Above the Salish Sea

[David Patterson]

Cruising begins to dominate my winter thoughts. Maybe it is the spring-like weather in the NE this year (I'm still in NJ, where I actually saw a snowflake recently). Maybe it is the call from my slip, clear across the continent. The wharfinger was hearing an alarm aboard my boat. I gave her the lock combination. Aboard she found it was my emergency locator beacon, which I had forgotten to turn off. She took care of it. Meanwhile, I am collecting, studying, and loosely folding paper charts for areas I've never yet been in while cruising. Find "how to fold a chart" online. While I love my nav program (especially the real-time charted indicator of my GPS position) it is no substitute for visually ranging over a small scale chart, nor for having a suitably folded and protected large scale chart in the cockpit with me, as I work into a new-to-me and un-buoyed remote anchorage, while under sail. Below is a photo of a beginning collection, along with the Yeadon-Jones' suggested list for the Broughtons from their very valuable guide. I'll need at least three charts more for my intended cruising grounds, even though I may not end up using all of them. The wind and tide rules. I've been getting my Canadian paper charts through captainsnautical.com in Seattle. Shipping is cheap from them, but charts run 20 bucks each. Typical pricing. A full chart collection for an extended cruise can add up. But then, electronics are vulnerable to salt and moisture, right?

[Skeep]

A great resource David. Imagery is enjoyable also. So you're hold-up in NJ awaiting better weather conditions this spring/summer in the NW, i.e. commuting to cruising? Interesting idea

[David Patterson]

Skeep, I'm as much held-up as holed-up, in NJ. My home of record is in land-locked CO. Being un-married (de-married?) I'm able to spend some meaningful winter months with my youngest grandchildren here in NJ. This year, illness in the house extends my stay. Great luck to be free to help. In the Salish Sea I could cruise year 'round. Since starting cruising there in August of 2012, I've only not cruised in December and January (the two coldest months). They are on my list for 2016/2017. To be seen. My 2016 cruising plans continue to develop. I hope to be aboard by mid March to make preparations. I've adopted a Latin-ized motto for my 2016 cruising time above the Salish Sea: Fieri potest. "Can it be done?" (The photo is a Canadian chart, as seen metaphorically through the bars of winter.)

[David Patterson]

Usually back aboard by this time of the year, I found myself reviewing photos in anticipation of my planned mid-March arrival in the San Juans. A quick selection of a few dozen photos provided a slide show to share of some cruising beauty. At least a version of most of them were posted last year with commentary. Look here (https://db.tt/vGn3rq2V) if interested. I notice most are of the horizon, as in the colorful one below of Mt Baker as seen from Friday Harbor one summer sunrise. Getting back aboard will be excellent.

[Sea Hunt Video]

Beautiful slide show David. Your photo posts have been missed Good to learn you will be back aboard soon.

As an aside I remain amazed that a cell phone camera is capable of recording the quality of photos you are posting.

[David Patterson]

Thanks Roberto. I'd be pleased to have one of the newer 12 megapixel ones with the gyroscopic lenses for stabilization. Always more to look forward to, right?

[David Patterson]

Anticipating my planned 2016 cruising aboard either little CLOUD GIRL or some boat I've yet to obtain, I'm increasingly excited about the waters and lands to be seen. The British Columbia north and central coasts comprise the largest temperate rainforest in the world. Recent Canadian national protections (as of 2/1/16) for 85% of the remaining old growth forest enhances the new --since 2006, I believe-- Great Bear Rainforest. Since the 12,000 square mile area includes the range of the Kermode ("Spirit") bear, some call it the Spirit Bear Wilderness. The so-called "spirit bear" has a recessive gene for a white coat. 10% of the cubs are white-coated. The wilderness area extends along the coast from Bute Inlet and the Discovery Islands on north to the BC/AK border, containing all of the off-shore islands and most of the fjords/inlets. According to Wikipedia, Vancouver Island and mysterious Haida Gwaii (already mostly preserved) are not included. To my eye, few cruising areas have more enticements, but then I like to be in less developed and more natural places. Not for everyone, I'm sure. This old photo of mine captures my romanticized notion of getting there. The actuality will require passage through the rapids I described at the beginning of this whole topic. (I've even begun to look forward to that challenge. Perhaps I have simply been ashore too long.) The photo, if my memory serves, is of crossing Boundary Pass between WA and Canada, at sunrise, the sea slightly lumpy.
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[**Yes. My journal/log tells me this was May 15, 2014, the boat making near hull speed in Force 3 cool dry northerly winds, on a port tack run right near the border, returning to the US from a couple of weeks of cruising in the Gulf Islands of Canada. I recall the fine sailing after a pre-dawn start, which brightens my current February day here in NJ.]

[SSgtPitt]

Please post more. My wife and I and our newly aquired CD36 are getting our affairs in order so we can shove away from this landlocked life and all its encumbrances and begin a new chapter as we sail to edge of the earth.
Our vessel is in Corpus Christi, TX and we reside in Colorado. Our monthly trips are like a carrot dangled in front of a starving burro..... I believe my boat misses me as well.

[David Patterson]

I hope you post as well, Pitt. The Gulf on a CD36 sounds excellent to me! I won't be back aboard until mid-March, myself, so won't post any new pics until then, probably. You'll find plenty of my old ones in several Cruising Corner topics: 2013-Cruising the San Juans Again (my second year of extended saltwater cruising); 2014-Salish Sea Cruising 2014 and then Salish Sea Again; 2015-Return to the Salish Sea and then Return to the Salish Sea II; plus this one for 2016. If you read the commentary I hope you will find me growing some as a cruiser. I have plenty more learning and growing to do. In my "retirement" (release to living?) cruising is now my reference for the "real world." To mention it again, consider reading the short piece titled the 200£ Millionnaire online, if you can find it. The photo below is of returning to being on the hook, as I prefer when cruising, on 3/1/15, Friday Harbor WA. The sunrise of my 2015 cruising year. Looks like I had enough wind to sail from anchor.

[David Patterson]

Clearly chafing to be back aboard (in less than a month, hopefully) my preparations and studies keep me from feeling too shore bound. Almost. I begin to anticipate possible wildlife sightings while on my desired cruising grounds: various bears, one wolf species, even rarely seen mountain lions are possible on land; whales, seals, sea lions, fishes, the diving birds, and the occasional truly unusual creature in the waters. Among those is the legendary big creature allegedly seen in Belleisle Sound, back in the mid 1970s. Bill Proctor, in his fascinating 2003 book Full Moon Flood Tide, reports the tale while suggesting that it probably was the mysterious and infrequently seen Pacific sleeper shark. The unattributed photo below is of one I think seen in Puget Sound. They can get up to 23-25 feet in length...the length of my little pocket cruiser. How fortunate I would feel to see one, back in some isolated inlet. By reputation they are indolent and voracious, preferring giant octopus and deep sea squid, but actually dietarily indiscriminate. No reports of human consumption. [Come to think of it, I have a friend who seems similarly oriented. At least I THINK he doesn't engage in "the custom of the sea!"] Anyway, wildlife sightings tend to be a major feature of my cruising. I may have to settle for orcas, and minke and grey whales. But I'll keep an eye out for the "legendary big creature" in Belleisle Sound. If I even get there, that is. Meanwhile....

[David Patterson]

The urge to be back aboard strengthens, as though a spring sap rising in the spirit. Here is a photo from one year ago, which has previously been posted. Shipyard Cove is in a protected corner of Friday Harbor, with a good and functional yard for a spring haulout. Last year I was aboard by 2/17 and soon hauled out, then back at anchor right after. The usually mild San Juans weather, with cool moist air over the warmer seawater, often engenders sea fog, though nothing like in October. Below is a sunrise in Shipyard Cove. This year the three week journey of land visits back across the continent begins tomorrow. Arrival aboard will be a month later than in 2015. The salt tang of the air is almost present, as are the cries of the waking gulls.

[Sea Hunt Video]

David:

You are a wordsmith And a damn good one

I am looking forward to another season of great photo posts and comments.

[David Patterson]

Roberto, you've liked both some of my photos and my commentaries at times. I hope you'll tell me if I put together a significant passage or a cruise that you respect, too. A trifecta for me then. I've enjoyed your appreciations. They matter. Thanks, David

[David Patterson]

Cruising now includes, for me, the process of getting to my cruising grounds and of the world surrounding them. Also, my readings enhance the richness. From mid-continent (Columbia MO) only the reading doesn't seem far away. A few years ago I transcribed a sailing journal lent by a friend. I have her permission to share it here, but have yet to get it scanned. Here is a representative page, from near the end of the cruise. Imagine you are 17 and inexperienced, while your buddy is 20 or 21 and can shoot a noon sight. Often, he gets it right. It's 1932 and a two month cruise from Long Island Sound to Jacksonville FL has been planned. The craft? A wooden 24' gaff-rigged sloop with a "balloon" and a small square sail, along with the usual rig. 23' on the waterline, 7 1/2' beam, 4 1/2' draft, and only about 3 1/2' of headroom. Age? Indeterminate. The route? Off-shore, east of Montauk and around Hatteras, one of the most dangerous capes in the world, against the Stream, then with the Stream on the return. No ICW available, I assume. You are signed on as the cook. Not that you can. Watch on watch leads to near sleep-walking states at times. ... Enjoy this page, and I'll work to get a link to the rest of the log.
***[Here is the link, I believe, to the Log of SNUG, from Jack Hull. The copyright is held by Jaci Hull. I'm sharing it here with her permission. The log is water-damaged and indistinctly written in pencil. My transcription may include errors. I'm grateful to have had a chance to work with it. https://db.tt/tvfjVKrx]

[David Patterson]

Yearnings. Below is my 25D CLOUD GIRL in harbor dress, Reid Harbor, Stuart Island, San Juan Archipelago, the last day of summer in 2012. My youngest daughter and I had the harbor almost to ourselves, after the tourist season. On March 1st of 2013 I was back here, after tacking in with Force 5 (even gusting to Force 6) winds against my course. Reid is a superior anchorage in all but the chilly northerlies I had that day, probably. Even then, once we moored under sail on our first try with two of us aboard, there was no fetch to deal with at the north end of the harbor. My 18 yo grandson, aboard for the first time that March, said "I thought we were gonna die," after we got below next to the heater. He thought I was getting too close to shore on each tack. I admitted I was really trusting the boat to come about smartly, given our good speed even though reefed. Now he wants winds I would rather not sail in at all. Upper Force 2 SE in the photo. I'm still weeks away from being aboard in 2016, so I content myself with looking back. Not that it really satisfies.