Salish Sea Cruising 2014

[Sea Hunt Video]

If unable to find CO2 cartridge at local marine store try a dive shop. Most carry replacement cartridges for BCs (buoyancy compensators). Cartridges come in different sizes (grams of CO2). Check to match with your "used" cartridge. I think cartridge treading is standard but .......

[David Patterson]

I'll post again while I have Internet access. Another small scale chart deception. It appears that I scaled the cliffs on the west side of those narrows. I was close, to work through against a current at 180*. The price of not waiting patiently for a favorable flood tide. Also a photo of a piece of art at Telegraph Harbour Marina, of Thetis Island. The annual NW Alberg Design Rendezvous will be held on Thetis 6/20-22 this year. If you cruise in the Salish Sea, please consider joining in. Last, some sea critters.

[David Patterson]

Telegraph Harbour of Thetis Island has a canal of sorts between the harbor and Clam Bay, off Trincomali Channel. Reputedly opened by just a man with a backhoe and a vision, it dries at low tide. The entrances are marked to show depths, but are two feet optimistic. It is a good idea to allow for that, and to enter on a rising tide. I squeezed over early in one, before dusk. Entry, middle, exit are shown. I draw four feet, loaded for cruising. The harbor side seems most shallow and rocky. A knot of current when I eased through. It is definitely against cruising instincts to enter a waterway when the bottom is visible but the waterway disappears around the bend. Fun to have done, though.

[David Patterson]

A tyro at many parts of cruising, I've successfully managed a first stern tie anchoring. In some places farther north, where I hope to cruise one day, it is the only way to anchor. The shores are so steep-to and underwater-cliff-like that one hooks the anchor on the face of them and holds the boat back on it with the stern line, looped through an iron ring ashore (if there is one) or around a tree or rock. It is a necessary skill to learn, though more difficult single handed. In the first photo I am using a ring in an easy anchorage, placed to allow more boats to use a park's cove. Polypropylene line on a spool can be commonly sighted at boat's sterns. Long lines are difficult to manage, all at once. In the second photo is 300' of 3/8" nylon, a backup line I stow in a surprisingly small space by feeding it in. (Under the footwell of the port settee of my 25D.) Here I have it coiled in three sea gaskets roughly 100' each. Many things can happen in the middle of a line: coils, cleatings, bowlines on a bite, trucker's/cargo hitches, etc. it may be hard to make out but the coil to port is standard, while the other two are figure-eight coils, which will run more freely. I was planning to use the line for my stern tie but elected to keep it clean, using a spare rode of only 200' instead. Think about it for a moment. A 300' line is 1/20th of a nautical mile long. A lot to handle in one coil.The other photo is of a little beach hut, 1347 Beach Rd. Kids with adult help, no doubt. Larger shelters are common on wood strewn beaches in these islands. Sorry for the long commentary.

[pete faga]

David
Nice picture of your first successful stern to!
Cloud Girl looks like she riding low on her lines. Maybe just reprovisioned?
Hope you get some good cruising weather
Best pete

[David Patterson]

No on the reprovisioning, Pete. I've only been out two weeks. She was right at her old boot stripe line, or whatever it is properly called, when I headed out. At my recent haulout I wanted to put a new higher one on, for I put bottom paint over the old one. But...time and expense. Next haulout. Her sailing characteristics seem unaffected by riding lower in the water. After all, her CG documentation lists her as a 5 ton capacity boat. A dirty hull has much more effect. I am a little low on water and nearly out of ice, again. (Know an easy way to install a water tank guage on a 25D?) Of course, I've not much to keep cold either. I may be where I can get a few fresh provisions in another day or two. I was beginning to feel concerned about water, but I got about four day's worth here at a camp ground, on De Courcey Island. Perhaps I'll get more tomorrow. I only use a gallon a day or less. It may be another week or more before a real re-provisioning. Thanks for enjoying the photo and commenting.

[David Patterson]

Dodd Narrows acts as a "gate" that keeps some cruisers on either side of it, limiting their options. With simple planning it can be transited fairly easily. Traffic can be more of a concern than the maximum 9 knot flood currents, 8 knot ebb. Slack can be timed; log booms and the large wakes of anxious (and sometimes thoughtless) motor vessel drivers cannot. First photo: a tug and tow make for the notch of the narrows. I passed ahead of it. Second photo: a tug towing another log boom emerges into view, after I have entered the Narrows. The "sailboat heading north in Dodd Narrows" -CLOUD GIRL- was advised on VHF 16 to "stand down" until the log tow was through. That meant making a tight 360* turn against the east shore, and motoring very close to the rocks in 1.25 knots of current. Out of sight, a second tug was pushing the tail of the boom toward me, keeping it off the west shore in the ending ebb currents. I was 30" early, but elected to transit ahead of the very slow tug behind me. Third photo: my track over recent days. (US chart 18400, 1:200k ) I've caught myself in a lie, for I claimed in a prior post that I don't motor for distance. Well, this track is primarily motoring in light airs and contrary currents. Frequently, the choices turned on getting through a narrows or pass at slack. An analyst once wrote that psychotherapy is a chance to catch yourself lying about your own life. Cruising is psychotherapy for me, then. Who knew?

[David Patterson]

Three recent photos: first, a boat in Nanaimo Harbour that looks like a model for the chart symbol denoting a partially exposed wreck; second, with fair winds and decent (though not perfect) timing, I went through Dodd Narrows, north to south, on a wing 'n wing run, sailing in place at first; third, a bit of local whimsy in Dodd Narrows, very enjoyable in the context.

[David Patterson]

In a few places in my return track through the Gulf Islands you might note my working against wind and/or tide, as in Pylades Channel. In Force 3 (7-10kts) beating seems more pleasure than problem. Not so in lighter airs. A forecasting cliche here seasonally is "winds light and variable." Variable I can work with, or light, but not so well with both together. Add an adverse current, and fun may leave the equation. So far, my return (better planning?) has included a small percentage of engine use. In one photo you can see how a home facing north, on a rocky shore, manages its small boats. A couple of smooth drift logs, plentifull in these waters, and a rustic marine slipway results. In some places an endless loop to a buoy is used to keep the dinghy off, yet accessible from shore, like a clothesline over an urban alley. Last, under a nacreous sky, the thirty plus boats of the Around Thetis Island annual sailing race work in "winds light and variable" down an ebb tide, to complete the second of three legs, variegated-colored spinnakers blooming like tulips on the water. One advantage of Alberg's high aspect rig, good sail area, and full keel with cutaway forefoot, is quite good sailing characteristics in airs light and heavy. Some modern designs can be slugs until Force 4 (11-16 kts ). I've read that Alberg was displeased when the builder moved the mast placement of the Alberg 30, and shortened it a foot, without his design input. Hence the Alberg 29, probably. The 30 handled the change extremely well, obviously.

[David Patterson]

Some sights from Wallace Island Marine Park, Trincomali Channel: it is possible to exaggerate any activity, even a bit of inter island cruising, but when your shore boat needs a shore boat perhaps it has gone too far; a primitive stone building; a kind of sedum-like plant, as a guess, though I have no plant books aboard. [I have the photos in reverse of the commentary. Sorry for that.]

[David Patterson]

Three more from Wallace Island, in no particular order: the only vehicle on the island; CLOUD GIRL in bright sunlight, Princess Cove; a small building completely covered, inside and out, with visiting yachts' memorabilia, on every surface. An enjoyable and diverting custom.

[Sea Hunt Video]

David:

I have said this before. You have an innate camera eye. Absolutely beautiful photos and composition. Guys like me wish we had your skills.

I again urge you to put together your written posts, journey log notes, chart photos and scenic photos into a book. It should be a hot seller.

[tjr818]

David:

I have said this before. You have an innate camera eye. Absolutely beautiful photos and composition. Guys like me wish we had your skills.

I again urge you to put together your written posts, journey log notes, chart photos and scenic photos into a book. It should be a hot seller.

I'll buy a copy!

[David Patterson]

Sounds like a plan. Just need an editor. People who are their own lawyers, physicians, and editors have fools for clients, I hear. Thank you for the encouragement, for sending in high-bit photos is costing me a little here, from Canada. Gives me pleasure to share, though, so it is worth it (so far!). Part of cruising for me, along with my written journals, which I share much less often. Again, thanks.

[David Patterson]

A real time moment, as of the time indicated. Notice COG and HDG difference as I cross the tidal current of Trincomali Channel in 4 kts of west wind, on a starboard tack beam reach. 5/14/14 0730