During a recent crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we noticed something heading towards us from about a mile away.  From that distance we could see 2 large vessels with something smaller between them.  There also was a medium size vessel in front of and behind them.  None of these 5 vessels showed up on our AIS system.  As we got closer, we realized it was a US Navy Submarine flanked by Navy ships and a coast guard vessel in front. The sub’s tower and only about 10′ of the hull were visible.  They were headed west and we passed at a distance of about 1/2 mile going east.  The picture on the left was taken as they passed us and you can see the sub tower just in front of nearest flank vessel.  The one on the right was taken about a half mile after they passed us, but still within torpedo range!

June 1: Due to vacation time and a planned trip to Australia later this summer, we decided to take a short 5-day trip to the San Juan Islands.  To maximize our time in the islands, we departed Lake Union late afternoon on Friday June 1.  Two drawbridges and a set of locks later, we were out in Puget Sound with a favorable tide for going north.  We were motor-sailing in light wind and about half way to Port Townsend began to smell something a bit off in the cabin (I thought it smelled like rotten eggs).  It took another hour with the smell getting worse until Karen discovered the source, which she pinpointed to something under the aft-starboard berth.  Our huge 8D starter battery was boiling hot and out-gassing hydrogen sulphide through the safety vents!  After shutting down the engine and analyzing the situation, we decided to disable the alternator so we could still run the engine without charging the battery, then motored the remaining 2 hours to Port Townsend.  We arrived after dark and anchored near the ferry terminal.  The starter batter was still hot but was no longer out-gassing and the battery monitor showed it’s voltage was 12.8V.  We decided to spend the next day in Port Townsend to fix the problem.  On the positive side of things….there probably wasn’t a better place for boat repairs than Port Townsend with all of its marine shops and knowledgeable people working there.

June 2:  Port Townsend–fixing the problem

We narrowed the starter battery problem to either the battery itself, the alternator, the smart regulator, or some connection in-between.  Since the battery still worked (it was able to start the engine) and the high-output alternator and smart regulator were only 2 years old, it seemed like maybe a “system” problem.  We decided to motor to the marina and get some advice from a marine technician.  West Marine provided some names and phone numbers so we were able to find an electrical tech who could meet us at the marina.  The problem was traced to an undersized wire between the high output alternator and the starter that had become highly resistive from getting so hot.  This wire carries all the current that charges the battery and was sized for the original alternator which put out only 60Amps (the new Balmar alternator put out 110Amps).  After paying the tech for his diagnosis, we were able to walk to West Marine to buy the new wire (only 1 foot) with lug connectors, and installed it in less than an hour.  It was early afternoon, so we decided to stay in Port Townsend the rest of the day and leave early on Sunday for the crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Since the cabin still smelled like rotten eggs from the battery hydrogen sulphide, we walked to a grocery store to buy some baking soda and gave the battery compartment and entire berth a washdown.

June 3: Onwards to Jones Island

An early morning departure with a maximum ebb tide gave us terrific speed out of Admiralty Inlet.  We motored for a few hours while keeping an eye on the starter battery to make sure it wasn’t getting hot again.  Everything was working fine, and as the wind picked up, we sailed from the middle of the strait all the way to Jones Island.  We reached Cattle Pass right near max flood with a 10knot wind  behind us.  With all sails out, we were cruising at 10knots (SOG) and reached Jones Island by mid-afternoon.  We anchored in 50′ of water and rowed the dinghy to shore for a fun hike around the island and Jacintha braved the cold water along the shore.  We returned to the boat and strung the hammock between the masts, relaxed, BBQ’d, etc.

June 4: Sailing and Roche Harbor

Woke up to cloudy skies and light winds, and enjoyed a lazy morning.  The Cap’n turned cook made bacon and eggs while Jacintha decorated the boat cabin with pictures and drawings.  Since Roche Harbor was only a few miles away, we decided to sail along the west coast of Stuart Island to see if we could spot any whales.  Although we didn’t see any whales this time, we made it up to the lighthouse before turning around and heading to Roche Harbor.  We anchored out in the bay, then took the dinghy to shore.  While Karen was enjoying a hot shower at the marina, Jacintha and the Cap’n went into the general store for a few supplies.  Somewhere between the food aisle and the fishing aisle, Jacintha spotted a water gun…..

We had no problem getting outside deck seating at the Madrona Grill this early in the season.  Had our usual Firecracker Bloody Mary and French Dip while sitting under the overhead heaters to keep warm.  After dinner we took a stroll to the white chapel overlooking the harbor where we got married 4 years ago.

June 5:  Rough passage across the strait

The marine forecast called for gale force winds in Juan de Fuca strait.  We up-anchored early and motored away from the protected harbor.  Hoisted the jib, main, and mizzen sails in Haro Strait with an ebb tide carrying us south and 15 knot wind.  The conditions changed in the strait with a 20-30knot westerly going against the ebbing tide.  This spells LARGE chop and uncomfortable conditions down below for Jacintha and Karen.  Angle of heel was 20 deg and lots of weather helm with occasional waves breaking on deck and occasional gusts putting the side-rail in the sea.  After 3 hours of this, Cap’n bought in the jib and sailed under main and mizzen to decrease the heeling and allow and more comfortable run downwind.  With increasing winds and gusts, we had to pay close attention at the helm to not allow the boat to turn broadside into the wind.  The wind waves were building and we surfed in an eastward direction towards Admiralty Inlet.  We reached the inlet at max flood with a calmer 15 knot tailwind with a boatspeed of 12.2 knots (SOG), the fastest we’d ever seen Apropos go!  Sailed another 3 hours southward in Puget Sound and reached Kingston near dark.  Anchored near the ferry terminal and had a great sleep.

June 6: Back home

Had a relaxing morning and up-anchored around 1pm for the 15 mile sail back to Seattle.  Combined sailing and motoring in light winds, sunny skies, and smooth water.  The locks were busy and since the train trestle was also down, we decided to go into Shilshole marina and get together with a friend who lives in the condos on the south end of the marina.  Kit joined us aboard Apropos for some food and drinks, then we motored back to the locks as she took some photos from her balcony.  We were able to get right in the small locks and motored the remaining 2 miles to Lake Union.

With a good weather forecast for Easter weekend, we decided to sail to Poulsbo, one of our favorite Puget Sound destinations.  The sail over on Saturday was spectacular with sunny skies and a steady 15 knot northerly which meant a beam reach across the sound.  Sailed through Agate Pass with the wind on our stern and a positive 4 knot current.  Sailed all the way to Liberty Bay then docked at the Poulsbo marina.  Jacintha had fun coloring and decorating Easter eggs and Cap’n Easter Bunny hid them all over the boat after she went to sleep.  She had fun the next morning finding them all.  Walked to a church in town for Easter service, then went out for a nice brunch at Mor Mor Bistro.  Visited our favorite chandlery and our favorite ice-cream shop (Mora Creamery) before pushing off around mid-afternoon.  Motored most of the way back except towards the end when the wind picked up half way across the sound, than had about an hour wait at the locks.  Pulled into our home dock just as it was getting dark.

After our 3-week cruise to Barkley Sound and Tofino, we continued sailing throughout the summer with mostly day-cruises on Lake Union and Lake Washington. We went out for Seafair to watch the Blue Angels, BBQ, and swim. Also spent a nice weekend at Andrews Bay near Lake Washington’s Seward Park where we witnessed a boat fire that engulfed a motor yacht from a distance of about 500 yards. We also tailgated while anchored out in front of Husky Stadium while watching the Penn State vs Alabama game on TV. A few nice Autumn sail on Lake Washington rounded out the 2011 sailing season.

July 15th

We got up early to catch the tide and headed out of Victoria harbor avoiding all the little fishing boats at the entrance. Then we headed across a calm Strait of Juan de Fuca towards Port Angeles. While Jim steered, I made banana bread with the last of our bananas. I made Jim eat up the peaches as I didn’t want the customs official confiscating our lovely peaches.

I called the customs and immigration number ahead of time and gave them our details and I was instructed to call them as soon as we arrived. She warned me that the ferry The Coho was due to arrive at Port Angeles at noon and the agents would be busy processing the arrivals. So we throttled up a bit and made it to the check in dock at 11:50. I called the customs number again to ask for an agent to come and process our boat. The agent arrived and was so pleasant. He handed us our clearance number and left, no questions about importing fruit or alcohol and no inspection of our boat. There are only a few areas that we can clear customs into the US, Roche Harbor and Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, Point Roberts and Bellingham. It would have been much more convenient to clear customs at Port Townsend which is at the opening into the Puget Sound but there isn’t a customs office there. A friend of ours landed at Port Townsend accidentally and they had to wait 3 hours for the agent to drive from Port Angeles and I don’t think he was very happy.

After clearing customs, we untied and pushed off the dock and headed out of Port Angeles for Admiralty Inlet. We were going to catch the incoming tide into the Puget Sound and were hoping to reach Port Ludlow by early evening. It got lovely and sunny so we had melted cheese sandwiches in the cockpit. Then I helped Jim polish the brass pedestal which holds the wheel. It was so shiny!

Seagulls enjoying the sunshine and calm weather

Dungeness Spit lighthouse in the sunshine

We sunned ourselves and had a lovely ride down the Admiralty Inlet. With the current we were traveling at 10-11 knots GPS speed! We passed Port Townsend and then some dark clouds appeared and it started to rain! Jim covered the gleaming pedestal in glad wrap to protect our work. Then he soaped up the boat and the rain washed it clean!

Jim scrubbing the decks

We made good time to Port Ludlow so decided to continue on to Kingston, which is not far from Seattle. I cooked up the last of the salmon and steak and we had that with the tomato salad leftovers. It made a lovely meal, although Jacintha refused to eat the salmon, opting for meat!

Dinner!

We arrived at Kingston at 8 pm. There were a lot of boats anchored outside Kingston harbor as it was a busy Friday night. So we dropped anchor there as well.

July 14th

Pulled up an empty crab pot. We haven’t had much luck crabbing this trip. Then we up anchored and got another present, kelp (see photo)! That’s why we seemed to be dragging last night, we were anchored in some nice slippery kelp beds! Also the batteries started to charge with the motor, could it be that our alternator belt had been slipping?

Kelp bed

It was a foggy and calm morning, so we headed out into the Straits and Jim started fishing. We trolled along the coast with a lot of other fishing boats till we saw race rocks light in the distance. They had their fog horn sounding. Then Jim got a bite and we pulled up a Chinook salmon. He gutted it and I filleted it. Then we kept on fishing for a little bit as we headed around race rocks. We heard booming ahead, apparently the area between race rocks and the main island is where they test out live artillery. We avoided this area!

Chinook Salmon

No more fish were biting and it was still foggy so Jim pulled in the line and we motored towards Victoria. I turned on the fog horn and radar and immediately spotted two boats near us in the fog. Radar works well in the fog, as does the fog horn. The fog lifted and we could see the entrance to Victoria Harbor. It was littered with little fishing boats in front of it. Canadians seem to like to fish!

We made our way through the pretty harbor and called the harbor authority who gave us a mooring spot right in front of the Empress Hotel! Couldn’t have asked for anything better! We settled in and got ready to go for a walk. I called up some friends who we were going to have dinner with that night and left a message. As we were getting ready we saw our Seattle dock neighbors on Celtic Knot pulling in. They’d celebrated the Forth of July at Roche Harbor and then spent some time up in the Gulf Islands. We chatted a bit and Jacintha sang them a song, then we went to pay our moorage. Victoria is much pricier than Barkley Sound but it has location, location, location!

Victoria!

We checked out the aquarium and watched their scuba show. They had a couple of giant octopi in the waters, and Jacintha recognized the salmon straight away. She was very happy to see other kids as well! Then we sat and ate ice cream. We heard a busker playing guitar on the side walk and Jacintha gave him some money then sang him “My Favorite Things”, two verses plus chorus!. He was so impressed he gave her his CD! I wanted to put a hat in front of Jacintha as I thought she could make some money!

Jacintha, future busker

We returned to the boat after that and I made apple crumble, a tomato salad and baked the salmon. Jim had told Lance and Carol that we would be in Victoria on Friday but today was Thursday, so Lance had to drive all the way down from Nanaimo where he is currently living. They got there at 7:30.

Jim met Lance and Carol when they emailed him asking to see our boat in Seattle. They’d seen his website and were in the market for a Hans Christian like ours. They just wanted to get an idea of the layout of the boat and what we thought of it. Jim obliged them and they went off looking for their dream boat. When we sailed into Nanaimo last year, we heard a voice call out to Jim as we were docking. They were living on the waterfront condo and had spotted our boat coming in. They invited all of us (we had my parents on board) for a lovely dinner in their home and they told us of their continuing search for a boat. Anyway, they’d bought their boat, a Hans Christian 38, it’s a little smaller than ours with one mast and it is moored in Nanaimo while Lance is fixing it up. Carol got a job in Victoria and is living there. Their plan was to move onto the boat as soon as they’d fixed up the interior. Lance works on BC Ferries and knows the waters around Vancouver Island and north well and has a lot of interesting stories to tell.

We had a lovely dinner and talked until really late at night. When you get two boat owners together who have similar boats, there is always more things to talk about.

Lance and Carol