Wheel of fortune

Departure: 1:00pm 4/23/2007
Return: 5:00pm
Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy and breezy
Tide: ebb tide
Boat: 30' Catalina
Crew: 4 (Woody, Tom, Paul & Carol)

Okay, it's a stupid title, but I loved using a wheel at the helm instead of a tiller. Don't get me wrong, I love tillers. They're simple and elegant and I feel more connect with what the boat is doing when I use one....
However, they require more free space in the cockpit and even worse, they require you to sit facing 90 degrees away from the direction being steering. After a while, I get tired of torquing around to look ahead. The wheel was very comfortable, and, what can I say, it made me feel authentic.
Picture 1: At first glance, this picture seems pretty lame. However, it illustrates an important fact. Most people think of wide open spaces when they think of sailing, but a good portion of interacting with a boat is spent in small cramp, dark, smelly compartments. Even here in the cockpit, Paul is reduced to crouching over the starter buttons trying to get the motor to turn. He was in this posture for quite a while.



You may be asking yourself "What wheel? Is it a toy boat? Is he sailing his car? Is he mad?" No, Nothing so interesting. Instead, this was a boat the four of us rented. At 30 feet, it was larger than what we usually sail. It's a nice boat with a roomy cabin that would sleep up to 6. It had a head (sailor talk for toilet) that flushes, a sink with running water, a range, stove and cooler. It also had a heater for the dainty sailors. And of course, it had the wheel. We wanted to practice our skills on a larger boat in preparation for the cruising class. Paul has already taken the class and wanted a review.

Picture 2: Most of the waterfront in Gig Harbor is crowded with structures: ramps, docks, sheds, pilings, homes and whatnot. And yet, this little house sits in it's own little world; holding it at bay . It always catches my eye when I leave the harbor.

Hmmm. Now you're probably asking yourself who "we" is. I guess I'm not being very cohesive here. The "we" was the usual "we" as in Tom, Paul, Carol and myself. I should probably come up with a name for our group since we seem to be the core of the sailing club. I'm too tired to do that now though. I should just finish up so I can get to bed instead.

The check-out was a bit of a drag. It ended up taking 2 hours to get the boat out of the slip. The cause? dead batteries. We finally had to call the owner and have him come help us out. And this was with Dave helping. Dave indicated we could take her out longer, but I needed to be home by 5pm to be with the family. We were cut short on time, but other than that, it was a great sail. We had a nice breeze and enjoyed taking turns at the helm, trimming sails and chatting - always plenty of chatting.

Picture 3: This picture caught my eye because it made our lighthouse seem so noble and strong; not the minimal structure that it actually is.

We did have a moment of two of excitement. As we chatted, we noticed another, similarly sized, sailboat off the port bow. We'd seen them earlier, but it appeared to us that they'd purposefully changed their tack in order to pass us by. Clearly this was a challenge, and so we wheeled around and gave chase.

Naturally, we started gaining on them; it wouldn't have been long before they learned their lesson when disaster struck. Someone, and I won't say who... well okay, I will so you don't think it was me. Tom, accidentally kicked an instrument cover out of the cockpit into the water. This happened as we were changing posts. I had just taken the helm when the call went out - "item overboard". Paul did a great job of keeping the item in sight, but I had trouble getting my bearings. By the time, I brought us about to begin the rescue maneuver, we'd lost site of the victim. In our defense, I want to point out that this cover was about 4" x 6" x 1" in size so we're not talking about a large item. However, this illustrates when such accidents are going to occur - when the crew is preoccupied or there is some disturbance distracting everyone, or the weather is challenging. I'll have to practice some more. In the meantime, we'd lost the "race".

Picture 4: What do you get when there's more than one sailboat on the water? A race!

There is a happy ending though. As we were heading back to the harbor, we came across our plastic item floating in the water. This time, Paul was at the helm and he struggled with the rescue as well. In fact, I think he finally cranked up the motor. After several tries, Tom managed to hook it with a pole and drag it aboard. Talk about luck.

Until next time.

April's Club Sail

Departure: 1:00pm 4/9/2007
Return: 5:00pm
Weather conditions: Stormy, blustery 15+ winds
Tide: Ebbing Tide
Boat: BlueClub Boat
Crew: 4 (Woody, Tom, George & Carol)

I'm always saying I'll be brief because theirs nothing to tell, and then I end up going on and on and on. Today I'll try some reverse psychology by stating up front that I'm going to go on and on and on. Maybe I'll be more brief.

Photo 1: A stormy departure.

First of all the weather... WOW! Rain, clouds and plenty of wind. The wind measured up to 18mph while we were out. Trust me, that's enough wind for our little boat. We started out with a reefed main and the smallest jib and never felt any inclination to swap up.

Photo 2: It rained in Gig Harbor, but not on us!

It was raining when I walked out the door, and I wondered what in the world I thought I was doing. I anticipated being drenched before we even left the dock, but by the time I reached the it, the rain had stopped. Tom was already there and together we began rigging the boat. By the time we were done, Carol and George had arrived as well and we were soon on our way. It hadn't rained while we preparing the boat, but something nasty was obviously blowing in as we motored out of the slip. Before we'd even finished backing out, a healthy downpour had blown in. We struggled to get the sails up. I had to keep the motor revving more than usual in order to control the boat against the wind; the result was that we quickly ran out of room while raising the sails. In the end, we mastered the situation without too much trouble and got the sails up. Naturally the rain stopped at this point. Carol admitted later that had it rained longer, she would have been done in. We made a brief tour of the north end of the harbor and then headed out to the big waters under sail.

Photo 3: Leaving stormy weather behind.

By the time we'd gotten the sails up, the rain had stopped. We didn't have any rain for the remainder of the day. The wind stayed strong throughout the day with plenty of gusts.

With the strong winds, we were able to sail against the current toward the bridge. We almost made it to the bridge before we needed to head back. We saw 3 tugboats towing barges. One barge was beached outside the harbor and it's load of sand was tipped into the water - not a happy day for someone.

Photo 4: A Barge beached outside the harbor.

We saw plenty of wildlife. A left a large bald eagle circling the north end of the harbor. A large flock of white birds were congregated around the point and lifted in one large cloud of white as we shot through them. Two large seals also passed fairly close.


It was a thrilling day for sailing. The small jib balanced nicely with the reefed main; only the smallest touch was required to steer the boat. At one point, I had the boat heeled so that I was more standing against the hull opposite than sitting. We even dipped the foot of the mainsail into the water when letting it out. It was all controlled too. It wasn't as though we were being pushed about at the weather's leisure.

Photo 5: Sunny Skies in the Harbor.

One of the best days so far.

March Club Sail 2007

Departure: 1:00pm
Return: 5:30pm
Weather conditions: Strong winds, mostly clear (48deg)
Tide: strong ebb
Boat: Blue Club Boat
Crew: 6 (Woody, Tom, Carol, George, Frederick & Andrew)

I've mentioned before; the sad irony that the best sailing weather is often the worst weather. Or at least windy , and in the Northwest, windy happens in the spring and fall when it's still cold. Yesterday was a great sailing day, and we had a great trip. The skies were clear and sunny for the first half and the winds were very strong.

We had a large crew this time. Besides the regulars Tom, Carol and myself, there were George and Frederick (newer members) and Andrew, Tom's son.

There's not a lot to say, that I haven't said before, so I won't. There also wasn't anything new that I haven't photographed before so I don't know if I'll post a picture or not. I'll just briefly describe where we went and what we did and be done.

Because the tides were going out, it seemed appropriate to head south towards the bridge. Even with currents we made good time because of the wind. We probably would have made the bridge, but at some point, a new helmsperson, decided to head north and so we zipped (literally) north towards the junction of Colvos, the narrows and Dalco passages. We then headed east for maybe a third of a mile and then north again. This seemed like a bit of a poor choice to me because a) the wind was at our backs which meant we'd be tacking home, and b) even thought it's slight, there is still a northern current in Colvos passage which was where we were heading. We'd be fighting the current back as well. This brings up an interesting point though...

Why didn't I say anything? Why would I let us take a course that I felt was maybe not so wise (not that there's anything wrong with a slow return, but it usually means we're late)? I think the reason is that we have no designated captain on these trips. And, we are all so deathly nice, none of us seems to feel comfortable taking charge. I say deathly because I sometimes wonder if, in a crisis, we'd end up killing ourselves because we hesitate to take charge. To be fair, I think we all recognize that none of us are necessarily better or worse than the others at sailing. Sailing by consensus! I sometimes chuckle at the way we come to decisions, but it's all very pleasant because everyone is so respectful and considerate. It makes for a great trip every time, even when we do get in late.

While we were out, we practiced several man overboard recoveries and reefing the sails.


A good day.

2007 February club Sail

Departure: 1:00pm
Return: 5:00pm
Weather conditions:
Partly Cloudy and very calm
Tide: 10.3 to 2.3
Boat: Blue Club Boat
Crew: 3 (Woody, Paul & Carol)

That's right. The picture above is yet another photo of the bridge. It's tough to find new photo material when we go out sailing. We only have a certain radius in which we have time to sail, and I've pretty much photographed all of it.

What's "unique" about this bridge photo is that it shows both bridges and the state of construction. I suppose the entire trip was "unique" in a similar way. By most accounts it was the same as others; but, there were some small things that made it different and interesting.

Take the wind for instance, and the fact that we didn't have any. This was nothing new, but our choice to spend the afternoon motoring was. Usually, we bob along taking advantage of any puff that comes along - real or imaginary.

Initially, we wanted to go check out the bridge. The currents were flowing north so it made sense to motor to the bridge, check it out, then sail/drift back towards the harbor. We made good time to the bridge and decided to continue on to Pauls home to check out the stairs he built to his beach. His house was around Point Fosdick about a mile south of the bridge.

The stairs were impressive; they climb 106' up the cliff behind his house and he built them himself. Besides witnessing his herculean feat of home improvement, we also now knew how long it would take to get to his house. At some future point, when he has installed his mooring buoy, we could potentially make his home a destination.

Our curiosities satisfied, we knew we needed to head back if we were to do it under sail. Coming about, we trimmed the sails and ernestly drifted towards home... it was no use. The wind just wasn't going to help us. We also realized we'd used up almost all our fuel motoring to Paul's house. It was one of those junctures in sailing that can lead to dramatic consequences. We could trust the tidal currents and stray puffs of wind to carry us home and use the last bit of fuel to enter the harbor, or we could head over to the small marina by Titlow beach park and refuel.




We chose the latter, and I'm glad. The current got pretty weak before we were home, and the winds never did rise up. I think we may have ended up needing rescue by the time it was all over.

Instead, we discovered a new destination. The Marina had a nice sized dock along with a convenience store and bathroom. I think it would make a nice day sail for our family. My kids love to spend money on junk food. Having the convenience shop as a destination may be just enough to get them out on the boat. There is also a park close by that might be fun to play in if I can determine a good way to anchor or tie up (Boats can't stay at the fueling dock long term).

After refueling, we continued our way north. We never did stop the motor which is really unfortunate because outboard motors are noisy and stinky. Still, we would have been in trouble without it.

We reached safe harbor just as the sun was settling down into it's fiery bed.

I'm already itching to go out again.

Story: Dragging Anchor

I remembered the following experience the other day and thought it was worth recording. It happened the first summer we had our own boat (the irreantum) anchored out from the boat launch. I'm pretty sure it happened on a Sunday because if as I recall...

We were still attending church at the Gig Harbor building which overlooks the harbor; at least part of it. As we were leaving church that Sunday, I looked for our boat as i always do. An anchored boat is not the most secure boat and it had been windy. To my horror, the boat had moved; in fact, it had moved a LOT! It was now close to the shore next to the boat launch. Well, a boat in the mire was close enough to an ox in the mire for me. We hustled home, where I changed and headed down to the boat launch.

I had no clue what I was going to do exactly, but I through a couple extra 2x4 into the van just in case. At the boat launch, my worst fears were confirmed. The boat had drifted into shore and was stuck in the muck. I waded out to the boat to see if I could shove it off. I spent quite a bit of time, rocking, twisting and heaving the boat, but I couldn't get it out. Part of the problem was that I was working against the tide. The tide was going out, and every moment the boat sunk deeper and deeper. Once I accepted the fact that I couldn't manhandle the boat free, I knew I needed to keep it from tipping over when the tide was really low.

If the boat were to tip low enough, at low tide, it would be possible it would begin taking water; at which point, we would have a really big issue. I'm pretty proud of my solution; hokey as it was.

My solution was to lash an oar and a 2x4 to one side of the boat (the side it was leaning towards). This created a tripod with the keel of the boat being the 3rd leg. As the tide left, the boat rested on the oar, 2x4 and keel and remained upright until high tide.

I then, waited until high tide to go back out to the boat and re-anchor.

It was embarrassing to have it happen in the first place, but pleasing to successfully handle the situation. That's seems to happen to me a lot when I'm dealing with boats.

Sailing into the New Year!!!!!

Departure: 1:00pm
Return: 4:30pm
Weather conditions: Cloudy/overcast, but nice steady breezes
Tide: Low was at 3pm
Boat: Blue Club Boat
Crew: 5 (Woody, Tom, Chris, Dave & Carol)

Sailing is a funny thing. It's so random. Each sail is going to be a unique experience. It's as changeable as the weather it relies on. It's all about stepping into the unknown and having an adventure. I think that's what I love about it so much. And maybe why some don't. Take yesterday for example.

Yesterday was our first club sail of the year. Naturally, I wasn't going to miss it for anything, but it didn't look promising. Looking out my window, I couldn't see a lick of wind and the forecast confirmed it. I forged ahead anyway: packed my food, and extra clothes and headed out. At the dock, it was more of the same: calm. But it didn't matter, I would take what the day gave and enjoy it.

Another club member, Carol, had an even tougher decision; it was raining at her house. Should she go, or should she stay? She came. As it turned out, both our decisions were well rewarded with a very pleasant sail that included a good steady breeze and no rain. And that's my point. With sailing you just don't know what the weather is going to deal you, and sailing has everything to do with the weather.

Outside the harbor we picked up a nice steady 7-8 knot wind. It doesn't take much wind to move a boat. In fact, you can quickly get too much wind and end up reducing sail area to compensate. This was nice breeze that moved us along with mild steady heeling, no swells and small waves.

We saw a couple of seals and other birds but that was about it for the wildlife.

A new member, Chris, joined us for this sail. He and his family recently moved to Poulsbo from Colorado. I should mention that for him to attend, he had to drive 45 minutes. For someone who loves to sail, that's just what you do. It was a lot of fun telling him about the area and welcoming him to the club.

Last sail of 2006

Departure: 11:30 am
Return: 4:10pm
Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy, hazy, slight breezes
Tide: High to low
Boat: Blue Club Boat
Crew: 5 (Woody, Aubrey-Anne, Robert, Gabby & Rob)

I think sometimes my entries run a little long - probably because I wish the experiences were grander and more exciting (to others) than they are. I'll try to keep this one shorter.

As a member of the Gig Harbor Sailing club, I get 4 free days to use the club boats each year. A year sounds like a long time, but it's really not. With school for the children, long winters and work we mostly sail on the weekends. That gives 52 weekends, and once you factor in our long winters, it's much less than that. I guess what I'm leading up to is that I had one day left that I needed to use before the end of the calendar year. "Free" + "Sailing" = "There's no way I'm going to let that go!!!" I planned to use my last free day on the last day of the year which happened to be a Saturday.

I think you readers have caught on by now that you can't plan a good sail because you just don't know what the weather is going to be like. Take this last sail for example. The weather turned out to be very calm. Very light, to no winds to start with, followed by some light breezes, followed by more extremely light winds. The word excitement, didn't really come up while we were out. But, the words pleasant, enjoyable and relaxing did.

The entire family was invited, but only Aubrey-Anne wanted to go. For some reason I don't understand, I can't stand to have an empty boat. I called a couple of friends and invited them to come along. Robert and his daughter Gabby came, and later in the day my friend Rob (yes, a Rob and Robert) joined us as well.

I'm realizing that kids don't last long on a boat. They get bored. Aubrey-Anne and Gabby did well for a while but by the end they were ready to be done. Aubrey-Anne was a real trooper though. She makes a good sailor.

Destination-wise, we sailed around outside the harbor near point defiance.

The day had a surreal quality to it because of the haze and dim light of the sun. It helped make up for the lack of wind. We saw a couple of seals and one sea lion.

That's about it. Tune in next week after I go on the January club sail.

November Club Sail or "The Perfect Squall"

Departure: 1:00pm
Return: 5:00pm
Weather conditions: Overcast, windy with gusts and a little rain
Tide: High (11.?) to Low (8.?)
Boat: Blue Club Boat
Crew: 4 (Woody, Dave, Paul & Carol)

Monday was a true sailor's day. Why? Because it was the kind of day on which only someone truly hooked on sailing would be out. The previous day, and even that morning, we had had high winds with even higher gusts, and it had been raining. I expected to be the only person to show up besides Dave, and was surprised to meet Paul and Carol already there.

It really was a great afternoon for sailing. It was a bit cold, but we were all bundled up and ready for the worst. We headed toward the bridge initially. The tide was high and beginning to turn, and the wind was southerly. Even had we not wanted to reach the bridge, it would have been the direction of choice. It's best to spend the first half of any round trip fighting the elements (ie against the currents and wind). A captain is less likely to misjudge the return time that way and end up in trouble.

Photo 1: Crewmates (left to right) Paul, Carol and Dave our trusty leader.

Not far outside the mouth of the harbor we saw violent splashing in the water. A seal was killing a large fish (probably a salmon) by tossing it through the air. The water was red with blood and gulls were dancing about trying to get piece of the action. I'd never seen anything like it.

It was quite gusty at the beginning of our sail, and it wasn't long before we were reefing our main (reducing the sail by shortening it). The waves were white capped and probably about 2.5'-3' from trough to crest.

Photo 2: Ominous weather. The dark grey skies cast an angry light on the water.

When it's that windy, there is plenty of heeling (tipping of the boat), and that was no different this time. Most of us enjoy the heeling to some point. It's a thrill that makes up for the lack of speed (as compared with a powerboat).

As the afternoon wore on, things calmed down, but it still looked gloomy. I think the pictures can say more about it than I can. I think this is what's called an angry sea. It looks full of malice: as though it would like nothing better than crush our boat and swallow us up. It can look this way even when the winds aren't terrible, and there is no immediate danger.

Photo 3: I was trying to capture the size of the waves in this photo. I wasn't successful.

Scientifically, I know it happens because the color of the sky has changed and the water is reflecting the gray instead of the blue. But emotionally, it can be a little unsettling, or exhilarating depending on the mood.

Anyway, it was an interesting day. We saw a large bald eagle glide slowly by looking for fish. I think it knew I could not get my digital camera ready in time to take a picture because it lingered long enough for us to enjoy the site but not long enough to bother with the camera. We hove-to in order to unreef (dereef? debrief?) the sails; it had calmed down that much. I tried to perform a man-overboard rescue, but it took two tries - not good! Carol practiced some docking maneuvers and then we went in.

Photo 4: Bow spray. I was trying to capture the spray coming over the bow. Again, not very successful. You can see some flecks of spray if you look very closely.

I have to mention that the best part of sailing on a day like today is that we had the water completely to ourselves. I didn't see any other boats while we were out: inside or out of the harbor.

Woody

October Club Sail

Departure: 1:00pm
Return: 4:00pm
Weather conditions: Puffy clouds and breezes
Tide: flood tide (high point)
Boat: Red & Blue Club Boat s
Crews: 5 (Tom, Paul and Carol) and (Woody,Dave)

Picture 1: A beautiful home in the harbor
Autumn isn't all bad. True, there is a sadness with the departure of summer; the cooler weather, the shorter days, the dimmer light. But, in it's own way, this is the beauty of Autumn. There is a richness about it. The colors seem deeper and more full. Days like today feel like a ripe fruit ready to be picked on enjoyed. One day more and it might go bad, but today, it's perfect. I really had a good time.

Picture 2: Beautiful fall day.
Puffy white clouds dotted the sky, and the wind was mostly gentle with an occasional stronger surge. The air was clean, and we were the only sailboats out. We had enough people to take two boats out with 3 (Tom, Paul and Carol) in one and myself and Dave in the other. I won't bore you with the details, but we raced. I will say that racing is a great way to improve ones skills. It requires the skipper to bring all his/her knowledge and skill together at the moment to try and maximize performance. The tinyest mistake can cost huge amounts of time. It was a lot of fun.
Picture 3: The Competition.

I took a couple of pictures. I think I've taken plenty of "sailing" pictures. My goal for the future is to take "interesting" pictures of whatever takes my fancy during the trip.

The house pictured at the top has always intrigued me. I think it's quite beautiful.

Dead Man's Island

"Wait! So you're all telling me you DON'T like sailing?"

Departure: 10:30am
Return: 8:00pm
Weather conditions: Mostly clear, hardly any wind
Tide: Flood tide both ways (there and back)
Boat: Red Club Boat
Crew: The entire family (6)

The shadows give it away long before the temperature. Fall arrives early in Washington. The days quickly become shorter, the light weakens and the shadows lengthen. The days are still warm, but you can sense that it's over. I can't say I like the feeling. All of a sudden all our activities feel rushed and anxious like we have to pack it in before the cold and rain sets in. The shadows are bad enough, but school started a couple of days early this year, and that really does "terminate" summer. A summer that was all too short. But I digress.

This is boring. I wish I was seasick.

We have (had) two free sailing days left to use this year. The free days come with membership to the Gig Harbor Sailing club (and excellent club). I know that the chances of getting my family sailing on a cloudy, windy, cool day is unlikely, so I've been pressuring them to go on another adventure.


I always try to pick adventures that I think will be alluring to the children. I think children are more likely to enjoy sailing somewhere than just going out and sailing for a couple of hours. Partly because they don't get to do everything on the boat that I get to do, and partly because they don't appreciate something quiet and meditative like sailing. I usually have some sort of "interesting" destination to make the journey interesting. This time it was Deadman's Island. What child would not want to go to Deadman's Island? Ours certainly wanted to go.


The destination was a good one - no question about that. And, my clever use of the tide currents in our favor was a good one. I'm proud to say that the currents helped us both coming and going under the bridge. No, there was only one major flaw in the plan (and ever trip seems to have one ). The flaw in this case was the distance.

This trip was further than our Blake Island trip; though, I hoped the currents would help make up the difference. We had to travel 19 miles there,do all our playing, and then travel 19 back. The entire week we had had phenomenal winds, and I anticipated having those same winds helping us out on Saturday. It was not to be. For most of the day it was almost dead calm. Later in the afternoon we got some light breezes, but nothing that would significantly help us. In the evening we had some good winds, but by then it was too late and we were rushing back to the harbor before the sun set.


With no wind and so much distance, I knew ahead of time that we'd be motoring most of the way, but I didn't expect to be motoring the entire way. I haven't been on many power boats, so I can't speak for them, but motoring on a sailboat is usually noisy and uncomfortable. The motors are usually diesel, and outboard and two-stroke.

You say it's allergies, but I think sailing makes you weep with joy.

So, in a nutshell, it was too long, but we did have a lot of fun exploring Deadman's island and stopping at Kopachuck Park. I think we would do it again, but we would camp either on the boat (if it were a bigger boat), or at Penrose state park. Either approach would give us more time to explore Carr's inlet. Maybe next year we'll make a long weekend out of it. In the meantime, here's a rundown of what we did and where we went. I should note that our camera batteries gave out about 2 hours into the trip so you'll only see photos of the beginning of the journey.

Dad, they're going faster than we are.

First, let me describe our route. We headed south through the narrows, and under the narrows bridge. This was definately a highlight of the journey. We continued south past Fox Island, then turned west along the southern side of the island. We continued West until we reached Green Point. We rounded north at Green point and continued north to Cutts Island. We made a brief pitstop at Kopachuck for the potty. There were no moorages left, and we couldn't find an anchor so MOnica rowed a party ashore and took them to the bathroom while the remaining crew sailed about.

Luckily the island did have some moorages left. We tied up and rowed ashore (two trips) and began to explore. Deadmans Island (currently named Cutts Island) got it's name from the local indian tradition of burying indian warriors there. Or so they say. It's not a large island, but a nice size for a day of exploration and picnicing. After that we pretty much backtracked and made our way home.

We did enjoy a spectacular sky as we motored in late. That's all for now.

Summer date

Departure: 3:30pm Sat 8/12/2006
Return: 7:30pm
Weather conditions: Clear skies and steady breeze (10mph?)
Tide: flood (from 2' to 12')
Boat: 'Red' Club Boat
Crew: 4 (Woody, Monica, Rob, Michell, Garrick & Elena)

We had a very pleasant date night on Saturday. We finally did something we'd been talking about doing for a long time. We invited several of our friends to go sailing with us - without the kids. I didn't realize it until we were out there, but this was the second time Monica had ever been out sailing without the kids, and the first time with friends. It was a lot of fun.


The weather was about as perfect as it can get. It was Washington warm (meaning we had to wear jackets while on the water), and breezy. The tidal currents were strong, but my recent experience on Monday ( see previous post) had prepared me for what to do. We immediately headed up Colvos passage to get out of the strong currents. On the way, we saw the Davidsons at their beach. It's always fun to see someone you know when out and about.


After sailing past their beach, we hove-to and had a wonderful picnic on the boat. We feasted on a tasty cheese/meat pie, some beef wraps, fried chicken, melon, cherries, soda, candy bars, and some tasty home-made lime bars. We probably could have ate and chatted the entire time, but we were there to sail. After cleaning up, we trimmed the sails and were off again. We had drifted south a bit so
we continued on toward Point Defiance, then back across towards Gig Harbor. The wind gave out briefly just as we were entering the harbor. It wasn't completely gone, but with all the traffic, I felt uncomfortable trying to tack into the harbor so we motored in. We got a couple more tacks in before we had to put the sails away and motor home. It was a shame to quit with at least 40 minutes of good sailing left, but our time was up. I've included the photos the tide when we left and the tide when we came back to show the difference.

Fool me once...

Departure: 1:00pm
Return: 5:00pm
Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy and light breezes
Tide: Flood tide and strong currents (14 ft range)
Boat: Club Boat (red)
Crew: 4 (Woody, Tom, Paul,Carol & Sophia)

We've all heard the saying "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me". What do you do with someone that never catches on? I'm afraid that's me. This is going to be yet another story about underestimating the currents in the sound. I'll try not to dwell on it too much though.

We ended up with 5 people on the boat this time. I brought Sophia because there was supposedly a free spot on the boat, but it wasn't so. Everyone was a good sport about it though and didn't mind her along. The tidal range was -2ft to 12 feet meaning it produced some of the strongest currents you can get in the narrows, and we were sailing right in the middle of it.

Leaving the harbor we knew we should head north to compensate for the current, but there didn't appear to be any wind in that direction. We had a motor so we all agreed to head a "little" south where there did appear to be wind. Well, there was wind, but it turned light on us and before we knew it we were within sight of the bridge.

Again another conference and we decided to let the current sweep us under the bridge. It was quite and impressive and a lot of fun and there was some great wind south of the bridge. But alas, we needed to head back. What a fight.

We motored for at least 1.5 hours and used 3/4 tank of gas creeping back home. We had to stay really close to shore to make any progress at all (probably about 25' from shore).

It was a fun trip, and worth the struggle with the current, but the lesson is this. The 22' boats cannot exceed speeds of 6.43 knots (or 7.4 mph). At it's fastest the Narrows can just about match that speed so even with a motor, we can't just zip against that current.

Enjoy the pictures.

Sailboat racing in Gig Harbor

Departure: 1:00pm
Return: 4:00pm
Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy and breezy
Tide: Flow. Tide was from very low to very high
Boat: Club Boat
Crew: 4 (Woody, Sophia & Dave, Paul, Chuck and Susan?)

I wish I had the skill and time to do these experiences justice. The last club sail was a blast! There were six of us who showed up including the instructor. We took out both club boats, laid out a course, and raced. We kept to the harbor since there were plenty of obstacles to use in our course.

This was the first time I'd ever raced, and it made me nervous. I'm not a competitive person or maybe I'm ultra competitive. The result is the same, I don't like competing. But, I have to admit racing sailboats was pretty fun. It's competition, but not "in-your-face" competition. The captain can determine the level of intensity and unhappiness.

Sophia, Dave and myself took to one boat, Chuck, Susan and Paul to the other. We won all but one of the races, but it wasn't really fair. Our sail was bigger than theirs.

All in all, a great day sailing.

Blake Island Adventure

Title photo: The beautiful evening sky on our first day of camp. This is looking toward Mt. Rainier.

Departure: 1:00pm 6/29/2006
Return: 5:00pm 7/1/2006
Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy and breezy
Tide:Ebbing to the island and when we came home
Boat: 27 ' Club Boat
Crew Size: 6 (Our family)

Photo 1: It's all about food. Especially if you're on a boat and you don't drink alcohol.

Last month we had the most amazing family adventure. Well planned and well executed it may be difficult to make it sound interesting. Isn't it odd how it's the disasters and suffering and tension that seem to make stories so interesting. I'm afraid there's none of that here, but I'll do my best to make it interesting.

First of all, I have no clue how to get my photo captions to line up with the photos. So instead, I'll just insert a photo caption somewhere close to the photo and hope for the best.

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Photo 2: From the looks on our faces, you might think we were about to be run over by a freightor. Not so. I have no idea what caused the look

The trip had been planned for a long time; ever since we returned from our Dockton voyage. We had originally planned to go during memorial day, but had to cancel because of cold and rain. At the time we were very let down, but we all agree now that it was worth it because the weather this time was spectacular.

Photos 3 and 4: Monica and I often show our affection by exchanging karate chops. I'm sure it was some technical sailor talk that had us so animated

We sailed up on Thursday and arrived around 4pm. We got the last slip in the marina which was very convenient. The alternative is to grab one of the mooring bouys after unloading at the dock. The kids chose to camp where I'd camped the first time. It's conveniently close to the bathrooms, beach, playset and water.
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I won't give a blow by blow account of each day. The food was planned almost too well. I avoided dishes that required a lot of fragile ingredients, and I stored just enough for the trip. In fact, we were practically licking the coolers by the time we got home. What seemed like tons of food had barely lasted.


There are all sorts of things to do on the island. There is a nice beach on the east side where we camped and there is a beautiful sandy beach on the west side. We did some hiking and looked for geocaches. We only found one out of four. We visited the trinket shop and the concession stand. We paddled the kayak around the marina and did a lot of resting and playing on the play area. It's really a great place to be. We even saw a pod of orca whales pass the island. That was impressive.

Photo 5: Family campouts are not small productions. I felt almost embarressed with everything we were packing, but we used and ate everything we took.

Sailing Colvos passage is interesting. The currents always flow north (or are weak and mixed). Going to the Island we were on a close reach most of the way. The wind was good and allowed us to sail all the way. Coming back wasn't quite as fun. The wind was light in some parts and we ended up motoring.

Photo 6: Hiking the lush jungles of the island looking for hidden treasure. Tiffany shows one of hers from the geocache.



The boat we took was a 27' Catalina (I think). It was the largest boat I've skippered so far, but it was fine. It had an inboard which I really liked.

Photo 7: How can girls make camping look like the waiting room of a Spa?




Photo 8: We saw lots of racoons. They were very bold too. They would wonder around day or night and come right up to camp.


I'd recommend this trip to anyone, and we'll definately do it again.




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Photo 8: It was really hard to get a photo at the right moment. These whales were quite visible and there were many of them. It was very cool to watch. The picture doesn't do it justice

All about the food

Several wood sprites

Yeah! We found a geocache

Playing with fire - the universal camping activity.