Read to the end because day 5 got really interesting.
My wife had a desperate need to go to Arizona and hug some grandkiddo’s but I thought i wound have too much work.
Tuns out i am also free so I have up to 13-days to go on a solo cruise. The itinerary is no itinerary. check the wind each day and let it decide where to go.
Day-1 sailed with spinnaker and wing-on-wing after the wind got to over 12-kts from Oak Harbor to Greenbank for a roadstead anchorage in 15-kts.
Day-2 I sailed back to OH to get the charger for my computer and then down to Freeland to meet a client for a site inspection on an building I engineered. Anchoring in Freeland is never very fun with 20-kts wind and a lot of fetch. We were hobby-horsing through 30º-40º.
Day-3 After motoring on glassy water out of Holmes Harbor, I sailed the spinnaker down to Possession Point and then close reached to my planned stop at Kingston. Looking at DeepZoom and Windy, I saw that the next day looked awful for the central PS with adverse currents on no wind. So just as I crossed the ferry terminal, I did an about face and beat into 15-kts with a slight adverse current to Port Ludlow.
Day-4 I found that the drum on my 2-year-old Harken Mk IV had broken, and the sail could not be rotated either way so I motored to Port Townsend to see what I might be able to cobble together. I planned to lash the two halves together with some Dyneema lashing line I have but needed to be able to reach it from a dock given that Papillon has a bow sprit. I get into a slip and remove the cage so that I can access the drum but as I pulled away the cage, one half of lower flange assembly decides this a good day for a swim. One of the Port guys just happened to be walking by, heard the “splash”, and said, “I hope that wasn’t important”. Given that the tide was currently at -1-ft, I asked how deep the water was. He told me that it is 9’ at a 0’-tide. Great! I can free dive 8’ without problem. In I go in swim trunks mask and fins and make a good decent. I probably made it down to something over 10’ but the water was so turbid that at that depth all light was gone, and I had not reached the bottom. I had another boater spotting me and he suggested dropping my anchor down to help in going down to the bottom. Well, the depth was not the advertised 9’. The anchor did not touch until it was nearly 20’ and that is more that I want to try free diving with docks overhead. So much for the rest of my cruise. Just on a lark, I decided to see if there were any consignment shops or thrift stores in the boat yard. No luck but one of them suggested I try Port Townsend Rigging. After telling my tail of woe he went on a search and found that his boat show demo rig had a Mk IV unit 1 furler. A quick call to harken to ensure that he could get the replacement part before the next boat show, and I was the happy owner of a slightly used but in perfect condition lover flange assembly. The cruise is back on baby! $15 for a 4-hour stay to fix the furler, shower and fill the tanks and out to the anchorage for a peaceful night's sleep.
Oh wait, it blew 15-20-kts with gusts to 35. At least the 35-lb Mantus did not move an inch.
Day-5 Boat Watch - Live View (boatbeaconapp.com)
It was an eventful day.
I left PT at 0900 and set sail in 10kts from 22º and two-tacked out of PT until I could lay Pt Wilson. That is when I ran into the fog. It was maybe 100-yard visibility and the last thing that I saw was one of the high-speed cat excursion boats fly into the bank at 36-knts. I had already seen 4 sailboats sail into that back before it came from the clear blue. He started blowing his beep horn and then it was answered by the "Big Ben" of fog horns. They did the dueling horns bit for a few cycles. On my AIS, I could see that Big Ben was a 1025' container ship making 25kts inbound and mister beep, beep was heading nose to nose with him. After a few more cycles of HOOOOONNNKKK - beeeeep, Big Ben had had enough and gave beep a 5-blast. After that beep changed directions. I am sure that the pilot on Big Ben had a conversation with Seattle Traffic. Here is Big Ben coming out of the fog.
After that excitement, I was very glad to be heading west along the shore and soon my visibility to the south opened up and I could see ahead and to the south. The problem was that with the fog, so went the wind and I needed to motor. I originally planned to go south of Protection Island because I thought I would have more than enough wind a could use a little "Protection". But hoping for a breeze to eventually fill in, I held north to get a better angle once it showed up and that is exactly what happened. Just as I was clearing the shoals a night NNW 10-kts showed up and I was able to broad reach all the way to the mouth of the channel into Sequim Bay. The conditions were so nice that I rolled up the genoa and sailed into Sequim Bay at a 0' rising tide with 3-kts of current. At the 90º turn, I got nervous and started the engine and sailed with it running but in neutral so that I could use it if needed. The current and light wind on the main was making me go as fast as I was comfortable with given the low tide.
Once inside, I saw a local showing off his spinnaker and figured it must be "Showoff Day" so out came the star for a nice run down to the Sequim Bay state campground where I dropped the anchor.
I figured that this would be the end of the excitement for the say so went to shore for a nice 8-mile hike.
But not quite so fast. There is the matter of this little run north.
After my hike, I was reading my messages, minding my own business when I hear
"Pan Pan..., All stations..., Any vessels in Sequim Bay..., this is the US Coastguard. We have received a distress call reporting, 10-12 persons in the water due east of John Wayne Marina."
Well, that got my attention. I waited about 10-15 seconds and no one else seemed to be responding so I returned the call stating that I was a sailboat at anchor at Sequim Bay State Park. They asked if I was able to respond and I informed them that I could haul anchor and proceed north at my best speed of 6-kts if needed. They informed me that my assistance would be greatly appreciated. So up comes the anchor and off I go at WOT making 6.4-kts. As I motored north, I had several more messages from the USCG as to what, when, where. They also informed me that a SAR helicopter had been dispatched from NAS-Whidbey. When I was halfway up I noticed an aluminum landing craft type of vessel and since it was on the way to the search area, I headed that way to enlist aid in the search given that it was a much faster boat and was set up to retrieve cold immobile things from the water.
As I got closer, I could see what looked like 10-12 people with towels around them in the front of the boat and figured they must be the MOB's I was looking for. As I pulled up next to the boat, I asked if they were the folks reported in the water. I was cheerfully told by one of the blanket wrapped ladies that they were a canoeing team and out practicing cold water survival and recovery and that the boat was their support boat and that everything had gone wonderfully. I informed them "The USCG would be glad to hear that." About that time the NAS-Whidbey bright red SAR helicopter started circling overhead. It was fun to watch all of the smiles turn to worry.
I reported to the USCG that they were a canoeing team practicing cold water survival and recovery and had been picked up by their support boat. I was asked if I could request the captain of the support boat to call the following number....
Somebodies ganna be in trouble!
Tomorrow, I head north crossing JdF from Dungeness Spit to Cattle Pass. The forecast is for west 13-20kts so should be a fun broad reach. I might even need to make use of my 1st and 2nd single line reefing which can be done from the cockpit single handed.
My wife had a desperate need to go to Arizona and hug some grandkiddo’s but I thought i wound have too much work.
Tuns out i am also free so I have up to 13-days to go on a solo cruise. The itinerary is no itinerary. check the wind each day and let it decide where to go.
Day-1 sailed with spinnaker and wing-on-wing after the wind got to over 12-kts from Oak Harbor to Greenbank for a roadstead anchorage in 15-kts.
Day-2 I sailed back to OH to get the charger for my computer and then down to Freeland to meet a client for a site inspection on an building I engineered. Anchoring in Freeland is never very fun with 20-kts wind and a lot of fetch. We were hobby-horsing through 30º-40º.
Day-3 After motoring on glassy water out of Holmes Harbor, I sailed the spinnaker down to Possession Point and then close reached to my planned stop at Kingston. Looking at DeepZoom and Windy, I saw that the next day looked awful for the central PS with adverse currents on no wind. So just as I crossed the ferry terminal, I did an about face and beat into 15-kts with a slight adverse current to Port Ludlow.
Day-4 I found that the drum on my 2-year-old Harken Mk IV had broken, and the sail could not be rotated either way so I motored to Port Townsend to see what I might be able to cobble together. I planned to lash the two halves together with some Dyneema lashing line I have but needed to be able to reach it from a dock given that Papillon has a bow sprit. I get into a slip and remove the cage so that I can access the drum but as I pulled away the cage, one half of lower flange assembly decides this a good day for a swim. One of the Port guys just happened to be walking by, heard the “splash”, and said, “I hope that wasn’t important”. Given that the tide was currently at -1-ft, I asked how deep the water was. He told me that it is 9’ at a 0’-tide. Great! I can free dive 8’ without problem. In I go in swim trunks mask and fins and make a good decent. I probably made it down to something over 10’ but the water was so turbid that at that depth all light was gone, and I had not reached the bottom. I had another boater spotting me and he suggested dropping my anchor down to help in going down to the bottom. Well, the depth was not the advertised 9’. The anchor did not touch until it was nearly 20’ and that is more that I want to try free diving with docks overhead. So much for the rest of my cruise. Just on a lark, I decided to see if there were any consignment shops or thrift stores in the boat yard. No luck but one of them suggested I try Port Townsend Rigging. After telling my tail of woe he went on a search and found that his boat show demo rig had a Mk IV unit 1 furler. A quick call to harken to ensure that he could get the replacement part before the next boat show, and I was the happy owner of a slightly used but in perfect condition lover flange assembly. The cruise is back on baby! $15 for a 4-hour stay to fix the furler, shower and fill the tanks and out to the anchorage for a peaceful night's sleep.
Oh wait, it blew 15-20-kts with gusts to 35. At least the 35-lb Mantus did not move an inch.
Day-5 Boat Watch - Live View (boatbeaconapp.com)
It was an eventful day.
I left PT at 0900 and set sail in 10kts from 22º and two-tacked out of PT until I could lay Pt Wilson. That is when I ran into the fog. It was maybe 100-yard visibility and the last thing that I saw was one of the high-speed cat excursion boats fly into the bank at 36-knts. I had already seen 4 sailboats sail into that back before it came from the clear blue. He started blowing his beep horn and then it was answered by the "Big Ben" of fog horns. They did the dueling horns bit for a few cycles. On my AIS, I could see that Big Ben was a 1025' container ship making 25kts inbound and mister beep, beep was heading nose to nose with him. After a few more cycles of HOOOOONNNKKK - beeeeep, Big Ben had had enough and gave beep a 5-blast. After that beep changed directions. I am sure that the pilot on Big Ben had a conversation with Seattle Traffic. Here is Big Ben coming out of the fog.
After that excitement, I was very glad to be heading west along the shore and soon my visibility to the south opened up and I could see ahead and to the south. The problem was that with the fog, so went the wind and I needed to motor. I originally planned to go south of Protection Island because I thought I would have more than enough wind a could use a little "Protection". But hoping for a breeze to eventually fill in, I held north to get a better angle once it showed up and that is exactly what happened. Just as I was clearing the shoals a night NNW 10-kts showed up and I was able to broad reach all the way to the mouth of the channel into Sequim Bay. The conditions were so nice that I rolled up the genoa and sailed into Sequim Bay at a 0' rising tide with 3-kts of current. At the 90º turn, I got nervous and started the engine and sailed with it running but in neutral so that I could use it if needed. The current and light wind on the main was making me go as fast as I was comfortable with given the low tide.
Once inside, I saw a local showing off his spinnaker and figured it must be "Showoff Day" so out came the star for a nice run down to the Sequim Bay state campground where I dropped the anchor.
I figured that this would be the end of the excitement for the say so went to shore for a nice 8-mile hike.
But not quite so fast. There is the matter of this little run north.
After my hike, I was reading my messages, minding my own business when I hear
"Pan Pan..., All stations..., Any vessels in Sequim Bay..., this is the US Coastguard. We have received a distress call reporting, 10-12 persons in the water due east of John Wayne Marina."
Well, that got my attention. I waited about 10-15 seconds and no one else seemed to be responding so I returned the call stating that I was a sailboat at anchor at Sequim Bay State Park. They asked if I was able to respond and I informed them that I could haul anchor and proceed north at my best speed of 6-kts if needed. They informed me that my assistance would be greatly appreciated. So up comes the anchor and off I go at WOT making 6.4-kts. As I motored north, I had several more messages from the USCG as to what, when, where. They also informed me that a SAR helicopter had been dispatched from NAS-Whidbey. When I was halfway up I noticed an aluminum landing craft type of vessel and since it was on the way to the search area, I headed that way to enlist aid in the search given that it was a much faster boat and was set up to retrieve cold immobile things from the water.
As I got closer, I could see what looked like 10-12 people with towels around them in the front of the boat and figured they must be the MOB's I was looking for. As I pulled up next to the boat, I asked if they were the folks reported in the water. I was cheerfully told by one of the blanket wrapped ladies that they were a canoeing team and out practicing cold water survival and recovery and that the boat was their support boat and that everything had gone wonderfully. I informed them "The USCG would be glad to hear that." About that time the NAS-Whidbey bright red SAR helicopter started circling overhead. It was fun to watch all of the smiles turn to worry.
I reported to the USCG that they were a canoeing team practicing cold water survival and recovery and had been picked up by their support boat. I was asked if I could request the captain of the support boat to call the following number....
Somebodies ganna be in trouble!
Tomorrow, I head north crossing JdF from Dungeness Spit to Cattle Pass. The forecast is for west 13-20kts so should be a fun broad reach. I might even need to make use of my 1st and 2nd single line reefing which can be done from the cockpit single handed.
