South Sound Cruising and Prepping to Go - August 2019

We hauled the boat out on July 24th to paint the bottom and check her over.  All looked good - we got the painting done and replaced a sea-cock as part of our maintenance.  Splashing back in on July 31st, we headed over to Point Hudson for a couple of nights before heading south toward Olympia for our August South Sound cruise.

We fueled up and anchored in Port Ludlow for our first two nights out.  While there, Donn discovered our solar wasn't working.  He spent an entire afternoon troubleshooting and fixing it. We then pointed our bow toward Port Madison at the north end of Bainbridge Island.  We anchored there for one night and timed our passage the next day to make it through Agate Pass at slack - ending up in Poulsbo, again at anchor, for two nights.

Poulsbo was great - we took advantage of the port's showers and laundry and enjoyed what the town has to offer.  We did have to deal with a potential dinghy thief after docking our dinghy at the Port dock.  I saw him as we pulled our dinghy up and thought it was odd that he was wading (chest high) through the water under the dock ramp.  He climbed up onto the dock and passed us as we walked up to the ramp to go ashore.  We turned to look at him just as he jumped into our dinghy behind us!  Donn brought out his inner cop and told him in no uncertain terms to get out now and what did he think he was doing?  We alerted dock staff and made sure the guy would not go near our boat again.  I'm pretty sure he wasn't all there mentally - but even so - not a comfortable feeling to have your dinghy at risk like that.

On August 7th - we headed to Bell Harbor for a couple of nights and were lucky enough to dock two slips away from Maiden, a 58 ft racing sailboat, famous for being the boat used by the first all women team in the Whitbread around the world race in 1989.  We saw the documentary back in July in Port Townsend and I was so excited to see this boat, which is on a world tour right now and happened to be stopping in Seattle in early August.  I approached a couple of the crew early on Thursday and asked if and when I'd be able to see her more closely and possibly get a tour.  They informed me they weren't having any public tours until later that weekend (after we'd be gone) - so I asked if there was any way I could see it before Friday morning, when we were leaving.  They said they'd try and would let me know.  Thursday, just before noon, they came over and caught my attention and said I could come visit.  So cool!  A beautiful boat and an amazing crew of women on a mission, sailing her around the world.  When I mentioned we were from Port Townsend, one of the crew shared that they were considering stopping there on their way out to San Francisco, which was their next official stop.  I encouraged them to stop in PT and told them they'd have a HUGE welcome there - which is exactly what happened! We also had a lovely visit with my Dad and Step-mom on board Brigadoon that day.
 
We departed Friday morning and headed south to Gig Harbor, where we anchored once more and stayed for two nights.  A highlight was meeting up with an old friend for breakfast on Saturday at Kelly's Cafe.  Afterwards he drove us out to the grocery store and we shopped and caught the Gig Harbor trolley bus back to the harbor.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

From Gig Harbor, we headed south again and finally crossed under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge – a first for us.  We stayed one night at anchor in Filucy Bay near Longbranch and then three beautiful nights on a mooring in Jerrell Cove.  On Thursday, August 15^th – we motored down to Swantown Marina in Olympia.  

Jerrell Cove

Olympia was lovely.  We stayed five nights – took lots of walks, ate some good food, enjoyed a one night showing of The Matrix at the local downtown cinema, and spent time with a fellow sailor – Jim, who we’d met during our first winter in Point Hudson.

Leaving Olympia on August 20, we worked our way up to Oro bay – where we spent two quiet nights at anchor.  The morning we were supposed to catch the slack tide under the Narrows and head to Foss Harbor Marina in Tacoma we discovered our anchor didn’t want to come back up to us.  We were doing our usual routine - headsets on, I was at the wheel and Donn was at the bow managing the anchor retrieval.  All the chain was back on board except for the 20+ feet from our bow straight down to the anchor below.  This is when the anchor usually pops out and we slowly bring it up as I keep us steady in place or start to creep out of the anchorage.  Well that wasn’t happening.  Donn asked me to put it in gear in an effort to use the boat’s forward momentum as leverage.  No luck.  In fact, the bow just got pulled lower the more we tried to budge it.  This process continued for several minutes.  Then Donn grabbed the buoy line (our anchor retrieval line we attach to a small float) and brought it back to the cockpit.  He wound it around our larger port side winch and started cranking.  Using this as a trip line now put the anchor at the bottom of a triangle – with the winch on one corner and the bow at the other.  By working at it from both angles, we were finally able to trip it and bring it up.  We still have no idea what it was stuck on, but we made it under the Narrows just in time before the tide turned on us.

Foss Harbor had been our home for a year and a half in 2015-16.  For this visit we had been given a slip close to the office – the innermost slip on D dock, and as we turned into the fairway, I was standing at the bow keeping a lookout for our slip as I always do.  We were about halfway down the fairway when I realized our slip wasn’t empty.  I called back to Donn to let him know.  And then things got interesting…   Our boat is 42 feet overall.  The fairway we were in was 55 feet wide.  Since Brigadoon doesn’t back up worth a damn, Donn now had to "back and fill" turn her around in that much space.  Fortunately, we didn’t have much wind to speak of and he managed to maneuver us back out and into a temporary slip at the fuel dock.  The offending boat finally left an hour or so later and we were able to dock with no further issues.  Our stay at Foss Harbor was wonderful – caught up with several old friends and enjoyed an outdoor movie (The Goonies) as part of Foss’ outdoor movie series.  

Sunday, August 25^th we headed north again and decided to stop by the Blake Island Marina to see if there might be space.  This marina is notoriously busy in the summers and it’s a bit small. And… we got lucky!  We snagged a nice spot at the end of the dock and settled in for a quiet two night stay.  We enjoyed ice cream from the park ranger’s office store and a few nice walks.  

That luck changed when Donn lost his beautiful (and expensive) prescription sunglasses overboard while working at the edge of the cockpit while we were docked.  He had loosened the boom and was reaching up to work on something. A gust came up and the boom came toward him – his glasses got knocked off and he held on as he watched them disappear into the dark water between us and the dock.  The tide was up at that point, but he tried to dredge for them with our net on a long pole.  That failed, but the next morning he decided to put on his wetsuit and go in at low tide to try to look for them.  No dice – the glasses were gone.  Lesson learned?  ALWAYS wear glasses tethers when moving about the boat.

From Blake Island we hopped up to Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island and found a nice spot on the city dock for the night.  We had a lovely dinner with sailing friends in town.  This is definitely a nice spot to stay that gives you access to Bainbridge Island and the ferry to Seattle.

Wednesday, August 28 we departed Eagle Harbor with the promise of a nice breeze from the north for our hop across the Sound to Bell Harbor.  We had a wonderful sail!  Took our time and sailed pretty much a straight shot across.  We had planned to sit in Bell Harbor one last time so I could hop a ferry to Bremerton and teach a session at a Women’s retreat on Friday, August 30.  While there, we enjoyed dinner at my sister and brother-in-law’s home, caught up with more friends, ate really good fudge, and Donn finished one of the most appreciated projects in our salon.

We had discussed creating a “pit” on the port side where the short settee and table were.  This involved putting the table in its “away” position against the bulkhead and building a platform extension for the settee.  This would not only give us a nice large sitting/lounging area but would also create more storage underneath for heavier items like our watermaker and sewing machine.  I ordered up the foam to put on top and Donn finished building it while I was at the retreat.  It has proven to be extremely useful and comfortable.

Our final push back to Port Townsend where we would prep for the big trip down the coast included a one night stay at Port Ludlow where we enjoyed a nice dinner at the Fireside.  We arrived back at Point Hudson on Monday – Labor Day.  Our departure was scheduled for Thursday morning.  Three nights to prep the boat, get crew settled, and provision – not to mention saying goodbye to family and friends for the last time before leaving Washington State.

Docked at Point Hudson - prepped for departure

August was exactly what we had needed.  It was a wonderful trip full of adventures, tests, and fun.

Where is Home?

Brigadoon is our home. It’s been our home for the last five years. Over those five years we have been fortunate enough to live on Lake Union, here in Seattle. We have a great spot on the end of the dock, our marina is old but run well, we get along well with the owner, and our neighbors have (mostly) been good neighbors. They’re definitely a mixed bag. There was the guy who rode his motorcycle down the dock to park it next to his boat. There was the crazy cat lady who had flower pots all over her side of the dock for her cats to shit in. Entertaining us was the drunk Aussie who was offensive at times but overall a really nice guy. But they were all nice people – truly.

Then, there’s the shipyard…

Where is home? It’s where the boat is moored.

That is about to change.

A couple weeks ago, we were out on the Sound, returning from a friend’s place up north. Another friend was headed south also. As we sailed away, we had a nice northerly at 8-10, which made our asymmetrical spinnaker pull us along at a good 6 knots. Everything was going superb as we worked our way from Port Susan down past Hat Island, just off Everett. Our good friend, Kim, was sailing ahead of us about 3 nautical miles. The forecast was for possible dry lightning in the afternoon. We did get some, with flashes happening over the Cascades to the east, along with some between clouds. 

It wasn’t that severe and it wasn’t close, so we sailed on.

We had planned well for this trip, deciding to set watches for ourselves. This was the suggestion of my lovely and very smart First Mate. Kerry thought it would make for good practice. I agreed. So, we set watches of one hour on and one hour off. This kept us from standing around, fidgeting together, not resting, and basically not getting any time off. Kerry was below, off watch, when I saw the black line on the water.

It was about 5 nautical miles away.

I walked to the foredeck to get a better look. It was closer now. I could see black water, with ever increasing white caps behind it, like white horses climbing out of the Sound. Then I looked up. I looked up at our brand new spinnaker, full with only eight knots of wind filling it from behind. I knew that spinnaker had to come down right now. “Kerry! I need you on deck now!” I shouted as I moved forward to douse the spinnaker. The dark line on the horizon was now less than a mile away. 

There was a wall of wind coming at us, a squall, if you will, and it was going to hit us right on the nose. I completed the fastest spinnaker douse in my entire sailing career. Thank god I had an ATN sock on that spinnaker. It was doused and then down on deck in less than 2 minutes. And that’s when the storm hit us. Looking back I could see Kerry in the cockpit at the wheel.  She yelled out “What course should I take?” I looked over at Kim’s boat. I saw what he was doing. Turning back to Kerry, I shouted “Do you see Kim? Do exactly what he is doing!”

And she did.

We were fine. The winds were 25-30 knots. The seas were very confused. But we were just fine. We didn’t make any big mistakes and no one was hurt. The thing that most comes to mind is that, while not completely incompetent, we weren’t exactly relaxed in the process. Because, we should have been. We were in solid boat with good gear and enough experience where we should have been comfortable.

That’s the lesson. We need more of this. We need to be out there in the Puget Sound sailing in salt water and running into storms. Right now, we have a minimum of three drawbridges and the Ballard Locks to transit just to go sailing in Puget Sound. It’s a two hour trip on a good day. Lake Union is a little small and busy sometimes for Brigadoon. All this adds up to; We don’t get out often enough.

As of August 1^st, we’ll be in our new slip on the Sound. We looked at many different marinas, some of them quite shabby but endearing nonetheless. Which begs the question – why would anyone, no matter how beautiful the marina might be, live in such a place with a dirty rundown bathroom and no laundry facilities anywhere in town? Three other marinas we researched were all in close proximity to each other.  Two of those were within walking distance of the Bainbridge Island Ferry.  We would have access to the Sound, a manageable commute, and a nice, modern, rich, town. Why didn’t we choose Bainbridge?

We found a better marina in Commencement Bay on the edges of the city of Tacoma. One cannot deny that Tacoma has revitalized the waterfront and, excepting its reputation, it’s actually quite a pleasant neighborhood. Oh, and the paper mill smell seems to have gone. The Foss Harbor Marina is clean, modern, well managed, amenity rich, and populated by some really nice people. There is a large liveaboard population, which is to our advantage.

This puts us within 200 yards from the entrance of Commencement Bay. At that point, we are in the South Puget Sound. We will have the time, the access, the desire, and the wherewithal to actually sail this boat as much as we need. The South Sound awaits us. We’re gonna do some sailing.

First Overnight

We have been planning this for a couple weeks; our first overnight trip on Brigadoon. We have been living aboard for just over five months and have not been able to spend the night on her anywhere else but at our dock on Lake Union.

So we planned a trip westward, out the raising the Fremont Bridge, the Ballard Bridge, through the locks and into the salt water sound.  We were going to sail around a bit, then spend the night at Shilshole, returning through the ship canal to our slip on Sunday.

Well, that wasn't to be.  The weather forecast called for Saturday being crappy,with scattered crappiness, increasing to steady crappy at 11:00 PM, dawning Sunday to increased chance of crappy.

I made a captains decision that handling the locks, for our first time, in pouring rain, would not be a good idea.  So...what to do...what to do?

I decided that only two bridges would be better and, since we have not exercised our ground tackle yet or passed south of the 520 bridge, we would head east then south to Andrews Bay near Seward Park and spend the night on the hook.

The route is almost 19 miles.

We took off around noon on Saturday and headed for the fuel dock, for our first refueling in five months.  I had to repair the fuel filler because the previous one was frozen shut.  So, after taking on 10 gallons of diesel we headed for the University Bridge.  As we approached, I grabbed our horn and, after yelling, "Horn!", pushed the button.

Nothing.  Not even a peep.  It was supposed to make a very loud noise.  I sent Kerry below to fetch the spare charge for the horn I had recently purchased for just such and emergency.  She had to dig deep but soon poked her face out with a smile of victory and a canister in her hand.  I set Brigadoon motoring in circles as I swapped canisters and, with a few mistaken "Whoop!" here and there as I handled the thing, we were all set.

A long blast and a short and we were on our way under the University Bridge and headed for the Montlake Bridge.  Up that one went and we were out into Lake Washington on the north side of 520.

I had checked the charts multiple times, consulted web sites, talked to other Captains, just to assure myself that my 54+ (call it 55) foot mast would clear the east span of the bridge.  The charts say 57 feet high it is.  Kerry was a little anxious about that.  However, I remember the bridge being clearly marked and higher on one side.  I also suspected they mark the charts for the lowest point of the pass under at mean high water.  I thought we were ok.

We were.  As we approached the bridge under motor, we spotted two helpful things.  The first was the 64 foot height on the eastern part of the channel.  The second was the clear markings on the footings of the bridge showing the vertical clearance for various levels of water.  The numbers go down as the lake level goes up.  The 64 foot clearance meant we would be passing under about 62-63 foot high bridge with our 55 foot past.  That meant about seven feet of clearance.

I will tell you that, from the cockpit of Brigadoon, seven feet never looked so small or invisible.  But, clearance it was and soon we passed under and were on our way past the famous "I have so much money I don't know what to do with it" mansion of Bill Gates.  Waving to the tour boat (yes there was one), we motored south under slightly cloudy skies and little wind.

Brigadoon made a good 4kts under power at 2400 rpm.  Steadily, we motored south, towards and under the 70 foot clearance of the I-90 bridge on the east side of Mercer Island.  Crossing under and moving south, we made out way to the south end.

Kerry went below and left me at the helm.  While she snoozed in the forward cabin, I let the stereo blare as I motored along some of the most expensive real estate in the Puget Sound.

I call this one the "I have too much money" house. I mean, really...

Oh, it might have been the Mercer Island community center but, really, I doubt it.

Then again, I'm speaking from the viewpoint of wanting less, of living on a boat that has less square footage than one of their walk in closets.  I looked on with some sense of not wanting that, not even if I had the money.  I was happy where I was, motoring along in my modest home, with my beautiful girl snoozing in the front cabin.

Soon Kerry was awake and we were motoring along the east side of Seward Park.  A turn around the north end and we entered Andrews Bay.  There wasn't another boat there.  Not one.  

Kerry and I motored around, surveying the depth and deciding where to drop the hook.  Contrary to most cruising couples I went forward to handle the 35lb anchor, the hundreds of pounds of chain and parts that can tear your hands off.  I always thought it really stupid of "captains" that never leave their helms; instead sending their spouses forward to deal with the heavy tackle while they drive their boats and yell.

Oh, there was a little yelling because Kerry and I were 35 feet apart.  She did a great job of managing the engine while I got the CQR anchor into the bay and on the bottom.  I will tell you, when a hundred feet of 3/8" chain starts flying out of the hawse pipe and into the water, you do not reach for it to slow it down.  Soon, we were at anchor, or, at least, I thought we were.  

The chain is marked in depths an I thought I had 175 feet of chain out.  For the 30 foot depth of the bay at that point, that should be plenty (over 6/1 scope).  However, Brigadoon kept swinging oddly in the wind, back and forth, like a drunken windvane.  It wasn't supposed to do that.  I finally went ahead and let out more chain and was horrified to see the 100 ' marker come up.

A moment of fearful stupidity hit me as I realized that what I thought was the 175' marker was only the 75' marker.  We had a scope of 2/1 out.  That is not optimum and was a perfect recipe for a dragging anchor in the middle of the night, as a possible running aground.  After playing around I decided to go for a real 175' of chain.  As I hit that mark, it switched over to the heavy duty 5/8" rode.   Now I was set.  I got the boat, started the engine and really backed down on the anchor.  Finally we were set.  I'd be able to sleep.

This is what Andrews Bay looks like when Seafair isn't happening and the fair weather boaters are all staying home.

We did end up with company.  One boat sat quietly off our port quarter all night.  We never heard a sound from them as we fired up the Dickeson diesel heater, made dinner on the stove, played some music and turned in for a good night's 'rest'. 

And except for it getting pretty cold (we should have pulled another comforter out of ships stores, we had a great first night on anchor.  We woke to a quiet and calm bay.  

 Of course, it was too cold for my Princess, so I played Lancelot and got the diesel heater going again while I made coffee, tea, and breakfast, on the hook, in the middle of Andrew's Bay, in my home.

Finally, she was up and about so we started talking about getting going.  It took us both about 30 minutes of hauling on the manual windlass to pull all 200' of rode and chain to the boat but, after working in shifts, we finally had the engine started and were motoring out of the bay while Kerry had the rest of her breakfast.

While she munched we headed southward towards Rainer Beach, where Kerry used to live.  We cruised by there while I readied Brigadoon for sail.  The wind was up, I had a reef in the sail for practice so we got the sails up in short order and...6 knots under one reef and the yankee (the big headsail).  We worked that east and north, alternating between broad reaching and running (some wing and wing) and sailed right under the I-90 bridge.  

Once past that, we ended up motoring back under 520, then east through the ship canal, under the two bridges and back to our slip to a familiar gusty south wind.

It was a great trip.  I couldn't have a better boat or First Mate.