Day Four July 6, 2010: Bell Harbor to Port Townsend
Departure time: 09:30, Travel time: 8:31, Mileage: 49.73nm, Average Speed: 5.7kts
We woke up to bright sunny skies. The city was just waking up and the smells of city and salt water mixed in a morning breeze. Walking the docks I could smell coffee brewing, a bakery and diesel fumes from a passing truck. I met Tom at the top of the dock coming back from somewhere. We quickly exchanged notes of the plan of the day and went our own ways.
Around 08:30 much to our surprise we got a text saying that Ben was on his way down to the boat and indeed he was coming. By 09:00 everyone was up and Ben was on the boat. Katie was keeping to herself, kind of feeling everything out. By 09:30 we were heading out. Pyxis left about 20 minutes before us. The wind was building. We motored out the little harbor. There was a bit of marine traffic to dodge but nothing to serious. About a mile off we spotted Pyxis with her sails up. Tom was making a go of it under canvas early. I wanted to get out of Elliot Bay and round West Point and see what the wind was doing before raising sail.
We ran out Elliot Bay passing close to a couple of merchant ships lying anchor. One particular ship looked as though she had been at sea for years. Rust stains streaked her hull down every weld. The paint was weathered as she sat at anchor riding high above her water line. The wind was blowing at 10 to 15 kts stretching her two inch anchor chain tight as she pointed to the wind. It took us about 45 minutes to round West Point.

There was a stiff wind blow in the sound, coming from the north which is a little unusual for this time of the year. For some reason in the Puget Sound, if I'm heading north the wind is out of the north and if I'm heading south, it's on my nose. It's so madding. Too bad we were heading into the wind. We set sails and dropped the keel just south of West Point. Cygnet loves to run close to the wind, and so we did. We were making 6 and a half knots good most of the time. There was a bit of fetch in the building seas, so it was a bit bumpy. If we were not trying to go some place it would have been a fantastic day of sailing. But the problem was we need to beat up wind to get to Port Townsend. It was a 37nm run to Port Townsend on a direct route. We beat up wind for over three hours before giving up the ghost and turning on the motor. Sails came down between Pt. Jefferson and President Point south of Kingston. We sailed 17nm to make 6.5nm good, taking us seven tacks to do so. In other words if we were traveling in a straight line we made less than two knots headway. But hey, were on vacation right.
After dropping sail, I looked back to see how Pyxis was doing. She was about 5nm behind us. The wind bends with shape of the land and he was dealing with different wind than we were. It was not long after we drop sail before he did the same and started the north bound trek on the motor. The run was mostly uneventful. Auto had the helm. This allowed us to run around doing whatever. We just posted lookout watches for collision avoidance and debris in the water. Annette loves Auto, because on Auto, she does not have to listen to a nagging husband telling her where and how to helm the boat. Our marriage survives another day.
Our course took us up the west side of Puget Sound. We dodged ferries out of Kingston, fishing boat off of Point No Point and merchant traffic entering into Admiralty Inlet. We ran along the east side of Marrowstone Island, rounded Marrowstone Point and entered Port Townsend. The shadows were growing long when we put in at Port Hudson. It was another 45 minutes before Pyxis crossed the breakwater. Pyxis had opted to go the back side of Marrowstone/Indianola Island and take the Port Townsend Canal. The two crews tied up, showered. Pyxis pretty much kept to themselves for the night. Annette had a classmate and her daughter visit the boat. She brought a bottle of wine which we all enjoyed. After a Mexican food dinner, we all went off to Elevated Ice Cream. We came back and relaxed for the evening. Katie and I watched goofy videos on Ben's I-pad. It was a great way to end a very long day.

Day three, July 5, 2010: Blake Island to Bell Harbor
Departure time: 10:30, Travel time: 1:17, Mileage: 7.24nm, Average Speed: 6.2kts

This morning was like most every morning, which is the way I like it. Get up brush the fuzz off my teeth, making some coffee, log and blog the previous day's adventure. Nice having Tom around. He's up early too and we enjoy coffee together. When we were at Boston Harbor I noticed my anchor light was out. So Alexa was looking for any reason to go up the mast. She loves being a little mast monkey. We sent her aloft in a bowsen's chair. The mast is 55ft tall. She was a little worried at first, but soon she wanted us to hoist faster. She found out the bulb was blow. So she wanted to do some sight seeing and was reluctant to come down the mast. With a little groaning she came down. She brought down the bulb and cap. So now we've added in a trip to go ole West Marine.

By 10:00 we pulled out and headed for Bell Harbor. I was pretty excited to get to Bell Harbor. I knew that my daughter would be there waiting for me. When we got into cell reception, I saw that I had several messages waiting for me. I called and found out that Katie had missed her flight and was on the next flight. She had even called her Granma and let her know all the pertinent information. So she would be in by 12:30, no harm, no foul, all is good. The trip over was uneventful other than it being a little rolly.

Bell Harbor was a great little harbor right down town Seattle. We made port and the sun came out. It was warm in the sun and still a little cool in the shade. My Mom phoned me and let me know that she had Katie and they were in the market doing a little shopping. We all made for the showers having not showered for a couple of days. It was good to knock off the stubble on my face and scrub off the layers of sun screen.

After we cleaned up and headed up to the Market. Michelle and Alexa were hungry and got a bite on the way up to the market. It was take out so we stopped on the stairs on the way up to the Market and people watched as they ate. My Mom called and we said that we would meet at the Pig by the fishmongers on the corner of Pike and Pike Place. I was pretty excited to see my daughter again. It had been sometime since I last saw her. The market was quite packed as usual. But I saw her at once. How can one describe the feeling this is one's own flesh and blood after a long, long sabbatical. I could tell that she was apprehensive as was I. There was some awkwardness kind of like a first date. My Mom was there with her Husband Mike. It was the first time in a while that I had seen Mike. There had been some family drama and because of it we had not seen each other. All in all a pretty weird afternoon.

I could tell my Mom was a little apprehensive and wanted to leave. She said that the meter was running on the car and she only had two hours of parking. So we walked a bit and did a bit of window shopping. Katie and I stuck our heads into the cheese Kurd place and grabbed a couple of samples. Katie said that she was hungry, so we found a restaurant to park her as I went with my Mom and Mike to collect Katie's things. I walked back to my Mom's car with the two of them. Made pleasantries and said good bye. I made a quick trip back to the boat to drop Katie's things and ran back to the market. Katie and Annette were sitting in Vietnamese restaurant. We sat as Katie ate. Tom and Michelle met back up with us.
Afterwards we walked though the market trying all the goodies the vendors were hocking. Katie and I were doing our reunion dance that comes from awkwardness of not seeing each other for a while. I could not stop looking at her. How does a father verbalize how much he loves his daughter? Every time I see her she takes my breath away. Katie will never know how much I love her. I hope to spend the rest of my life showing her.

Tom wanted to show us the "Gum Wall". It's down the stairway by the pig. It's in Post Ally. It was disgusting but kind of cool. We took a couple of photos and hung out for a bit. The girls wanted to do some shopping and the boys did not. So Tom and I went to the Pike Market Brew Pub and had a cold one. A short time later we met up with the girls and started for the boat. Ben had called me and he meet up with us. Back at the boat we sat around in the sun and enjoyed cocktails. Michelle had made reservations at Anthony Pier 66.

We met up with Michelle and Tom at Anthony's on the deck overlooking the harbor and the Seattle cityscape. A friend of Michelle, Selena met us for dinner. Selena was there to take Michelle to the airport. Tom and Michelle had a French foreign exchange student flying in to visit. It was a surprise to Alexa for her birthday which was in a few days. Also the dinner was to celebrate my birthday. After dinner they brought out a dessert, which we all shared. Katie had bought me a Fart Book and Alexa gave me a Whoopee Cushion. How appropriate the gift. To the delight of the Katie and Alex I tested the Whoopee Cushion. I'm sure the other patrons in the restaurant did not appreciate your since of humor.

After dinner we all went back to the boat. Michelle, Alexa and Selena headed to the airport to pickup Clair Sophie. Back on the boat, we enjoyed cocktails in the warm evening air. Ben said that he would have loved to come on our trip. Annette put on a full court press to have him come along with us. After several drinks and a bit of planning, Ben agreed to come with us. He said that he would be on the boat by 09:00. I said that we would leave by 10:00 with or without him. Ben said good night and took off. We all packed it in and closed the hatch boards for the night.

Woke up aging around 07:00. I poked my head above decks. Ringo was in the cockpit making his boat ready. He had to get his buddy back for a family event, so he was heading out early. I helped cast off lines. So I started fiddle farting around, cleaning up the salon and making coffee. I poked my head topside again and Tom was sitting quietly on Pyxis enjoying the morning. I brought up a pot of coffee and we chatted. I went down bellow to make some more coffee when Tom said "someone just fell into the water" So I poke my head up to see what was going on. A tug with an elderly couple had just cast off their raft-mates. She was adjusting fender or something and tumbled over the side. Tom and I rowed over to assist. The Poor woman was so cold and scared she would not let go of the side of the Tug. Her husband had tossed her a life sling, but she was so cold she had trouble putting it on. She was also tangled up on their dinghy's painter. Tom assisted the woman on getting the life sling on and untangled her. The Tug had a boom on it and the old guy was swinging over the boom. Tom got her attached to the boom and the old guy pulled her up. There was a strain on her back so we just sat her down in our dinghy. Poor thing was frozen to the bone. We took her over to the other side of the boat where she could climb back on the tug. We sat there for a few minutes to make sure she was okay. She seemed fine; no harm other than very cold and wet. We said our good bye's and headed back to the boat to finish our coffee.

Tom and I rowed Chloe to shore so she could do what puppies need to do and so did Tom. We picked up a bag of ice and rowed back. Michelle got the boat ready to go, so when we got back Pyxis wade anchor and started the run to Blake Island. We shortly followed suit. The run was uneventful. We made the normal passage up to Blake Island, Dana Pass to Nisqually Reach, Drayton Pass, Balch Pass, up the Narrows, Colvos Pass to Blake Island. We caught up with Pyxis just past Eagle Island. Tom was sailing. My mindset is that I like to make 5kts good with transiting. At this point Tom was making 3kts and we needed to go faster, so we continued to motoring.

Running up Colvos Pass we saw a band of rain coming, so we pulled on our foulies and it started to rain. We had showers off and on the rest of the trip. Coming into Blake Island Marina the docks were all full, but the pilings were all open. Annette and I made for the one on the end. The problem was that the wind that normally blows out of the south was blowing out of the north, pushing us away from pilings. Annette could not quite figure out what I wanted, so we need had to fend off twice. I really nice guy rowed out on his kayak and helped up tie up. Not without trouble and bloodied knuckles. I offered a drink of his choice, but he kindly refused. About a hour after we tied up we got a call from Michelle asking us where we were. I told her and she asked why I did not tell them. I explained that I tried hailing them on the radio, but they did not reply. She sounded a bit miffed but I was okay with that.

Soon Pyxis came into the marina and I helped them with tying up. Everyone was off getting registered and setting up of being in port. Michelle was hunger and decided to go up to the concession stand and see what they had. Tom, Annette and I were enjoying wine on Cygnet when Michelle came back with a bag of goodies, fresh Tillicum bread, and salmon sandwiches, yummy. We ate all the bread and butter, and split the sandwiches drank two bottles of wine and broke into Tom's box wine. It was pissing down rain. We tried to watch fireworks, but the rain make it nearly impossible. At one point five of us were sitting under the dodger. We gave up and went back down. By 23:00 everyone was back on their boats and lights were out.

I woke up on the boat after a pleasant evening with Chuck and Windy. I had gone over to their boat to talk about picking up the Reynolds's life raft. I ended up helping them kill a couple of bottle of wine. What a great start to a much needed vacation. I took my time getting my day started. I knew that Annette would be very late and that I had plenty of time getting my chores done. I took a nice long shower and strolled back to the boat enjoying the sun on my face.

I made an early morning run to Trader Joe's and picked up some provisions. Came back to the boat and stored my goods. I called Windy and she met me at the storage sheds at the top of the docks. We both drug down the raft and secured it to the bars on the coach roof. Shortly after Tom and Michelle came strolling down the docks. They were off for some pizza and to find a cucumber. Annette show up only an hour and a half late. Tom came over and helped unload the car. Annette had three bags of clothes and two very large bags of food. I told Tom to go catch up with his family that I was going to be a while. Annette and I unpack and stowed everything on the boat, then we made a quick run to Wally World to pick up a few last minute things. Tom called around 15:00 and said that they were pushing back and going out to do a little sailing. I said that we'd catch up to them later.

By around 16:30 we were ready and backed Cygnet out of her slip and headed for Boston Harbor. The wind was blowing at about 6kts. Okay, but Annette needed to learn how to use the Auto Helm. So on the way she practiced changing course and engaging and disengaging Auto. By the time we made Boston Harbor Annette was in love with Auto. We made it to Boston Harbor in about an hour. Found a suitable spot and dropped anchor. Shortly after Ringo tied up to us on Starboard and Pyxis came in on Port. Tom dropped a second anchor. We all visited each other. Pearl came in after we all settled in and anchored to Starboard. Bob had friends that he rafted up with. We ended up having dinner on Pyxis. After a while we took up positions to watch fireworks. The display was wonderful as always. As soon as it was over the armada of boats that had assembled for the display disappeared as quickly as they had arrived, leaving the little harbor quite. The harbor was quite but for the wind that had picked up.

Blogging has been kind of slim the past week, mostly due to starting a new job and keeping an old job. I have about 10 days to get the boat together for the trip. She is mostly ready. I don't have much to do. Just a pre-underway list as long as my arm. Most of the preps are cleaning are rearranging the boat a bit to accommodate two teenage girls. Final cleaning and top off and pump out kind of thing. I still need to wax the port side of the boat. Final food load out. That sort of thing. I want time to hurry up and this slow way down. (I think there is a Beach Boy song with that line?)

Thought for the day.... Why is it that when I was not working I couldn't get anything done, and now that I'm working two jobs, and no time I get everything done?

Itinerary

Saturday 7/3/2010 Oly to Boston Harbor
Sunday 7/4/2010 Boston Harbor to: Gig Harbor/Tacoma /Dockton- Quartermaster/Foss/Blake Is.
Monday 7/5/2010 Bell Harbor(Seattle)
Tuesday 7/6/2010 Port Townsend/Port Hudson
Wednesday 7/7/2010 Friday Harbor
Thursday 7/8/2010 TBD
Friday 7/9/2010 TBD
Saturday 7/10/2010 TBD
Sunday 7/11/2010 TBD
Monday 7/12/2010 TBD
Tuesday 7/13/2010 TBD
Wednesday 7/14/2010 TBD
Thursday 7/15/2010 TBD
Friday 7/16/2010 Port Townsend/Port Hudson/Port Ludlow
Saturday 7/17/2010 Blake Island/Gig Harbor/Docton/Quartermaster
Sunday 7/18/2010 Olympia

That's it etched in jell-o I think it's in the frig starting to thicken a bit.