Full Trip Route.
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Towards the end of 2014, one of my friends from the marina put the idea in my head to take a couple of weeks and sail north sometime around May of 2015. I mentioned the idea to Deb, and with a little arm twisting, she was on board (ha!). We decided that the San Juan Islands would be our destination. The hope was that May would be late enough to have nice weather, and early enough to escape the crowds that swarm there in the summer months. I've never been to the San Juans before, but they are a world class cruising and vacation destination right in our backyard.
With a destination in mind, I began to come up with A Plan. My Plan was to not have a plan. I figured it would be best to leave things open ended and flexible, so that we could adapt to the weather, stop to see things of interest, and in general not feel like we had a schedule to follow. That being said, I needed to decide what to do for the first day anyway. There are two potential routes up to the San Juans from Seattle. The first is up the East side of Whidbey Island, and then out through Deception Pass. The second is up the West side of Whidbey, through Admiralty Inlet, past Port Townsend, and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The inside route is a bit sheltered, and can require a lot of motoring, which I was trying to avoid. It also has Deception Pass, where the currents can run in excess of 8 kts through a narrow channel, generating tidal rapids with whirlpools, eddy currents, and standing waves. The Strait, on the other hand, can become nasty when a stronger west wind is blowing. My goal was to cross the Strait on one end of the trip, and come through Deception Pass on the other end, forming a big loop. I also really wanted to stop in Port Townsend, as Deb and I have been there a couple of times for the Wooden Boat Show, and its a cool little town.
As the trip grew closer, I began to obsess about all the things that could go wrong. What if the weather was worse than predicted? I read stories of boats getting hammered in the tide rips that can form in the Strait outside Admiralty Inlet. I read horror stories of boats trying to cross the Strait with a west wind opposing an ebb tide from the east. creating nasty steep waves. I watched video of boats trying to motor through Deception Pass against the current. This trip was starting to seem a bit daunting. What were we doing? The furthest we had been was an overnight to Bainbridge Island 4 miles away. Going to the San Juans seemed Epic. Maybe we shouldn't go? Maybe sailing wasn't my thing. Gaaaaaa!!!! What am I doing??? Fortunately for me, I have this exact same reaction ANY time I'm about to do something new, or with the slightest amount of risk, and I know by now that if I just ignore it, prepare as best I can, and soldier on, I always end up having a great time. So with that in mind, I planned 2 routes for Day 1... up the inside to Langley on Whidbey Island, and up the west side to Port Ludlow and then Port Townsend.
We were heading out on a Tuesday. Monday night's weather showed questionable conditions in the Strait for several days. I didn't want to make it as far as Port Townsend and then be stuck there for the whole trip waiting for good conditions to cross, so we made the decision to go up the inside route, and I went to bed. Tuesday morning awoke and began getting the boat ready. Deb arrived a little later. She had agreed to take care of the planning and procuring of the food for the trip. As I helped her unload the car, I realized she had bought all the groceries. I don't mean she had bought all the groceries for the trip, I mean, she had bought ALL the groceries! Every last grocery in the greater Seattle area had been purchased by Deb, for this trip. As we carried bag after bag down to a small fleet of dock carts, I wondered if she understood that this was in fact a 10 day trip, and not a 10 week excursion? More importantly, where was all this food going to fit on the boat??? After some shuffling, arranging, and rearranging, we got the food and Debs gear stowed aboard. And by "stowed" I mean, "mostly piled up on the floor."
With that, we were off! A quick stop at the fuel dock to gas up and pump out the holding tank, and the adventure was underway. We got through the Fremont and Ballard bridges with almost no waiting. After only a few minutes wait at the locks, we were loaded in and through, and by 1pm we were out in the Sound by Shilshole Marina. Needless to say, getting an early start is not really our thing.
Once out in the Sound, we put up the sails. With the wind behind us, we sailed North at an average of 4 or 4.5 kts. I busied myself practicing things I had learned in my navigation class: taking bearings on landmarks to establish our position, plotting it on the chart, verifying with the GPS, taking radar bearings on land features and navigational aids, etc. The miles passed without incident. Just a couple of miles short of our destination the wind tapered off, and our speed dropped lower and lower, until the knot meter was reading half a knot. At that point we started the motor, and motored the last bit to Langley. We tied up at the Langley Marina at 6:15pm.
With Renegade safely tied up at the dock, it was time to celebrate our longest voyage to date, roughly 24 nautical miles. An accomplishment more or less equal to Columbus "discovering" America, but with less subsequent murdering and abuse of the native population. We celebrated with a bottle of Renegade wine. I'd like to be able to give you a report on the wine's character, but alas, wine tastes like one of two things to me: "red wine" and "white wine." I can distinguish those two flavors, mostly by looking at the color in the glass. This one was red. We grilled some dinner and our friend Fredrika, who lives on Whidbey nearby, stopped in for a visit. I didn't have the energy to plan the next day's adventures, so we went to bed. It was nice to have the first day under our belt, and feel like we had actually started the trip. Most of my concerns seemed like a distant memory. We were off to a good start!
Wednesday we awoke to a dreary, overcast day, ate breakfast, and waffled back and forth about what to do next. We both wanted to go into the town of Langley and explore a little. Our next stop north could be either Oak Harbor, which was about 18 miles, or Deception Pass State Park, which was about 32 miles. One of my goals for this trip was to try anchoring for the first time. The cruising guide said that Oak Harbor had places to anchor, but the chart showed it being very shallow. Langley was described as being a very good anchorage, but we had already spent the night tied up in the marina. Eventually we decided that we would spend the day exploring Langley, then move the boat out and anchor it for the night, and sail on to Deception Pass the next day, Thursday.
With this crucial decision taken care of, we hiked the short distance into town and started to explore. Our first stop was Village Pizza for some lunch and a great view of Saratoga Passage, which we would be sailing the next day. This is the body of water between the east side of Whidbey, and Camano Island further to the east. The thick crust pizza is some of the best pizza I have had anywhere, and highly recommended if you are ever there. After lunch we wandered around town, stopping at a cool thrift shop, Useless Bay Coffee Company, and a really good chocolate place next door which I can't remember the name of.
Eventually we made our way back to the boat, and prepared to move it from the marina out into the anchorage. There were a handful of boats out there tied up to mooring bouys, and one or two that were anchored. We headed out and picked a spot on the end of those boats in about 30 feet of water. I consulted the tide tables to see what the water would be doing over the next 12 hours, then we dropped the anchor, let out what seemed like a ridiculous amount of anchor line, cleated it off, and set the hook. Then I immediately began to obsess about drifting. I marked our position with the GPS for later reference. I took bearings on various features on shore. I checked the depth. I took bearings on boats tied up to mooring bouys. Then I began a cycle of rechecking all those things to make sure all the numbers agreed with previous ones, assuring me that we were in the same spot. After an hour or so of this, I was confident enough that I decided it would be ok to put the kayaks in the water and go explore.
The highlight of our kayak excursion was a curious seal that came to play with us. After seeing him surface a few times 30 yards or so away, he swam over to see what we were all about. Each time he surfaced he was closer, until he was within a few feet of the kayaks. As Deb and I took pictures and remarked on how friendly he was, he popped out of the water and was halfway onto the rear deck of my kayak! Given his size, I think there is a pretty good chance he would have capsized the kayak, so I quickly paddled out from under him! That started a game of tag where one of us would paddle away from him, and he'd chase us, swimming under the kayak, doing barrel rolls in the water, and swimming upside down. The seal seemed to enjoy this game a great deal, and we continued playing for a good half hour or so, before we had to paddle into the marina to use the bathroom. He followed us all the way in, and then wandered off in search of new entertainment. This encounter was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!!!
After heading back to the boat we ate some dinner, and I planned our route for the next day. Then we went to bed. What followed was a very long night of me waking up every hour or so, wondering if we had dragged our anchor and drifted. Checking the GPS, trying to see the relative position of the other boats and points on shore in the dark. Are we in a different spot because the current has swung us around, or because we've drifted??? Then after satisfying myself that we were still anchored, I'd go back to sleep only to be awakened by some new sound. Why do the waves sound like that? They didn't sound like that before... have we drifted in towards the shore??? Are we out in the middle someplace??? No, just the wind coming from a slightly different direction, everything is good... After a full night of this, I woke up not at all rested, but with the boat still firmly attached to the bottom where I had anchored it. This made me quite happy; our first successful anchoring. With that accomplished, I had more confidence going to destinations that might not have a dock or mooring bouy to tie up at, which opened up our options a good bit. Plus, one more thing checked off my list. All in all, a pretty good couple of days, and a good start to the trip!
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