Sailing to/from Port Ludlow

Luckness went sailing January 23rd and 24th!  I had organized a small crew: Ivy, David, Jeff and myself hoping that the boat would be ready.  We were joining five other boats as part of the Windworks fleet's January Chowder Run which Jeff Moog has been organizing for years.  In the end, the outfitting to the boat wound up on friday the 22nd, Terry and I moved the boat through the locks to my slip in Shilshole that evening, I spent some time cleaning, installing cushions, getting rid of tools and project materials and had the boat ready for boarding Saturday morning.  Saturday came along and we went for a sail!

It was really nice to be out on the water again.  The sail out to Port Ludlow was a day with light winds, sailing downwind north in a light south wind.  My Crealock 37 is a pretty good light air boat, which has been something of a surprise to me.  Looking at the numbers for the boat, with a displacement/length ratio of 338 you would think she wouldn't move in anything less than a gale - but I'm continually surprised that I can sail in light winds.  Its really nice.

Of the six boats that sailed out to Port Ludlow, we were the only one that sailed all the way.  One other, Limu, pretty much did the same only turning on their engine for 20min or so toward the end.  Part of this is probably related to how long I had been off the water and how much I wanted to sail rather than motor.  We arrived last, just after the sunset - it was a beautiful light air sunny day on the water.

The sail back was also a lot of fun.  We were the last to leave the docks at Port Ludlow, and were sailing south into south winds of maybe 10 knots - seeing up to 18 apparent across the deck.  The boat loves these conditions.  We were also sailing south into an ebb current of 3 knots at its peak and so we were not making good progress toward our destination.

As the winds started to fall I decided to put the staysail out - it helped a little in boat speed and it looks good having all the sails up!

Through some poor planning (leaving too late!) we ended up toward the south end of Whidbey Island at around maximum ebb at 3:15 on a day when the sun set at 4:58 with many miles to go to Shilshole.  We ended up turning on the engine and motoring back from there.

It was really nice to be back on the water.  Some of the people on the other boats took pictures of us, some of which are included below.  Thanks to everybody for a good time!

These first three pictures are from Jeff Moog on Angelique.  The first two are of Luckness leaving Shilshole and then there is the group photo from Sunday.

These last four images are from Rob Johnston.  Rob is a professional photographer as well as a sailor, and probably a bunch of other labels.  He has had his images published on magazine covers!  He was kind enough to allow me to use his images on my site.  See his originals at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkaboutwolf/4307749779/in/set-72157623168034281/

Check out Rob's other images at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkaboutwolf