Full Speed Ahead

It felt good to be in Admiralty Inlet, the boat heeling over, making five knots through the water.  We'd motored so much the last few weeks we'd forgotten just how sweet it is to sail.  I stared at the masthead to see if our VHF antenna would touch the Port Townsend Canal bridge as we went under -- it did not.  Of course the reciprocal was taken at the P.T. Boat Haven -- it always is.

Kilisut Harbor Entrance - This is where they take the A-bombs off the subs.

So we threaded our way past the military restricted area on Indian Island into Kilisut Harbor, stopping at Fort Flagler Marine Park for an hour before sailing south to Mystery Bay.   We picked up a free (prepaid discovery pass) buoy there for the night and enjoyed a good nights sleep.

Mystery Bay on Marrowstone Island - big mooring buoy, eh?

We found the Point Wilson buoy #6 the next morning at about 10:00 and, as always, it seems, the current was flowing east at two knots against our forward progress of 4.5 over water.  So we crept, slowly.  Years ago Keith and I on Platypus found ourselves in that same situation, trying to get west against a flood off Point Wilson.  That time, long ago, we had the little 6 HP Tohatsu pushing us and we made no progress at all.  I was below deck napping and Keith was at the wheel watching old #6

get closer and closer.   We finally headed closer to shore and were able to catch a little eddy to help us out of our stalled situation.  This time around I just increased the throttle and pulled slowly away to the west.

We passed behind protection Island inbound to Sequim Bay.  Up ahead I spied a power boat coming our way on a collision course.  I waited for some sign from the other boat.  Seeing none, I turned to starboard.  Seeing no response I turned some more but found myself hemmed in by the island.  So I did the wrong thing and turned hard to port and got out of the way of M/V Dauntless who roared by at 12 knots.  Whew!

This was not the first time in the last week I had to run from a thundering, bow-waved, power vessel.  Earlier the previous day when coming around Point No Point, north bound, we threaded our way through a large group of racers, their beautiful spinnakers flying. As we exited the pack I looked ahead and saw a large powerboat on what looked like a collision course with us.  Darting down below, I checked the AIS and sure enough, our  CPA (Closest Point of Approach) was predicted as 20 feet in three minutes and their boat's speed was 11 knots.

Seeing the name of the vessel on the AIS screen I hailed on the VHF radio, channel 16. "Charger, Charger, Charger, this is the sailing vessel Traveler, dead ahead of you."  They finally come back, a stressful 30 seconds later as I watched the boat inch closer and closer, "This is Charger, go ahead."

I replied, "Charger, do you see me? I'm the sailboat right in front of you." To this there was no reply.  I turned the wheel to starboard, dashing to get out of their way. Eventually, Charger also turned to starboard and the collision was prevented. I watched while the big powerboat scribed an arc, moving east away from the racing fleet.  Charger had been heading right for the center of that race and did not realize it. 

Wine stains on the chart could have been blood!

While I'm ranting....  two days before THAT incident a power vessel roared around the corner into Port Madison just as I was coming around that same corner.  "Rammer" came very close, pushing a huge bow wave and passed me on my starboard side. She was a very large boat, going pretty darn fast.  I had to turn quickly away from the wave, do a circle then take the four foot wave head on so as not to throw everything down below into chaos.  That would be Connie down below with an accordion strapped to her shoulders. I imagined her slamming against a bulkhead, accordion keys shattering everywhere.  By the time I'd finished that maneuver we were pretty much dead in the water. Thanks "Rammer".

After dodging old Dauntless at Protection Island, we worked our way through the sinuous Sequim Bay entrance and called the John Wayne Marina to ask about reciprocal moorage. I had a nice conversation with the harbor master and learned that there was no open reciprocal moorage and there had not been in quite some time.  In the past the yacht club allowed reciprocal privileges at open guest slips for one night and they would reimburse the marina for that charge.  In a budget cutting move, the yacht club decided to stop that policy and offer reciprocal moorage only when one of their members were out of their personal slips. If nobody leaves, nobody gets reciprocal; we wanna be nobody in John Wayne's world...

Sequim Bay park float

Failing to get dock space at John Wayne, we continued on to the beautiful Sequim Bay State Park where we had the dock to ourselves for two days for free, (Gotta love those Discovery Passes! It's paid for itself and then some.)  Keith and Lisa drove over from Port Angeles and we had a nice sail in the bay and a lovely dinner. They were kind enough to take us shopping, too! That's one of our biggest challenges, land transportation...  The next day we traversed the Strait of Juan de Fuca early to avoid a predicted small craft advisory and gale wind warning.

 While I'm ranting....and you know you love it when I do.... we've had other (not) reciprocal experiences on our 2017 grand tour.  In Quartermaster harbor the reciprocal moorage dock is in 3 feet of water at a zero tide -- not exactly enough depth for most visiting yachts, albeit the bay is a beautiful anchorage. And as in Port Townsend, the reciprocals are often full.  My theory is that the Dauntlesses, Chargers, and Rammers like to hurry to their next destination so they can beat out all those slow moving sailing vessels like Traveler.  "Damn the torpedoes!!! Full speed ahead!!!"

Lisa and Keith Dekker

In spite of these adverse conditions, Connie and I continue on our journey, scoring the occasional free moorage (like tonight in Friday Harbor) and using state park mooring buoys and docks.  I tell you, May and June are good months to cruise, with lots of places to grab a few feet on the dock.  Later in the season, I'm sure we'll be anchoring more often and reserve the dock time for provisioning expeditions.  In the meantime, we'll keep an eye out for big bow waves, small craft advisories, and little harbor pubs as we make our way north towards the sunshine coast.