I belong to a loosely organized group of sailors in the pacific NorthWest Called Cascadia.
http://www.sailcascadia.org
We gather informally two or three times a year just for giggles and kicks.
This last weekend we gathered in Coupeville Wa.
Friday Morning Diane and I left our dock at 10:30ish for the 25 mile run to Coupeville. Our first hint as to what we were in for were the spiderwebs on the dock! They were FROZEN! We left the dock in solid fog. Radar and GPS kept us on track and safe. About an hour and a half later passed Camano Head we literally came through the fog curtain! We suddenly had a nice clear but very cold day to motor along in. It was DEAD CALM. About half way there, we were eating our lunch and I spied some Dals Porpoises! How cool! Unfortuantely my wife did not see them! About ten minutes later we were surrounded by them! They must have been feeding as they'd pop up and dissapear, pop up and dissapear! Fun to watch! We'd never seen them in Saratoga Passage! We continued to Coupeville in the icey cold day with spectacular and crystal clear views of Mt Baker!
We arrived at the dock only to find the dock itself Frozen with frost! YIKES! It is freaking cold! We knew ahead of time that this dock is shallow. We pre-checked the tides and found a minus 1.5 foot tide Saturday night at 11:00 so where we put Destiny on this dock is very important! We must be the last or second to last boat on the outside! Our friends on another boat coming in draw more than us so we paced off the dock leaving them space and moved Destiny as far out as possible in the second spot. Well, no one showed up Friday night so Diane and I shared the rum, watched movies and generally had a very nice private party for ourselves! AWESOME! Being very conservative I do not run our furnace while we sleep. There was no electricity at the dock and no water sowe were in for a chilley night. The next morning we woke to 40 degrees interior cabin tempurature! YIKES! I let our little Corgy out of her bed, she came out, turned right around and went back in! LOL! Hmm, the fridge is making funny noises. A quick check showed our batteries extremely low! YIKES! Now what? I fired up the engine and furnace to heat up our water tank and the cabin. After a hot shower I was feeling great! Unfortuantely I left little hot water for my bride! Sorry honey! ; ) We spent the day hanging on the dock, walking both blocks of the entire town, shopping the junk shops and just hanging out! I checked the batteries and found a corrided connection! Cleaned it. YEAH, we are charging again! By 3:00 friends began to arrive for dinner date at 6:00. We gathered in Destiny's cockpit. We ate cheeses, summer sausages, crackers, and wine! We had a total of 8 for dinner, went to a water front hotel and had an unexpectedly wonderfull meal! You never know what you'll get in a little town like this. We ate, shared stories, and had a very good time! After dinner most folks had to head out. Another couple Joined Diane and I on Destiny for a late evening winefest and crackers! Some of you have already found Skips websight on "SlowFlight". Great folks they are! At 10:30ish, our guests were ready to go. We exited Destiny to find ourselves at almost low low tide! OMG! IT always amazes me when the water depths change 15 by feet! I have some fabulous photos of before and after tide changes!I will post them tonight!
Sunday morning Diane I headed out at 8:00 for home! Again zero wind! We motored most of the way when a following 15 knt wind caught us so we managed a nice motor sail the rest of the way in.
All in all we had a bit of a chilly weekend but we had a great time!
I'll post some photos tonight!
Scott
SV Destiny
Frozen spider web!
Fog sucks!
Dals Porpoise!
Mt Baker covered in snow!
Coupeville from the dock.
Check the piling holding the dock!
Check the same piling holding the dock!
The dock we stayed at from shore
Destiny at the dock in the fleeting moment of sun that day
