Back in the USA
15 August 2015 | Blind Bay, Shaw Is, WA
Richard
With a new moon only a couple of days ago, the tidal currents were running strongly today and, unfortunately, mostly against me, which added an extra hour to the time it took me to get from Montague Harbour in BC to Friday Harbor in Washington. At Friday Harbor I tied up to the Customs dock to report my arrival, then left for the anchorage at Blind Bay on Shaw Island.
I untied my dock lines to leave the customs dock just as a 120-foot yacht began maneuvering into the dock, using bow and stern thrusters to slide sideways toward a space that was just about large enough to fit. It wasn't until I'd untied two of Osprey's three dock lines that I realized the megayacht was already quite close, leaving me little maneuvering room. But I saw that several bow and stern deck hands were watching me, and it seemed that they'd have more room if I left first.
So I yelled to two deck hands on the stern, "Which way would you like me to go?" as I pointed to their bow and their stern. In response, one pointed to toward the stern and the other pointed toward the bow. Not much help.
But then someone, probably the captain, stepped out of the bridge deck and offered, "Go around the bow." I could see from the thruster turbulence that someone in the bridge was maneuvering the bow away enough to give me plenty of passage room.
"Sorry, but I thought you'd want the extra space, I called out to the captain.
He smiled and replied, "No problem." As I passed the tall bow, I offered another "sorry" to the tanned deck hand who was standing there, and received another smiling "no problem" in return.
My plan is to enter Puget Sound tomorrow, stopping in Port Ludlow for the night, then finished the trip with my return to Seattle on Monday. Currents are running too strongly, and the timing is off, for a comfortable run all the way from here to Seattle in one day.