Stern Tie Kludge

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So, cruising in the San Juan’s/British Columbia is going to mean anchoring in a fair amount of smallish coves where we’ll need to tie Charisma’s stern to land to keep her from swinging into the rocks. Today I rigged up a cheap (read: free) reel for the 300 feet of polypropylene line I bought for this purpose. Walked around town until I found an empty spool, then drilled a hole for the handle which I made from some scrap pvc pipe and voila!…our new stern line storage.

Stern line reel

We’re planning to leave Monday or Tuesday pending the weather. We’ll probably head to Friday Harbor and maybe Suicia for some hiking, then after a few days cross into BC at Sidney. I bought my Canadian non-res fishing license today, so we’re ready on the fishing side. Ann’s been waxing and polishing the topsids and stocking up provisions and I’ve been doing some touch up varnishing and now I’m going to empty the lazarette and get it organized.

Getting close!

Getting Ready…

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OK, we’re starting a new cruising season.  We’ve met some fabulous new people up here in Port Townsend, Washington.  Having a lot of fun.  What a wonderful place!

For now, we’ll just post a few pics – we’re doing some boat work, but not hauling out this year.  We’ve done so much work on Charisma over the past five years, we’re thinking we can “slip” for a year.  She’s looking good – varnish is still shiny, hull polish still looking good, etc.  Amazing how a northern climate (i.e. not in the tropics) is so much less harsh on things.

 

Puget Sound from Port Townsend (with Mt Ranier in the background)

Looking back at Port Townsend where Charisma has been all winter.

 

 

Anyway, one BIG issue we wanted to test is the radar.  There’s fog up here and while we try to avoid it, you never know when you might get “snuck  up on” by it.  Our radar went haywire after the long passage and multiple electrical storms.  I’ve been working on it and finally think I’ve come up with a fix.  It worked at the dock, but the key is to test it out on the water, with lots of turning to make sure the fix would “stick”.

So, today we fired the engine up and went out for a little cruise into the “Sound” to check if all was working.  Blessedly everything went well.  After turning left, right, backwards, forwards and all around the radar and the chart plotter remained in agreement.  I feel good that we’re in business.  Also nice to run the engine after being at the dock for six months.  (Thank you soooo much Jim Heumann (Sockdolager) for running Charisma’s engine almost every week at the dock to keep things running so well).

Speaking of boat work, Ann wore her fingers down today polishing the stainless steel on the starboard side.  Good thing because Brian Toss, who has a rigging shop here in town but is basically a legendary rigger, known throughout the world, dropped by on his way to a party on our neighbor’s boat and after being pigeonholed by Ann pronounced Charisma “ship shape”.  Whew!

So…we’re a couple weeks or less from throwing off the dock lines yet again to head out for a new voyage.  We’re not sure where we’re going other than “north”.

Serendipity – that’s our plan!

 

We’re Back (by Ann)

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We are back on Charisma…in our own 37-foot world. And as soon as I get used to this weird, constant rocking motion I will get to work organizing and storing items we brought back. If only I could remember where I put the things we left behind. Our conversations go like this:

“Hey don’t we have some honey on board?”
“Yes, I am sure we do.”
“Where is it?”
“Hmmmm, don’t know but am positive we have it on board.”

“We need more AAA batteries.”
“No, I am certain that we have some on board.”
“Where?”
“Hmmm….not sure….put them on the shopping list and when we find them we can take them off the list….if we find them”

A little disconcerting. Trying to remember where certain pans are, warmer clothes, fire starter for the grill….you get the picture. Makes me laugh because I KNOW they are exactly where they are supposed to be. Probably stems from spending so much time in other peoples’ kitchens and trying to put things back where I found them so I would not give them reason to swear at me when I was gone!

Anyway…we are back and will be doing more blogging soon!

PS- Charisma looks fabulous. Very little sign of any mod or mildew. Dry inside. A little bit of yuk in the scuppers but nothing a little water from a hose nozzle won’t solve. Thanks to Jim Huemann, our friend from Sockdolager for taking such great care of her while we have been gone.

Strait of Juan de Fuca

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That’s Charisma’s new location for a while.  We’re currently in Port Angeles, a modest marina across the Strait from Victoria, Canada.  Charisma’s new adventures will likely include sailing the San Juans, around Vancouver Island, and up the inside passage into Queen Charlotte islands and maybe to Alaska.  In the mean time, here’s a couple pics of the change in scenery from the tropics to here.

It's going to be a different adventure, but this is a beautiful area.

Reefs were one of the bigger hazards in the South Pacific, but up here it's deadheads. No not the fanatical music fans (although there are plenty of them), but the result of logging activity. There are tons of stray logs just waiting to punch a hole in your boat. We saw ones up to 25 feet on the way to the marina.

There must be whales….PS (by Ann)

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I realized when talking to my sisters on the phone that I left out a very important background detail to the whale post. Yes, it was spectacular. So incredible to see but in the back of my mind I was remembering one of the last seminars we attended before leaving Mexico to cross the Pacific. The Pacific Puddle Jump group provided numerous seminars to help us prepare for the crossing. This talk was given by a woman who had sailed down the coast of California. On the way they found themselves suddenly surrounded by humpback whales.

They had not intended to be there and the whales were frightened. One whipped his tail and took out the rudder on the boat. They attempted to block the hole while calling for help but it did not work. The boat sunk in 15 minutes. This story kept going through my brain as I watched these magnificent creatures. So close to our finish…but I wanted to get there safely!

Yes, it is good to no longer be a little speck on a big ocean. But what an adventure!

We’re In Port Angeles

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OK, we’ve worked our way in the Strait and are now in Port Angeles which is about 11 miles across the Strait from Victoria.  At some point we’ll go across, but for now, we’re just blissfully resting!

 

It was a two day trip from Neah Bay.  We did a short leg, with some salmon fishing (we caught an Atlantic Salmon but it was too small so we dropped him) to Clallam Bay the first day.  It was only about 20 miles, but rained the last two hours, so we were really glad not to be out longer.  The docks were pretty funky, but we got in about 1600 and left early the next morning.

 

Today, 33 miles to Port Angeles.  Nice day, mostly sunny and very glad to get in a get a slip.  Now we can relax for a while.  Nice to be in a real marina with other sailboats instead of lots of fishing boats.

 

OK, so stay tuned!  We finally have some good internets and I’ll put pictures of our Honolulu to here passage.

 

And…now the NEW adventure starts!  Cruising the San Juans, Vancouver Island and maybe up the inland passage to Alaska.  Who knows, so keep watching!    Charisma’s not done yet – we’re just taking a break from a very long passage.

 

 

Where There Be Birds… (by Ann)

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Not so long ago on this blog JHamm indicated that perhaps I was not exhibiting appropriate sailor-type behavior. Not so, I say! During my last day watch, about 50 miles off of the North American coast I could not help a very sailor-like thought from crashing through my brain. “Where there be birds…there must be whales!”

Generally I do not think this way but during this final afternoon watch, after an UGLY morning watch for Bob (which he shared with you because just thinking about it again scares me still), I was treated to a show of whales unsurpassed in Charisma history. Initially I was seeing a few blow puffs on the horizon.

Thar she blows! (click to expand picture to see better)

So hard to capture the intensity when they were popping up everywhere and Charisma was rolling in large waves.

 

Two, maybe three at a time. I was trying to keep track of how many and what types (I saw numerous humpbacks and three Orcas). One sighting was about 50 yards in front of us. In order to avoid hitting them I quickly turned on the engine to idle knowing that the noise would tell them we were there. It worked and they quickly dove and moved out of Charisma’s path. Sailing can be so silent and approaching whales that are feeding seems so dangerous.

As it turns out I needed to turn the engine on about four more times as Bob slept. I was worried it would signal pending collision with a large container ship to a sleeping captain. Fortunately after the first such thought he understood my strategy. It was working great. Until the birds. I noticed a hundred or so birds sitting on the water as we sailed up to them. How interesting. I took pictures to show Bob. A few miles further and the birds were swarming. We had been without aviary company for about 24 hours (during the gale) and so I was delighted. At first. As the birds thickened in the air I began to feel like I was in the middle of a bird feeding frenzy…like the ones we’ve seen off the coast in Aptos.

That’s when it registered…they are feeding…and so is someone else. So I lowered my sights to the water and suddenly noticed numerous spouts from feeding whales. One was 20 feet off the port side. I quickly turned on the engine to idle again to announce our presence. It was frightening and exhilarating at the same time. After they had passed I found I was trembling. Too close for comfort in my book. And that saying started marching through my head. “Where there be birds…there must be whales!”

When my heart finally slowed to a regular beat I relaxed and enjoyed the gift of sunshine and an ever=brightening rainbow after the horrible morning. And then I noticed lots more birds about a mile ahead. In the air, swarming. I altered course with a quick adjust to the Monitor hoping to avoid the melee. It did not seem to help. I turned on the engine and tried to determine if they were moving in a discernible direction. In panic I finally woke Bob to come help me decide. By the time Bob got into the cockpit he had me disengage the Monitor and steer twenty degrees to the left of the large pod of feeding whales directly ahead of us. No minor Monitor adjustments would be enough. So as I steered we gaped in amazement at the huge whales puffing along, happily feeding with a entourage of winged friends circling wildly overhead hoping for left behinds. What a show! Even now my heart races as I think of these large mammals so close to Charisma and so preoccupied. I realized at this point that the Pacific Northwest was full of incredible beauty and adventure waiting for Charisma. Yes, we were almost to America, but our journey is definitely not over.

What Is Almost As Good As Making Landfall? (by Ann)

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After a 22 day passage, the third long passage in the last 105 days, there does not seem like anything could equal the joy of making landfall.  Well we were wrong.  After getting safely tied to the dock at Neah Bay and properly celebrating with a bottle of bubbly (put in the icebox only when the final decision to stop in Neah Bay had been reached about 10 miles offshore) we went to the Marina office and checked in.  We were a bit disappointed to find out that our cell phones would not work due to lack of service.  How was I going to make a few phone calls?  I was directed to the pay phone in front of the grocery store a few blocks down the street.  No bueno.  The phone was broken.  So the Marina office/bait store attendant offered to let me use the store’s phone.

 Lisa and John on Orcinius had asked us to please call them before we took our much deserved naps.  They had left Hawaii with us but made landfall in Astoria four days prior and wanted to make sure we made it in before the two big storms coming down the coast.  So, with a not-so-quick call home and then another not-so-quick call to Lisa I had worn out my phone welcome and left the office.  Even though there was a celebration of Makah Days down the bay further, filling the air with carnival noise and shotgun discharges to start canoe races, I finally laid down for a nap.  Bob had found the bed earlier and was deep in slumber.  Aw, sweet rest.

 My deep sleep was penetrated by someone calling “Charisma, Charisma!”  Such familiar voices.  So hard to focus.  We both climbed out of bed and up to the cockpit.  As the Christmas poems goes…”and what to our wondering eyes should appear?”…Lisa and John from Orcinius!!!! Not being totally familiar with Northwest geography I was confused.  Wasn’t Portland pretty far away?  That’s where they live.  And the answer is yes.  About five hours away.  And when I called to check in with Lisa as requested, they were at the ticket counter of the ferry about to purchase passage to Victoria, BC.  That was our original destination.  They were hoping to be there to grab our lines as we arrived.  How very lucky it was that I borrowed that phone and informed them of our new location.

 

 

What a treat! (even if they did wake us up)

 

How very happy we were to see them!  Joy, joy, happy tears!  Celebration, laughter more bubbly and stories ensued.  How different our two passages had been.  We knew we were going to sail over the Pacific High and make landfall further north.  Orcinius knew they were going to motor through the High and make landfall in Astoria.  Other than leaving from the same location four hours apart, our passages were similar only for the first two days…when they passed us and never looked back.  They were sailing brilliantly.  We were too.  But it seems that a few degrees of longitude made all of the difference.  They had some squally weather but nothing like we kept finding.  They encountered some lightning, but not three solid nights of it.  They never saw the 40kt winds we found.  They caught lots more fish than we did.  They had more boat issues than we did.  Score one for Charisma.  But we all win when we make safe landfall.  And we can’t do any better than celebrating together!

 

 

Landfall in North America! (By Ann because she is still barely awake)

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I think we would be pinching ourselves still if we were not so exhausted. We arrived at 6:30am local time… 3:30am local Charisma time.

We're here! 2600 miles up and over the Pacific High and into the Pacific Northwest. (The heavy dotted line is our planned course, the light one is our actual course)

Someone's very happy to see land.

Actually both of us are damn happy to be in!

Just inside Cape Flattery is Neah Bay where we stopped.

So happy to get in here to hold up between storms.

So, let's pop the Champagne...

...and toast a sometimes boring, sometimes fantastic and sometimes difficult trip!

Our new neighbors.

 

We tucked into an open slip in Neah Bay, tied up and shouted gleefully..not knowing the boat next to us was occupied. Oops. No worries, they were actually up and getting ready to move out so were happy to share our joy. Although on a trawler they had previously circumnavigated on a monohull so appreciated our feat.

Bob is sound asleep …deservedly so as he was up from 5pm to 3am through a very stressful night. I just went to scope out the facilities (not very impressive and the laundry is actually four blocks away…I will definitely need help getting three weeks of laundry there). Unfortunately AT&T does not exist up here and Internet is spotty. Oh well. Time to sleep and worry about all of that later!

We promise to give details on the last two days when better rested. Thanks for cheering us on!