Category Archives: cruises

A Cruise to Gig Harbor

May 10, 2016

At last freed from the clutches of the boatyard, this was our first weekend cruise in a month or two. And we were lucky to have fantastic conditions!

Friday evening we took off early because I knew the sunny skies with 15-20 knot north wind couldn’t be passed up. We wanted to head south, so this wind was perfect to give our sail from Shilshole a jump start. When we left the marina around 5pm, the forecasted 15 knots had picked up to 20-22, so instead of raising a double reefed main and genoa we decided to simply unfurl the full 135% genoa. This worked great, keeping our boat speed around 6 knots. The C&C Landfall 38’s masthead rig likes a big foresail.

A beautiful sunset from our anchorage at Blake Island the first night

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Off-season Cruising: Great Sailing with a Chance of Gales

November 15, 2015

Our 2 Favorite Anchorages of Clayoquot Sound: Matilda Inlet and Heelboom Bay

August 15, 2015

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We were ghosting into the entrance to Matilda Inlet, before the point blocked the remainder of a 5 knot breeze. Fingers of wispy clouds intertwined with the dense evergreen shore. As we lost all wind, a light rain started.

We motored about a mile south, past the tiny town of Ahousat, into the right (west) fork of the inlet. There were no other boats there. We dropped anchor in about 15 feet, the anchor setting easily – a welcome luxury after recent deeper anchorages (we don’t have a powered windlass and it’s a lot of work pulling up 100+ feet of chain later).

Matilda Inlet in the lower right – we anchored in the left fork where I drew a red arrow.
(Note chart not intended for navigation)

After turning off the engine, Natalie said “Do you hear that?”

“What?” I said. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly,” she said. “It’s silent here.”

And it was. We had only the sounds of nature – a couple birds chirping, a slight breeze blowing through the trees.

It seems a silly thing to find notable, but most anchorages we’re used to aren’t that silent – with 4 or 5 other boats present (or 15+ for the big ones), you hear voices, generators, loose lines slapping against rigging, etc.

Matilda Inlet had a magical feel to us. An anchorage so perfect it felt like we had discovered a secret paradise. It’s completely protected inside a mile long inlet, surrounded by lush evergreen forest, and a family of four eagles kept us company soaring majestically over our heads. A man-made bathing pool on the shore is a short dinghy ride away. A rainforest-like hiking trail leads to a beach where you can find a sea cave.

The man-made pool at Matilda Inlet

We liked it so much we stayed a second night. The first night we shared the anchorage with one other sailboat, and the second night had it all to ourselves.

Heelboom Bay

If we had to pick one reason it was worth going to Clayoquot Sound, it’d have to be the empty anchorages. Heelboom Bay was another one we had all to ourselves. Of 6 nights at anchor in Clayoquot, two nights we were alone and three nights we had only one other boat present. Only one anchorage had more than one boat besides ours (Hot Springs Cove).

There’s something really special about having an anchorage all to yourself. It’s a true feeling of seclusion, peace and quiet, and oneness with nature.

Heelboom Bay had the most spectacular sunset of the trip. As the evening progressed, the sunset just got better and better. At 9pm I was thinking “this is a pretty good sunset.” By 9:30 I was thinking “wow, this is the best sunset I’ve ever seen!”

The sunset was reflecting off clouds onto the water in almost a 180 degree arc, with our view out the bay open to the east – looking upon the mountain ranges of Vancouver Island.

Check out my GoPro video on YouTube (turn on HD quality if you’re on decent Internet), which also includes footage from our sail to Bamfield the following week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsm2kZ2NfNc

Trip Report: The San Juans for Memorial Day Weekend – Part 2

May 28, 2015

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Continued from Part 1 of the trip report.

Day 3 (Saturday) – Decatur Island to Spencer Spit

In the morning we set up our new PortaBote dinghy on deck, lowered it into the water with a very improvised and sketchy 3-point sling attached to the spinnaker halyard, and rowed ashore for a bit of exploring. We saw an eagle sitting in a tree only about 50 ft away above us, watching us closely.

PortaBote successfully setup and in water

At some point, we noticed the toilet seemed clogged. The pump had a lot of resistance and wouldn’t pump anything out anymore. Unable to fix it, we had to switch over to peeing in a bucket.

The day was overcast with no wind, so we motored an hour over to Spencer Spit and snagged a mooring ball along the beach. This was also the closest place with restrooms, which we could use for #2’s. Since we had to dinghy in, we had to all get on the same schedule.

Peekaboo view of our boat while hiking above Spencer Spit

Both our sailboat and PortaBote dinghy visible in one shot! Low tide at Spencer Spit.

Day 4 (Sunday) – Lopez Island to Port Townsend

Spencer Spit is pretty exposed to the south since only a low beach protects the anchorage, and we had a nice south breeze picking up in the morning. So we were able to sail off our mooring ball (first time doing that!) without turning on the motor – just raised the main, slipped the mooring line, unfurled the genoa, and sailed around the other two sailboats that were moored around us. As a true fan of sailing over motoring, the joy of taking off in the morning without the noise of the motor was pure fun!

We had a south current in Rosario Strait and a south wind (about 10 knots) so we headed out close hauled the whole way. Fortunately there were no tide rips or bad waves in the strait from the current opposing wind.

It was surprising how many sailboats out were choosing not to sail. With the good wind we were doing 6 knots and having a lot of fun. I can understand not wanting to sail upwind if you have to go a long way on a schedule, but we even saw some sailboats motoring downwind. If you’re not going to sail downwind, what did you get a sailboat for??

Delicious black cod and regular cod tacos for dinner

Day 5 (Monday) – Port Townsend to Seattle, with Orcas!

“I just saw a whale!” Micol shouted. I quickly looked to port and saw an unusual looking wave. “Are you sure it wasn’t just a wave?” we all said. “No it was definitely a whale” she replied. And then a minute later we all saw a big orca surface only a couple hundred feet from our boat (possibly within the 200 yard “no-go” zone for distance to orcas in Washington regulations – but we can’t help it if the orca approaches *us* first). We saw the solo orca surface a few more times heading south (near Edmonds). Later we saw 3 more orcas also heading south, around Kingston.

We had an informal race (the saying is that if two sailboats are going in the same direction, it’s automatically a race) with a Catalina 37 (being singlehanded) who happened to be going upwind on the same tacks only a bit ahead of us. We almost caught up, but he was able to point better. As much as I played with the trim, we had more speed but he could point higher. I blame it on our 10-year old cruiser sails.

Going back through the Ballard Locks was stressful as usual. With the holiday weekend there were dozens of boats going through the locks. We were third or fourth to the line, but most of the motor boats arriving after us pushed their way to the front. The small locks opened but only 4 or 5 of the 15 boats waiting could fit. The large locks was closed and already processing a large group of boats, so we had close to an hour wait.

In the end it worked out fine though. I’m gradually learning the intricacies of the locks – like how most boats use the railroad bridge as a current shield, sitting behind the bridge trestle where the current is less strong. And once past the railroad bridge, sitting in the lower current zone closer to the small locks.

In the large locks rafted to a very big motor boat

Trip Report: San Juans for Memorial Day Weekend

May 28, 2015

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We completed our first major cruise on Violet Hour over Memorial Day weekend – a 4 ½ day cruise to the San Juans from Seattle. Highlights included seeing three Orcas, bashing through some nasty tide rips off Port Townsend, seeing several eagles, a family of otters, dinghying ashore at Spencer Spit, and exploring Port Townsend from the Point Hudson marina.

Stats	Usage	Remarks
Water usage	20 gallons (67% of capacity)	This was much higher than I expected, considering none was used for showering, little was used for cooking, and only 1 person (me) was using tank water for drinking (there’s a slight chlorine taste still lingering since we cleaned the tanks and don’t have a water filter yet – I don’t mind it but others preferred bottled water). So most of this usage was from dish washing, brushing teeth, and washing hands. We’ll have to get more efficient with washing dishes.
Fuel usage	⅛ tank / ~2.5 gallons	I’m not yet sure if the fuel gauge is accurate. I opened the fuel tank port twice to check how much we had left, because we haven’t had to fuel up since February.
Engine Hours	~10	At least 2 hrs were at near idle speed for transiting the Ballard locks. We only had 1-2 hours motoring per day, which I’m pretty happy with – that’s a lot lower than many other sailboats we saw out.
Electricity Usage	Low. About 13-15 Amp hours per day	Most of this was regenerated by 1 to 2 hours of motoring each day.
Top Speed	10.2 knots (GPS)	Motor sailing with 2-3 knots of current push in Admiralty Inlet.

Day 1 – Thursday Evening – Fisherman’s Terminal to Kingston

We started out from Fisherman’s Terminal about 4:30pm with our friends Jared and Micol. We had a smooth transit of the Ballard Locks via the small locks, getting out to the Sound by 6pm. We sailed to Kingston upwind in about 8 kts from the north and anchored there for the night. It ended up not being the greatest anchorage because swells come in from the sound and the boat lay sideways to them often, which set up a sideways rocking that tended to amplify itself and last a few minutes. We probably could have prevented some of this by setting up a stern anchor, but didn’t want to go to that trouble late at night and without the dinghy setup yet.

At anchor in Kingston

Day 2 (Friday) – Kingston to San Juans

Friday was the big day to ride the spring tides all the way to the San Juans. The spring tides are the name for a big tidal swing which happens twice a month around the new moon and full moon phases. They happen year-round, so I’m not sure why they’re called spring tides except that the spring ones may be slightly bigger (but from what I can tell it’s a pretty inconsequential difference).

Current at Port Townsend at noon on Friday.

I had planned the timing to hit Port Townsend close to peak ebb, which would give us a 2-3 knot push. We started out from Kingston with a nice light south wind and got in what ended up being the only downwind sailing of our trip (only 2 or 3 hours of it!). The wind switched north approaching Port Townsend in some mild fog (USCG was broadcasting visibility notices for Admiralty Inlet).

The north wind lightened to barely 4 kts so we started motor sailing, hitting a peak of 10.2 knots at only 60% throttle due to the strong north current!

Our route in blue, up the east side of the turning circle

Approaching the turning circle north-east of Point Wilson, I spotted dark, slightly white-capped cresting waves – we were headed for some nasty looking tide rips. I made an “all crew life jackets on” call. As we motor sailed into the tide rip, which appeared to span the entire channel, the waves grew to 3-4 feet, coming from all directions. This was my first time experiencing what people call “square waves.” There was no wind to generate the waves, so our raised mainsail was flopping a bit but I still preferred it up for some stabilizing effect.

The boat pitched and rolled into the ugly dark waves for only about 20-30 minutes, but we all exited that area feeling queasy and slightly seasick. The direction of the waves was constantly changing, like we were in a cauldron of angry seas. I tried different directions to hit the closely spaced waves bow on, water splashing onto the deck as the bow rode down each sharp wave crest. Eventually I aimed towards the shore on the eastern edge of the turning circle, which seemed a little less tumultuous.

I asked Natalie to go below to grab my GoPro so I could get some video, but she refused to go below with the boat being tossed around like it was. Probably a good call, but I still would’ve liked some decent video. : )

In retrospect I suspect planning to go past Port Townsend at peak ebb was a mistake. It gave us the speed to get to the San Juans quickly, but slack would’ve been better for the tide rips.

The rest of the passage to the San Juans went smoothly although we were tired out from the briefly rough seas. For Friday night we anchored at Davis Bay off Decatur Head (west of James Island).

Strawberry rhubarb crumble dessert Natalie made

At anchor at Decatur Island

Read more in Part 2.

Sailing to Vashon Island

April 24, 2015

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This past weekend we sailed to Vashon Island and anchored in Quartermaster Harbor. It was the perfect weekend – sunny, warm and a steady 15 knots of wind both days. We flew the spinnaker for the first time on Saturday and the ATN sock was fantastic – made hoisting and dousing so much easier.

spinnaker

We also had lots of other “firsts” – first time using a whisker pole (ever! None of the club boats we’ve sailed had them), first time going south of West Seattle, and first time sailing upwind for over 8 hours. A whisker pole by the way for non-sailor readers, is a pole that holds out the foresail (genoa) when sailing downwind – to help catch more wind and make the sail easier to manage.

The Ballard Locks continues to be the most challenging part of our trips, but we’re getting better each time. The Locks seem like they’d be about as easy as docking, but I think that’s a deception – I’d take docking over the locks any day. The Locks are like docking would be if 5 other boats were trying to simultaneously dock next to you, the entire marina was watching, your target slip could be randomly changed at the last minute, and there was a 1-2 knot current or forward/aft breeze in the marina.

Going to windward like a champ

Cleaning Nearing Completion

In other news, we’re almost finished up with all the cleaning projects! Cleaning an old boat is a lot of work (there are lots of nooks and crannies!) and we’re perfectionists so want to do it right once and not have to worry about a deep clean for a while.

A toothbrush really is your best friend for a lot of boat cleaning jobs. I always thought scrubbing floors with a toothbrush was a joke or something only prison convicts do. But actually it’s the best way to get into small nooks, and the hundreds of bristles on it scrub off dirt quite quickly – I guess that’s why they work so well on our teeth.

Before cleaning

During cleaning with a toothbrush + water

After cleaning!

Our First Cruise: Difficulties in the Ballard Locks

March 24, 2015

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Natalie and I went for our first cruise on Violet Hour this weekend. It turned out to be a really challenging one! Saturday there were high winds (24 knots) on the Sound with a small craft advisory till 3pm.

But before that the real difficulties were in the Ballard Locks. The small boat locks are closed for renovation in March, so we had to use the big locks. The big locks are exactly that – really big. They’re designed for barges and big tugboats and such. We’ve been through the small locks a few times but this was our first time going through the big locks.

Sailing on the Sound in 24 knots.

The locks had a strong 1-2 knot current flowing west out of Lake Union, and we had 10-15 knots of wind pushing us from SE as well. I think it was low tide in the Sound, and recent rains must have raised lake levels – because there were some really strong currents in and around the locks.

Waiting for the Locks to Open

We waited 20-30 minutes for the locks to open, with 2 other sailboats and 6 or 7 powerboats. When the lock operators made their announcement over the loud speaker, we couldn’t hear it over the wind. I think I heard “larger boats go first” though. We were the second to arrive, and I thought locks convention was to wait your turn and go in the order you got there (excepting commercial traffic, which there was none of). But as soon as the locks opened everyone started rushing for the entrance. The two sailboats that were after us went in before we could get there and then a motor boat cut us off but it turned out they were bailing out in order to let us go in first.

Entering the Locks

The current pushing from behind meant it was difficult to stop. We had tried to raft up to the waiting pier but even though the engine was in neutral the boat kept moving at 2 knots for 100-200 feet. I’ve dealt with current in open water before, and know what the books have to say on it – correcting for current affecting your course, speed / time to destination, etc. But never in a docking situation – most marinas don’t have any current, let alone 2 knots, unless you’re on a river.

I didn’t want to try reverse because we have pretty significant prop walk to port, and were doing starboard side docking (which is what the locks was requiring everyone do). Reversing might have thrown our stern out (but in retrospect this is what I should’ve done).

The two sailboats in front of us stopped at the end of the concrete locks pier for some reason and were being walked forward by locks operators, which meant we were running out of runway and had no operators available to help.

I decided to try stopping at the first rope bollard they have, but brought the bow in a bit too much and then when turning back out the beam rubbed into the wall. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, but moving at 2 knots it is – bumpers don’t work so well then, and get pushed up. We got a small scratch to the gelcoat on the hull. 🙁 Could’ve been worse though. Finally a lock operator came back and helped, as Natalie was trying her best to push the bow out from the wall as the wind and current worked on pushing the bow back in.

Exiting the Locks

After we got through the locks the railroad bridge was down, so we had to wait another 15-20 minutes for that. There were still strong currents outside the locks trying to push us towards the bridge, and a converging cross current from the outflow next to the small locks. There were two sailboats already rafted to the waiting area to enter the locks, and two sailboats waiting for the bridge with us, so it was a pretty small space to be crowded into with strong currents and wind.

It took me a while to figure out that we needed to motor in reverse to remain relatively stationary, and definitely should not get in the converging current which started to spin us. Since there wasn’t much space, this meant motoring back up into the locks a bit, which another sailboat was also doing.

I also learned you really don’t want to try to do a standing turn while 2 knots of current is pushing you towards the bridge. Light forward throttle just accelerated our slide towards the bridge, and I had visions of a YouTube video I’d seen where a sailboat crashed into a bridge and got their mast and rigging swept under. I quickly went back to motoring only in reverse.

In Conclusion

The big locks passages took us 1 to 1 1/2 hours each, and a lot of stress. I can see why sailboats prefer to be moored outside the locks on the Sound. Oh well, now I have one more thing to add to my list for the Defender.com sale that starts this Thursday (Evercoat Gelcoat Repair Kit).

Anchored in Port Madison

Other than the locks the trip was great. Sailing in 24 knots was great fun – although tiring and we’re still getting to know the boat, so some tweaking is definitely needed for these higher wind conditions. Going upwind, one bow wave crashed past the dodger and soaked me with cold Puget Sound water, which got me laughing. Going downwind we were surfing down waves (2-4 foot waves) at 7.3 knots peak speed, with one reef in the main and genoa furled to about 120%.

And our anchoring setup worked splendidly even though I haven’t done any work on it yet.

Yummy dinner of baked salmon and asparagus risotto.

You can see the stars from Port Madison!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/pcmfvIz4Egs?hd=1&vq=hd720]

S/V Violet Hour

Sailing adventures in the Pacific Northwest

Category Archives: cruises

A Cruise to Gig Harbor

Off-season Cruising: Great Sailing with a Chance of Gales

Our 2 Favorite Anchorages of Clayoquot Sound: Matilda Inlet and Heelboom Bay

Heelboom Bay

Trip Report: The San Juans for Memorial Day Weekend – Part 2

Day 3 (Saturday) – Decatur Island to Spencer Spit

Day 4 (Sunday) – Lopez Island to Port Townsend

Day 5 (Monday) – Port Townsend to Seattle, with Orcas!

Trip Report: San Juans for Memorial Day Weekend

Sailing to Vashon Island

Cleaning Nearing Completion

Our First Cruise: Difficulties in the Ballard Locks

Waiting for the Locks to Open

Entering the Locks

Exiting the Locks

In Conclusion