Greywolf’s Chronicles: Chronicle One

At 0545 hours on a sunny Saturday in May, Greywolf and her crew of three headed north....to a fuel dock. We wanted to “top off” her copious diesel tanks at Kingston; the price there was marginally better than our other options. I probably will speak of fuel and fuel prices again since Greywolf IS a Power Boat, but it is not a subject dear to our hearts, only our 401K.

Our not-very-distant destination (we will NEVER get to Glacier Bay at this pace) was Port Ludlow to meet with with Larry Rick, the vessel’s first owner. He and Done Dreamin’ (the boat’s former name) had cruised from Mexico to New Zealand, but before that, they went went to Alaska, so she knows the way.

Spices ready for sea....or a BC ferry wake.

Pleasant surprise at the fuel dock. Our sight gauges had an air
bubble and we only needed half the fuel we thought we did.

Larry joined us for dinner on board and returned Sunday morning for a paravane drill: learning how to use the poles and “fish” that keep us on a someway even keel in beam seas--when the waves are pitching the boat from side-to-side rather than stem-to-stern. No help for that except to slow down. In a sailboat, bouncing from side to side not an issue (if it is, you have big problems.) Power boats are not as stable. We have an elaborate set of poles and lines and blocks and chains and metal slabs that weigh more than the dog but less than me.

The drill went well. We had sufficient wind and a choppy swell to demonstrate the decided advantage of deploying the gear. We don’t know how strong the wind was blowing. On Saturday, our wind indicator had decided that numbers were over-rated: wind direction was all it was willing to share with us (as if we couldn’t figure that out ourselves.)