Archive for category Port Ludlow
Friday Harbor to Seattle: Day 3
Posted by admin in Elliot Bay Marina, Port Ludlow, Puget Sound, around Seattle, map, sailing on November 26th, 2007
Another very cold (and moderately windy) night, but no complaints. Didn’t drag the rest of the night after resetting. Woke up to some cool evaporation fog (very low to the ground wispy fog) and more ice on deck. Made some coffee, entered some way points, hauled up the anchor (must get windless) and was off, covered in stinky mud, pre-dawn, and headed for Seattle.
Morning in Port Ludlow
Leaving Port Ludlow was a breeze since I hooked up my laptop below decks with my hand held and had real time plotting on the charts… should have done this before.
Laptop setup below decks, held in with a bungee
Colvos Rocks at the entrance to Port Ludlow… icy decks
Very uneventful trip down to Edmonds.
Edmonds Ferry and the ever present glare of sailing south in the winter
After Edmonds I tried cutting in front of a container ship, who, apparently didn’t think I was going to make it and gave me four blasts (collision warning), which had me doing a 180 by the second horn. Ooops…
A few hours later I was coming into Seattle. I was pretty exhausted and really nervous about docking (I’ve always been on moorings, anchors or T-slips [or wasn't the one docking]). I spent some time practicing maneuvers out in the harbor (outside Elliot Bay Marina) but it didn’t help. Even with some help from Elliot Bay docking was an ordeal, not helped by the jack ass motor boaters who were hauling around like this was a mall parking lot.
After 3 days, Seattle comes into view.
I’ve since read about tricks for maneuvering single screw trawlers in tight quarters and will have to practice that next time. Got in around 2, tidied up, caught a cab to King County Airport, drove home, ordered pizza and didn’t get out of bed until 2pm the next day… guess I over did it. But, for a first trip on this boat, it couldn’t have gone better.
36.9 miles in 7:20 for an average speed of 5.0mpg
Friday Harbor to Seattle: Day 2
Posted by admin in Port Ludlow, Puget Sound, San Juans, map, sailing on November 22nd, 2007
I brought my -20F sleeping bag, so sleeping wasn’t too bad. I didn’t even light the heater. Temps got down to 20F and Thanksgiving morning had me up at 3am with very icy decks. Even given that, I still slept better than I have for years, sleeping on boats can’t be beat (even though I woke up every couple of hours to check the anchor).
Spent the pre-dawn hours figuring out how to use the boat’s GPS. Entered a bunch of way points and obsessively plotted the course for that day.
Hauling up the anchor was brutal. I used to have a bigger anchor with more chain and I don’t recall it being so hard (but I was 10 years younger… is getting old really this bad?). Windless is on the short list. It was ridiculously cold, ice everywhere but the engine started right up and I was under way as the sun crept up.
Leaving Aleck Bay, Lopez Island in early dawn
It was a gorgeous morning and it warmed up after the sun came up. Visibility was basically unlimited, you could see from Baker to Rainier, the entire Olympic range. Dead calm… spectacular motor through the Strait of Juan de Fuca (which can get very rough).
Fishing boat entering the strait with Baker in the background
I headed west of Smith Island and hit it at slack at the recommendations of some Cruiser forum members. Maybe 2 foot seas north off Smith Island but nothing really, it was perfect conditions (for motoring).
I was ahead of schedule and figured I could make Ludlow since I was hitting max flood through Admiralty Inlet (main entrance to the south Sound).
Hit 7.2mph going with the tide and made Port Ludlow in good time. One really annoying thing about sailing south in the winter is that the sun never fully rises, which means you’re sailing into constant glare. This made entering Port Ludlow kind of tricky, since I couldn’t see a f’ing thing, but, made it with no problems. Even got some sailing in… more perfect broad reach action.
Port Ludlow
Anchoring in Port Ludlow is deep. I anchored in 45 feet and dragged the first time. After dark I had to haul the anchor in and reset, which was a pain in the ass but not a big deal. It held the rest of the night.
All in all, not a bad second day. You couldn’t ask for better weather in November around here.
41.7 miles in 7:03 with an average speed of 5.9mpg, motoring most of the way