DAY TWO, Saturday, August 11th, 2012

Okay, so this is for Day two even though it is now really Day eleven since I am posting this from Reid Harbor on Stuart Island.  When you are in "the outback of beyond": internet connectivity is spotty at best.  It is reminiscent of the axiom: When you are up to your ass in alligators it is hard to remember that your job was to drain the swamp.

I motored away from the mooring at 0815 to retrieve the crab pot.  With two keepers in the bucket, I turned the bow toward Vashon Head and the trip to Tacoma.

Above is Marie Capogna's rental house on Yukon Harbor in Manchester.  It is the white on to the left of center.  What a great deck railing!  Oh, that's right, Gary & I did that.

While I do some night sailing on the lakes and waterways around Seattle, some may wonder about night sailing on the Sound?  Not me!  This is why:

No, not the Washington State Ferry at the Southworth dock, they have lights.  That tree floating can be an invisible shadow that can ruin your whole day! 

With the flooding current I made the 22 nautical mile (nm) trip in exactly four hours, pulling up to the Foss Waterway Fuel Dock right at 1215.  With a full tank of diesel I continued south to the Dock Street Marina.  Since they no longer monitor VHF 78A, I had to phone them for service.  A slip on H dock was had for $35 with shorepower.  Laundry was only $1 each to wash & dry and the showers are complimentary.

I walked a few blocks north on Dock Street to Johnny’s Seafood Company and bought five pounds of frozen salmon crab bait for only $4.25.  Now I am ready for the crab of Spencer Spit on Monday.

The LeMay American Heritage Car Museum was the site of my Wilson High School 50^th reunion.  I caught the Sound Transit Link light rail and was there by 5:00 (what? No nautical time?  I am on land now.).  Renewed old friendships.  While several were easily recognized, others required a look at their photo nametag which showed their yearbook photo.  I am sorry that some chose not to attend. 

I walked back to the marina and called it a night.

Day ONE--Friday, August 10th

And so it begins—Whisper slipped her dock lines at 8:45 in order to make the first opening of the Fremont Bridge. My phone rang as I exited the fairway into the lake. Gail was at Fisheries Supply and had locked her keys in her Rav. Since I had a key on Whisper…, but I had left. With Fisheries close to the Seattle Harbor Patrol headquarters just west of Gasworks Park, I suggested she walk there and I would meet her. She did and I did. What is more, I joined three other sailboats at the Fremont. At precisely 0900 GPS time I blew my conch shell bridge horn and the bridge tender responded in kind.

When they finally opened the small locks for us, they squeezed seven of us in.

With a flooding tide until after 1300, there was no rush getting to Blake Island.  Winds were light so we (that would be Whisper & me) motored at 2500 RPM making 5.8 knots.  I dropped the crab pot at 1215 in 85’ of water in Yukon Harbor 1.25 nm west of Blake Island.  With several State Park buoys to choose from I flexed my annual pass and grabbed one.

Summer in the San Juan Islands 2012

Most people do not head south out of Shilshole Bay when navigating for the San Juan Islands.  This year that will be my route as my 50th reunion from Wilson High School in Tacoma takes place on Saturday at the new American Heritage Car Museum.  Come Sunday morning I will catch as much of the ebb as I can running north in Colvos Passage.  Once clear of Vashon Island & Southworth, Whisper & I will lay a course for Possession Head on Whidbey Island, hoping to at least make Oak Harbor or even Hope Island State Marine Park.  This will enable us to run the ebb out of Deception Pass.  After all, there are crab waiting to be gathered at Spencer Spit on the east side of Lopez Island.

Whisper at anchor in Roche Harbor in 2011

More information to follow...

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.