Back to Friday Harbor

Poor F&F got rousted from a sound sleep so we could make it down Speiden Channel past Limestone Pt before the strong ebb kicked in at 0630. The reward was yet another fine sail across to Jones Island, where we spent a leisurely morning eating pancakes, hiking, and reading. After an early lunch, we reluctantly raised the anchor and set off on F&F's final sail toward Friday Harbor, where they had to catch the afternoon ferry back to B'ham. Fred took the helm the whole way, easily passing the only other boat headed the same direction under sail. In 6 days of sailing, we averaged a little over one hour per day motoring!

Friday Harbor to Roche Harbor

We drove to American Camp right after breakfast and had some great wildlife sightings. First, a fox stopped to groom itself right in the road. Later, we watched two distinctively colored coyotes pouncing on rodents in the large prairie behind Pickett's Beach. They had a lot of black fur and one had a white tip on its tail.
We returned the rental car, cast off the docklines, and caught the last of the ebb tide down toward Cattle Pass, crossing tacks with two other E38s (Nordic Pearl and ?). We didn't quite make it through the pass before it turned to flood, so we motored on through and across the Inner Passage toward Haro.
Sailing once again, we soon spotted the telltale signs of nearby orcas (namely, scads of little inflatables filled with tourists all zipping toward the same spot). Poor whales, they never get much privacy. We saw several females with babies, and finally a large male.
The sailing was pretty good, so we elected to continue on past Roche and on to Reid Harbor on Stuart Island. We got there in time for an early dinner and a 6-mi roundtrip hike to Turn Pt Lighthouse. A cute baby harbor seal was floating around like a little football in the kelp at the point.
The next morning we tried to time our crossing to Roche, but still ended up fighting current across Speiden Channel and had to motor the last bit. Roche was full of the usual chaos, but we enjoyed the scene (and Fred really enjoyed seeing so many floatplanes). We went ashore for "colors" at sunset, and poor Chica freaked out when they fired the toy cannon. Day done, peace reigned again, and we had fun getting beaten at Farkel by Fred.

Bellingham to Friday Harbor

We rejoined Southern Cross on the 16th, with good friends Faye and Fred along for a few days. They really brought good luck in terms of weather and sailing conditions! Wednesday we started motoring out of Bellingham Bay against the typical headwind and chop, but after pulling even with Fairhaven we were able to raise sails and make Hale Passage in a single tack. Wind died partway through Hale, but only for awhile, and then we had a wonderful reach past Pt. Migley and all the way to Matia. Rolfe Cove was full, but we dropped the hook in the next cove to the south and had it all to ourselves. Enjoyed a nice walk among Matia's stately trees and the first of many glorious sunsets.
The next morning, we were rockin' and rollin' thanks to some sloppy waves from the Strait of Georgia, so we headed out without breakfast and bashed our way toward Pt Doughty. Conditions moderated after we closed with Orcas, and we ate breakfast and had a nice sail down President Channel, then past Jones Island into SJ Channel. We anchored briefly off Yellow Island so F&F could explore a bit. The caretaker keeps "banker's hours" so F&F had to cool their heels on the beach to wait for the opening bell (10AM).
We pulled into a slip in Friday Harbor so Mark could check in with his students and make sure the 1st mid-term was going smoothly (he's teaching 2 online classes this summer). All being well, we rented a car and headed across the island to check out a house high above Haro Strait belonging to some of F&F's neighbors. Wow! What a view.
Back on the dock, we watched the boaters next to us feeding herring to a female harbor seal named "Popeye".

A star is born!

It was a nice surprise to open the new (August) edition of Lats and Atts and turn to p. 67! This picture was from an earlier post on this blog.

passage to Bellingham

Early June did not provide any good opportunities to head north. At several points there were gale force winds and high seas. Finally got a window of good weather and headed across the bar on Wednesday the 18th, with Mike and Doug as crew. We sailed a fair bit into the early evening, but got pushed too close onshore and had to motor NW from off of Long Beach. Got a good view of Rainier with alpenglow just before sunset. Passed the outer buoy for Gray's Harbor at 11PM. Motored most of the night. In the morning the wind picked up from the SW so we doused the engine. Detoured to make a close pass by Destruction Island so we could visit the sea otters. Wind dropped as we approached Cape Flattery, so we motored through Hole in the Wall. Water temperature dropped as low as 36.7 degrees near Cape Flattery! Fueled up and spent Thursday night in Neah Bay.
Friday morning we pulled out about 6:30 and headed down the Strait. Lots of inbound shipping, but we finally made a break across the shipping lanes, hoping to find more favorable current on the northern side of the Strait. Close reached on SE wind for a time; also had a nice encounter with a pod of Dall's porpoises. Tide finally turned in our favor near Sooke, and we had a nice drift past Race Rocks. Wind filled in a bit from the W, so we ran wing and wing, headed for Cattle Pass. Picked up a buoy at Turn Island (just S of Friday Hbr) for Friday night.
Saturday morning was another early departure, to try to get across Rosario before a strong mid-morning ebb. Went through Peavine, around N side of Sinclair and rounded Carter Pt on Lummi. Fueled up, pumped out, and tied up to a guest slip in Squalicum.

passage to Astoria

Took the boat downriver to Astoria over Labor Day weekend. The Columbia was so high that we had to request the I-5 bridge be lifted, for the first time in our 7 years on the river. We spent Friday night tied up to the inside of the north dock at Sand Island, which was well protected by a debris barrier. Across the channel, St. Helens marina had its hands full pulling debris jams away from the docks. We spent Saturday in the marina at Cathlamet, after a lot of good sailing, especially downriver from Longview. We pulled into Astoria early on Sunday and headed home after visiting the Astoria Farmer's Market.

Will sailing season ever begin?

The bigger question: when will "repair season" be over? In preparation for what we had hoped would be an extended cruise to Mexico, we replaced our standing rigging and mast wiring last year. Afterwards, our masthead wind instrument was DOA, and we had a nasty leak at the partners. The first problem is still being worked on, and I finally fixed the leak by re-bedding all the screws in the deck plate surrounding the mast. We also replaced our 2-blade MaxProp with a reconditioned 3-blade prop, to reduce vibration. While hauled, we had a minor blister repaired, and a void near the rudder post filled. The exhaust thru-hull was found to be cracked and was also replaced at this time.
After a great cruising season, we had a stainless rail welded on both sides of the cockpit, in order to attach solar panels and bimini. We had a new bimini built and replaced our dodger canvas and windows.
The coup de grace to our cruising plans was the discovery that the engine problems we had long suffered with turned out to be more serious than we had thought. After long deliberation, we opted to re-power with a new engine, transmission, and panel. The new exhaust thru-hull had to be replaced with a slightly larger diameter, per the new engine specs. But there was another surprise in store! Now it turns out we are overpropped, and we are having our "new" 3-blade MaxProp cut down by PYI. This was a real puzzler, as the transmission ratios and torque curves for the old and new engines were supposedly nearly identical.
So Mexico is off for this year. With any luck we'll at least get to cruise BC again this summer.