Sailing

Orca whales and some birds

We had a pleasant sail + motor from the Catalina meetup at Roche Harbor to Shallow Bay on the west side of Sucia Island on Sunday. Motored out of the bay, between San Juan Island and Spieden Island, then unfurled the sails for an easy, slow sail up towards President Channel, which separates Waldron Island and Orcas Island.

Not far out from the entrance to the channel, we spotted several whale watching boats and a few private boats all grouped up near the south tip of Waldron, Point Disney. Once my partner confirmed with her binoculars that she should see a dorsal fin, we immediately furled in the sails (the wind had just died anyway) and motored over to see what was going on.

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Our first two days as cruisers

As I type this, it’s just before 10pm on Friday night. But not just any Friday night: we untied the lines yesterday, leaving our (now former) home marina. It’s a bit surreal, but in that way where there isn’t some big transition, or huge set of feelings that I thought I might feel. Instead, it’s just a sense of contentment and calm. This is what I’ve been planning and saving up to do for eleven years now, and it just feels right.

We’re in Roche Harbor on San Juan Island tonight, at the All-Catalina Rendezvous. Kinda the perfect way to start our cruising life, getting to spend time with other folks that own the same make of boat. I got up this morning at 5:45am to get us going out of the anchorage at Port Ludlow, where we spent our first night. The timing allowed us to ride the outgoing tide through Admiralty Inlet past Port Townsend, and we had a 2-4 knot current all the way from just outside Port Ludlow to halfway across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Despite not having any favorable wind to sail on, the currents carried us along quite quickly while I ran the engine at a relaxed pace, and we still were seeing 7-9 knots for the first several hours of the day.

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So much boat work… but we’re almost ready

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Our one year delay will, thankfully, be only a one year delay. My partner and I are nearly ready to go, and even have a fairly solid date for untying the lines: April 24th. As I write this, we’re living out of a hotel while the boat is hauled out to deal with some under-the-waterline modifications we need to make. Hopefully we’ll be back in the water in about two weeks, and then we’ll have about a month to finish our prep.

But first, let’s back up a little bit and take a look at what we’ve gotten done in the last eight months since I last posted. Not just boat work either; I finished a few knives and am finishing up a few more in the last few weeks until I close my workshop up.

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