La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

The Port was honored to host the Tom Robbins parade this past weekend! What a spectacle! It was a lot of fun, though, and many of our guests were able to see La Conner put on quite a show.

We found a rowboat in Sullivan Slough last week. It has some small damage in the stern but it is otherwise a beautiful little boat. If anyone knows whose it is, please have them call the office at 360-466-3118 and we will be happy to return it.

We met with the Army Corps of Engineers recently and they told us the dredge for the Swinomish Channel will be delayed until 2024, instead of this fall. This delay is due to the Corps being called to do emergency work on the McGlinn Island jetty this summer, which diverted staff and financial resources unexpectedly. Unfortunately, this emergency work impacts the Corps’ ability to begin the channel dredge this year. While this is not the news we wanted, this may allow the Corps to budget for a lot more material to be pulled out of the channel than we would have gotten this year – which would be a highly beneficial outcome. The Army Corps of Engineers are great partners in keeping the channel maintained at a safe, navigable depth.

Safety and Maintenance: Checking fluids on your vessel is an expected part of maintenance. Checking the oil before starting the engine should be a regular part of the vessel’s routine. Oil pans in the marine environment can rust through, so even if the level was fine yesterday that is not a guarantee that it is fine today. This is of course uncommon but it happened to a marina tenant this spring.

Another fluid to check is in your transmission. The type of fluid in your transmission is specified by the manufacturer – following this is the best idea. Many transmissions are installed with long hose runs to oil coolers. Many manufacturers have very specific requirements about how to check the fluid to account for these differing installations. For instance, most Twin Disc units should be checked with the engine idling and the transmission in neutral. This gets the oil flowing through the entire system, so the level in the transmission itself will be accurate.

See you on the Channel!

— Chris Omdal, harbormaster