Salish Sea Cruising 2014

[David Patterson]

Pitch, roll, and yaw, as with an airplane, are all motions involving the fore and aft axis. Of course they can combine in interesting (and uncomfortable ways). I think you covered the motions, for the others are not around the boat's center of gravity on each different axis, but motions of the whole boat. Rising and falling, moving side to side (your sway?) as in leeway, and moving forward and back. Combine some of these, as when heeled close-hauled and rising over waves, and actual boat motion happens. 6 basic motions. I'm sure there are more sophisticated and accurate ways to consider boat motions, but as a mental exercise to pass a little time until the weather shifts, this has served its purpose. Thanks.

[David Patterson]

A late-winter sail, as I finally clear the harbor for a new anchorage. Force 3 gusting to Force 4. The red dot forward indicates the first reef of the genoa. I spot several things to take care of, in this photo. One is to take the poachers knot out of the spare jib halyard, that is clipped to a ring on the pulpit, and put a proper splice on instead. Mists rise like smoke from the forest ashore. I timed the sail for lower low slack water so I wouldn't have to fight the currents, much. They never really stop. A nearby rock, Reid Rock, pulls a sailboat in no matter what the tide is doing, seemingly. The second photo is the familiar look of winter in these waters, when overcast. The channel between the first and second islands on the left, Spieden Channel, can be a real swirling current chute. Negotiating it in a small sailboat requires careful timing, at least for me. Naturally one can motor through almost anytime, as most do, but I like the fun and challenge of working thru under sail. One good approach is to sail on the flood up to the entrance, trying (!) to arrive at the supposed slack before the ebb, then ride the ebb thru the channel to Haro Strait or toward Boundary Pass. Maybe I can photo a chart of that area.

[Keith]

I load directly from my I-Phone also with no intermediate sites.

Your pictures load instantly on my computer. My guess is that any users that are having slow loading must have slow internet speeds.

[David Patterson]

A Current Atlas page, and a bit of US Chart 18421 Strait of Juan de Fuca to Straight of Georgia, depict the area of the central Salish Sea I mentioned above. (Charts can be downloaded free from NOAA, though paper charts have certain advantages.) This part of the San Juans is heavily traveled by power boaters in the main tourist months. Empty most other times. Spieden Channel does not have overly strong currents, but enough to really aid or hinder sailing. The exceedingly handsome though crowded Roche Harbor draws many visitors thru Spieden. I've highlighted two areas on the atlas page of high tide stronger currents. What the locals call Cattle Pass is the lower one. Timing is crucial due to rips, up-wellings, cross-currents, eddies, and outright whirlpools. Gratifying to get thru under sail, which is very possible. Old wind ships did it for exploration and fishing. Cruisers in the area learn to avoid or take advantage of currents. Rosario Strait is to the right, Haro Strait to the left, the Canadian Gulf Islands above. Current charts like this one don't tell the whole story by any means. Local currents must be learned, some can be dramatic. Several difficult passes become "gates" that some cruisers just don't go beyond. As I extend my cruising knowledge, I'm extending my cruising range, under primarily sail. [I do hope someone will let me know if I'm being a boor with this kind of information. It is the kind of stuff that happens to interest me. Not to mention having real world application to my sailing.]

[David Patterson]

Tides here are "mixed semidiurnal" ones, with two highs and two lows per day. Each reaches a different height. At higher high tide the trees on some of the islands seem to grow directly from the water.

[David Patterson]

Three photos: the second is of approaching Friday Harbor. Against appearances, my set and drift from the tidal current will take me into the harbor mouth on this heading. I had just been released from motoring in calm air by the arrival of 4 knots of S wind. The first is of a modern sloop setting sail between a crystal-scattered sea and an opalescent sky, after motoring from the harbor, seemingly with better wind than I had been given. The third is of a beautiful (sail-less) schooner, crewed by a family. A 7 or 8 year-old child is comfortably draped over the cockpit, on the boom, like a young cougar lounging on a branch. I came into harbor to re-supply, though only out less than a week. I was nearby, so I came in anyway. Always good to be fully found. I wish my boat actually was. Always more to do, I discover.

[David Patterson]

An example of "the cruiser alone in the bay." Jones Island, San Juan Archipelago

[David Morton]

Amazed at how much this rare part of the west coast looks like my beloved coast of Maine. Great photos!

[David Patterson]

Must be about the same latitude, or near it, as Maine. Your comment entices me to sail there. I'll bet you are eager to get out cruising. I guess the coastal mountains here are a difference, but who sails in the mountains? (Ignoring Tristan Jones of course.) Vegetation, geology, and wildlife may be some other differences, I suppose. I'll have to find out. Our home territories tend to be far more remarkable than we think, dulled in our own perceptions by our familiarity with them. One of the pleasures of guests aboard us to see the familiar more freshly. When I get a better connection to the net, I'll post what may be some differences. If I can come up with any. [Actually, I learned a tremendous amount while sailing both my Montgomery 18, and this CD25D, on high (8,280') Lake Granby, by Rocky Mountain National Park. That counted as sailing in the mountains, for sure.]

[David Patterson]

Back where I at least occasionally have Internet, here are a few recent photos. One is a look NE up President Channel, so named because Teddy Roosevelt cruised up it in a battleship while touring his western kingdom. Those far mountains may be on either side of the B.C./Washington border. The Cascades? The other is looking NW toward Vancouver Island's mountains, cloud-hidden. The channel in the center is Spieden Channel, which shows on the chart section posted earlier. Those driftwood logs would give any sailor pause, who plans to sail here in poor visibility. The leaning tree is not far from being washed from its bank. 100 mph winds devastated many trees on this island 15 or so years ago. There is also a view of Mount Baker, looking east down so-called Wasp Passage. The Salish people called the mountain Kulshan. [Make that a Montgomery 17, in my last post.]

[David Patterson]

A better look at some typical driftwood logs, many of them left over from local logging days, I presume. They mostly stay put, and are brought in by unusually strong storms. There must be hundreds of similarly covered beaches in the Salish Sea, maybe thousands. The logs arrived by the water, though, and could likely leave again under extreme conditions of wind and/or tide. Most of the ones seen floating about are considerably smaller than these impressively sized ones. Even a small stick rattling along the hull on a passage tends to heighten the lookout's alertness. Mine sure is. Having a keel that might possibly ride up over something like this is calming. Encountering one in a fin-keel boat could be disasterous.

[David Patterson]

Two photos. One photo is of a drift log I spotted just after dawn, one of several in my protected anchorage this morning, brought in by the tide. It appears to be about 30' long, 8 or 10 inches in diameter. Freshly cut and peeled, so perhaps a log boom broke up somewhere farther north, in the recent winds. I tried to catch an image with the head of a big harbor seal going by, but he spotted me coming to the bow and slipped under. The emerald water entranced me. The other photo is for humor. The cup was just for scale. I titled the photo "the world doesn't look right until I've had my first cup," when I sent it family and friends. I liked all of that interesting bark.

[David Patterson]

A "cruising solution" for some. Our mania for guitars continues (back in the twenties' yachting craze it was banjos, I've read). Many cruisers, especially old guys, seem to have or want a guitar on board. A hard case aboard is in the way; stowed in a soft case the instrument is vulnerable. Either way it ends up in the way. What to do? My solution is a bulkhead mount that is secure for the ship's guitar, attractive, and doesn't use much space. The first photo shows the guitar in place, ready for as much heel as will occur sailing. Notice that the keeper, a piece of surgical tubing with clips attached, passes UNDER the strings, to avoid extra tension that might alter the body as the wood shifts with humidity and temperature. (Also notice that the thermometer is broken in the instrument cluster. It isn't really 104* aboard.) The bolster serves to hold an extra sleeping bag, and to remind a visitor not to lean on the guitar. The second photo shows the keeper arrangement, and a piece of closed cell foam to protect the back of the guitar from the bulkhead drawer. Last is a clasping hanger easy to find in stores or on line. With the guitar handy, it will get played more. Who knows, it might even entice a teen-ager to enjoy being aboard a bit longer. Or make an old guy happier. (That little compass is a Ritchie, wired into the cabin light circuit for its light. It acts as the telltale compass in the cabin.)

[David Patterson]

Leaving at the beginning of morning nautical twilight I was able to see the moment before sunrise at the southern entrance to Friday Harbor. Frost made the decks slick, increasing in the coldest hour near dawn, as I motored toward Shipyard Cove for the earliest haulout. As I waited for the Travelift to warm up, I spotted a combination of photographic "textures": the close-grained old-growth lumber of a bench back, frost, moss on the sloped top board, wire checks, the inverted images in the glassy water of boats on the hard. Near the covered berths a throw ring and line appeared to be framed art in surprising colors. All of these moments were a relaxing prelude to zincs, bottom paint, seacocks, and other maintenance.

[Sea Hunt Video]

David:

For what little it may be worth (I ain't no expert) you have a gift for "turning a phrase" and capturing an image. You should seriously consider gathering all of your posts and photos from this board and putting them together in a published book.

You have a special gift that should be shared outside of the small CDSOA community.