And Now We Begin...Again

Greywolf waved her substantial stern in a fond farewell to the Glen Cove, one of the tugs that lives behind her in Eagle Harbor, as we got underway shortly after O’dark Hundred on Saturday, May 10. A proud toot of her horn was answered by Top Priority, wishing Greywolf and her crew fair winds and following seas.  The plan, as always, was to leave the harbor and turn left.

The following seas were obviously scheduled for another day.  We have crossed the Straits of Juan de Fuca many times in the past 40-plus years in various boats ranging from a 19 foot Seaswirl outboard to our present stout 40 footer, encountering a variety of weather and sea conditions. If this had been our first crossing, we would never have done it again. 

As Greywolf hugged the Whidbey Island shore to avoid the notorious bad water off Point Wilson, we found ourselves in a tide rip.  Tide rips are to be expected in these bodies of water. Our tide rip became a four-hour washing machine with a 3-4 foot westerly swell that would not allow us to keep both our course and our breakfast.  We opted for breakfast.

By the time we realized our tide rip was more than a passing condition, it was too late to to safely deploy our stabilizing poles and the fish that keep Greywolf on a (more or less) even keel.  The weather forecast was for winds below ten knots, so stabilizers were not even on the radar screen. And the forecast was accurate: we never had winds above six knots.  

Greywolf at anchor last summer with her poles out to minimize the ropy-poly effect of passing boat wakes.

The bell outside the pilothouse door did ring, but the dog did not throw up. (That has always been the sequence in the past.)  However, she did look miserable as she slid back and forth from one side to another on the settee. I sat next to her to hold her in place.  Looking out the side windows in the pilot house, I alternately saw water, and then sky.  We were not in danger and it was a beautiful sunny day, but we soon tired of going up and down and back and forth and holding on and going up and down and back and forth and holding on.  Truly a disgusting crossing.

Allie wishing she lived on a farm.  Or maybe in an apartment.

When we got in the lee of Lopez Island, the water started behaving better.  We picked up a buoy at Watmouh Bay on the SE corner of Lopez late in the afternoon.

Waiting  permission to board the dinghy.  One of the “fish” for the stabilizer poles  is behind Allie.

The only other boat in the bay; Anacortes in the background.

Wonderful individual and community action.

Great walkie in the early evening

You don’t actually “pick up” the buoys, of course; you pick up the ring and put your line through it.  We bought an amazing

gizmo at the Boat Show to help the crew on boats with Substantial Bows reach the ring in the buoy.  You slip the hook through the ring and somehow your line gets threaded through the ring.  I still do not understand it and we’ve used it twice now.  Of course, I’ve sewn dress shirts and blazers (WHY would anyone do that???) and I don’t understand how a sewing machine works, so why would I understand our Buoy Buddy???

 Imagine the cable is a buoy ring.  See if YOU can figure it out....

Sunday afternoon: Greywolf on another buoy in Reid Harbor on Stuart Island and a Much Happier Poodle.

Life is good.  She withdrew the SPCA complaint.

Look!  A water bowl right here on the top of the hill!

The little white dot at water’s edge is A Poodle.

Next stop:  A Foreign Country and Doggie Play Date