Return to the Salish Sea II

[David Patterson]

NOAA can get it wrong, too. A forecast of 5-15 kts NW was to be ideal for crossing Juan de Fuca's east end. Not to be. I found light airs and low Force 2 N for a third of the passage. After complete loss of wind above Smith Island, SSW At Force 3 made up for it for the next third. However, in Admiralty Inlet I had to work with light airs or no wind first from the west, then the east. John fed me weather info by email at moments. I resorted to motoring a few times on the 28.5 mile, 10.5 hour passage. Once, leaving my anchorage in no wind to make timing for Cattle Pass, once in dead air mid-strait, and last crossing the busy Inlet traffic lanes in no wind, and on to anchor, fatigued. Three photos: leaving an unusually calm 1/2 mile wide Cattle Pass after sailing through wing 'n' wing in light airs; a nav program screen shot of CLOUD GIRL spanking by Point Partridge of Whidby Island to enter Admiralty Inlet (a useful counter current runs SE along the lower part of Whidby on the ebb, at times--see the Current Atlas); and last the topsail schooner ADVENTURESS motoring out of Point Hudson with a deckload of passengers. I'm anticipating a wonder world of wooden sailing craft and an overload of information at the festival this year.

[David Patterson]

I guess I'll presume interest, and keep posting while I'm in Port Townsend, and later at the Wooden Boat Festival. One of the best and "healthiest" shipyards of the West Coast is here, with boats in all stages of work. All over the boatyard and marina are mariners putting finishing touches on wooden boats to be shown at the festival, or not. For those of us that like "classic plastic" (which includes most Cape Dory owners) it is a short step to admiring the wooden boats that preceded ours. Here are a variety. (For some reason I'm drawn to that tiny little wedge at the top of the bow support for that exceptionally elegant sloop.)

[Doug Hill]

David,
Yes, presume interest!
Fair winds,
Doug

[Sea Hunt Video]

David,
Yes, presume interest!
Fair winds,
Doug

Agree 100%.

As an aside, the first and last photo show marina yards that are as clean and "ship shape" as I have ever seen. I wish the yard I am at was even half as neat. Even if I knew how I would be ashamed to post a photo of the yard where S/V Bali Ha'i is now sitting. The ground is a mess - debris, deep water pockets, junk all over the place. It has been sold and will soon be gone making way for a high-rise shopping mall, restaurants, etc. In a way sad, but what a mess it is now.

[David Patterson]

My iPhone is seeming heavier with the weight of the hi-def photos I've gathered of fascinating boats. A few more to share now, while stubby and light CLOUD GIRL pitches at anchor in Force 4 winds, with a couple of miles of fetch to windward. Wind waves over 1'. At least with pitching one can find the center of motion and be fairly comfortable. Less easy with rolling. There are no comfortable anchorages for a small boat in Port Townsend. Gotta trust and love your ground tackle here. First photo is of the boat on which Vito Dumas modeled his circumnavigator. The owner plans to show her at the festival, if he gets the titivation accomplished in time. Second is of a big schooner named BELLE. I'm fascinated by that projecting stern platform, never having seen the like before. Questions: How does the helmsman see around that house? Compass course steering only? Was the house a later addition? Why the stern platform? Hard to choose a third photo. How about the sea boat HAVEN, emerging from some serious work? Still mastless, she has classic features: wide unobstructed decks, a small footwell and a sharp stern to minimize the effects of pooping waves, a generous house actually covered in glued and painted canvas, and a bowsprit to help a long keel tack by moving the center of effort (?) forward enough, as on the beamy boat in the first photo. And much else. Even a Samson-post at the stern. Will HAVEN be a cutter-rigged sloop? Schooner? Ketch? Not a yawl, I would think. I wish I knew her age. What a lovely sheer. (I try not to be too much of a nuisance on the docks here, by taking owners away from their work with my questions.)

[David Patterson]

Random sights ashore: small details sometimes stand out--never mind the tangle on the cleat, notice the rarely seen back splices on these dock lines; the largest Chris Craft perhaps to be seen waits for bottom paint; the draw for many of the ships who use the Port of Port Townsend yard is the giant Marine Travellift, of 300 ton capacity (I believe). The wheels of the Travellift are about 6' tall. The owner of the Chris Craft, maybe considering what this haulout was costing while he worked, joked that photos were a buck each, as I stopped to take mine. I wonder myself what a round trip on that Travellift goes for. I'll stick with my 3 ton 25D for now.

[David Patterson]

The nearly empty marina where the festival boats will show is an old Coast Guard station, and before that a military fort. The converted buildings can be seen in the background, on Point Hudson. In three days the contrast of a quickly filling marina will be striking. From Point Hudson one can see Whidby Island, some miles across Admiralty Inlet. ADVENTURESS is under sail in the Inlet, moving slowly in just enough air to fill her sails. During the festival-ending "sail by" there will be up to 300 sailing craft of all sizes, probably including a tall ship or two, filling the Inlet. To be among them, as I was able to be aboard some cruising friends' boat last year, is entrancing and memorable. From the Point side of the basin can be seen the North West Maritime Center's attractive building, where thousands of people will come to look and touch among the displayed boats ashore, typically of very finely crafted and finished wood.

[David Patterson]

To continue to add to this sea-letter of a cruising photo essay: the festival boats will be stunning to see, most of them, yet even the everyday wooden boats here can be lovely. Here is a look at a Crocker-designed (but not built, in this case) Sallee Rover. Artistic lines and work. The rudder detail is fascinating, the probably locally-made hardware of stainless as much as the wood work. Notice the pintle orientations. That rudder cannot come unshipped. And, a brightwork aficionado's dream rides by a dock, waiting to go out, or be touched up just a bit more.

[David Patterson]

As an aside from the festival build-up, I took possession of my new-to-me dinghy today, towing it home to CLOUDIE behind my old dinghy. The row was about 3/4 of a mile, so I was able to study her as I rowed. This is a Cape Dory 7 1/2 "Dink" -- #66. I've no idea yet when she was built. I'm her third owner, I believe. She is lightly used, her wood needs work, the centerboard (she has one that weighs 6lbs supposedly) is still a mystery, and she slips effortlessly thru the water. I can sit at the very bow or stern and still be well out of the water, she is stable for a small dinghy, and the variable rowing positions are comfortable. She came with ridiculously short less than 5' oars, and all of the sailing gear (if that board is in there!). Rowing is simple leverage against the water resistance of the blades, with the fulcrum at the lock, after all. The longer the levers the better, up to a point. A good length for oars are ones just able to fit inside the dinghy. Too short is foolish, too long is clumsy. Watch someone try to row a typical inflatable for a demonstration of oars that are too short. I'll try for oars of nearly 7 1/2 feet. I'm looking forward to using this dinghy to find out her characteristics and behavior in the water. A good dinghy is an essential item for my particular cruising style.

[David Patterson]

Unusual craft.

[David Patterson]

Some of the larger wooden craft sensibly enter the basin first for the festival, motoring gingerly through the narrow dogleg entrance. Large mv OLYMPUS was first, soon followed by mv DEARLEAP (1929), beautifully named. After tomorrow morning, only wooden-hulled boats will be slipped in the basin. Also on display already are other noteworthy wooden boats, such as SEA DART, made famous in the sea-tales of Tristan Jones. She is mastless, currently. That is a utility pole behind her. She has taken up residence at the Maritime Center. Her reverse sheer marks her as a Giles Laurent design, I think. When Jones took her over he considered her the most well-found sailing craft he had ever boarded, mentioning that she even had a whole chicken in her stores, canned for a holiday feast at sea. I had forgotten SEA DART has twin keels, and yes, That is an Idaho registration number, from her years there. She is destined to be a school boat again. The hailing port on her stern is Lake Titicaca.

[David Patterson]

The wooden boat festival in full swing offers more than can be taken in. Here are a couple of photos of some tiny corners. First, a look at part of the basin, filled with boats on show. Since dinghies are on my mind after acquisition of my Cape Dory 7' 7" "Dink," two wooden ones are pictured. The last is part of the NW School of Wooden Boat Building display, which has a two week (?) dinghy building program during which a dinghy is completely built, but not yet finished at the end. Great way to get your own.

[David Patterson]

For me there is still a Jules Verne-like fictional quality to being able to point my CD25D across a strait and end up in places like Port Townsend during the Wooden Boat Festival. One of the presentations this weekend is by a couple who took their similarly sized Dana 24 from Port Tiwnsend to New Zealand. Added to the fantasy level at times are examples of the mundane raised to the level of the sublime. Here is a photo of woodworking art, in the form of an expedition kayak, of all things. The artist/builder has inlaid thin wood discs in epoxy and micro-balloons to stunning effect. Those are not decals.

[David Patterson]

Some of the wooden boats that struck my eye yesterday: the SPRAY replica Joshua always impresses me with its size and "shippy" quality (I think it is larger than Slocum's but it is still unimaginable to me that he could single-hand a boat of this type); the stern of a big tug, the wood work and weather beaten; MARTHA (Crowninshield, 1907, 84') is just back from Pacific adventures that included the Transpacific Race. I enjoy her colors.

[David Patterson]

Some of the details on MARTHA, pictured in the prior post. Her 110 year old bronze fittings, such as that at the base of her jib clubfoot, have weathered to a perfect verdigris. Some of the fittings look as though painted. No one paints turnbuckles, surely. The clubfooted jibs of some of the Cape Dory designs clearly have antecedents. The forms of the gooseneck, and the fittings at the bow, are unique, some of B. B. Crowninshield's realized vision. I wonder if her unusual dolphin striker was once bronze, as well. Perhaps I'll get aboard her tomorrow. She has become one of my favorites of the show. On the waterfront, two very young festival-goers may be at the beginning of a life of interest in boats. A fine introduction.