Sailing with the Ladies

More true than you know. I took 3 of my daughters and my wife to go sail past the Lady Washington. Our plan was to pass it while it was docked in the harbor, but while we were preparing our boat, we saw Lady W. go past on it's way out. Naturally, we felt the urge to pursue.

It was an off-on-off again type of sailing day. The wind would pick up and we would kick along, and then after a while, it would die down and we would flap around. Still, we got enough in, that we felt like we had fun.

For one thing, it was fun to pursue the Lady Washington. It took her a while to get her sails out, and to get oriented, and then she just took off. It was fun to watch. We got much closer than our photo indicates, but the batteries in our camera died before that point.

Soon after we left the harbor, a small seal popped up almost right next to the boat. It's the closest I've ever been to one in the wild (and I've seen quite a few). It was cool.

I made sure to check the tides before leaving so I was on top of the tidal current situation. We had not problems on that front. It was a good time to be out. We left at high tide, and the next low tide was not going to be very low. This meant the currents were not going to be very strong.

I can never figure out the wind around here. When we decided to go back in, we were in almost a dead calm. We could see other boats sailing close to the mouth of the harbor though. Sure enough, once we motored in close enough to the bluffs protecting the harbor, we got some very nice wind. It was so nice, we turned off the motor and sailed right into the harbor. I love doing that.

Before we docked the boat, we took a circuit around the harbor. At the north end, we were surprised to find two large seals sunning themselves on a floating pier. That was cool as well. We tried to get as close as we could without scaring them with our motor (trust me, it's scary).

All in all, it was an excellent day. Our 2nd daughter, who likes sailing the least, did not want to come, so rather than force her, we dropped her off at a friends house. We missed her, but I think we were all happier she didn't come. She can be quite grumpy when on the boat when she doestn' want to be.

We're a tired crew. Have a nice weekend.

Visiting Lady Washington

We had a neat opportunity today. Lady Washington, the replica of a 1790's sailing merchant vessage, visited Gig Harbor. This is the ship that was used in the movie Pirates of the Carribean as The Interceptor.


It was a fun and interesting visit. I think the kids liked it as well. These ships aren't nearly as big as one thinks they are. Apparently the old merchant sailors were left to fend for themselves in the cargo hold; no galley, no crew's quarters. They made beds where they could, and ate salted meat and hard tack. Or something like that. I'm glad I'm a modern day sailor. I've included a couple of pictures of the ship.

As "luck" would have it, it would have been a great day for us to be out and about. We plan on a family sailing trip tomorrow. We're going to swing past the "Lady" and then head out into the sound.

I'll post more if we survive.

Summer Sail, summer doldrums

I think it's ironic, that the worst sailing usually happens in the nicest weather. At least, in the northwest this seems true. During the summer when the days are warm, and the skies are clear, there is rarely a consistent breeze to catch. Still, I try.

I took some friends out this last saturday for their first ever sail. It was a beautiful day, and there was some wind in some places. I think it is becoming a tradition for me to be sucked into Colvos passage by the tidal currents. This time, I even knew what was going on.

I checked the tides before we left, and realized the currents were going to be at their strongest. To compensate, my plan was to sail towards the Tacoma narrows, against the current. That way, then loop back. This way, any movement by the current would push us back toward Gig Harbor. Ahhh, the best laid plans....

What really happened was no wind. We tried sailing towards the narrows, but could find no wind in that direction. There was wind toward Colvos passage, and as we focused more and more on finding a good channel of breeze, we failed to notice that we were now sailing across the mouth of Colvos passage. It wasn't long before we realized we were being sucked along.

Tidal currents always amaze me. They can be so large, that you can easily fail to notice them. Its only when you watch yourself sailing (or motoring) backwards that you realize they are there. In this case, we were motoring backwards. Very slowly though. And timing was on our side.

We only had to motor for about 15-30 minutes against the current before it slacked off and died. After that we motored in and packed it away.

It is always beautiful out on the water so it was worth it. My passengers had fun.

Happy sailing.