Fiascos

May 28, 2009

Those of you who know us are probably wondering when you get to read about our many fiascos.  It is hard to go boating without experiencing fiascos, no matter who you are.  But when you are a Mundt and you normally experience fiascos on a regular basis in your everyday life - well...it goes without saying that there will be marine fiascos.

For the most part, this trip has so far been remarkably trouble free.  Excuse me while I go find a piece of wood to knock on.  Sailors are superstitious.  The boat has worked very well.  We haven't visited a single shipyard.  In comparison, on last year's "vacation" we spent the first two weeks of our sailing trip visiting most of the shipyards of Anacortes and Sidney!  So we are very happy and haven't really had a single fiasco of a mechanical nature.  I've got to go find that piece of wood again.  

However, on a boat there are many things that can go wrong.  Not all of them of a mechanical nature.  In sailing they alwa

ys say that there are two kinds of sailors: those who have and those who haven't.  Run aground, that is.  Well I guess now I have to say that we have joined the former group (we had, in fact, been aground many years ago...but that was on a different boat, so we don't count that).  I can't say that we ran aground, but we did indeed "find the bottom" in Echo Bay the other day.  I (Jude) was at the helm and apparently I was a little too smug the other day when I maintained that I could steer and navigate at the same time!  Carl had just raised the anchor well off South Finger Island and we were slowly making our way out of the bay when we bounced.  That's really about the best way to describe it.  We bounced over what must have been a rock.  As we were heading towards a -3.5 tide that day, it was pretty obvious that we would need to steer clear of areas we wouldn't ordinarily even think about in during a time of higher tides, but even so there was considerably less water in the spot where we touched than was indicated on the chart.  At least that's my position!  After checking out the bilge to make sure we weren't taking on water and using our rudder in a normal fashion, we decided that we could breath a sigh of relief that the fiasco hadn't occurred an hour later in the day when even less water wold have covered "Jude's rock".  If any of you Northwest sailors out there want me to identify said rock on your chart of Echo Bay, I'd be happy to.

Jude at the helm

Fiascos tend to come in pairs (or more) and sure enough, a couple of days later we found out why you don't try to leave Fish Bay on Lopez Island in full flood current.  We have been boating for many years.  So many that I'm sure a lot of people consider us to be experienced boaters.  I consider ourselves to be experienced boaters.  But...an experienced boater is reminded time and time again that there is no such thing!  You are constantly finding yourself in new situations that you don't know how to deal with.  Today in Fish Bay we had such a situation.  The current was flowing so strongly inside the Lopez Islander docks that we literally couldn't back the boat into the current without being thrown crosswise in the slip.  Our inflatable dinghy served as a fender for us while we tried to figure out what to do!  We needed all three of us to get the boat turned lengthwise in the slip again (albeit with the other side "to" this time!) and the lines and fenders moved.  With Liz and I on the dock and Carl gunning the engine we managed to get the stern swung around the piling at the end of the slip and leap on board as the boat was heading out to open water.  

Today we are anchored in Indian Cove on Shaw Island and the water is so clear that we rowed around the boat and could look down at the keel and see that there is no major damage apparent there from our encounter with "Jude's Rock".  We did amazingly little damage to the boat in our second fiasco - the dinghy seems to be intact even after being squeezed between the LIBERTE and the dock for a considerable amount of time.  Since most of our boating fiascos in the past have involved the dinghy, it is hard to believe that it didn't pop before our eyes.

Liberte at anchor in Indian Cove with the Olympic Mountains in the background

The one thing that has not been a fiasco in any way is the weather.  We are enjoying weather that couldn't be any better in July or August.  A little chilly overnight it is true, but beautifully warm days.  Today we took a great walk around Shaw - the least commercial of the 4 San Juan Islands that are served by ferries - 100's are not.  

Carl and Liz walking the roads of Shaw Island

There is only one small grocery store and no hotels, restaurants, B & B's, etc.  There is one campground and that is in the bay we're anchored in.  We walked to the school and library in the middle of the island.  The original schoolhouse, built in 1890, still stands with some newer buildings around it.  There are about a dozen students in K - 8.  

Shaw Island School

The library is across the street and one of the only private libraries in Washington State.  Carl and I have visited before, but today the library was open and we were able to get a look inside.  An annual membership costs $5 a year.  Why would anyone not want to join?

Shaw Island Library

Lopez

May 27, 2009

Lopez Island -- one of the regular stops on the Mundt cruising schedule.  Last night we came into Fisherman Bay, a large bay on the west side of Lopez Island.  The depth is adequate once you are inside but the entrance is very shallow at a low tide.  We generally try to time our arrival with high tide, or at least a rising tide!  Our friends Jim and Birte tell us that nearly every weekend they see boats aground in the entrance.  Having had one encounter with the bottom this trip we aren't taking any chances!  So we wait until nearly 9PM before entering. 

There are many reasons why we love Lopez, and since we are Mundts, many of them involve food!  We have already introduced you to our favorite farm on Lopez, the Horse Drawn Farm. Saturdays from May to October there is the Farmer's Market, located in a field just up the road from the village near Fisherman Bay.  In addition there is an old-fashioned soda fountain/cafeteria in the back of the drugstore, a 'world-famous' bakery, a wonderful natural food store, a couple of great coffee shops and various restaurants.  Our favorite restaurant is The Vortex -- a super place to get soups, wraps, smoothies and other tasty treats.  They have a great deck that is sheltered from the wind and we haven't missed lunch at the Vortex many times in the past ten years or so!  This trip was no exception.  The problem was that it was only 10:00 and people were hungry.  So we hit the drugstore for some bacon, eggs and pancakes to fuel ourselves for the main reason we come to Lopez....THE DUMP.  

Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays the dump is open to the public.  This is a dump like no other.  Everything is well-organized, sorted and FREE!  Liz used to be the main proponent of a visit to the dump.  But last year Carl went along and discovered a wonderful sweatshirt of a sort he'd been looking for without success and he became hooked.  The dump opens at noon and Carl and Liz headed down the road to see what sort of treasures they could find while Jude went to the library to use their free wireless to work on uploading blog posts.  Lopez has a great library and we spent quite a bit of time there using their wireless and browsing the magazine and book racks.  Liz was thinking maybe it was time to see what "Twilight" was all about, but all the books were checked out.  Surprise.

About 2:00 we were feeling a few hunger pangs again so we walked to the Vortex.  We felt right at home and Liz and the girl behind the counter bonded over their wrist braces and compared their overuse injuries.  The weather was nice enough to eat outside on the deck and as Liz showed her finds from the dump the girls working inside at the Vortex watched through the window and gave "thumbs up" for the items they liked.  Or were they recognizing something they had gotten rid of the week before?!

We left Fisherman Bay that evening, but that's a fiasco for another day.

25 de Mayo

25 de Mayo - el Reino del Reves

Another spectacular morning.  We retreived the anchor and motored the 20 minutes to Ewing Cove to get ready for the low tide.  This is the lowest tide of the cycled and at minus 3.2 feet it will be the best beach collecting for the next month.  

This is also Argentine independence day and we are thinking of all our friends down south where it is late Fall.

Sucia again

May 24, 2009

Having Lindsey aboard means that we are going to retrace some steps since she loves the same places in the San Juans that we do.  

This morning we looked around Friday Harbor a bit and had some coffee and rolls in a WiFi coffee shop.  Then we cast off and headed back up San Juan Channel toward Sucia Island.  We had a strong flood current behind us and our average speed for two hours was more than 9 knots.  That meant that the current was flowing in our favor at more than 2 knots per hour.  At Sucia we decided to anchor in Echo Bay as it is the Memorial Day weekend (a beautiful one at that) and there are boats everywhere.  A week ago there were three boats in Echo Bay.  Tonight Liz has counted 75!  By tomorrow afternoon there will probably only be a handful once again.  Although May and June have long days and the possibility of good weather, the boating season in the northwest really doesn't begin until around the 4th of July.

So far on this voyage we have been tied to a buoy or a dock every night.  But don't get the idea that that pattern will continue much longer.  As we move north, the buoys in public parks will peter out and then the docks will disappear.  By the time that we get to the Cortes Island mentioned in the title of this blog we will be anchoring every night.  Cortes Island is found at the northern extremity of the Straight of Georgia adjacent to Desolation Sound, which is a Canadian marine park, and it is not named after the Cortez who conquered Mexico.  Rather it is named after someone on one of the Spanish expeditions to the Northwest..  Some of our readers, the cultured ones, will have already  figured out that the title of the blog is a play on words to a famous John Steinbeck book.   If you can't figure it out, ask a cultured friend.   But the play on words aside, Cortes Island is one of our favorite islands and we'll tell all about it when we get there - which may not be for quite a long time because it is far away and because we have some obligations that may delay us.

Once our anchor was down and set we put the outboard motor onto the dinghy and went ashore for a hike out to Johnson Point - about 2 miles each way.  There are more than 25 miles of trails on Sucia Island and even though there can be up to 500 people on the island on a sunny summer weekend, we hardly ever see anyone on the trails.  The people cluster on the beaches at the head of the anchorages.  So we feel that we have the island to ourselves.  The end of the trail to Johnson point is a sloping exposed bluff with views out to Matia Island and 12,000 foot Mount Baker to the east - a perpetually snow capped semi-active volcano.  There is a marker at the point that recounts that the island was first explored in the late 1890's by US surveyors.   Their markings on the rocks are still visible.

Camus and Orcas Island from Johnson Point on Sucia

Carl and Jude at Johnson Point

Lindsey's wrist is in a brace and we'll just have to see how fast it heals up and she can return to work.  Last night she came walking off the ferry in Friday Harbor burdened down with her clothes and bedding.  We sympathized with all the weight she had to carry one handed until she unpacked her back pack and pulled out hard back copy of War and Peace!  Unabridged.

            LIz with dreads

She has been living at home so that she can save as much money as possible as fast as possible.  Once she has her nest egg replenished she plans to go off traveling again.  But with a bad wrist she is not going to be scooping too much ice cream.

Change of Plans

May 23, 2009

Up early (0800, that's early for us) and we headed to the beach for the low tide.  Everyday the low tide gets a little lower until it reaches a nadir and then the low tides begin to rise each day until a peak and then the cycle begins again.   Today and for the next two days we have what are called "minus tides" which means that the water is very low and exposes rocks and tide pools that are normally hidden from sight.   It will be a rare chance to see some exotic sea creatures.  We have knee pads for kneeling on the rocky shores of the San Juan Islands and a magnifying glass in case we need to get a better look at something.  We also have a blue bucket for bringing specimens back to the LIBERTE.  Jude and I spent a happy hour turning over rocks and crawling about on the beach discovering small creatures and plants. 

   Scientist preying

We hurried back to the boat with our little blue bucket and got the microscope out into the cockpit where the sun was bright.  We took turns looking at Petri dishes containing small interesting things.  This first time, we are really just getting used to the microscope which is on loan from Dr. Bruce Miller of the University of Washington's College of Fisheries.   Dr. Miller is a world famous authority on the early life history of fishes, an ever useful field of knowledge, and he was generous enough to loan us one of his microscopes.  The scope has three powers - 6.5, 10 and 40 - and is used for looking at objects that have some size to them.  It is not really powerful enough to look at single cell organisms but is great for objects one finds on a beach.  It took us about an hour to figure out how to use the microscope and its various adjustments.  The best thing we saw was a tiny copepod, fully formed but nearly invisible to the naked eye.  Under the microscope we could see it's feelers, tail and segmented body.  We didn't try to identity which species of  copepod it was because there are thousands.  

 Scientist scoping

After playing around in the cockpit with our scientific instruments we decided to take a hike out to the lighthouse at Turn Point.   The round trip hike to the lighthouse is 6.5 miles and involves some climbing as Stuart Island is quite hilly.  One the way one passes the one room school schoolhouse that is one of the last active ones in the U.S.  The route takes one past many a pastoral view across the small farms over the sea.  

      Pastoral view on Stuart Island

The  lighthouse lighthouse itself is perched on a bluff at Turn Point up above where  Haro Straight and Boundary Pass come together.  There are always large ocean going freighters to be seen going to and from the port of Vancouver, British Columbia.   From the lighthouse one can look across to the West and see Vancouver Island in the distance and dozens of smaller islands in the foreground as Stuart Island is the last island in America - from here it is only about 4 miles over to Canadian waters.   Being so close to the border our cell phone is confused as to where it is and we have poor cell and E-Mail service.

  Lighthouse at Turn Point

When we got back to the LIBERTE about 1530 we got a garbled message on the phone from Lindsey.  She has suffered an ice cream scooping injury to her wrist that will prevent her from working for the next week at the place of her employment, the ice cream shop on Bainbridge Island, and she wants to come up to the boat to join us!!!  We got a message back to her saying that that would be fine.  But this new plan means that we will have to be in Friday Harbor at the dock this evening when her ferry from the mainland comes in at 2235.  We untie from the buoy and steam for Friday Harbor about 2 hours away.  We got there in plenty of time to get the boat ready to house another person and to cook one of our favorite dishes - tuna pasta.  Lindsey is a vegetarian (except for bacon and sausages) so we are going to be eating a lot of vegetables for the next week while her wrist recovers. 

Ewing Cove

May 21 - 22, 2009

Sucia Island has something for everyone.  The island is made up of a series of long fingers with anchorages in between.  The best anchorage, according to us, is Ewing Cove, a 1/4 mile long indentation that is only 3 or 4 boat lengths wide.  On either side of the cove are rocky sandstone walls topped with large trees - Douglas Fir and the red-barked Madrona, a deciduous species.  Ewing is the most isolated of all the bays and coves on Sucia and you have walk about a mile along a trail that skirts the high bluffs to get to the island proper.  In the morning of the 21st we hiked to Echo Bay, which is the largest anchorage on the island.  In the summer it can hold 150 boats but today there were only three as we are well before the boating season.

Ewing Cove Rock Formations 

The weather has really taken a turn for the better and there are blue skies and temperatures in the high 60's, quite unusual for this early in the year.  We are still on the lookout for wildflowers and in a later post we'll put up our pictures.  It's amazing how you can notice things if you put your mind to it.  Normally we would walk right past the flowers but because we have decided to devote this cruise to SCIENCE we are seeing things that we would have missed before.  The number of different wildflower species is enormous and if you stop for a moment and get down on your hands and knees you'll find all manner of delicate and beautiful flowers in the height of bloom.

Another thing that we are noticing is the birds.  There is one in particular called the pigeon guillimot which is abundant in Ewing Cove.  This is a little pigeon size diving bird with red feet that dangle awkwardly behind when it is flying and a bright red inside- of -mouth.  The birds apparently fly better underwater than through the air and we get a kick of how they plop into the water when they are trying to land.  But they come up with a fish in their black beaks almost every time they dive.  They mate for life and they nest in the sandstone walls that border Ewing Cove.

Friday the 22nd of May is a special day for us because it is Lindsey's 23rd birthday.  When we woke up we sent her an E-Mail of congratulations and then began to enjoy the amazingly beautiful day.  Clear blue skies, not a cloud in sight, lots of dew overnight on the boat and a fresh breeze from the North where our good weather comes from.  We motored over to nearby Matia Island and caught a buoy.  Then we went ashore in the dinghy for what is the best 1 mile long hike in the San Juan Islands.  The trail winds through old growth Douglas Fir that somehow escaped the loggers 130 years ago when the Northwest was scalped.  It has not been so lucky as to escape the bloggers.  Matia also has a number of quiet little bays and coves that are too small for anchorage so they are empty - but beautiful.

View of Mount Baker from Matia hike
 

When the hike was over we decided to move on to Stuart Island which contains a small State Marine Park, but mainly is an island where people live.   However, Stuart is not served by the ferries so there are very few residents - probably less than 200 and the island is about 10 miles long and 2 miles wide.  So no one is rubbing shoulders with anyone else.  There was some wind and we sailed briefly but in the end we decided to high tail it with the engine as Stuart was about 2 hours away.  We took a buoy in Prevost Harbor, one of the two anchorages on Stuart and  settled in for the Memorial Day weekend.   

The Spaniards

May 18 - 20, 2009

Wow! The weather sure changed. We woke up on the morning of the Monday the 18th to find gray skies and lower temperatures. The barometer also dropped overnight to 1015 millibars. After a quick cup of coffee we dropped the buoy and decided to motor around Upright Head to Turn Island State Marine Park where there are several more mooring buoys. It took us an hour to get there and we had our choice of the buoys. Once the engine was shut down we climbed over the stern rail and down the ladder into the inflatable Avon dinghy. We rowed ashore and took a turn around the island - it takes about a hour walking slowly and stopping frequently to identify the wild flowers in bloom. We're having a late Spring this year and the flowers are just coming into their peak. Then back to the dinghy, launching from the gravelly beach, and rowing back to the LIBERTE, a little voyage of 5 minutes.

We were no sooner back on board when the wind piped up from the Southeast and a few drops began to fall. The rain steadily got heavier until it was really pouring and it didn't stop until about 0300 the next morning. Rain on the LIBERTE is delightful - it's completely cozy inside, the diesel heater keeps the main salon toasty and the sound of the rain on the roof is magical. But after 12 hours it gets very old.



No need for a title!

Thank goodness when we woke up on the morning of the Tuesday the 19th we saw sun streaming in the hatches. The weather has changed again this time for the better and the barometer is back up above 1020 millibars. But it was cold! Our plan was to go into Friday Harbor, the biggest town in the San Juan Islands, and re-supply, do laundry and work on the blog. The marina at the Port of Friday Harbor was only a 25 minute run from Turn Island and we were soon tied up at our slip, checked in at the marina office, and up in town taking care of chores. Friday Harbor has about 3000 residents and caters to the boating crowd. Normally we try and stay away from towns but every once in a while we need to go into one to buy what we need. Like wine.

The night of the 19th we cooked on the boat - true cod in a tomato, garlic and parsley sauce with couscous and a salad. Quite tasty we must say.   Carl set the table and did the cooking and Jude cleaned up - that's the normal pattern aboard the boat.

The morning of the 20th was also mostly sunny and the forecast on NOAA weather radio is for quickly improving conditions. By the 21st it is supposed to be sunny with cloudless skies. We went back up into town to a WiFi cafe and continued to work on the blog. In an earlier post we said that we are bloggers but it looks like we are more wannabe bloggers than actual ones. It has taken a while to get the hang of writing the entries and uploading pictures and charts. Without access to our daughters to help us out at every turn, there wouldn't be a blog.

About 1330 we left the marina, stopped by the gas dock to take on 23+ gallons of diesel and then we were on our way, still motoring, (this is getting embarrassing for sailors), up San Juan Channel toward Sucia, Patos and Matia Islands, State Marine Parks all. If a park has road access it's a State Park; if the access is only by boat it's a State Marine Park. But you already figured that out, right? We decided to take a mooring buoy at Ewing Cove on Sucia Island and had the engine shut down by 1600. Then we lazed around in the sun in the cockpit for the rest of the day. Dinner was fresh Halibut du Chef roasted in the oven with boiled potatoes and a salad - plus white wine chilled in the ice cooler in the cockpit. The French are pretty clever. There are three places to store wine on the LIBERTE - two down below with bottle holders and everything and one in the cockpit for chilling white wine and champagne. Of course that had nothing to do with the reason why we bought the LIBERTE in 1997. The real reason was that there are two separate quarter berths in the stern with doors that lock. Madeline and Lindsey, teenagers at the time, (well Lindsey was 11), took one look at those private staterooms and made the decision for us.

So what's with all these Spanish names? Lopez, San Juan, Sucia, Patos and Matia. The answer is that it was the Spaniards rather than the English or the Americans who were the first Europeans to explore these waters. As is well known, the Spaniards had conquered Mexico and destroyed the Aztec civilization within 25 years of Columbus' discovery of the New World in 1492. From southern Mexico, they gradually worked their way north, in close cooperation with fathers of the Catholic Church, into what is now Southern California. But it wasn't until the 1700's that they began to send vessels from their Pacific port of San Blas, Mexico to Alaska in an effort to counter the growing presence of the Russians. The first voyages bypassed the Northwest but by 1774 Juan Jose Perez Hernandez discovered the Queen Charlotte Islands. Another Spaniard, Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra, entered Nootka Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in 1789. In 1790 Manual Quimper discovered Whidbey Island and Deception Pass at the eastern end of the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Jose Navarez, sailing with the pilot Juan Carrasco on the vessel SANTA SATURNINA, explored the San Juan Islands, the Straight of Georgia and reached Desolation Sound at the northern extremity of the Straight, all in 1791. Of course the Spaniards gave spanish names to all the islands and bodies of water that they discovered. It was not until August, 1792 that Captain George Vancouver first arrived in the Northwest sailing under the English flag and he also explored many of the same waters already charted by the Spaniards. But the Spanish were first.

During the rest of our voyage we are just as likely to find a channel or an island with a spanish name as with an english one. For example, the word "sucia", the name of the island where we are staying tonight, in Spanish means "dirty". Navarez used that word to describe Sucia Island because it was surrounded by dangerous underwater rocks and reefs.

In modern times, with charts and navigational aids, we can avoid the hazards. Jude navigates and I steer. Unless "I" am having a nap. Then Jude steers and navigates. Amazing how she can do that!



The San Juan Islands

Sytten de Mai - Gratuliert med Dag!

May 17, 2009

One of the nicest independence days for one of the nicest countries. I (Carl) remember being in Oslo once about 20 years ago for Sytten de Mai at 10 o'clock at night and seeing all the Norwegian women strolling in the pale sunlight in their traditional costumes. So I'm thinking fond thoughts of those friends from long ago.

But today we wake up swinging on a buoy at Spencer Spit and we need to find extra special food to serve to our extra special guests for this evening, Jim and Birte who have a weekend place on Lopez Island. So we went to find it (the food that is). We got off the boat into our dinghy, rowed to shore and then walked to the nearest farm which is called The Horse Drawn Farm. The owner was actually working his fields behind a pair of huge horses. We went up to his farm stand and bought 4 fat pork shops, a bag of arugula and a leek - on the honor system...put your check into the box that's full of other checks and...cash!

Pay Station at the Horse Drawn Farm

Jim and Birte arrived at 1500 and the first thing we did was to motor over to James Island, another nearby state park. This one is only accessible by boat. The four of us had a good walk, climbing up to the bluffs above one of the two bays on the island and then passing through the forests of Douglas Fir. Back on the boat we put up the sails for the first time on the trip and meandered about in Rosario Straight until we all got too cold. It was sunny but a little bit of wind blowing over the 45 degree water was enough for us. So we were soon back at Spencer Spit which, as the name implies, is a 1/4 mile long natural sand spit.

Homesteader's redwood water tank at Spencer Spit


There are no activities that take place on the LIBERTE that are more important than cooking, eating and drinking. We started off with a bottle of white wine in the cockpit to accompany celery, broccoli and carrots with dill dip. The healthy part of the meal finished, we got ready for serious eating. The fat pork chops went on the grill, while Jude cooked polenta and prepared a salad. We ate below at the table in the main salon with candles and red wine. Our guests had brought bakery goodies from the famous Holly B's bakery on Lopez Island and we polished them off for dessert. Jim, quick witted and sarcastic, is a former law partner of mine and he and Birte, also quick witted but not so sarcastic, have been friends for 35 years. They were in rare form.  Carl is a fan of sarcasm.

The only downside to the day was that I (Carl again) had to row Jim and Birte to shore in the dark. After two bottles of wine it was a challenge that I managed to overcome as you can tell from the fact that this blog continues.

Hydraulics

May 16, 2009

We woke up in Langley and walked into town for a great cup of coffee and free WiFi at the Island Coffee House, an establishment run by high school students. Did some shopping, confirmed that the grocery store continues to stock our de la Estancia organic polenta and then we were back at the boat ready to cast off at 1055. Five hours and 45 minutes later we finished motoring 40 uneventful nautical miles, through the Deception Pass, and arrived to pick up a mooring buoy at Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island in the San Juan Island group. The weather has been fair since the start of this trip with a mix of clouds and sun - no rain. So far we haven't had our sails up but we're still trying to speed our departure from the urbanized part of Western Washington and using our motor is the best way to quickly accomplish that objective. The LIBERTE can make about 7 nautical miles per hour running her engine at 2200 revolutions per minute, towing her inflatable dinghy and assuming she has a freshly painted bottom (which she does). To those seven knots we have to add or subtract the effect of the current. In any event, here in the San Juan Islands, we have finally reached an area where the shoreline is mostly forested and not filled with houses so our push can slow down and we won't often again travel so many hours per day.


Deception Pass

Now it's time to give our readers the lay of the land for this voyage, or maybe more accurately, the lay of the sea. Attached to today's entry is a chart showing the Pacific coastline from Washington State to Alaska. This 1000 nautical mile stretch (or about 1200 statute miles) is the fabled Inside Passage. It's most notable features are:

1. The Straight of Juan de Fuca which divides Washington from Vancouver Island in British Columbia

2. The enormous fjord to the south of the Straight called the Puget Sound which extends 125 miles (every distance in this blog will be in nautical miles) from the eastern terminus of the Straight

3. Vancouver Island itself which was obviously ripped from the North American Continent by geologic forces eons ago and which at 270 miles long is one of the biggest islands in the world

4. The Straight of Georgia, a 20 mile wide straight separating the southern half of Vancouver Island from the mainland

5. Queen Charlotte and Johnstone Straights which separate the northern half of Vancouver Island from the mainland

6. Queen Charlotte Sound

7. The Queen Charlotte Islands

8. Southeast Alaska and

9. The 10's of thousands of islands, big and small, that lie sheltered from the brunt of fierce Pacific storms.

The Inside Passage

No finer cruising ground exists anywhere on the planet. There are snow capped mountains on the islands and on the continent, dense virgin stands of conifer forests, the greenest of clear ocean water, myriad channels running between the islands and sea birds, fish and animals everywhere. Once a vessel passes Vancouver on the mainland and Victoria on Vancouver Island most of the Inland Passage is almost entirely devoid of human population with only the odd little settlement clinging to the shore here and there reachable only by boat or sea plane.

Take a look at the next chart and you'll begin to understand how the hydraulics of the flow of sea water governs life in the Northwest. Pacific Ocean water rushes in though the Juan de Fuca Straight when the tide is flooding. The water divides when it crashes into Whidbey Island at the terminus of the Straight. Some turns south and fills the Puget Sound and some turns north and fills the Straight of Georgia. At the same time, the water is flooding around the northern tip of Vancouver Island and filling Queen Charlotte and Johnstone Straights. When the tide is ebbing the direction of flow is reversed. In the Northwest there are two high tides and two low tides every day so the water is constantly reversing its flow. The tidal difference in the Inside Passage is enormous, almost the greatest on earth. The difference in height between the highest tide of the year and the lowest is nearly 17 feet.

Vancouver Island: Strait of Juan de Fuca on the south and Queen Charlotte and Johnstone Straits on the north

Puget Sound, the Straight of Georgia and in fact all the channels, straights and passageways that dot the Inside Passage were carved out by glaciers during the ice ages. These glaciers carved deep valleys between the mountain ranges. When the glaciers melted, the valleys filled with water. The visible tops of the mountains are today the many islands that make up the Inside Passage. The valleys are the channels between islands - hundreds of feet deep. You can imagine how much water has to enter and recede twice a day to change the water depth by 17 feet. All that flowing water creates currents that have the capacity to overwhelm even the stoutest ship and on the LIBERTE we have to be constantly aware of the state of the tide, which direction the current is flowing and at what speed .

Bon Voyage, notres amis

May 15, 2009

At 1245 the big marine diesel clattered into life and 2 minutes later the LIBERTE was free of her mooring lines and in the channel heading out of Eagle Harbor. Four hours and 12 minutes later we arrived at the port of Langley, Washington, the impossibly cute little tourist village, 35 nautical miles to the northwest. No sailing today, all by main engine, as we want to put some miles beneath our keel as fast as possible. For the first two hours we had help from the ebb tide to the tune of 1/2 knot and for the last two hours we were hurt by the ebb tide also by 1/2 knot. During the course of this voyage and this blog we'll explain the vagaries of tides and currents in the Northwest and you'll come to understand how on a straight line course the tide can alternatively help and hurt our progress. But that explanation is for later.

Now who is this "we"?

We are man (born 1945) and woman (born 1956). We are husband and wife - 30 years and counting. We are parents of two daughters - Madeline, Assistant Professor and research librarian at the University of Nevada, Reno and Lindsey, recently returned home from 6 months low budget traveling in South East Asia - with dread locks and eyebrow rings - rasta woman! They are in fact sisters.

Family picture, Lindsey pre-dreads


We are lawyer and homemaker. We are Argentine farmers and food sales persons. We are fisheries scientists and marine zoologists. We cook, we eat and we drink. Or most recent fun hobby is building complicated houses in remote locations 7000 miles away from Bainbridge Island. One of us is a gardener and one is a garden enjoyer.

We are sailors and observers.

Now, we are bloggers*.

We are Carl and Jude

The Liberte leaving the dock in Eagle Harbor

*with the help of the librarian one and the rasta one, who hope we will learn to do things like linking text on our own soon

Our Ship is Well Rigged and Ready to Sail

May 14, 2009

Our ship is a French sloop built in St. Hilaire-de-Riez  in 1989, 38 feet 3 inches overall length, 12 feet 10 inches of beam and she draws 5 feet 10 inches.  When she was bought to the US from France she was documented under the American flag, Official Number 945615, and named the LIBERTE.    She displaced 14,300 pounds when built but now with all our gear and equipment aboard and with her tanks full she must weigh at least 17,5000 pounds. 

She is equipped with a 50 horsepower main engine and she has radar, GPS, a depth sounder and wind instruments, a propane cook top and oven in the galley, two marine heads and a full complement of sails.  And for travel in Washington and British Columbia, she has the all important dodger and autopilot.

This evening she is lying at her moorings in Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island in Washington State gently tugging on her lines.  Her GPS location is 47 degrees 37 minutes of North latitude and 122 degrees 30 minutes of West longitude – she knows that something is up, her bow is pointed to sea and she is ready.

Tomorrow LIBERTE sails with the ebb tide.  Her course: Northwest!

El Capitan