July 27 – 30th Sequim Bay State Park Zach Olivia and Jim, the crew

July 27 – 30th Sequim Bay State Park 

Zach and Olivia arrive for the stay with us and move onto the boat with fishing gear and poles, ever hopeful.  They fish off and on the whole 4 days netting a considerable number of dog fish (small sharks) and a handful of tiny (tiny!) sculpin and perch.  The dog fish are at least fun to catch and they fight well.  Getting the hook off of them is a challenge.  One person holds the fish against the boat while another uses needle nose pliers to extract the hook.  Even with this process Zach and Carl each feel the ‘sting’ of the dog fish as they writhe around and whap you with their tail stinger or even just their sandpaper skin.  A good soap and water wash and liquid skin patches up their wounds.

Crabbing is slow but they are able to put 10 Red rock and 4 Dungeness crab, fully cooked and cleaned into their cooler on ice for the trip home.  That helps to justify the cost of the out of state shell fish endorsement.  They get to experience using the dinghy to check crab traps and fish from each taking their turn rowing.   Zach purchases two new sets of needle nose pliers, one for Zach and Olivia and one for the boat to replace the set that went overboard from the dinghy.  They fall right into boat chores with Zach doing a potload of dishes and Olivia cooking us a great steak dinner.

Setting the crab pot in ET

One evening we watch the full moon come up behind the ridge that has a small, active forest fire.  We have been watching the helicopter fly down to Sequim Bay, scoop up a large bucket of water and fly back to find the best spot to drop water on the fire.  This goes on for hours. 



The smoke makes for a pretty red hazy moon rise.  We don’t realize until the next day that this was actually the night for the full lunar eclipse.  Carl took photos of the moon rise yet we did not stay up late enough to see the eclipse. 

Carl’s brother Jim arrives, spending one night in the campsite and the next night onboard with all of us since we had to vacate the dock after 3 consecutive nights.  Pam talks with the Park Ranger Drew to see why the state would prefer to give up a night of revenue rather than allow us to stay tied up for a fourth night.  He indicates that they do not have the latitude to allow us to stay even though that means the dock is completely empty for the night and the state loses that opportunity for revenue.  We, instead, anchor peacefully in the bay. 

We leave the dock one day to see if the fishing is any better further out.  It is not.  The next day with five of us onboard we decide to finally put up our asymmetrical spinnaker that has been new in its bag for almost six years.  Carl, Jim and Zach get if fully rigged using the sheets, sock, blocks and tackling that we have gathered up over the years.  Pam runs the boat and we all hold our breath as Carl raises the sock and the red white and blue spinnaker flies free for the first time.  Olivia and Jim run the sheets and Carl and Zach make sure everything is still properly functioning as we do a tack, then turn the boat and go back for another run. 

We can now check off another “first” that has held, at least for Pam, a certain degree of angst over making sure that we had everything in place and were hoisting it correctly, etc etc.  With zero knots of wind on the wind indicator we ghost along at about 2 knots, peaceful and quiet and feeling content in our success.  It helped tremendously that we had extra hands on deck to make this happen.  The next morning we watch the short video on the ATN website that shows us all how to fly your spinnaker using their ATN sock.  The video is set to captivating music that allows you to feel the peace and quiet and imagine that you are out there, drifting.  Zach watches and makes sure that, yes, we really did rig it all right.

Crab feast on the dock. Cheers!

Crab rodeo in the cockpit - watch your toes!

We settle in on the anchor for a peaceful night before we need to return to the dock and disembark Zach and Olivia.  After another lazy morning of coffee and books in the cockpit alas we need to take the crew to shore so they can return to work.  We are glad that Zach and Olivia got to see a pretty good rendition of how we spend many of our days onboard ExTerra and her trusty dinghy ET.  Thanks for joining us!