August 19 - 23 Dungeness Spit. To Port Angeles to wait out the gale

August 19 to    Dungeness Spit and waiting out the gale in Port Angeles

Discovery Bay can be two things…a productive crabbing ground and quite windy. This morning we leave with pots full of crab and wind on the nose.  We motored clear to Dungeness Spit where B Mondo set her hook and we rafted alongside.  This area is a Wildlife Refuge and the shore is protected.  We saw groups of seals onshore and in the water.  Odile found a wonderful wetland full of a variety of birds further in on the spit.

 


We landed our dinghy and kayak at the lighthouse and had a nice climb to the top of the tower.  Once staffed by the Coast Guard this lighthouse is now staffed by volunteers.  You too can spend a week as lighthouse keepers and stay in the original keeper’s quarters.  We fill our water bottles with refreshing water from their 600’ deep artesian well.  We photograph the great fresnel lens that site in their small museum.   We climb to the top where last month we climbed with our family members.  What a great view!

Dungeness spit is smooth as glass with the waves loudly lapping like the ocean on the other side of the very narrow five mile long spit.  We retired after an inspiring sunset and under the rising red, nearly full moon.  A very restful night on the hook.

With an eye to the weather we decide to continue our journey west, riding a swift ebb current out the next day to Port Angeles where we will hold up in safe harbor and wait out the gale force wind that is predicted over the next couple of days.

When we pull in to Port Angeles Yacht Haven who should we see but the Randall’s on Onnie again.  They are venturing on Onnie this year and stopping in at many places that John remembers having come to as kids on the boat.  We last saw them right here about a month ago.  A quick mile hike for groceries and ice cream then we enjoy Odile’s delicious crab cakes followed by another round of golf.  Carl is leading the tournament.

August 20 through the 23rd finds both of us tied up to the dock at the Port Angeles Boat Haven to safely wait out the gale force winds that are predicted up and down the Strait.  The afternoons are a steady 20-25 knot wind and predicted higher overnight winds which we peacefully sleep through.

We putter around our respective boats doing a few boat chores.  This includes laundry day with buckets of fresh water and clothes drying on the life lines.  I find it interesting that our clothes colors reflect our boats….B Mondo sports a variety of reds and oranges to match their kayak and ExTerr’s line shows blues and grays nearly camouflaged as they flap in the brisk breeze.  Evenings are filled with wonderful galley cooked meals and a rousing round of cards.

As all good things do our time with Walt and Odile comes to an end.  They head east as we head west promising to start planning for a potential buddy boat trip to Alaska.  Thank you Walt and Odile for your companionship, feisty senses of humor and the outstanding example you set for sailing and enjoying the Salish Sea.

August 10- 18th Garrison Bay then back to Discovery Bay for squid jiggin

Garrison Bay is popular yet quiet.  We row the dinghy clear over and into Wescott Bay in search of the Wescott Bay Shellfish dock.  Carl is in hot pursuit of oysters, one way or another.  Since most of the areas we have been have been closed due to biotoxin issues we have opted for hand picking oysters at this local oyster farm.  Carl selects his dozen; I buy a freshly baked, still warm baguette. The baguette is devoured before we even get into the dinghy for our hour plus rowing back to ExTerra.  

We pull the anchor and mosey up narrow Mosquito Pass, passing the posh Roche Harbor marina.  We decide that we would prefer to explore this area more by land next time we are in the area with a car.  There is some interesting history here but we are not interested in putting in at the marina.

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The currents are OK for us to head to Deer Harbor. We like this small, out of the way marina.  We have stayed in the resort on a land trip and anchored here for the all Islander Rendezvous three years ago, Islander referring to the brand of our boat, not the San Juan Islands.  We decide to take their last guest slip so we can cleanse our bodies and our laundry.  The marina is well run and there are two dock hands standing by to help “squeeze” us in.  We walk up past the resort which is now fully Worlmark.  Years ago we stayed here with Barb (Pam’s sister) and Craig (her husband and Carl’s best friend from college).  At the time Carl and I stayed in a quaint if not lopsided little cabin.  That cabin has since been replaced with one that is level yet still quaint.  We have a very generous portion of ice cream at the dockside store.  While enjoying that we watched a 133’ schooner, the Adventuress pull up and tie off at the fuel dock.  She stuck out a good 25’ in front of the dock and another 30 plus at the back, having to pull her back boom to the starboard at quite an angle to miss spearing one of the other docked boats.

This morning we are headed for Sucia, one of the outer ring of small islands between Orcas and the mainland.  We poke our noses into a couple of bays but decide they are either too crowded or too shallow.  We opt for the outer edge Echo Bay with a great view across Rosario Strait and the other small islands in this outer ring.

Morning brings just another day in paradise!  Today we are going to change the impeller on the raw water pump.  We think the seal has blown since we are getting a lot of salt water sprayed around inside our “engine room.”  Our nice cabin quickly becomes a workshop with every space covered in tools.  Carl takes the pump out and we decide that it also needs new bearings.  Thankfully we have two new bearings and all the parts we need in our “spares” tub.  We set about dismantling the pump.  Pam learns how to pull bearings using the bearing puller for the easy one and the hammer and cold chisel for the uh……Stubborn One! 

 Carl meanwhile is manufacturing a 6mm hex head wrench out of a ¼” hex head wrench.  Our inventory says we have a 6mm but we cannot find it.  Everything comes together, hoses and filter are flushed and refilled, ignition on, and it all works!  Yippee!  As we put away tools we find that dad burned 6mm hex head.  We put it in the tub with the spare parts for next time.  This one hour task has stretched into 5:30 so we decide on early and simple dinner since we worked through lunch.  Carl dines on his other six oysters and lots of crab, Pam….a big salad and peanut butter and sweet potato crackers.

Today we are headed to tiny Clark Island, another of the outside islands in the San Juans.  We are looking forward to meeting with Walt and Odile on their aluminum sailboat B Mondo.  They have been with us off and on during our sailing escapades, teaching us the ropes and sharing some of their favorite spots with us up in the Salish Sea and the outside of Vancouver Island.  After they arrive and anchor we tie up to B Mondo.  Lots of great visiting and catching up to do.

The next morning we pull anchor and go in search of anchorage along Cypress Island.  After looking at many we settle into a small nook on the northeast side.  Carl and Odile quickly depart for fishing, Carl in ET and Odile in her kayak.  While they are peacefully exploring and fishing Pam looks up to see one of the large Washington state ferry boats plowing through the very small passage.  We have looked and decided that there are no ferry routes anywhere close and decide that he must have been lost.  It certainly gave some of us a few moments of concern to see such a large vessel going at such a high speed through the small passage with Carl and Odile on their small craft.  Thankfully no huge wakes caused any problems.  

Over 90% of Cypress Island is protected from development.  An earlier attempt at developing a mega resort has left a series of very old overgrown roads that now make great hiking trails.  Pam, Odile and Carl enjoy a nice hike through the forest, past Duck Lake and back to the boats.

The next morning our normal process of untying from each other’s boats and safely separating goes awry.  Before we are quite ready B Mondo’s anchor comes loose and we are quickly drifting towards the rocks.  Waves crashing, boats thrashing, teeth gnashing…..but everyone does what they need to and we safely separate.  The two boats, still tied together but adrift are expertly skippered by Carl and Walt, synchronized skippering at its best.  Odile and Pam work to get the three ropes undone, Carl maneuvers our 20,000+ pound behemoth out from between 13,000 pound B Mondo and the rocks and we give B Mondo as much room as we can so Odile can pull anchor.  Thank goodness for cool heads and some common sense.  The only thing we can think of as we rehash this is that the anchor chain must have somehow wrapped around a rock and popped off at just the wrong time.  Off to Lopez Island we go.

Enroute to Lopez we share little Peavine Pass with the beautiful 133’ schooner Adventuress that we first saw in Deer Harbor.  We put in at Swift’s Bay NE corner of Lopez and set about to our boat chores and another lovely evening dining in the cockpit.  Walt has introduced us to the card game “Golf” and we play nine holes before turning in.  Pam, Carl and Odile try their hands at clamming the next morning only finding a few horse clams for bait.  The hike to the spit is spoiled when what must be nearly inevitable if you boat and carry a cell phone happens……Pam determines that she has lost her cell phone to the briny deep somewhere along the way.  Most likely it was after she waded out to the dinghy and was trying to shake all of the seaweed off of her shoes before hoisting herself into the dinghy.  The only real loss is some of the photos but thank goodness for Google Drive which has backed up most all of the photos as we go.

Pulling anchor we head for Fisherman’s Bay to pump out both boats.  The entrance to Fisherman’s Bay is a well marked, narrow, shallow, picturesque channel that has only 5’ of water at a zero tide.  We enter with a few feet of tide under our keel and only a couple of times see depths on the sounder that indicate that we could very easily go aground.  The dock hand cheerfully brings their portable pump out to the breakwater dock and we are quickly back on our way.  

Today Carl and Pam will anchor and Walt and Odile will tie up so they can spend their day in paradise working on their anchor well and chain.  Our destination, Griffin Bay on the south end of San Juan Island.  Entire books have been written about the history of San Juan Island including English Camp, American Camp and Cattle Pass.  At Griffin Bay we are just off of American Camp.  Our scenic hike however takes us up Mount Finlayson out towards Cattle Point Light House and back along the shore in the area of the lagoons.  Our history lessons will be for another trip.  Another nine rounds of Golf after a fine dinner and we end another day.

August 18th we make our jump back across the Straits of Juan de Fuca.  We take Cattle Passage on the end of the ebb tide sharing this passage with Adventuress as well.  We have a banner day crossing the Strait, NO fog, NO large container traffic in the fog and enough breeze to set the sails on one long tack across the Strait, right into Discovery Bay and our anchorage for the night.  Dinghy deployed Pam, Carl and Odile take off for an evening of squid jigging off the dock.  Odile is looking forward to this new to her form of fishing and Carl is happy to have found someone else to squid jig with.  They catch quite a few and Pam enjoys her book and listening to the banter of the fisher folk along the dock while Walt enjoys the solitude of two boats anchored out under a full moon in Discovery Bay.  Under a full moon at 11:00 PM we dinghy back to the boats.

August 4 -9 Quartermaster Harbor to Garrison Bay, San Juan Island

 Next morning we head out prior to the low tide mud at our slip and hope to sail Colvos Passage north.  While the north running current gives us a nice speed boost alas the wind is on the nose so we motor up that passage and through Rich Passage and head into Port Orchard marina for 1-2 nights of reciprocal moorage.  The Port gives us a ride into Safeway and we are happy to finally do a ‘large’ grocery order.  Back at the marina we do laundry and showers and now are sitting peacefully in the cockpit catching up on the blog and our reading.  We have also traded off some of our books for new ones and are well stocked for the rest of the trip.  The photos are all downloading on wifi and I can get all caught up by tomorrow.

In lieu of replacing that missing “o” ring we opt to go to the local boat works and buy a new in-line strainer which means we have a wonderful early morning 5 mile round trip hike.  Once we return to the dock we walk right onto the Bremerton-Port Orchard foot ferry and head for Bremerton.  We enjoy a couple hours of walking the port, the town and taking in the (free!) Puget Sound Navy Museum.  It is quite well done and discusses the history of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility which takes up a large portion of the Bremerton waterline.  It also has a section that portrays life onboard one of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear aircraft carriers and a good display regarding the nuclear submarine program.  The museum is housed in one of the original buildings, historic Building 50, constructed in 1896 as headquarters for the Shipyard Commandants.

It gives me pause as I contemplate our little sailing vessel moored just across the way from the USS Nimitz #68, “the Navy’s oldest and finest aircraft carrier.”  My photos do not do justice to the sheer massive size of her and the many other navy ships and subs that sit across the harbor.  The amount of history and stories each vessel could tell would fill volumes!

Lunch is a shared plate of wonderful Hawaiian bbq at a tiny hole-in-the-wall café called Aloha.  The chicken, brisket and kalua pork are very tasty.  A small cone at Cold Stone Creamery tops off today’s dining out and we head back to the boat.  This evening is salami, cheese, rolls, wine and free local music in the park. A talented female vocalist belts out Aretha and Nancy Wilson and the male lead does a great Frank Sinatra venue. “I've lived a life that's full, I've traveled each and every highway but more, much more than this I did it my way.”

A lazy day we are anchors up at 1140 and move from Port Orchard Marina further up Port Orchard (the water body) to Brownsville Marina, another nice small reciprocal moorage.  We take one of their roomy 40’ slips and settle in for the afternoon.  On our short hike we notice great smells coming from the marina’s pavilion where a wedding reception will be held this evening.  We complement the chef who is actually just baking a variety of pizzas on the bbqs.  He says to stop by later for pizza, “The bride just turned 21. She will never notice.”  Well I have been wondering why I brought a skirt this year, now I know.  We don our finest clothes and go crash the wedding.  After toasting the bride and groom is done we slip out the back way.  Her Nana and (we think an Uncle, about our age) have been eyeing us.  We walk back by later while they are cleaning up and one of the bridesmaids asks “are you the couple who crashed the wedding?  We all got a chuckle out of that,” We fess up and tell them we came back to tip the photographer since it was mentioned that they were doing the photos for free.  We snag some more great pizza and a piece of cheese cake and depart.   We wonder when they reminisce if they will mention the handsomely dressed couple or the cute older couple who crashed their wedding.

The next day we ride a nice ebb tide through Agate Passage.  Our destination is Kingston Harbor for another reciprocal moorage.  We are all the way into the marina and round the corner to find the reciprocal slips and decide to abort our mission.  There is a long line of power boats buzzing around the fuel dock and the only way to get to the two slips is to squeeze in and around all of them.  We take Kingston off our list.  Instead we head on up and anchor again in Port Townsend.  We experience some of the rip tide that is prevalent along Admiralty Inlet as we make the turn into Port Townsend.  Dinner is our pirate’s plundered pizza that has warmed up on the hot water tank while underway.  Near our anchorage is a small float with nothing but couches on it.  Reminds me of the Max stop in Gresham.  We observe a diver, kayaker, and a couple of folks in a dinghy ride over to use it while are there.

The next morning we are underway by 0600 so that we miss the worst of the potential Pt. Wilson rip, destination Aleck Bay and our entry into the San Juan Islands.  We have enjoyed our trip through parts of the Puget Sound and will most likely venture there again.

We anchored in Aleck Bay three years ago with our good friends Walt and Odile.  They joined us on ExTerra for our maiden voyage up the coast and it was wonderful to have their expertise and camaraderie on that trip.  Aleck Bay has changed little since then.  There are a couple more houses, and many more people actually staying at and enjoying the houses than last time.  We do a little fishing and putter around in our trusty dinghy, ET.  Carl rides his first ever float plane wakes as the small float plane takes off from one of the new houses.  Other than that it is a pretty quiet, calm anchorage.

Unlike Aleck Bay, our next anchorage just off Barlow Bay, which is a very roly poly anchorage.  We get to see a great little steam boat; the Captain exclaims that he stole it from Humphrey Bogart as he toots his whistle while passing within 10 feet of us.  Shades of the African Queen for sure.  Do I have the correct movie Loren?  Carl is happy to catch a limit of Greenling and release a few as well.  More treasure as we pull up the anchor.  We have a starfish clinging tightly to the large seaweed that is wrapped around our anchor.  Funny what passes for entertainment out here!

We hope to sail today but alas the winds do not cooperate.  We do have both sails up briefly but are making only about 2 knots so we motor again.  We do get to see numerous Orca whales as we move along the west side of San Juan Island.  Some actually turn and come quite close to our boat.  We move slowly, even at hull speed, which is what they recommend if you suddenly come upon whales close up.  They put on quite a show.  

We are very close to shore and also get close up views of the kilns and lighthouse at Limestone Kiln park.  We poke our nose into Mosquito and Mitchell Bay but they look to be too shallow and exposed so we put down anchor in Garrison Bay instead.  We have travelled this area on land years ago with Barb and Craig.  We stayed at Deer Harbor resort but took the ferry over to take in the history of San Juan Island.  We are anchored very close to where the English Camp (famous for the Pig War) sits.  Crab are cleaned and cooked and chilling for tomorrow.

    

  

July 24 – August 2, 2016 Urban Suburban Sojourn

Before I begin this entry let me first say thank you to everyone at home who is doing their part to hold down our many forts while we are gone.  You know who you are and we thank you sincerely as we would not be able to do what we are doing without all of your support.  Thanks!

With family all headed home we begin our southward migration into the Puget Sound.  Our last two years have been very much on the wild side on the quiet, remote and beautiful west side of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  This year we are more urban suburban and will be staying in a variety of small marinas and far away anchorages.  Our homeport at Rose City Yacht Club, like many yacht clubs, has reciprocal moorage which means we get free moorage at some very nice spots.  So RCYC friends and neighbors come along with us as we tour the central and south Sound in a variety of reciprocals that Tom and Kathy have lined up for all of us to enjoy.

   

Port Townsend marina reciprocals are full so we spend two nights anchored out in Port Townsend and do the usual pump out/take in groceries while there.  As we pull our anchor in Port Townsend we get a surprise, a large rusty ship’s ladder made out of rebar is attached to our anchor.  The boat hook gets it off and then it is off to the Port Ludlow Yacht Club, our first reciprocal.

Years ago we drove to Port Ludlow for a rendezvous with owners of the same kind of boat we have, Islander Freeport.  It is nice to have our own boat here now and see the marina from the water side.  It is a wonderful spot, beautiful clean modern marina.  We stay two nights for free.  If we were golfers we could take the free shuttle to the golf course.  Instead we opt to splurge at the local resort restaurant, the Fireside, for dinner.

     

Port Ludlow consists primarily of a planned community with a variety of higher end homes dotting the waterways, a nice inn/resort and some condos.  There are numerous hiking trails.  We hike to the far end of the port and Ludlow Falls.  It is a nicely signed trail with some local history sign boards.  We find the pizza place along the way and have a very good pizza and great service.  Upon returning we chat with a young couple whom we met in Port Townsend.  They are new to sailing and had a few qualms about their abilities but as we watch them motor in and dock at this (unknown to them as well) marina they do just fine.  We talk with them at length one evening and share stories of learning (literally) the ropes by trial and error. 

As with most days, not all sailing is well, sailing and exploring.  We spend one of our Port Ludlow days working on the head.  We tend to carry lots of spare parts on ExTerra which pays off today.  We replace a worn out “joker” valve on the toilet pump.  This valve is aptly named because if you don’t take care of it the joke’s on you when the head does not work properly. 

Head fixed we take off into Admiralty Inlet in heavy fog, radar on and fog horn sounding  to our next reciprocal the quaint Port Madison Yacht Club.  After a couple of hours the fog lifts and we continue on into Port Madison.  This Yacht Club is small, quiet and has a great view from the deck.  It reminds us of small town living.  Sitting in our cockpit we have numerous people of all ages coming and diving off the dock nearby.  One group of teenagers seems to be swimming from dock to dock around this side of the bay.  Another group of teens paddle out to the day marker in the bay, climb the tower and sun themselves then dive off.  Yet another group of younger kids are enjoying the only public dock that extends from the very small Hidden Cove Park.  We hike to the park and find some nice, ripe blackberries along the way.  

Then it is back to the dock to bbq at the clubhouse.  Their clubhouse has a wood stove for chilly fall nights and six large doors that open to the deck for those wonderful sunny days.  There are no locks on any of the doors another moment of small town reminiscence.

We depart Port Madison and decide that we should probably find the next best diesel dock since once we go past The Narrows our destinations will not take us to such.  We put in at Des Moines and take on fuel.  The very helpful fuel attendant says we can slide into any of the nearby slips for a few hours.  Hiking around we realize that we have two possible reciprocals here.   We chat with the fuel dock and he says yes, we can stay right where we are for the night.  We’ll take it!  We walk out the public fishing pier and determine that no one is catching fish but it was a nice walk none-the-less.  After another nice dinner and Happy Hour at Anthony’s restaurant we waddle back to the boat.

We depart early so we can go through The Narrows on the slack of the flood and ride the flood waters through The Narrows and under the double span of The Narrows suspension bridge, one of the longest in the world.  The first bridge “Galloping Gertie” collapsed and fell into the Narrows waters in 1940.  The current bridge “Sturdy Gertie” has been in place since 1950, with the second span added in 2007 to accommodate the ever growing population.

Safely through The Narrows we end our reciprocal moorages for a couple of nights of anchoring at McMicken Island in search of oysters and clams.  We are skunked on oysters but we harvest nearly a limit of small clams and enjoy paddling the dinghy around the bay.  We also hike the entire circumference of the island at fairly low tide and just enjoy the solitude and beach combing.  We chat with the park employees who have come in by boat to do some park maintenance.  We watch daily the comings and goings of a carpenter who paddles his dinghy ashore, hikes into the dense forest and, from the sounds of it, and proceeds to dismantle some unseen building.  At the end of his day he paddles back to his beautiful boat out in the anchorage.  We see a different type of boat a Belhaven 19.  They sail into the shallow shore, pull up the removable rudder and keel, and throw out a tiny anchor.  This is a kit built “cat ketch” with one mast very far forward (the cat) and a rear mast (ketch). 

Pulling anchor we head for our next destination, Filucy Bay.  We notice that our depth sounder does not want to work and wonder if one of the many star fish….uh sorry, politically correct new name “sea stars” has attached itself to our weird protruding depth sounder transducer.  We are able to switch to the other depth sounder to safely travel these unknown waters.  We find a nice anchor spot in Filucy Bay and dinghy ashore to go to the Longbranch Mercantile to buy a few groceries.  Along the way we see an Alaskan fishing boat with a very odd/unique dinghy.  Alas, the mercantile has closed many years ago.  Perhaps we should rely more on the up to date Waggoner’s Cruising Guide and not as much on our very dated cruising guides of the area.  A nice lady at the Longbranch Marina gives us one of her great looking ears of corn which I add to our crab, clams and potato boil for our evening dinner.  We are celebrating Carl’s fourth year anniversary of being a stroke survivor.

 

Anchors away towards Quartermaster Harbor the next morning, this time we are riding the ebb current through The Narrows and under the twin towers of the bridge with a little help from our main sail. 

                       

Safely through The Narrows we take the sail down to weather the thunder storm and heavy rain.  We call ahead to the Quartermaster Harbor Yacht Club and their caretaker Glenn guides us into their lovely little marina and grabs the bow line to tie us up.  We will stay one night since we need to be out of the slip before the minus tide at noon tomorrow unless we want ExTerra to sink slowly into two feet of soft mud at low tide.   We hike up the hill and into the small berg of Burton and forage for food.  We find a small yet well stocked grocery, an honor system farm wagon with fresh fruit and veges and wonderful wild blackberries on our way back to the boat.   We spend the evening living up to the “sailing is just doing projects in beautiful locations” part of sailing as we change the oil and clean one of the water line filters.  This leads to somehow loosing an “o” ring which we are now in search of.  We will keep the through hull closed until we find one.