Return to the Salish Sea

[David Patterson]

A shakedown cruise. Only five miles round trip, under sail alone, but valuable for getting boat and crew (myself) back into cruising condition. To me a "cruise" is a set of passages from a harbor, and then back. A "passage" is anchor up to anchor down (marina to marina for most) with some distance in between, short or long. These screenshots from iNavX show track and setting of my short cruise. (US chart 18434 1:25k San Juan Channel.) Crossing San Juan Channel is akin to crossing a powerful river, one that reverses flow every 6 hours, roughly, with fascinatingly complex currents. Timing for crossing under sail must be matched with often light airs. Traffic considerations matter as well. It helps to have a good light air sailing craft, like my CD25D. Here I am about to enter Friday Harbor under sail, half an hour after sunrise on a rainy morning, Force 2(4-6kt) following winds, a ferry on its way out. The whole track of my shakedown cruise is next, followed by the anchorage to which I went for a week (a generally peaceful favorite of mine and others). Those "dolphins" represent pilings that show above high tide, left from logging operations going back to the 19th century. Though charted, they are no longer there...all except for one, below the surface at datum, that I buoyed with a red floating marker a couple of years ago. Dangerous to me and to others. A new deadhead was present about equidistant from the three shores, deep in the bay. A winter storm arrival.

[David Patterson]

Wait! If you have already knurled the knob on the spondeliter, and had the framhandler chromed, yet still you need something more to do to spiff up your boat, wait. You won't have to actually remast her as a schooner, as you planned. (You were going to do that, I know, just to be able to fly a gollywobbler.) Pictured below is a much more sensible step, worthy of consideration. Underneath that cover, at the bow of this fine little Flicka, is a galvanized 25 lb CQR, dust and bird-dropping free! Surely any boat would look better with a cover like this one, right? Now, what color would be best on your own pride and joy? I'm thinking grey for CLOUD GIRL, in case I ever have to anchor in clay, and I can't get the anchor completely clean right away.

[Jim Walsh]

I've seen an occasional boat with fitted covers for most or all of the bright work but this is the first time I've seen a bowsprit cover. Probably see this type of thing down south or in the Carribean where the effects of the sun severely reduces the life of the various finishes. Personally I'd rather look at bright work than Sunbbrella covers so I'll just stick with having to refinish the brightwork when needed.

[David Patterson]

A gulp of cormorants faces a Force 3 drying wind, sun warm on their backs. Perhaps they look ahead to the onslaught of the tourist season, when their floating breakwater sunning spot will never be empty again for a moment. Or maybe they have just comprehended that a U.S. general election cycle is ramping up. They are grumbling about something, in their subdued way.

[Jim Walsh]

Not often someone knows the proper description of a group of cormorants is a "gulp". Bravo!

[David Patterson]

No nice seascape photo to share. Instead here is a tree in bloom, for flower-hungry winter eyes. Also, in an island community of more than eight thousand --the only incorporated town in the entire San Juan County-- the ferry is the life line by which everything arrives, including tourist dollars. In a coffee shop near the terminal a CCTV feed gives patrons a chance to see when to meet people or to get ready to board. That ferry pictured leaving the harbor may have a new operator. The usual operators don't tend to get so close to that point to port, by my observations. The ferry ELWHA once was driven onto some rocks near a different island, Orcas. He was showing a visitor to the wheelhouse some local sights. An enterprising bartender, I read, soon was selling a drink called Elwha on the Rocks. The passengers were okay. I'm not sure distracting visitors are since allowed.

[Sea Hunt Video]

David:

I think that may be a cherry blossom tree although I am not positive. Every year near the end of March or early April in Washington, D.C. there is a Cherry Blossom Festival. It is terrific event especially if the weather cooperates, the trees "blossom" and the petals remain on the flowers and branches.

I would sometimes (as often as I could ) try to arrange a TDY to be in D.C. for the Cherry Blossom Festival. A young lady and I would get a bottle of wine, some bread, some cheese and a blanket and sit on the hill/grounds near the George Washington Monument along with hundreds of others and just watch the parade, the people, etc. I am not sure if they still have a parade. Things may have changed since 11 September 2001. If so, sad.

Beautiful photo. Thank you. Brings back some great memories of days long past.

[Jim Walsh]

David:

A young lady and I would get a bottle of wine, some bread, some cheese and a blanket and sit on the hill/grounds near the George Washington Monument along with hundreds of others and just watch the parade, the people, etc..

Roberto,
Had the Washington Monument been completed then?

[Sea Hunt Video]

That's very observant of you Walsh YES, the George Washington Monument had been completed. As I recall events, the monument was completed 1-2 years before my first visit to Washington, D.C. as a very young lad in search of his future

[Jim Walsh]

It's nice to see spring has sprung in the Salish Sea. It's been snowing at my house for the last 24 hours and we have another 4 to 5 inches of snowfall to add to this years total. The snowpack had gone from feet to inches but this will delay our melting by a few days. At some point I'd like to put the snow shovels away for the season

[David Patterson]

Still "working up" the boat, after cruising her steadily for 9 months last year, I have nonetheless shifted out of the port again. (I'm in no hurry.) A first night sail of 2015 (5:15AM to 6:30AM) took me from brightly lit port town to empty dark bay, ending at the beginning of morning nautical twilight here, under heavy overcast. The choice was due to winds to rise to Force 6 (23-27kt) in an exposed anchorage soon, and the tidal currents being right. Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet applies: "What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots me not to resist both wind and tide." The first photo below is of the one residence that overlooks my anchorage, a half mile away. That light was a course guide as I crossed San Juan Channel. Darkness was not complete, due to the loom of urban lights from Anacortes/Seattle metro/Bellingham. Coming to anchor located properly in the darkness was the most challenging part of my anchor-to-anchor sail-only passage. "Local knowledge" of this frequently used (by me over several years now) anchorage was very valuable, as I relied on my depth sounder as a navigation instrument while tacking in, coming about at the five fathom line each time. A second photo is of morning a day later, another one of those above and below the horizon scenes so entrancing to a cruiser. The emerald color of the last photo is background to that little group of courting bufflehead ducks. My iPhone can't reach out far enough to really illustrate their exquisite beauty. They land as a group, skiing to a stop on the water surface, collectively creating a particular sibilant sound. This is an excellent area to observe aquatic birds, most exotic to my eye, used to mid-continental wildlife. The cabin of an anchored boat makes an excellent observation blind.

[barfwinkle]

Good morning David

On Saturday morning as I was walking the beach of Shell Island I spied a small grouping of Baffleheaded beauties. The first time I have ever seen them. They had a whole flock of ducklings in tow. The season is a bit further along here.

Fair winds

[David Patterson]

The two most popular hobbies in the US are reported to be gardening and bird watching, Bill. Gardening is kind of out for the cruiser, right? My favorite general group of birds to watch are the diving ones, these days. Mergansers, loons, cormorants, guillemots, grebes, and of course the variety of diving ducks, among others. Surface raptors like ospreys have their turn. I have to be careful though. Last year I got so distracted watching some new-to-me harlequin ducks that I bounced CLOUDIE off of a rock. Some of the birds I hope to see, like skuas and frigate birds, albatrosses and the various petrels, aren't to be seen in the Salish Sea. You are in a bird paradise there. I'm not a "real" birdwatcher...I don't keep a list or seriously study them. They do add a lot of pleasure to my cruising, like the ridiculous antics of the courting buffleheads. But then, can't any animal be ridiculous in courtship? I sure have been at times.

[David Patterson]

Not a photo. Well, a photo of some journal pages. Not everyone is comfortable reading cursive these days, and mine is not always so obvious. Hopefully this will be ok for those that look at it. I was transcribing an often-referred-to passage of Sterling Hayden's, Hollywood actor (you saw him in Dr. Strangelove and in The Godfather, probably) and an OSS operative in Italy and Yugoslavia back in WWII. Fascinating guy and a real sailor, among other things. Anyway, in my own retirement I rely on extended cruising as my way of staying vital, so far, and also as a way to indulge in good reading, while writing journals for my children and grand-children (great grand-children someday?) perhaps even to read eventually. I hope some of you find this long quotation worthwhile and thought-provoking.

[barfwinkle]

GM David

That's a great book. Difficult to find (at least in Oklahoma) but a good read.

Fair winds from Port St Joe