Tacoma Narrows

[Hayden Watson]

If southerlies are blowing, I would stay off shores of partridge bank as seas can get very choppy. Stay close to Smith Is and time so slack is when you arrive at Smith. If the southerlies are blowing with a good flood, keep east of pt. Wilson. Waters around pt. Wilson can get real gnarly.

I know the northern waters very well at this time of year after more than a dozen Round Whidbey Races so none of that area is of concern. In a true southerly or the more common SSE breeze, it is best to stay close to Whidbey to make use of the flatter water in the lee of the island. I head out close to Smith on light air days to get a bit more wind speed. 4/4 is forecast to have NW at 0-5 knots so it will be a motor on the old mill pond. In our case, the only thing going for that route is the current that will be with us except for an hour or two from Partridge Pt south where we will hug the Whidbey shore to play the eddies. By the time we get to Marrowstone we should be able to jump out into the middle of the channel and get and extra 2-3 knots most of the rest of day 1.

This will be very strange for me because it will be the first time I have ever motored down the west side of Whidbey and Admiralty Inlet. I have drifted down it forward, backward, around and around in the Marrowstone eddy. (right John?)

The southerlies come in on day 2 which will be south sound where I am not familiar. The forecast has moderated and now is showing a max of 10 knots so there will be limited sailing given that it will be against the ebb current.

I am hoping to get some wind on this trip because the new owner of the boat has never sailed, and I am hoping to get some instruction under actual sailing conditions.

 

[jssailem]

Correct Hayden. I seem to remember a nice spinnaker run down the west side of Whidbey. We rounded Partridge point and did fine till we visited Marrowstone. We observed that other boat if the drift and yet we followed the same path. I remember getting a great nap so I could enjoy the evening run up Possession Sound.

My look at the near time weather in the North Sound.
looking at the 4th:
Chilly, temps 46-51 F. Calm overcast in the AM. Wind out of the NW 6knts about 1530. Westerly Swell in the Juan D Fuca 0.2 m at 6sec. Ride the breeze into the evening hours.
the 5th:
Break out the Foulies. Wind out of the SW 10 Gust to 20. Breezes dying out about 1700. Rain, Pretty much all day into the evening hours.

Mark is right. Anytime you have wind driven waves against a strong tidal current there will be disturbing waters. Pt Wilson can looks like a washing machine with short steep waves that appear to be coming from all directions.

 

[nightowle]

carefully watch your depth going into Gig H. if that's where you land. Once inside stay mostly in the middle. For a short overnight, I usually don't go too far into the harbor anchoring close to the Tides restaurant, but sometimes if we're there for a couple of nights we'll head to the western end anchoring in the area off of Anthony's Restaurant. Eagle H. is fine for anchoring once you pass the ferry terminal. Just past there is the city dock. Boats are allowed to raft up. Bathrooms and showers are available and it's a short walk up to the main commercial street.

 

[Hayden Watson]

Thanks for the help. We made the delivery on the 4th and 5th and the boat is now safely in its home harbor. No real problems along the way other than the engine dying just as we started the turn into the thoroughfare to his slip. The new owner was going to attempt his first docking in a slip and that was not a good beginning. The idle setting on the engine is just a bit too low.

For the Narrows, we went down the west edge following the 60' line and got good current relief and even a slight push until we reached the red "4" at Point Evans. Then in a boat length, we went from 7.2kts to 2.5kts. We then angled out into the current over to the east side. We pointed out the east pylon but our tract was directly under the high-tension lines as we slide across at 90º to the flow making 2.8kts over ground with about 6.5kts of boat speed. The east side was not much help with our speed staying under 3.5 kts all the way to a point due east of the southern tip of Fox Is where we angled back across to Balch Passage. In hind sight, we should have stayed on the western shore all the way through the Narrows. We had been about a mile ahead of a tug and barge (AIS indicated we were traveling at the same speed) all the way down Clovos Passage and actually increased our lead by hugging the west shore heading down to "4". They continued down the west side and were even with us after we came back west to Andersen Is.
@MikeHoncho thanks for the tip on the south side of Blakely Harbor. It was a great place to stop and the evening was perfect.

 

[MikeHoncho]

Great to hear. I had the same view the first time I stayed there then someone anchored right in front of me blocking it. You went from Blakely to Olympia in one day it sounds like. Not difficult if motoring.

 

[Hayden Watson]

It was a delivery with a need to git-r-done, so we motored all the way except for a bit done admiralty when the breeze came up to about 15 knots. the Main was up all of day one to use what ever help we could get and while motoring I did some training and practice on proper reefing technique. When the breeze filled in we unrolled the genoa and sailed for a while. During this time we ran through all of the points of sail because the new owner of the boat had never even been on a sailboat away from the dock before we left. I had recently inherited the boat from a family member and needed to get it to home water so that he could learn how to use it.
Day two was not as fun a day one given that the temperature dropped about 10º and it rained the whole day. I also found that I need to retire my foulies! But that is another story.

 

[MikeHoncho]

You tend not to know when to retire them until you really know because your wet

 

[Hayden Watson]

yep. I am not sure where it was coming in but I was wet from my left wrist to my left knee. My right half was completely dry. The bad part is that the only store I know of within about 30 miles that stocks foul weather gear is West Marine and the
Anacortes store only stocks the WM brand. I like to try them on before I buy so that means that I might need to go to Seattle Fisheries to get any kind of selection.

 

[MikeHoncho]

What a lot of people don’t know is you have to wash Gortex and Gortex like membrane fabrics with the proper detergent. Normal laundry detergent degrades the membrane. I use Nicwax Tech Wash.

 

[Hayden Watson]

Wash foulies?!?!? I thought that was what the rain was for!

 

[jssailem]

When the Foulies are on sale, you can get a decent pair at WM.
I enjoy the Third Reef Jacket and Bibbs. Have kept me dry for 4 winters. Granted they were not used much in 2020.

Congrats on the safe delivery. Interesting that the motor waited till the slip to stop. May we assume the eveloution went with out incedent?

Through the Narrows... Do you feel the distance added by the west to east then east to west crossing of the current was the cause of the Tug catching up to you?

 

[Hayden Watson]

When the Foulies are on sale, you can get a decent pair at WM.
I enjoy the Third Reef Jacket and Bibbs. Have kept me dry for 4 winters. Granted they were not used much in 2020.

Congrats on the safe delivery. Interesting that the motor waited till the slip to stop. May we assume the eveloution went with out incedent?

Through the Narrows... Do you feel the distance added by the west to east then east to west crossing of the current was the cause of the Tug catching up to you?

Last question first, yes , our increase in speed over bottom was no match for the greater distance covered. We were tracking the tug on AIS and while we were faster, it was only about 1/2knot advantage so we would have been significantly better on the other side because we probably added about 2 miles to our distance traveled.

On foulies, my first set was WM Nautical Gear and it lasted about 5 years before the seams started to leak and I went shopping for new. My next set was Slam and they felt sooooo much better to wear. I never felt like I was in a sauna and they kept me warm and dry on the long night runs in the rain that we sometimes do. They moved well and were comfortable every time I wore them. That was 12 years ago and this is the first time I had a leak.

Now about that motor dying thing.
Yes, the motor dying with 20 yards left in a 110 nm delivery was very interesting. After further analysis, we made it to the dock by the grace of God. As I said, when we dropped to idle, the engine died which should not be a problem. Increase the throttle and mash the starter button... Except, no joy. The engine turns over but very, VERY slowly. No problem, the owner had with us a commercial grade lithium jump pack, so he goes down to connect it to the batteries and now it fires right up and I dock without further incident. The new owner had planned to do the docking but the engine incident had rather filled his system with an excess of adrenaline.
Given that it was pouring rain and we still needed to drive back to Anacortes, we plugged in shore power to charge the batteries, closed up the boat and left the trouble shooting for another day. On Saturday, he got back and started looking things over and found that the alternator belt was loose to the point of nearly falling off, with significant wear to the belt. The belt was jumping around so badly that it had worn a hole into the raw water hose between the sea strainer and the raw water pump. He still has no idea what might have caused the problem. The adjuster bolt was tight so it is unlikely that the belt got loose from the adjuster slipping. That might indicate that the problem was increased drag which caused slipping and wear to the point where it became loose but we were both down below at different times and never smelt any burning belt or heard any squealing.
The investigation continues.

 

[MikeHoncho]

Leaving from Tacoma and normally heading to Penrose, I tend to turn on Point Defiance and track to the west side of the narrows. Returning normally starts on the west side and marine traffic normally cuts to the east south of the bridges then follow the east along Salmon beach.

 

[MikeHoncho]

Regarding foulies. Check out Expert Voice. If you qualify, you can really find some screaming deals. I got the HH ocean jacket and bibsfor 50% off last year. Most limit the deals offered to once a year.

 

[Hayden Watson]

Regarding foulies. Check out Expert Voice. If you qualify, you can really find some screaming deals. I got the HH ocean jacket and bibsfor 50% off last year. Most limit the deals offered to once a year.

What is Expert Voice?

 

[kappykaplan]

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If you're an industry professional, sales associate, or influencer who people trust for advice, ExpertVoice is for you. Here, you can join an elite community who gets exclusive access to your favorite products at up to 60% off MSRP.

 

[MikeHoncho]

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