Photo: Jigger on the bow of Osprey

"We should leave on Friday, not Saturday," Steve told me as he sorted charts on the dining room table. "Otherwise, it will be a push to make it to Nanaimo by the 17th."

One problem, Friday, the day Steve was proposing to leave for our fourth trip to Southeast Alaska, was a Friday the 13th. Sailors are a superstitious lot with various odd beliefs. Leaving on a voyage on a Friday is a no-no, let alone a Friday the 13th. Painting a boat green is another one -- a green boat will be attracted to green trees and therefore be susceptible to running aground. And black cats are just generally bad luck. Of course, we don't believe these, otherwise we would have passed Jigger by at the animal shelter in favor of a gray or brown cat and we wouldn't have painted Osprey that beautiful green. Still, leaving on Friday the 13th might be pushing our luck.

We had put ourselves in the position of thinking we had to leave on Friday the 13th by breaking one of the other rules of good sailing -- never commit to a schedule ahead of time. I had agreed to do two events for my Alaska book, Glaciers, Bears and Totems , on our trip north: the first at Nanaimo on May 17, and the second at Comox on May 19th (both on the east coast of Vancouver Island.) Faced with the possibility of missing an event, or having to sail into a storm, I reluctantly agreed.

Friday the 13th arrived and amazingly, we were ready to go. The tide turned to ebb at about 2:30 in the afternoon so we planned to leave about 1:30. We would sail to Port Townsend, anchor there for the night, and cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the last of the morning ebb.

We spent Friday morning packing the boat. As I worked onboard, I kept glancing at Osprey's anemometer. The wind was from the north, against us, and I didn't want it to be too strong. At first it was 10-12 knots, no big deal. By 1:00 it blew 17-18 knots with gusts to 20. By 1:30 gusts of 25 knots were sending halyards tapping against masts all around the marina.

"This isn't going to be fun," muttered Steve as he watched the anemometer climb to 27, 28, then 30 knots.

We listened to the weather report. The wind was predicted to go down after 7 pm. By then, of course, the tide would be starting to turn against us.

"Let's just get up at 1:00 am," said Steve. We can catch the early morning tide. It's stronger and we can ride it out Puget Sound and across the Strait."

And that's what we did. We left on Saturday, May 14 at 2:00 am. The winds had indeed decreased and a ½ moon glowed through thin clouds. We motored through the early morning and raised sail in Rosario Strait off San Juan Island, arriving in Bedwell Harbour for Canadian Customs at 2:00 pm. It would be an easy trip to Nanaimo from there.

It was a relief to know I didn't have to wonder what bad luck we might encounter on the rest of the trip because of leaving on Friday the 13th.