My First Evening Sail

We had a neat experience on September 9th. We were invited to join the Gig Harbor Sailing club on an evening sail out of Seattle. We sailed on a boat call Obsession with a company called 'Emerald City Charters'. I think the boat was around 70' long. It is a retired racing sailboat so the accomodations were simple. All of us stayed on deck to enjoy the show. And what a show. It went something like this...

We began boarding around 5:45pm. Introductions were made, and places were found. Everyone ended up staying seated in the same spot for the entire trip. Monica and I sat up front on the Bow. Promptly at 6:00pm we were under way. We left under motor power, but as soon as we were clear of the city, the sails were hoisted and power was cut.

They really have the boat nicely rigged. The jib automatically furls and unfurls. They also have a power winch to raise the main. This allows the boat to be crewed by only two sailors.

It was so amazing to feel a boat the large, grab the wind and move along. The wind was more like a nice breeze. We didn't find ourselves heeled over, and clinging on for dear life, but we still moved along at a nice clip. There were no large swells so it was a smooth ride.


Dinner was served probably around 6:30. It was a homeade dinner of tasty pastries, fresh fruit and vegetables and yummy sandwiches and wraps. It was all prepared by Dave B.'s (I can't spell his last name) family. Which, I have to nice, is a very nice family. Dave is the chief instructor and manager of the Gig Harbor Sailing Club. He is the club I suppose. He's a very nice guy.

The weather was the best we could have asked for in an early fall evening. What started out as a stormy dark day, cleared off into a darkening blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. We watched the rise and fall of a brilliant sunset in the west, followed by the lighting of Seattle city lights for the night.

It was fun to see Blake Island off to the west about 2 miles away (maybe a mile, it's hard to tell on the water), and to know we'd been there, and conquered. After dark, we passed a large buoy with two great sea lions on it. Not intending to, I startled them with my camera flash. This set them barking at us.

There were other sailboats in the bay including Neptunes Car, another racing/sailing charter sailboat from the same company. We had fun unofficially racing.

We met a lot of nice people from the club, and had a great time. We're hoping now more than ever to sell our current boat and join the club. Don't be alarmed though. This would not be the end of the Blog. My hope is to expand my rovings, and adventures. Eventually, I'd like to charter boats for my family in various parts of the world. And even further down the road, I hope to someday take and extended leave and explore the world for a while by boat.

Here are some links from this entry that might be interesting.
Gig Harbor Sailing Club
Emerald City Charters

Sail on and prosper.
Woody Anderson

Taking Friends out

For me, there is nothing more fun that sharing sailing with friends. It's never easy because it's so hard to plan a good sail ahead of time, but it's been my goal to take more friends out this year.

On Labor DAy, Monday, I took our friends, the Anguiano's, out for a sail. They and all three of their children came along. And, of course, my trusty able seagirl, Sophia came along.

I had worried that we would have foul weather, but it couldn't have been better. The skies were clear blue, and the wind was brisk. In fact, it was probably one of the best sailing days I've had.

The wind was from the north, and the tide had just gone out and was beginning to come in. This meant currents into Colvos passage (my nemesis) were weak. We were able to do a broad reach away from Gig Harbor towards Tacoma, and then turn around and do a broad reach back.

The water was choppy and there were some swells which added to the sense of adventure. Just as we were turning around, we sailed through a large group of seals. We lost count, but I'd estimate there were at least 10 floating about us. Some were quite close. This was a real treat for the Anguiano's especially. This was their first sailing trip, and their first time that far into the sound on a boat as a family.

With the brisk wind, we made better time than I've ever made before. We went halfway past Pt. Defiance and back again, and toured the harbor, and moored the boat, all in two hours.

We took time to motor past the wreckage of the Harborview marina that burned down last week. What a mess. The harbor smells like fuel. They are doing a great job cleaning it up.

We couldn't find our camera to take on the trip, but the Anguiano's took some pictures. If I can, I'll get a few and post them up.

Happy Sailing
Woody

Fire in the Hulls

We had quite a morning yesterday. We woke up to the sound of sirens in the harbor, followed by loud thundering booms. We wondered if they were gunshots, but didn't think much more about it until I left the house for my walk. I was amazed to see a large, thick column of black smoke rising over the trees in front of our house. I thought a home was on fire in the next cul-de-sac and went to go see.


It turns out it wasn't in the next cul-de-sac, and the column of smoke was larger than I thought. It was coming from the Harbor. Some neighbors with a balcony and telescope said some boats were burning in the Harbor. Having a boat in the harbor myself, I was curious, so...

I drove down where I could see the source of the flames. An entire marina was burning. Fifty boats were on fire. The loud booms were the explosions as the boats fuel eruped. It was quite the scene.

Luckily, no one was hurt, but the marina did burn to the ground, er..., the water. It was a big local news story. It even superceded the reporting on the hurricane for a while. We had lots of news helicopters flying around, and fire ships from neighboring cities came to help. I've posted a couple of the pictures I took.