it plain tuckered out. Ed Foster has been earning a little bit of his livelihood selling me stuff recently, ...primarily my solar panels, but he's also been working hard to bring me over to the light side with LED bulbs for the boat. I haven't given him much satisfaction in that regard, but he's getting me a good price on a replacement battery, so I feel like I'm doing my part to support the indigent marine suppliers of the world.

This battery, even with the good price he's giving me, will be about $650. I'm not telling you this to elicit your sympathy, just to give you an idea of the magnitude of the job. Oh, at about three times the size of your typical car battery, it also weighs in at 175 lbs.

Ed works his shoestring business out of Ballard, so I transited Puget Sound and came in through the locks to tie up at the public pier in Ballard, only about 30 yards from my old slip at Stimson Marina.

The cover pic for this blog entry gives the view approaching the locks from Puget Sound, but doesn't depict the channel entrance or the railroad trestle bridge that have to be negotiated. The actual lock entrance is on the far left, with the overflow from Lake Union and Lake Washington dominating the center. There's a fish ladder off the picture to the right where you can watch the Salmon returning upstream to inland spawning. Take a look in the Seattle Ship Canal sub-album under Cruising 2013 in the Gallery for a couple of more views, including Mabrouka at the pier. I also encourage you to load the Google Earth ap that supports the SailBlogs map feature. It should take you instantly to aerial views of every location I enter there. Cool!

My plan is to borrow Len Hodges' truck early this afternoon and go with Ed to get the battery, then prance lightly (prima ballerina-style) down the dock with the new battery and install the thing.

I should actually be getting a little ways north this coming week. Doug Wolff, a college classmate and good friend, purchased a weekend package for Friday Harbor on San Juan Island at a charity auction. He's booked up there the last weekend of June, so I'll sail up and gunk-hole around up there for a few days, then meet up with him and his wife, Susy. Having the new battery installed will make anchoring out a much more luxurious experience.