Friday, August 7, 2009

On the hook again

The plan this weekend is to head over to Port Madison on Friday evening and anchor out.  Then leave for a sail up to Port Ludlow returning to Shilshole on Sunday.

We end up leaving a little later than expected on Friday but there is some wind so we sail across.  Its starting to get dark and we enter a small crab pot field while still sailing - a good time for more tacking practice!  Anchoring out on friday night I don't really trust my anchoring setup yet - I need more experience with it before that trust will come.  I have a 20kg Rocna anchor along with 300' of 5/16th HT chain - its a pretty beefy setup for this boat.  We motor into Port Madison where I pick my spot and we drop the anchor and a lot of rode.  Then while we are setting the anchor we end up closer to some boats than I like so I haul it up again - manual windlass - and drop the hook a second time further away from everyone.  This should get easier over time.

Its another quiet night at anchor - no winds, beautiful skies.  We leave in the morning for Port Ludlow.  Again, we anchor out.  I pick a spot close to the south shore with views across the harbor toward the marina.  I like this spot, there is nobody around, plenty of room.  Later as ferry traffic and freighters pass by in the Sound all night, their wakes wash into the harbor into our beam or nose.  Ok, so there is the occasional wave - that only enhances the feeling that we're in a boat and not at home in an armchair.  Right!?

Sailing back on Sunday the winds are decent from the north.  We sail accidently into a wind hole at the south side of Lopez - a rookie mistake.  It makes for a nice time to have lunch as we bob around moving at roughly 0.1 knot.  As we finish lunch the winds fill and we have a decent trip back to Shilshole.

Nothing broken.  We didn't lose anything overboard.  We came back with the same number of people that we left with (2).  Another successful weekend cruise.

No comments:

Post a Comment