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Spirit of Freedom's
Gunkhole Adventure 2004, part two
Click
HERE for photos of 2004
September 4, 2004 Cliff and I arrive with DC in Canoe Cove to regain Spirit. Why with just DC and not Danny and Buddy? A lot has happened...Danny died suddenly of congestive heart failure...not unexpected, but sooner than we thought he would. The good thing is that he was doing fine right up until the end...what a little guy...we will miss him. And Buddy...he had to have surgery, removing three tumors (non-malignant) and he is unable to be on the boat, needing more recovery time. The ironic thing is that we had planned this part of the cruise without Buddy anyway, as I thought it best he not be onboard with Ralph and Mark (who will be here in two weeks)...and Cliff would be unable to take Buddy home with him when he leaves the boat in Ganges. The boat sure seems empty without the doggies...DC is content, but we miss them!
The in-boom furler is installed and looks awesome...quite a well engineered piece of equipment. I am very happy with Blackline Marine...Brent Jacobi, the rigging manager is on-the-ball and his crew is competent and hard-working. We left the marina at 1:00 PM, heading out for Todd Inlet. I figured that my parents would be there and wanted to meet up with them. Just past the Schwartz Ferry Terminal, we passed Dunrushn and tried to raise Mom and Dad on the radio. No luck. So I telephoned them and Mom answered. She was on the helm and Dad was below, trying to figure out what the huge rattle/bang/wham they were hearing. They were heading to Canoe Cove, where we just left to find a mechanic. They told us to go on ahead to Todd...they would catch up. They said that Skookum, Bob and Ellie, were there most likely. So we went on...and the wind filled in and we got to try out the new furler and sail. WOW!!! We loved it! So easy to reef...and reef we needed to when the winds were hitting 20knots and we were beating. What a great sail!
We pulled into Todd Inlet and there was Skookum, with Ellie waving away to us...we motored by and I mentioned that Mom and Dad would arrive later...she said: "What do you mean? They are here!" And they were, anchored at the far end of the inlet. They must have passed us on a far shore while we were sailing in. Dad had discovered what the problem was and fixed it just minutes after we spoke on the telephone. It was windy as the dickens in Todd...really blowing! We dinghied over to visit with Bob and Ellie, Mom and Dad arrived as well. Bob and Ellie had their son and his wife from Australia aboard, along with their cute little boy. We had a short but nice visit and then went back to our respective boats.
September 7, 2004 We finally decided it was time to leave Todd Inlet. It was nice having a few days of "down-time" after all that has happened. Both Cliff and I were exhausted emotionally after losing Danny and Buddy's surgery which turned out to be quite difficult. Amazing how we turn our pets into our "children"...thank god it wasn't any of our boys! Our original plan was to have been well on our way to Desolation Sound; but due to the delays with the installation with the furler we have decided not to rush up there for just a few days as Cliff has to be back to work in less than 10 days and will be departing from Ganges. So we are going to save Desolation for next summer as we want to not be rushed. As it is, the weather is really rotten for crossing the Strait of Georgia...one gale after another coming through. Mom and Dad are heading out of Todd today as well, none of us are sure where we are going, but have agreed to keep in touch. It depends on which way the wind is blowing for us...we are truly going to have our destination determined by that. Mom and Dad will decide once they are out of Todd Inlet.
Leaving Todd Inlet we have a light to non-existent wind behind us...so we ghosted along for a couple of hours...finally the winds picked up and we headed toward Montegue. Mom and Dad radioed and they were well on their way to Telegraph Harbor. The wind really began to pick up and we found ourselves in 25 knots, nicely reefed with our new boom-furler! This was Cliff's first time at the helm in winds and seas like this. He really enjoyed it...until he looked behind at the waves we were surfing on...Haro Strait had 5-6 foot waves with lots of spray flying off of them. Spirit of course, was in her element...and Cliff realized it and relaxed and enjoyed helming for the ride. We had a couple of sweet gybes...again, so easy with the new system!...and sailed to the entrance of Montegue, dropped sail and motored in and dropped anchor in our "usual" position. We were happy to see the Bakery Boat there and decided that Sausage Rolls for breakfast tomorrow will be on the agenda. The wind is really blowing, even here in Montegue...but our anchor is well set.
September 9, 2004 Lovely visit on the Bakery Boat...they are such interesting people. She remarked how she saw Spirit of Freedom a couple of times these past few months in Maple Bay and wanted to know if I had "moved" up this way. While on the Bakery Boat we heard a weather broadcast, cautioning for a Gale to move through, predicting winds of 40+ knots by mid-afternoon. When we got back to the boat I tried to raise Mom and Dad on the VHF...they were all the way up in Telegraph Harbor, Thetis Island. I actually managed to get them, but I could hear Dad very clear, but he was having trouble hearing me...I told them to stay put because of the weather...they rarely monitor it!!!
Wind is still not here by 2:00 PM, but Mom and Dad are! They checked the current conditions and figured they would join us in Montegue for the storm! They caught a mooring buoy at the park, trusting the buoy rather than their anchor. I tend to be just the opposite.
September 10, 2004 Well, I am the big 50 today. And no storm materialized yesterday or last night...just some winds at around 25 knots with pouring rain for about an hour...and that was it. A small front, moving quickly through. I did hear from another boat nearby that Port Townsend got hit very hard...BJ & Tricia were planning on being there on Cody's boat for the Wooden Boat Festival...I hope all is well. I will try to phone them later. Cell phone coverage in Montegue is not the best. Mom and Dad dinghied over to invite us to dinner for my birthday...and of course we accepted. Had a lovely early dinner with them, and then back to Spirit for an early turn-in. I sure seem to be sleeping a lot lately! Feels good though to be lazy.
September 11, 2004 We decided to fuel up and then head out, heading north up Tricominal Channel, not too sure where we would plant ourselves next. While we were at the fuel dock, Dunrushn came alongside to say goodbye...Mom and Dad are going to slowly work their way home. We are sorry to see them go, but Mom wants to go home...
September 14, 2004 No wind when we left Montegue three days ago, just flat calm and lots of rain. So we headed to Telegraph Harbor...deciding that we wanted another of those great hamburgers the Pub has there. Also, I wanted to go to Chemanius. We did a drive-by of the marina there and decided that going to Telegraph Harbor on Thetis Island was a much better choice...and we could catch the ferry across. We walked to the ferry dock in the rain...a really nice walk actually...and crossed over to Chemanius to shop and have lunch. Mainly we just wanted to see the town off-season when it isn't crowded with 4,000 tourists arriving by bus and all snapping photos. The weather actually cleared during the day and it turned out very lovely. Several other cruisers were on the ferry and we had a good gab-fest, all of us deciding that things got a lot nicer up here in September when the majority of people head for home! I found a basket like the one I bought earlier in the summer at Fulford Village...and bought it as a gift for Tami. Cliff planted himself in a funky coffee house and read and drank coffee while I prowled the shops. Went to a pottery store that featured several local ceramicist's...some good work there. Had a lovely ferry ride back, skies cleared up somewhat, and a nice walk back to the marina. Where to next? This is kind of nice...aimless wandering. I should do it more often.
September 16, 2004 Anchored in Maple Bay. We had a good sail here today from Telegraph Harbor, bit gusty with rain, but still nice. Got to be a little bit of hard work though when we started to have to short tack through a narrow pass with the wind building on the nose...luckily we only needed three tacks! We are getting lazy! Rain, rain, rain. This is WET...normally this time of year is pretty dry and warm. Oh well...snuggle down and read and relax more. Glad we didn't try for Desolation...if we had made it across the Strait of Georgia we might not have made it back...gales still blowing there. Really nasty this year! Talked to BJ on the phone...sure enough they all got caught in that gale that hit Port Townsend...however they were smart and moved the boat to Marrowstone Island and anchored there. BJ tells me that there were two boats that drug anchor and ended up on the rocks...including a Catalina 30, while the woman was still aboard. Scary! I really don't like anchoring off of Port Townsend...just too wide open for me with marginal holding.
September 18, 2004 Cliff decided that he wanted to spend another night or two in Todd Inlet before heading for Ganges and him flying home. We both really like Todd during the "off months" and would love to be there sometime in the snow...it would be so peaceful and beautiful. We went for a long walk ashore, through the woods and had a lovely day there. Cliff really is not ready to head home...especially since I am going to be staying up here another couple of weeks. It is drizzly and calm...very serene.
September 19, 2004 We arrived in Ganges today. Cliff and DC leave tomorrow, and I need to shop and do laundry. Mark is arriving sometime in the early afternoon and Ralph is arriving on the plane that Cliff is flying out on. We walked down to Moby's Pub for dinner...a nice walk and a great dinner. Pub food in the Gulf Islands tends to be really good!
September 20, 2004 Mark showed up about 15 minutes before Cliff and I got in the dink to take him to the Kenmore Air dock, so we left him in charge. Got to the dock with a few minutes to spare and watched the last Kenmore Air flight to Ganges for the year land, and two passengers get off...one of them Ralph. The pilot got off to check everybody in and to pre-clear them through U.S. Customs. He needed to borrow my cell phone to do it! Then as he was going down the passenger manifest, he came to Danny and wanted to know where he was. I had forgotten to cancel Danny's reservation. I explained that Danny was deceased and then customs wanted to know when and where he died etc., etc. We got it all sorted out, and I kissed Cliff goodbye. He was very reluctant to leave, which was a first. But I reminded him that he was going to get Buddy out of "jail" and needed to go home. But I didn't want him to go either. Loaded Ralph into the dink and took him back to the boat...this was the first time he had seen Spirit and met Mark.
Ralph was a bit “under-the-weather” due to excessive partying the night before…he claimed it was the dinner his friend Jerry served him, but I had my doubts! So he stayed onboard Spirit while Mark and I hopped into the dink to re-provision. The plan called for us to leave in the morning so I could take care of laundry and shopping.
After shopping we decided to head to Moby’s Pub for dinner…Ralph was alive again and ready to start all over. While at Moby’s we decided to have dessert and drinks across the bay at a restaurant/bar just above the docks…can’t remember the name of it! We ran into Isobelle (who I had met earlier that day in the showers) who is from Scotland and was sailing with a friend out of Vancouver. She invited us to join her and her friend outside by the fire, so we did. Also there we discovered that with all of us “rag-baggers” around the fire was the West Coast VP of Bayliner! Boy did we give him a bad time! We finally toddled off to the boat around 10:30.
September 21, 2004 We got underway around 10:00 AM, under warm and sunny skies…. motoring out of Ganges in the middle of a crowd of boats! Amazing how busy the harbor is this time of year. Just in the worst possible area, I smelled what I thought was smoke…and opened the engine compartment to check. YIKES!! Smoke/steam rolling out! I had Ralph kill the engine, and Mark and I began a Chinese fire-drill…emptying out the lazerette so I could get down beside the engine as he was in the front part…The “smoke” disappeared as I realized it was steam…but where was it coming from? Since we were drifting towards the reef, I had Ralph start the engine to take us away, as well as allowing us to locate the problem. Then Mark held up a little rubber gasket and asked “Is this important?” When I had cleaned out the raw-water filter, I had dropped the gasket and was so busy gabbing I didn’t notice! We had Ralph kill the engine again, and reinstalled the gasket and started up…everything was fine! So I dumped some fresh water on the engine as we continued motoring out of the harbor. Just to be on the safe side, I left the lazerette empty so that I could check on things if need be…I just don’t trust engines!
We got out of the inner harbor and raised the sails to begin beating our way out…wind was on the nose at about 12 knots. While Ralph was down below and otherwise occupied, Mark and I were treated to a view of a pod of Orca’s…they weren’t real close, but still exciting to see! We kept hollering for Ralph…but he just didn’t make it back up in time.
We turned downwind and headed through Swanson Channel, past Prevost Island and headed north up Trincomali Channel planning on beginning a circumnavigation of Saltspring Island before heading for home. Had a great down-wind sail until we turned the northern tip of Saltspring…then it was flat calm. Turned on the motor and headed for Thetis Island marina which was deserted. Had a lovely hamburger at the Pub…last one of the year I guess.
September 22, 2004 A soft rain moved in during the night, and we motored out under dead calm conditions in a drizzle. Shortly before we left I saw a group of Trawlers leaving from Telegraph Harbor…led by Tom of Port Orchard…I recognized many of the boats; they were on their way home from cruising to S.E. Alaska.
Right after we left, a light wind came up on our nose as we motored south towards Sansum Narrows. I thought I smelled smoke, but couldn’t find anything…Ralph told me that I better learn how to relax! After yesterday, I didn’t trust that engine! We raised the sails and had a lovely time as the wind began to pick up as we sailed toward Maple Bay. Just as we reached the narrow pass south of Vesuvius the wind died to a point where we were going to have great difficulty against the current, so we started the engine and began motoring through the passage. I went below to use the head and glanced (as usual) at the breaker panel and saw the red light was on for the engine room bilge! WHAT??! I opened the compartment and saw lots of black foamy water…geesh! No problems all spring and summer until Ralph and Mark come aboard! So Chinese fire-drill again…empty the lazerette to find out where the water was coming in. Engine temp was fine so I just had Ralph throttle back just enough to still maintain our course…again; we were in a bad spot! Why do these things never happen in a wide-open expanse of water???
At first glance it looked as if the PSS system was leaking, but everything was still in place and functioning…just lots of salt-water (again!) and black foam??? Mark took his turn and climbed in the lazerette while I was above accessing the situation and our position…engine temp still fine, lets head towards Maple Bay…Mark pokes his head up and announces that he found the problem (gotta love that guy!)…a hose clamp from the exhaust raw water lift had worked its way loose and was spilling into the engine. He tightened it back up and we headed towards Maple Bay where we could drop anchor and clean up the mess! Yuck!!! Carbon all over the place. Ralph and I got it all mopped up and washed down. I am replacing all my clamps with T-Clamps! They were all checked by me a month-and-a-half ago and were tight. Grrrrr!
Raised the hook and headed south through Sansum Narrows all the way to Todd Inlet for a final goodbye for the year. Soft rain all afternoon and night….
September 23, 2004 We left Todd Inlet under partly cloudy, almost foggy conditions, but no rain. Motored towards Bedwell Harbor on Pender Island. Mid-Haro Strait a light wind came up and Mark wanted to sail…so we sailed, kinda! The wind was so light and fluky, but we made it off the entrance to Bedwell Harbor finally, the day was gorgeous, blue skies and warm. Mark discovered what a current line was however. In Boundary Pass we pointed out a line on the water to him, that was heading towards us…the current was changing with a vengeance! The wind was very light, and when that line hit us there was no way we could sail against it in that light wind; in fact it wanted to set us right on So. Pender Island! So we started the engine and motored in to Bedwell where we dropped our anchor.
We hopped into the dink to check out the new resort/marina at Bedwell, now called “Poets Cove” with lots of high-priced condo’s and a bar that they didn’t want scruffy sailors in! LOL So we had our beer and wine outside at a table next to a bunch of guys all dressed in their Gucci Golf Shirts, with pressed “casual” slacks…LOL Boy did they give US some looks! The two beers and glass of wine?? $25!!! Don’t think we will be going back there anytime soon! The American Tug rendezvous was there, checked for Bob and Ellie but they had not made it in yet. We toured the area in the dink, looking at the fantastic rock formations and trees growing straight off of the rocks with only an inch of topsoil….going through the cut to the other side…and then back to the boat to head for the States tomorrow.
September 24, 2004 Woke up to fog so thick we couldn’t see the other boats in the anchorage…good start for the final run back home! I decided to check-in with US Customs while still in Bedwell via cell phone. Had no problems clearing, even though I was unable to give them an exact destination/arrival or time due to the fog. Very easy…much nicer than having to talk to the jerk at Roche Harbor! That guy can be awful! The fog seemed to want to clear, and a sailboat anchored next to us left and disappeared from sight. I gave them about an hour and then hailed them on the VHF to get a status report. He told us visibility in Boundary Pass was about ¼ mile and lifting. So we fired up the engine and radar and headed out with a good watch. Mid-point the fog cleared to where we had a good mile of visibility as we headed towards Roche Harbor to fuel up and fill the water tanks. While there we ran into the Bayliner guy from Ganges on the fuel dock. We left Roche and headed towards Spencer Spit…under sail until just off of Mosquito Pass, where the wind died and the sail went up. We caught a mooring buoy on the south side of Spencer, planning on heading across the strait by 6:00 AM tomorrow to catch the favorable tides, through Lopez Pass into Rosario and then on to Port Townsend. Mark had to be home in two days, so we figured we could get him on the Keystone Ferry. The Chart plotter kept dying during the day, I think the antenna is giving out after my little repair job last June.
September 25, 2004 Woke up at 5:30 AM to dense fog. Waited until 7 AM, seemed to be lifting a bit and headed down sound to Lopez Pass…by the time we got down there, visibility was down to nearly 100’, and I didn’t want to do the pass strictly by radar and chart plotter, so we headed back up towards Spencer Spit, where the fog was lifting and then east through Thatcher Pass hoping the fog would be lifting by the time we hit Rosario…no such luck, it just got thicker and thicker, so by radar and plotter we tucked ourselves into the little bay between James Island and Decatur. We saw on radar that there was a fairly large boat anchored about 300’ from us, but we couldn’t see it. So it was brunch time and naptime. Finally around 10 AM the fog lifted enough for us to see the boat next to us…it was the USCG waiting out the fog. Listening to the fog horns from the ferry boats and commercial traffic was a bit frightening, you could hear them, but not see them at all…and it was very busy out there. By 11:30 the fog was rapidly lifting, so we headed out bucking the current through the pass behind James Island and entered Rosario Strait with about a mile of visibility and the fog lifting showing blue skies overhead. Within an hour, just as we passed out of Rosario and entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca the fog dropped on us like a lid coming down! We had zero visibility, at times, not even able to see the furled headsail. Ralph was glued to the radar below, with Mark helping me keep a watch above, trying to hear for sounds above our own engine. A bit nerve wracking to say the least. Had all radios on, monitoring Commercial Traffic out of Victoria and Seattle, as well as Ch. 16. Passed some big commercial traffic entering Rosario, but never saw them other than on the radar. It was eerie, dead-calm flat water, no swell and no visibility.
Off of the east side of Smith Island we needed to cross the traffic lanes to pick up our course through Admiralty Inlet. I radioed Seattle Traffic to get an update on commercial traffic…they put me on hold for two or three minutes and then came back to me and asked me to verify my current position and intended course. This was a little odd, but oh well! They gave me the ok to cross the traffic lanes and then I made the stupidest mistake!!! Instead of using my autopilot and just punching in the course change, I reached up, hit stand-by and began to hand-steer and immediately became totally disoriented in that total white out! Ralph started hollering below wanting to know what the hell I was doing and called out the correct course…from the radar. Well, that is when I found out that the radar and the compass and the GPS all think they are in different positions! After a double figure eight in place, I stopped…told everybody to be quiet! LOL…then slowly, using the radar as the indicator, picked up my correct course. Man did I learn a lesson about fog! It was amazing, the absolute and total disorientation! Ralph had a good chuckle as he had it all recorded on my hand-held GPS!
Entering Admiralty Inlet we had a strong current against us, almost 4 knots, so we were slowed down at times to 4 and 5 knots…really slow going! We continued to plow through the fog, surprised that we didn’t have any commercial traffic…especially after the delay in getting permission from Seattle Traffic to cross the lanes…then all of a sudden Ralph hollers…BIG BOOGIES!! On a northern heading, 3/4-mile off of our starboard side heading the wrong way up the traffic lane…three of them. One big, one huge and one small. The fog was still so thick we couldn’t see more than a few hundred feet. Ralph calls out that the smallest of the three was breaking off, and changing a heading ½ mile off of our bow on our heading, and the other two were continuing on original course. All of a sudden, the fog to our starboard lifted and Mark and I told Ralph to get up on deck! There, heading right by us was a big Navy Cutter and one of the biggest boomer Nuc subs I have ever seen! No wonder there was no traffic out there! They had cleared the area, and evidently we didn’t hear the radio call! That explained the reason they put us on hold…We had a view of the sub for about a minute, then the fog dropped back down…WOW! The smaller vessel that had broken off from the formation stayed on the same course as us, just a half-mile ahead, obviously making sure that we were not going to attack that boomer!
Within 5 minutes we heard Seattle Traffic talking to a cruise ship that was docked in Seattle wanting to leave and getting very upset that they were behind schedule…obviously due to the boomer leaving. ST told the ship to leave and they headed out. We were now running a quarter to half-mile outside of the outgoing (north) traffic lane, heading south. So I adjusted course as far away from the lane as I was comfortable running close to Whidbey Island, knowing the cruise ship was on its way with a pissed off Captain. And sure enough, we saw him on radar in short order…running right on the very outside edge of the traffic lane, so I headed even closer to shore while Ralph kept an eye on the ship. The fog was still awfully thick, with only ¼ mile visibility. Just as the cruise ship passed us…within the ¼ mile, which put him on the very, very outside if not out of the traffic lane he finally blew his horn! Little late, huh? We dodged the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry, and the fog finally started to lift as we got a bit farther south. I made the decision to go to Port Ludlow for the night, instead of pushing on to Kingston as we had decided to do earlier in the day. We made it into Port Ludlow just after dark, with the fog lifting at sunset. Dropped the anchor and had drinks all around. We were all exhausted…and Ralph had a certain glow about him after manning the radar for all those hours! The real exciting thing? Just as we dropped anchor after safely entering the harbor, the GPS antenna died! YIKES! What an end to the day!
September 26, 2004 Woke up to some light fog, and headed out of Port Ludlow, planning on going to Winslow at Bainbridge Island to drop off Mark. Swung into Kingston to get fuel, as this would be my last fuel stop heading into South Sound. Leaving Kingston the wind began to come up a bit, as the fog had all lifted. Under a sunny sky we tried to sail…but just not enough wind. Poor Mark! He was getting frustrated, as we have not had any sailing really to speak of since our first day! We motored into Eagle Harbor and, with difficulty, found a place to anchor. I really don’t like it here…crowded and noisy. But a great view of Seattle and a chance to visit with BJ and Tricia. Mark hopped off the boat and made it to the ferry to head for home. BJ and Tricia were out sailing on Nelle, and on their way in stopped by and rafted up for some wine and to meet Ralph. We told them all about our crossing and Ralph showed them the GPS with my double figure-eight…BJ laughed so hard and said that I did much worse than the one he pulled one time…he only did a single! While they were there, Rich on Narrow Path came in to the harbor after a day of motoring, and circled around us visiting for a few minutes…he couldn’t tie up alongside as he had to get his guests ashore. Just after sunset BJ and Tricia headed to their slip for the night and Ralph and I turned in.
September 27, 2004 Woke up to a grey blustery morning and motored out of Eagle Harbor and raised our sail. Had a wonderful sail all the way from Restoration Point past the entrance of Gig Harbor…Poor Mark!!! He missed such an awesome day! We motored through the Narrows and into Longbranch where we dropped our anchor for the night.
September 28, 2004 Final day is here. Raised the hook in light fog, which was rapidly clearing and headed for home. No real wind to speak of, so we didn’t bother to even try to sail. Kind of a melancholy morning; hard to admit the adventure was at the end. Arrived at the marina under grey skies, just a few minutes ahead of Cliff. Got Ralph’s stuff off of the boat, and headed for home where Ralph had left his vehicle.
***End of Gunkhole Adventures 2004***