SV Darwind

Last day on board for dad             This morning (Monday, May 30, sorry about any possible confusion with the other posts) I woke up as no sailor ever wants to wake up: Wet. As soon as I realized that I was sleeping in a puddle of salt water on the cabin sole, there was a brief moment of panic before we realized that the problem was that someone had simply forgotten to close the seacocks on the head, and with the rolling from wakes throughout the night, the bowl had slowly filled then overflowed. Luckily nothing was damaged, and the only harm done was a wet sleeping bag which dried in the sun on the way to Blaire.             After dealing with the water, we got ready to go, and while we were eating some oatmeal for breakfast, a Doe walked out onto the beach on Doe Island, which distracted us from the cold morning dew and wet sleeping bag on deck.    ...

This morning when we woke up at five and turned on the VHF to the weather it almost looked like we would be staying another day in Port Townsend. The NOAA weather had a small craft advisory out, with a 15-25 knot west wind pretty much all day in the eastern straits of Juan De Fuca, with a chop of four feet or more. All right across our route to the San Juan Islands. There was about half an hour of debate whether we should go out at all, but in the end, the decision was made to try it, and if it really was too rough, the West wind would blow us straight back to Port Townsend. So at 06:30 AM, with full foul weather gear on, dad and I cast off the lines and headed out, with two reefs already in the main, the #2 jib hanked on in place of the genoa, and headed out in the cold drizzle and fog of Admiralty Inlet.             Just around the end of Port Townsend, within sight of the Sea Dart , we raised the jib and double reefed main, an...

At the dock in Ballard, this is where we spent a week working on the boat preparing her for the trip. One of my many projects was the gimbaled stove. The frame is made from aluminum strips held together by small bolts, and the stove is an old Iwatani butane camp stove that was given to us by another sailor at the dock. Locking through into the sound Friday morning Finally underway

This morning we woke up at anchor ready to go, only to find we were bucking to a two-foot chop in twenty-five knots of wind with the anchor rode iron taught off the bow roller. Thus we sensibly decided to stick around in Port Townsend for another day instead of fighting through a moderate gale with 4ft chop out in Admiralty Inlet, and so we moved into Boat Haven marina at 08:30 AM.             This setback did not really disappoint me as in fact; I actually quite like Port Townsend, one of the few places left in the US where the true essence of sailing is truly understood and immersed into the culture. For instance, how many places are there restaurants in the shipyard, and it is impossible to walk own a marina slip without encountering a boat that could set out around the world tomorrow next to a wooden schooner built a century ago, which in turn is moored next to a classic sailing skiff or little weekender...

        The first voyage on our trip to Alaska was a short shakedown sail from Seattle to Port Townsend through Northwest Puget Sound. We left the dock at 6:30 am, after a very late night and early morning of final preparations, so the entire morning is a bit of a blur, but we got through the locks and out into the bay without too much delay, and were sailing under full main and 170% Genoa by 08:00. For the first two hours we tried to sail, and were making an average boat speed of around two and a half knots, which was pretty good considering there was only around 6-10 knots of wind! And on top of that, I was made especially proud when my little overloaded boat left a thirty-something footer flying a spinnaker in our wake!             However, as with all good things, the wind didn’t last forever, and at 1014 we had to drop the genoa and continue under power with ...