Winter Crabbing 2011

25 December 2011, MY LAST CHANCE FOR WINTER CRABBING

The last weather report I heard from KIRO-TV for Sunday, Christmas Day, was “breezy”.

Well here I am at anchor in the lee of Gedney Island at 1358 with two crab pots down awaiting the 1600 slack tide. I cleared the Gedney Island buoy on the SE corner at 1252 after an exciting ride.

With little fear of “breezy” conditions I left Lake Union at 0900 hours and cleared the
locks in Ballard by 0945. After pumping-out Whisper’s holding tank at Shilshole in driving rain, “we” (Whisper & I) cleared the north end of the breakwater to find 16 knots of southerly “breeze” around Meadow Point. Turning 2800R RPMs we were making 7.5 knots SOG. One hour later we were between Point Wells and Edmonds where we had to slow down to clear the westbound ferry in gusts to 32 knots.
By this time the seas had built to 4 feet right on the stern and we were surfing. With the ferry out of the way, the winds built to the mid to upper 30s with the highest gust I saw at 46.9 kts. Hitting a high speed of 9.1 kts, six tons of sailboat is a handful!

Surfing down the face of 6’ waves with winds in the 40’s, the side dodger curtains
released their snaps and were flapping in the “breeze”. I managed to wedge the starboard curtain on top of the dodger, under the cockpit cover (bimini). I was
hopeful that I could make the lee of Gedney Island to reassemble the dodger before
some of its parts became jetsam.

As we sit at anchor in the lee of Gedney, all parts are secure, including the skipper. When i have the chance, I resolve to change-out the dodger curtain snaps for twist lock fittings.

With the trusty Ardic diesel heater warming the cabin, it is time for some nourishment and reading until it is time for retrieve the crab pots.

More to come...

CRABBING--Summer Season 2010

July 2nd, 2010--Yesterday was the opening day of the summer crab season in Region 10, Seattle to Bremerton. I set my crab pot off the breakwater at Shilshole Bay and got skunked 4 times. After setting it for the 5th time, the second in a new location, at 4:00PM, I left it overnight. I spent last night at the dock in Shilshole Marina. While there I opened Adobe Photoshop to collect images from 2008 & 2009 just to prove that I knew what I was doing when I began this blog.

This is NOT from 2008 or 2009! When I retrieved my pot at 10:00 this morning I had company. After throwing back two females, I still had 5 keeper males. All 5 were in excess of 6-1/2", with the largest measuring 7".

Whisper under genoa, sailing to Brownsville Marina for an SSYC overnight, prior to entering Liberty Bay to raft-up for their fireworks on Saturday, July 3rd.

While I had planned to lay-up in Port Madison to clean & cook what crab I had while waiting for slack water in Agate Pass, the wind is good enough that I will sail all of the way to Brownsville and do the crab deed there.

The crab deed is done.

I know, I know. When you think of Joe, it's just "Crab, crab, crab!"

The weekly crabbing days are Wednesday through Saturdays, so since the weather is predicted for the high 80's to low 90's, I plan to crab on Wednesday.

More to come?

Seattle's Opening Day

OUT OF THIS WORLD was the theme of the 2010 Opening Day of Yachting, sponsored by Seattle Yacht Club.


For the fourth year in a row Whisper turned out to compete in the category of Dressed Sail. The particulars are that you have international code flags arrayed on the fore and back stays in a prescribed order; a champagne bottle just breaking the water from the bow and the crew must be uniformly attired.

Lining both port and starboard rails, Whisper's crew of 17 aliens performed impeccably. Obviously the judges missed something, since in a field of eight, we only got third.

After three years of First Place, it was time to spread the wealth.

WINCH REPACKING--Another Lesson Learned

Even if your winches are just out of the box brand new, they need to be repacked. Lewmar, and possibly other manufacturers, ship their winches with a heavier grease that needs replacing.

My first focus was on Whisper's two primary genoa winches, since they sit out in the weather in the cockpit.

It's a messy job, but rewarding as well. Here are all of the parts ready for oiling, greasing & reassembly.

The main shaft stripped of the gears.

Care should be taken to keep grease off of the pawls--they only get a light machine oil.

Here is the Lewmar 44 assembled & ready for the drum.

Once assembled, what a difference! They now spin much easier.

My next job will be repacking the Maxwell windlass which must get lots of abuse inside the bow anchor locker. Once that is done I will attack the 2 smaller winches inside the dodger.

If you haven't repacked your winches, you should. If you don't want to repack your winches--give me a call.

The WING is KING!

In the pre-race maneuvering today, Alinghi 5 fouled USA 17 and was protested by BMW Oracle. A 270 degree penalty was assessed. After stalling above the start line, USA 17 was 660 meters behind Alinghi.

Here BMW Oracle takes off, literally, after Alinghi. In 6-8 knots of headwind, USA 17, same boat, was able to catch, pass and out-point Alinghi.


BMW Oracle passes during the first leg.


AMAZING! With the true wind at 160-165 degrees blowing at 8 knots, BMW Oracle is able to sail at 24+ knots at 26 degrees. Here you can see the panels of the articulating wing main sail. With the boat built in Anacortes, it is a technological marvel!

Race #2 in the best of 3 is now scheduled for Sunday, Feb 14th. It is streamed live on americascup dot com (you know I can't put the link here.

Check it out!

Whisper Splashed--FINALLY!

With proper project management, Whisper could have gone in the water by Friday, September 23rd. While this image is date stamped November 1st, Whisper did not splash until Tuesday, November 10th.

Even on the 10th, it could have easily been as early as 2PM. With little project management and NO customer service, it didn't happen until 4:45. Do you know how early sunset happens in those latitudes on Nov 10th? Was I going to spend another night in Nanaimo? NOT!

If you want to see what I saw running Dodd Narrows at 6:00 PM, close your eyes real tight. After running into 18 knot winds, I dropped Whisper's anchor in a cove on the north end of Thetis Island at 8:00. Wednesday was a 78NM run to Friday Harbor.

Thursday morning friend Gary Bradley arrived via Kenmore Air. We left Friday Harbor with fuel & water tanks topped off.

You can see from this photo that we had a smooth crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, now a part of the Salish Sea. With a decent ebb current running against us we saw our SOG drop from 6.4 to 2.8 knots. The wind finally came up enough south of Bush Point to unfurl the genoa and motorsail. That strategy got us almost an added knot. It took us 13 hours to run the 60NM through the Ballard Locks to M/V Lucky Dog at Sagstad Marina.

Whisper finished the short trip home to Lake Union on Friday. It was a good decision to make the trip when we did! The next day the storm track settled in & it has been windy & rainy ever since.

Is it good to be home? Silly question, he says.

Winter crab season is open in the Seattle/Bremerton region 24/7 so we will venture out this Sunday in search of Dungeness.

Fair Winds!

Seattle to San Diego--Part 2

The last leg of our trip was Santa Barbara to San Diego. By leaving SB mid morning we knew we would be approaching San Diego 24 hours later during daylight. The three of us rotated our watches, 3 hours on & 6 hours off watch.

Point Loma lighthouse from inside San Diego harbor.

Furthur is equipped with two radars and chartplotter with Automated Information Service-B. AIS-B uses GPS & VHF technology to notify other AIS equipped vessels with your information. This information includes name, type of vessel, heading, speed over ground (SOG) and your bearing. This same information appears on your chartplotter for other AIS contact vessels. During my final watch from midnight to 0300 while passing seaward of the Long Beach Vessel Traffic System (VTS), I had some challenging excitement.

With no moon but clear skies, we had the lights of Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island behind us on our starboard quarter. Derek was in quarters & Brian was asleep in the pilot berth behind me. At 0200 two blips appeared on radar off our starboard bow six & eight miles out. I watched as they approached our heading. AIS-B revealed that the closest ship was the Orion Express making 16.4 knots, obviously heading NW for the Longbeach Harbor VTS lane. The second ship was the APL Holland, further out to starboard but closing on Orion's heading making 21 knots. Who would get "there" first? But more importantly, how was I to deal with them? Furthur was on autopilot making 7.5 knots, turning 1050 RPMs.

As I plotted my solution, it became obvious, IF NOTHING CHANGED, that we would safely pass between them as they closed on Longbeach. I maintained course and speed.

The lead vessel crossed our bow at 1 nautical mile (NM). The APL Holland crossed astern 1.25 NM. About ten minutes later when our bow began to pitch, Brian woke up. In an excited voice he said, "What did you do, change our course?" Calmly I informed him, "No, that's just the wake of a freighter."

As we near the end of 10 days at sea Derek rejects Brian's obvious show of gratitude and affection.

Are they dolphin or porpoise? I haven't checked yet but we saw hundreds of them. Here are six of them surfing our bow wave.

Santa Cruz knew we were coming & had this stenciled on the dock ramps. No one had told them that ours was a dry voyage.