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Quick Blake Island trip

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/09/2012 : 15:24:48

Yesterday I took SL out for a solo sail. The wind was piped up a bit and Rita demurred. This was only my second time sailing SL by myself, but I had learned a few things from the first time.

Getting out of the slip using my "new" method absolutely wasn't going to work, there was just too much wind pressure on the stern as I tried to pull it around. My arms hurt from the strain of trying several times yesterday, then I finally gave up and backed out. I bumped my neighbor with my bow as I did, but it was rub rail to rub rail, no damage done. Before I could even get started, I was blocked from running down river by this:

See the blocky shape just left of my Life Sling right underneath the West Seattle Bridge? That's a giant barge with two tugs on it's port side (opposite the bascule bridge on the left). You can see two other boats orbiting waiting for them to transit the Spokane Street Bridge (you can't see it in the photo, it's been rotated out of the way). That didn't stop two speed boats from zooming right past them.

I got out into Elliott Bay and got my jib up. My Kestrel anemometer was telling me that it was gusting to 11 knots, more than I wanted to put my main & jib both up in. I tacked easterly toward downtown Seattle because it was my clearest path. There was a giant cruise ship sitting at anchor, "The World".

I continued NE past the bow of the The World and had already raised my main since the wind seemed to have died down a bit. I was monitoring all the relevant VHF channels and The World didn't seem to be in any hurry to get underway, so I tacked in front of her by several hundred yards:

What you can't see in the photo is the starboard anchor chain coming up. About 1-2 minutes before I crossed his bow, I heard this "clunking" sound and saw water pouring out of the hawse pipe and could see the anchor chain just starting to creep up. Crap! Then I looked down at my radio, it was stuck on channel 25. The smoke from his stack hadn't changed, so I knew he wasn't underway yet, plus he hadn't signaled on his horn, so I was OK. By this time I was past his bow and no longer in his way. I still don't know how the channel got changed on the radio, I suspect the channel selector got bumped by my main halyard since I found it right next to it when I finally got settled back down.

From there I was on a beam reach all the way to Blake island, about two hours to the west. I had no intention of going there when I set out, I just wanted to go sailing, but the wind was moving me right along at about 5-5.5 knots, seemed a shame to miss that.

Here are several boats anchored out on the NE side of Blake Island and if you look closely you can see a few crab buoys (little white specks).

It was about 5:30 in the afternoon by now, so I tacked back toward Seattle, sort of. Pinched up as tight as I could get I was still aimed south of my goal, sort of West Seattle-ish, south of the Alki Lighthouse. Oh, well, I was making close to 6 knots sort of in the right direction, so I figured I'd run until I was well clear of Bainbridge Island (just north of Blake Island), then tack back. This didn't work so well, my tacking angles just sucked, I was having a hard time tacking into the wind, plus I was right in the middle of the Seattle VTS, not a good place to be dawdling. I tacked back toward Bainbridge for a while, then tacked back toward West Seattle again. I ran until I was maybe a 1/4 mile off of West Seattle, then motor sailed up and around the Alki Lighthouse. Once round the point, I could sail a bit, but by now it was pushing 7pm or so and I still had another hour plus to get back to my marina, so I opted to keep motor sailing for a while. Once I rounded the Duwamish Head Marker (still mayor!), I dropped all pretense of sailing and dropped my main (I'd dropped the jib earlier along Alki Beach). Got back to the marina almost exactly at 8pm, easy-easy landing in the slip, sort of like I knew what I was doing. About half an hour to get covers on, lines straightened out, etc, and I was home by about 9:30 to a great dinner waiting for me.

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

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Voyager
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
5368 Posts

Response Posted - 07/09/2012 : 17:49:54

And that's what it's all about:
Time - you've got to figure out how to manage your time, speed and distances
Circumstances - dealing with the hand you're dealt. Making the best of nonideal wind conditions, obstacles, dangers and sometimes idiots!
And the mix of the two.
Sailing to me is always an adventure and a contest of wits. Your wits against, or in concert with, time and circumstances. And the beauty of our surroundings.

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awetmore
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1144 Posts

Response Posted - 07/09/2012 : 18:35:10

Sounds like a nice trip.

When you were tacking were you running both main and jib? I couldn't tell when the main went up. I've only sailed with the jib and no main once, but it seemed best for downwind.

I had my boat out on the sound too. I took it through the locks solo Thursday morning, then picked up my friend Andrew at Shilshole marina. He got into sailing about 3 months after me and is now looking for a boat of his own. He hadn't been out on the sound yet and we had a great day on the water. We were originally going to head towards Blake Island, but the wind was light and coming out of the north so we tacked up instead. We circled around the north end of Bainbridge Island and had fun trying to maximize boat and pointing performance before heading south back to Kingston. To avoid the extra transit through the locks I left my boat at Shilshole Marina on Thursday night.

On Friday my wife and I loaded up basic cruising gear and headed out for an quick overnighter. Our last overnighter was heavy on the sailing, so I wanted to pick a closer destination that left this trip more about the travel. Kingston seemed like the best option because I knew that there were some resturants within walking distance of the marina. The way north to Kingston was beautiful with 3 easy tacks across the sound and lots of harbor porpise and harbor seals to keep us company. Traffic was pretty light and it's easy to see major shipping traffic up there (plus I monitor VTS and 13).

We got the last available slip in Kingston, a tight one for a C-25, but the harbor master helped us in. Kingston was a fun place to spend Friday night, with a nice dinner and locally made ice cream for desert. It was our first time staying in a marina, and the Kingston one is nice because there is a lot to walk to, and we went for an hour long walk after dinner just looking around. I didn't really care for sleeping so close to all of my neighbors though, next time we think we'd anchor out for the night after a couple hour dinner/walking stop.

Saturday morning we woke up to a farmer's market just outside our boat. After wandering around the market we headed up to the "The Oak Table" for breakfast. Portions there are huge, we didn't have to eat again until we got home much later in the evening. The food was pretty tasty too.

Upon leaving Kingston the winds were coming from the north and fairly strong (probably 15kts). We first tacked north along the coast there (mostly because I'd never see it) but Christine doesn't like it when the boat heels excessively and it was doing that even though we were reefed and running my smallest jib. We turned around and ran a broad reach all the way to Shilshole (we had to jybe once to get around a boat) being pushed along nicely at 5.5 kts. It was a nice time to run the autopilot and relax and talk together.

We got to the locks around 3pm, but had to wait in a queue until about 5pm to get through them. I was having fun trying to keep our boat in one place (there was a steady tailwind pushing us slightly upstream and a little current going in the opposite direction, so our rudder worked surprisingly well). Christine was getting anxious with the wait though. We finally got through the locks around 5:30pm.

At 6:30ish we were back at our marina with the boat unloaded and we were on our way home.

There are photos here, including some from seeing the 4th of July fireworks off of our boat on Lake Union:
http://alexandchristine.smugmug.com/Sailing/July-4th-sailing-weekend/24024948_SKb6pd#!i=1950516890&k=CvchkKT

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Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 07/09/2012 : 18:49:47

David, congratulations on a successful solo voyage! I envy you Puget Sound sailors. You too Alex! Lots of places to sail to and enjoy.

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glivs
Admiral

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USA
836 Posts

Response Posted - 07/10/2012 : 03:58:24

Great stories! Beautiful area.

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zeil
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1314 Posts

Response Posted - 07/10/2012 : 07:44:00

Thanks for sharing your photo's and stories...

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piseas
Former Treasurer

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USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 07/10/2012 : 10:18:53

David, nice pics. I remember we got close to the Island when I visited you but didn't quite make it due to time. I also remember coming close to some very large ships;)
Steve A

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 07/10/2012 : 15:04:47

Alex, I put the main up a few minutes before I crossed the bow of "The World" and kept it up the rest of the day. So when I was trying to tack upwind I had my 110% jib & full main up. I suspect my tuning may need some tuning... Sounds like you, Andrew & Christine had a pretty good weekend.

I learned a few things about sailing with my tiller pilot and higher winds. When the rudder starts making funny sounds, you probably need to ease the main because the tiller pilot has the rudder all the way against the stop trying to keep the boat from rounding up, so it's stalled and making a funny little burble. Ease the mainsheet, and you come back on course (sort of) and the rudder comes out of the stall. I think I need to adjust the dead band(?) on the rudder a bit, in the heavier winds I was wandering as much as 30º off course and had to play the main back & forth to keep the pressure off the rudder. Maybe I should have put up the 70% instead of the 110%, but I never had the thought "maybe I should reef" all day (and only thought of it as I was taking down the jib much later in the day). While I was overpowered a few times, most of the time, I was at less than 10º heel, which is about Rita's tolerance (but she wasn't there). I think she would have enjoyed about 90% of the sail, but there were a few times when the wind gusted up that she's have been white knuckling whatever she was clinging to. Although had she been with me, I'd have had at least one reef in and probably hanked on my 70% instead of the 110%.

A bit of history on the cruise ship "The World", it turns out that it's a seagoing condo, you buys your $13m apartment, they takes you places. It's in port till this evening, then headed for Friday Harbor, which isn't far to go (about 90 miles as the crow flies), but it's a nice place to visit. If I remember correctly, they visited 40 separate countries last year. I'd be tempted if I had a few dozen extra millions laying about.

Steve, had we had the same wind as Sunday, we'd have had time to get there & back. As I recall it wasn't a particularly windy day when you & Anthony went out with me. I'd like to go back with our crab traps for a weekend, take our Avon, and our "new" fold up bikes to ride around the island, maybe actually see the village from the shore side for the first time. The thought of idly drifting through the kelp on the Avon looking at star fish & whatever else is pretty compelling for me.

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