Sucia Island Rendezvous 2015

July 10-13 was yet another great gathering of small gunkholing boats in Fossil Bay, Sucia Island, one of the wonderful Washington State marine parks in the San Juan Islands. Its hard to beat the camaraderie of good friends in a beautiful spot aboard some of the most seaworthy small vessels around.

This year there were nine boats carrying eleven sailors. A small but tenacious group, all with credentials as able seamen and women.

Jamie came from Victoria BC in his Phil Bolger Chebacco, Wayward Lass, fresh from the R2AK, where he made it to Johnstone Strait before succumbing to intense headwinds.
This is the view we usually have of Jamie.

Bob sailed Sally Forth, his beloved Drascome Longboat. Its easy to see why he loves this boat so much. He uses a very well designed cockpit tent for sleeping aboard. Additional photos can be found on the Doryman Flickr site.

Paul navigated from Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island, in his Jay Benford Friendship. He recently upgraded his rigging by moving the headstay to the masthead and installing a roller furling genoa. Sadly the winds were very light, so he couldnt show us how pleased he is with his new wings.

Claire and John came from Whidbey Island in their new Night Bird. A lot of boat in a compact package. Please note the pop-top deck.

Joel and his son Tim winged from Edmonds in their John Welsford Navigator, Ellie. Navigator Joel employs a tidy clothesline anchoring system to keep Ellie close to camp.

Randy arrived in his new Belhaven 19, Clementine. I sailed with Randy in our annual "race" around Sucia. The winds and currents are fickle around this island of many faces and we have yet to complete a single race, in many years of trying. This year may have been the shortest race of all.

Joe trailered from Texas with his wood runabout. He didnt know he came to see us, it was serendipity. I met Joe four years ago while cruising around the Canadian Gulf Islands after this same rendezvous. It was good to see him again, hes a sailors sailor, with a fruitful life and many interesting stories to tell.








Ron motored in with his efficient outboard driven catamaran, Just Enuf, a plywood EcoCat from Bernard Kohler. Ron really gets around with this little cat. You may have seen his distinctive vessel around the Salish Sea.






I sailed the forty five nautical miles from Port Townsend in Belle Starr. Thats her in the photo near the top of the post. She always gets me there and back, safely and in style.

A small but fun group. The Sucia Island Rendezvous was lovely as ever, a tradition well worth keeping.

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Sucia Island Rendezvous 2012

Fossil Bay, Sucia Island, near the Canadian Border in the San Juan Islands is the scene for a gathering of small boat enthusiasts the second weekend in July.

This year was a quiet one. The weather was postcard perfect, unless youre a sailor. Boats came and went in an erratic schedule, so it was hard to tell how many attended. A couple big production boats were in the line-up, which was a new twist.

For the sailors, the week was a tease. When a breeze came up we were all seduced but most often, once out of the harbor, boats drifted on the tides while skippers and crew baked in the sun.



Please make no mistake - getting up to a brilliant sunrise every morning is a wonderful thing! I suppose it would be brash to take credit, though Im convinced the weather was so fine because I made up a heavy-duty boom tent that could stand torrential rains for weeks (nay years) on end. That tent became my penance. It is so heavy and ungainly (and I must say unattractive) it took an hour to set up and an equal amount of time to strike. If it werent for the heavy dew fall, I might have abandoned it altogether.

Lets look at the line-up...

Katie Mae belongs to Lynn Watson of Port Townsend. She was built by the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, under the supervision of Ray Speck
She is a modified 21 foot Drascombe PeterBoat.
Well sailed and an exceptional design, she is hard to keep up with.
I include this photo to demonstrate the contrast of vessels found in Fossil Bay.

Heres Joel and Tim Bergen in their Welsford Navigator, Ellie. 
Joel has some more details about this gathering on his website.

Paul and Arnie sailed in from Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island, BC.
Pauls boat is a Friendship Sloop designed by Jay Benford, named Friendship. Weve talked about Paul and his fine boat before.
Arnie is a former bosun in the Canadian Navy and an accomplished sailor. It was a pleasure to make his acquaintance.

Marty Loken, from Marrowstone Island brought his newest acquisition, a Iain Oughtred Willyboat.
Marty is as bad as I am about boats - if he loves um he has to bring em home.
Marty runs the Island Boatshop on Mystery Bay, Marrowstone Island, east of Port Townsend.

Ron Mueller cruises the San Juan and Gulf Islands every year in his power cat, Just Enuf.
This plywood EcoCat from Bernard Kohler has a king sized berth, standing headroom galley, and a private head. Ron stores two inflatable kayaks and two folding bikes in the starboard ama. Cruising speed is 10 knots with a top speed of 15 knots, using a 20hp outboard motor.

 

Bob Ennenberg hails from Vancouver, BC, where he built this Jim Michalak pram, Duck. Its Bobs first build and I was impressed how well it sails. He has no permanent furniture inside and its a regular ballroom down below.
Bob is a grade school teacher with perpetual good humor. Hope he comes back next year.

These folks were not here to join us, but what a happy coincidence!

Their beautiful vessel is a Connecticut River Shad Boat.

James McMullen showed up from Anacortes, WA in his sail-and-oar boat Rowan.
James had places to see, so he was there only one night. He told me later that he covered over 60 nautical miles in four days under sail and oar alone. The man has ambition!

James is part owner of Emerald Marine in Anacortes.

And here we have Jamie Orr of Victoria, BC in his Phil Bolger Chebacco, Wayward Lass.
Ive had the pleasure of sailing with Jamie quite a few times, though Im a bit tired of looking at his transom. The Chebacco is an amazing little boat and Jamie handles her well.
Thanks to Jamie for all his organizational efforts concerning this rendezvous!
He has a website to keep us updated and is one of the best cat-herders I know.

You recognize this guy. Its Doryman in Saga. Jamie was gracious enough to circle around and take my picture before he took off for the horizon.
The jib was an experiment and well come back to that later.
Saga is a modified William Atkin Valgerda faering.

I call this the Mother Ship. Chuck Gottfried, his wife Shay and good friend Dean chartered a Baba 30 for the week. Not my cuppa tea, but what luxury!
Here we see Dean firing up some Super Tramp on his digital music player just before breakfast. Not my cuppa either, but the man is happy and thats all that counts.
They sailed in company with some old friends in a C&C 35 and Im sorry to have not gotten a photo of them.

Martin Schneider came from Port Townsend in his Allegra 24 cutter, Clover

Thats a lot of boat in a tidy package. I hope to sail with Martin someday.






That about covers it, hope I didnt miss anyone.

The slideshow from Sucia Island 2012:

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Circumnavigating Lopez Island

Over Memorial Day weekend we took Belle Starr for a circumnavigation of Lopez Island, the southern most island of the San Juan Island group in northwestern Washington State. Catching the last of the ebb, mid-day on Thursday before the weekend, we sailed east from Port Townsend and tacked in fair to light winds, north along the coast of Whidbey Island.

The plan was to sail to the northeast end of Lopez Island, but having spent most of the day coaxing Belle Starr on light airs, we optioned to cross Rosario Strait and enter the San Juans through Lopez Pass, at the southeast end of Lopez.

The San Juan Islands are notorious for contrary currents with migrating standing waves that challenge a sailors skill. Standing waves resemble the water in a washing machine with no particular direction or design. This condition can occur whenever two tidal currents collide and/or a wind pattern opposes the tidal flow. Its curious to watch a tide rip move over a body of water and suddenly engulf you in what sounds like rapids on a river.

 

As we approached Lopez Pass, we negotiated a tide rip two miles wide and four miles long. With the worthy Stone Horse bucking hither and yon, the pass was difficult to separate from false openings in the islands. Once inside however, the rocky entrance opened into the beautiful and inviting Lopez Sound. Our chart showed there might be good anchorage to the southwest in either Mud Bay or Hunter Bay. As we approached, it became obvious that Hunter Bay was the best choice. We set anchor among several other boats and settled in for a comfortable night, as a full gale developed overhead. A high bluff offered ample protection from the prevailing westerlies.

Since we expected to catch the rising tide to push us north sometime around noon, late morning coffee found us absolutely alone in a bay lovely enough to entice a mariner to stay for a while.

Belle Starr is a thoroughbred however and as the tide turned and a breeze came up from the south, she chaffed at her anchor, ready to run. Under mainsail alone she made an easy four knots toward Spencer Spit, on the northeast side of Lopez Island. Washington State maintains a park at Spencer Spit with several buoys and a low sandy beach for access. Bounded to the east by Frost Island, this anchorage is pretty but the spit doesnt offer much for protection from prevailing winds. The boats we saw anchored there were pulling hard on their moorings so we crept around a headland to Swifts Bay. The tiny community of Port Stanley offered no public shore access, but Swifts Bay was a peaceful spot to spend our second night.

The next day we sailed around Upright Head and southwest through Upright Channel to Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island. The wind shifted from south to west which afforded a comfortable broad reach all day. Friday Harbor is a busy place, offering US customs, food, fuel and entertainment. You can imagine what it was like on a holiday. Tied up at the transient dock seemed threatening as boaters who take their craft out for one weekend a year floundered all around, jockeying for the highest profile. We picked up necessary stores and escaped to an anchorage out of the hustle and bustle. There we found our first wood boats of the trip.

Next morning found us sailing tight tacks into a rising southerly in San Juan Channel. Its a heavily used thoroughfare, so a small boat must be wary. The biggest threat to a gunkholer in the San Juan Islands is not the rocks or the weather, but large private motor boats who apparently determine right-of-way according to tonnage.




An ebb tide in the San Juan Channel flows mightily through Cattle Pass directly into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. With the wind on our nose and the current at our back, we battled our way through mostly submerged rocks and a high chop for two nautical miles before finding a steady breeze on the forward quarter which was to carry us all day, back to Port Townsend.

As a footnote, isnt that Junk interesting? Her skipper was busy, concentrating hard, so I didnt interrupt. But Id like more information about her. If anyone recognizes this craft, please let me know.

I didnt even catch her name...

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Sucia Island Rendezvous Epilogue

We waited in Fossil Bay for the winds to come up, which never really happened. Fluky and unpredictable, some boats had a breeze to waft them home and others resorted to oars.

The small group that stayed on to continue sailing for another week set off on Monday morning on a promising lift which soon dissipated into a dead calm. This was to be the default for several days.

The post Rendezvous tour turned out to be a circumnavigation of Orcas Island. First to Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island, which is a Washington State park with permanent moorings and plenty of trails onshore to explore.




The next stop was Deer Harbor on Orcas Island for showers, hamburgers and fish n chips. My shower was supposed to last for seven minutes but it never stopped. Pure heaven after sitting in the sun on a calm sea for a week.

The last stop was Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island, headed for Anacortes. Lynn, in Katie Mae had peeled off to head for Port Townsend earlier that day and there were only three boats left, the Mother Ship (Baba 30, Gretel II), Jamies Wayward Lass and me, in Saga. Eagle Harbor is an inviting primitive anchorage on a state preserve. Ive often passed it but never stopped. Now I know why. The recreational traffic in Bellingham Channel churned up a confused sea that lashed the anchorage all evening.

Katie Mae had an uneventful trip home, as Lynn reported later:

" I parted company and headed down San Juan Channel; made it as far as Fisherman Bay.
Motoring in, I stopped to admire a 5.5 meter in the outer harbor, and the crew offered me a mooring to hang on overnight, very thoughtful."




"Went in to the Islander marina and had beer and fish tacos, and the ladies at the next table were having way too much fun and pulled me in to their movie -- ah, civilization!"

"Thought Id make it across the Strait to Port Townsend the next day (Friday), but the weather scared me off -- I kept seeing the lightening ground strikes and looking at the cans of gasoline in the cockpit and, and... went back to Watmough Bay, Lopez Island. Saturday morning the thunder had stopped so -- off again. Thick fog in Rosario Strait, but I figured it would clear up."

"It didnt."

"Socked in, with visibility up to 1/4 mile and down to 100 yards all the way to Partridge Point, Whidbey Island; never had a whiff of Smith Island. I was motoring in three foot current waves for the first part; barely making way through the water, but getting 7 to 8 knots over the ground in roughly the right direction. Once in a while I stopped the motor and listened for engines, hearing one at one point. It faded pretty quickly though, and there were no actual incidents."

"Made it to Point Wilson [Port Townsend] in a shade under four hours; not bad for my pretty slow boat (slow pretty boat?) and very glad and grateful for a safe and happy trip."


Jamie Orr, in Wayward Lass, was the last man standing. He headed west in his Chebacco and home to Victoria, BC from Anacortes:

  "I almost got caught in fog in Rosario Strait, but it wandered off up Guemes Channel instead - although at one point a ferry about a quarter mile south was totally invisible. Once inside the islands I decided to try to reach Deer Harbor, Orcas Island for fuel, they close at 7:00 sharp. I made it with only minutes to spare, in fact, after Id pumped my gas and went up to pay for it, they wouldnt let me in, saying they were closed! Unfortunately they figured things out and let me pay after all."




"I stopped for the night at Jones Island where the thunderstorm that had followed me from Rosario Strait finally caught up and dumped a few gallons of rain in the bilge before passing on."

"Id had no wind all the way and nothing was changed at 4:30 next morning when I hauled up the anchor. But the tide was helping to the tune of up to 2 1/2 knots down Haro Strait so it was a quick ride home."

So ends Sucia Island Rendezvous 2012. There is a lot more in the telling, but you will have to come along and see for yourself. The written word does not do justice to the beauty of being becalmed under a mossy granite ledge with eagles wheeling and crying overhead while Dolls porpoises feed playfully on herring under your keel. Time is of no consequence and minutes pass into hours unremarked.

In case you missed them, there are more photos on Dorymans Flickr site.

Back home now and its another life. Some good news for small boat enthusiasts coming up - please stay tuned!

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Whidbey Island Circumnavigation

The Vancouver Expedition (1791–1795) was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and land acquisition (some may say piracy), commanded by Captain George Vancouver. The expedition circumnavigated the globe, touched five continents and changed the course of history for various indigenous nations and the burnishing British empire that subjugated them. The expedition at various times included between two and four vessels, and up to 153 men, all but six of whom returned home to aspiring careers.

In 1792, HMS Discoverys Ships Master, Joseph Whidbey accompanied Lieutenant Peter Puget in small boats to explore what was later named Puget Sound. On June 2, the team discovered Deception Pass, establishing the insularity of the Sounds largest island which Vancouver named Whidbey Island.

Whidbey Island is approximately 55 miles (89 km) long (from the extreme north to extreme south, and varies between 1.5 to 12 miles (2.4 to 19.3 km) wide, comprising 168.67 square miles (436.9 km²).

My solo Whidbey Island circumnavigation came about because of the TSCA messabout at Hope Island near the northeast end of its much larger neighbor, not far from Deception Pass.

This voyage began in Mystery Bay. The weather prediction was perfect for it, a convergence zone was due over the area, with southerlies on the Friday of departure, developing into northerlies for the rest of a week. I could ride the cool, rainy front north, expecting warmer, sunny weather to bring me back.

It sounds simple. Unfortunately for Doryman, the cool front moved through a full day early. Belle Starr was anxious to go, regardless. We headed south from Port Townsend with the developing high pressure behind us. All the way, through the "Cut" at the south end of Port Townsend Bay and across Admiralty Inlet, to the south end of Whidbey, it was downwind or a broad reach, with a push from a flood tide. Very pleasant. The wind shifted with us as we traveled west until the setting sun brought on a chill.

In a fit of complacency, I hoped the westerly would continue on the lee side of the island as we rounded north at Possession Point. To make this a comfortable three day trip, as planned, we still had at least ten miles to go. Twenty miles to a recognized anchorage. None of this was to be. The wind we found was directly on the nose of my worthy vessel, which was not up to the task of making much headway against a northeasterly growing in force. In the gloaming, two successive gusts struck Belle Starr to starboard, hard enough to bring waves over the cockpit coaming.

This had never happened to me before in my experience with the Stone Horse - Belle Starr being a very dry boat. She was floundering under the added weight, with scuppers underwater and no momentum or steerage. Flustered and tired, it took a few seconds to recognize the water was not draining and there was little else to do but try and bring the boat upright and disperse the intruding water. Most of the water escaped, but enough remained to dampen my enthusiasm. The last two paragraphs comprise four hours of man and boat against the sea, so exhausted and despite an exposed lee shore, we tacked in and set anchor for a restless night. The pile of wet gear in the cockpit would have to wait.

One lazarette had filled completely (something to put on the list...leaky lazarettes have sunk many boats.), thoroughly soaking sets of off-shore rain gear and boots. Although none of it absorbed water, anyone familiar with the Northwest climate will understand it took most of the next day, sailing with gear spread all over the cockpit, to dry everything enough to re-stow.

Well, sailing... figuratively. Saturday, with about fifty miles to reach Hope Island, the wind, still directly ahead, died to a whisper. I disdain the use of motors, as a principle and when I succumb to a rational argument with myself, it is with regret. Crank up the outboard and head for Oak Harbor to buy fuel, a great sin in the world of Doryman.

We reached the Hope Island messabout an hour before sundown. A quick transit around the island, looking for friends, revealed a lovely state park that is primarily a nature preserve. When I found the anchorage, Id just missed a potluck supper on Night Bird, Claire and Johns new Catalina 22, with Martin and his son Trevor, from Clover, Ed, his son and a friend who launched their Core Sound 17 at Coronet Bay, just east of Deception Pass. But I was just in time for an evening chat, watching a fresh new moon, attended by Venus and Jupiter, from the cockpit. Sublime.

Sunday dawned with that misty morning haze, the crown jewel of the summer maritime Pacific Northwest, when sea and sky blend together, like living inside an emerald. You know the day will be bright and warm. Inside the archipelago, the breezes will be light, but we were headed out into open water, with wind funneled directly off the ocean, through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Deception Pass is a narrow opening in the rock between Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island and should be transited at slack tide. To meet an ebb in Rosario Strait, we needed to meet the high slack after daybreak coffee.

The entire day was blessed with a steady westerly on the starboard beam. A sailors dream. The hours flowed by in simple contemplation of good fortune until the Point Wilson light and Port Townsend Bay came into view. Sailing about 150 challenging and beautiful nautical miles in 50 hours. It doesnt get better than that.

Hitch hikers to nowhere.

Bald eagles.

Aboard Night Bird.

Raft-up at twilight.

Clovers dingy.

Clover in early morning repose.

Looking west through Deception Pass. You can see how it got its name.

A lot of water funnels through that little opening.

Running free. The old girl could use a new mainsail...

Point Wilson, Port Townsend Bay at the end of the day.

Whidbey Island, by Ron Kerrigan.

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