July 8, 2005

Anacortes, Washington

The wind’s howling at 30 knots, the boat is heeled over 10 degrees, and we’re in a slip! The wind woke us about 04:00 and later peaked at 38.4 knots; needless to say it’s been an interesting morning here in Cap Sante Boat Haven. Gary got up to add additional dock lines, made sure all was secure and then stayed up to play Civilization on his computer keeping an eye on the weather. It’s mid-morning as I write this and the winds are beginning to calm; we are definitely glad to be safely in a slip and not swinging on the anchor in this blow.

The trip from Brookings, OR to Anacortes was enjoyable for the most part and we’re glad to being closer to cruisin’ in the San Juan Islands! After waiting out gale and small craft warnings in Brookings, we left there June 19th at 11:30 with a good three-day weather window hopeful to get to Neah Bay, Washington. SV Renegade departed about an hour before us also heading north.

The seas were glassy with 4-5’ swells and the ride on Wand’rin Star pleasant. We had to contend with crab pot floats for the first several hours and that’s always tedious. It’s important to stay clear of the floats, as one doesn’t want the line to the crab pot entangled in the boat’s propeller! At 20:00 we passed Cape Blanco, the western-most point in Oregon and were treated to smooth seas and a beautiful sunset! Murray acclimated to being at sea much quicker and was eating by early Monday morning. The first night at sea was uneventful and Gary awoke to the smell of banana bread baking for breakfast.

Monday we noticed a very small amount of oil leaking from the engine and began monitoring that. We also attempted to pump out the forward head, but it appeared to be blocked. At 12:30 a US Coast Guard helicopter hailed us on the VHF and asked our last port and destination. As mentioned previously all our contacts with the USCG have been courteous and professional; this one was no exception - we were just surprised at being hailed on the VHF by a helicopter! SV Renegade also contacted us and we compared notes on the weather. To our surprise the cell phone worked and we were able to check weather as we plied our way north along the Oregon coast! The day continued with confused seas, some whitecaps, but basically a very civilized ride. The fuel filters were showing signs of increased pressure and the oil leak continued, but overall everything was working fine.

Lightening and rain greeted us as Tuesday rolled in and we prepared to transit the mouth of the Columbia River. Ever since we started this journey north, my dad, who's in Michigan, has been worried about the Columbia River. He saw a special on PBS about how dangerous the Columbia River Bar can be & has been concerned ever since. We told him that we wouldn’t be “crossing the bar” as we weren’t going up the Columbia, but he still asked about it often. I was at the helm at 05:00 as we crossed the mouth of the river and really wanted to call him, but we didn’t have cell phone coverage! I did call later in the morning to let him know that he didn’t need to worry about the Columbia River and us any more!

Tuesday was a gray day with 5-7’swells and 1’ wind waves, not wonderful but not awful either. The boat rolled some, even with the main up, but we all acclimated and spent our time reading, using the computer, cat-napping, and monitoring the weather around Cape Flattery and the western entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. NOAA was predicting gale force winds for the time we anticipated rounding the Cape; we decided to decrease our speed and round it at dawn with improved visibility instead of at 01:00. We readied the interior of the boat for rougher weather as we slowed to 4 knots/hour. Running at 1800 RPM instead of 2500 RPM made the boat quieter and the ride was still very comfortable. The winds were still only 15 knots and the seas hadn’t increased either. We rounded Cape Flattery at 04:00 in 10-knot winds, decided to skip Neah Bay and run straight for Port Angeles 51 miles east as the weather was favorable. We arrived at the Port of Port Angeles at 16:20 on June 22nd – 76 ½ hours & 464.7 nm from Brookings, OR! We realized that it had taken us 8 months to get from San Diego to San Francisco and only 2 weeks to get from San Francisco Bay to Port Angeles, WA! We were glad to tie up at the transient dock and get a good night’s sleep! Thursday was spent decompressing & puttering around the boat. We were pleasantly surprised that we could pick up the CBC (Canadian radio) from Victoria. We had listened to CBC from Windsor when we lived in Michigan and it was wonderful to hear familiar voices on the air again. We were also glad that we could get an NPR radio station as we’re long-time supporters of National Public Radio.

CRASH! CRUNCH! Those sounds awoke us Friday morning at 7:15 as something rammed into the side of the boat! We both ran topside to see a sailboat, North Star, sailing away from us. We quickly discovered that our boat had been hit and the cap rail was deeply gouged. We hollered at the guy in the boat as he continued to motor blithely away from us after having obviously hit us! He wouldn’t even acknowledge us, which REALLY made Gary MAD! (Those of you who have been reading our logs know how much time & energy Gary has put into maintaining the beautiful wood on Wand’rin Star & he was livid….that’s really an understatement on my part!) Gary then attempted to contact the guy via the loudhailer; however when he turned the function to “Hail” he got CBC radio! I was secretly glad the hailer didn’t work, as I wasn’t sure what was going to come out of Gary’s mouth. His next course of action was to contact the Coast Guard station in the harbor. The CG used the harbor video camera to identify the boat based on our description and sent out a Patrol Boat. The local sheriff’s deputy responsible for marine matters was contacted and he showed up at our boat in a few minutes. Soon after, North Star returned to the dock in the company of the USCG Patrol Boat. Curt Croston, the operator - but not the owner, of North Star admitted to hitting our boat and then leaving the scene of the accident. We later discovered that at the time of the accident Curt was leaving the harbor bound for California! Maybe he figured if he kept going no one would be able to identify who had done the damage to our boat….he just didn’t know how tenacious Gary is! To make a long story short: he got a ticket for Hit & Run and is to pay restitution for damages to our boat (about $500.00.) However, according to Curt he’s just a retiree with no money & no assets so he isn’t sure how he’ll pay us. We left the matter with the District Court in Port Angeles and haven’t heard anything from them yet. Fortunately, the accident caused only cosmetic damage to the boat, nothing structural, and no one was hurt….just another day of cruisin’ adventures.

Gary’s Version: “The guy t-boned me and then decided he was going to take off without admitting responsibility and I’ll be damned if I was going to let him get away with it! When I saw him leaving the harbor I thought ‘if I can’t get him, maybe the Coast Guard can!’ I felt a lot of pleasure when they (CG) dragged his ass back to the marina and the Deputy Sheriff was waiting to give him a ticket for hit and run. I’ll be surprised if I ever see a penny of restitution, but at least I interrupted his departure to California.”

After all the excitement of Friday morning, I was glad to pick up our rental car from Enterprise and do the laundry & shopping! It’s always fun exploring on land when we get to a new area and this weekend was no exception. On Saturday we went to two Farmers’ Markets – one in Port Angeles and another in Sequim (which gets 300 days of sunshine a year because it’s in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains!) I also found a delightful yarn shop, A Mingled Yarn, in Sequim and bought yarn called Manos del Uruguay, made by a women’s cooperative in Uruguay, to make a sweater. I’ve rediscovered knitting since moving aboard and thoroughly enjoy having time to pursue an old hobby. In the afternoon we drove into Olympic National Park and then to Dungeness Spit, the longest sand spit in the US. Sunday was gray & raining as we continued exploring the area driving to Crescent Lake, also in Olympic National Park. It has a beautiful lodge and we took pleasure in an afternoon treat in front of a roaring fire…a great way to spend a cool, rainy afternoon. I took this picture in front of the Lodge & felt is summed up the day.

On Sunday, we needed a few more things from the grocery store before returning the rental car, so I stopped by the local Safeway, which was having a Grand Re-Opening Celebration. When I checked out the clerk informed me that I had just won a DVD Player as part of the celebration! This was the 2nd time in as many months that we won something as Gary had also won a 60GB Photo iPod at the Apple Store in Emeryville in May. We seriously considered buying lottery tickets, but didn’t. Monday was spent finishing up projects, getting a quote on repairing the damage to the boat, and getting ready to FINALLY sail in the San Juan Islands. We ended our stay in Port Angeles by sharing strawberries & whipped cream with Frank & LaRue of Queen.

On June 28th we again tossed off the dock lines and headed to Aleck Bay on Lopez Island. The seven-hour trip was pleasant and Aleck Bay was very peaceful. The currents were stronger than anticipated and slowed our travel somewhat. A seal caught a fish as we dropped anchor and the bald eagles soared above the trees…we had the bay to ourselves with a beautiful sunset as we enjoyed a glass of sangria!

Bird watching is addicting and the sea gulls in Aleck Bay intrigued us with their “feeding circles”. One usually thinks of gulls as noisy scavengers often stealing from each other; however the gulls here (and in our later travels) cooperated using what we called “feeding circles”. At times the gull group would spread out over an area - sort of like casing the joint - until a large school of fish was found; then they would mass together & feed. The seals often joined them and all feasted on the fish. Just as abruptly as the circle formed, it would disintegrate and the gulls would spread out again.

We’re glad to be gunk holing in the San Juans and Gary often asks, “Can you believe we’re really here?” It’s a long way from that day in January 2003 when we bought Wand’rin Star!

We hope that you have a pleasant summer wherever you are!

Quotes of the Month….

The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide. ~ Longfellow

Don’t just live the length of your life, live the width of it as well. ~ Diane Ackerman

Peace,
Dorothy, Gary & Murray the Cat

© Copyright 2005
Last updated on May 23, 2007