Our 118 nautical mile voyage from Bellingham to Tacoma
The sun was shining, the winds were right. Albeit cold, everything seemed to be aligning for a nice southbound passage. We were even fortunate enough to have 3 able and willing swabs join in on what would be a REALLY chilly but very fun 1st sail on our new boat.
We had our dear friends Katie & Justin fly in all the way from Anchorage just for the occasion. Coming in hot from completing their recent ASA sailing courses, they were an eager and welcome addition to the trip! We also had local Tacoma representation in the form of our very good friends Chris & Merilee, although Merilee only came to drop everyone off and make sure we had a good send-off up in Bellingham. She had to get back to work. This would be Chris's 1st time (I think ever) on a sailboat, and nobody forgets their 1st time ;)
The plan was to be off the dock by 9am. We were rushing back and forth to the store, getting food, a few last minute boat parts, etc... By almost 10am we were finally ready. I turned the key to fire up the deisel.... erh erh erh.. . Dead Start battery. Well, crap. The broker was on hand to send us off so he was able send someone over to help us out. (More on this battery issue later, but for now... ) Turns out it was just a corroded connection on the battery terminal. So we get that sorted after about 90 minutes or so, and we're once again "ready" to go.
Then, seemingly out of NOWHERE, quite literally AT the moment we're untying the lines, a 40kt gust of wind slams through the marina, lasting approximately 45 seconds. It truly felt like an omen. good? bad? I'm not sure, but it eerily felt like it had meaning behind it. As rapidly as it had appeared, the wind died right back down. Everyone on the boat, and everyone on the dock, all sort of paused, conveyed worried expressions and looked at each other in silence. In my eagerness (and admittedly out of my frustration for being behind schedule) I broke the silence and said "toss the lines, lets get the %$#@ outta here!!" And just like that, we were off on our very 1st adventure aboard Lorien.
Our tardy departure meant we'd probably not make Tacoma in two days. I came up with a new plan. 1st night we'd anchor on the south end of Lopez Island in the San Juans, 2nd day would be a long one to Blake Island State Park, then the last day we'd have a 5-6 hour sail into Tacoma. Luckily our crew had nowhere better to be.
The 1st day's sail was pretty short, and really just a motorsail into some pretty strong headwinds. We made it into Aleck Bay just before sunset, where we ran into our next issue. We'd just positioned ourselves where we wanted to drop the anchor when I discovered the windlass controls were only working in one direction (down, not up). So Amy motored us around in circles for a while while I fiddled with the windlass remote. (I might need a blog entry just on this windlass remote debacle). Long story short, since it would only work in the down direction, I decided that since it was getting dark, I'd drop anchor for the night and let future Lance figure out how to get the 150' of 3/8" chain & 50lb anchor back up into the boat tomorrow.
We all settled in for the night and awoke the next day to our 1st known task of figuring out how to get all the ground tackle back onto the boat. Step 1. Start the engine... Oh wait, the damn starting battery was dead again! Turns out, it wasn't just the corroded battery terminal that needed cleaning. The battery was on it's way out and needed replacing. But what to do about it now? At the time, I had not yet figured out how to emergency parallel the house and starter batteries on the boat yet, so Chris and I set out to dig into the battery compartment and manually jumper the positive terminals on the starter and house battery banks. Crisis averted. Moving onto the windlass, I came up with the idea to just cross the wires inside the remote switch to make up really be down, and down really be up. It was another simple and temporary solution that did the trick! With the engine started and all the ground tackle up and secured, we set off for a long and AWESOME sail all the way to Blake Island. We had about 20-25 kts from the NW all day pushing us under jib alone on a starboard broad reach, screaming down the puget sound at about 7 kts average. Sure, the wind made it FREEZING outside, but what a day of sailing. It was awesome!
We made it to Blake island, again not long before dark. Having reservations about the windlass, we instead picked up a mooring ball on the East side of the island where we rocked and rolled all night. It was a less than ideal anchorage, but it worked.
Day three was a bit lighter wind day, but enough to keep sailing downwind to Tacoma via the Colvos Passage west of Vashon Island. Fortunately by the 3rd day, I'd found the emergency parallel battery switch, so we had that going for us. Things got interesting when we finally made it into Tacoma where our new home slip was waiting for us at Foss Harbor Marina downtown. Our slip was on the other side of a bridge with a air-draft clearance of about 58 feet at high tide. Of course... at our time of arrival, it was right at one of the highest tides of the year. As we approached, Katie asked me how tall the mast was. Unlike a responsible boater, I didn't know the actual answer. So I shrugged my shoulders and said we're about to find out! We went slow and didn't hit anything. In hindsight, A) That was a really dumb idea, but B) I'm glad we did it cuz now I know I fit under there basically no matter what the tide's doing!
Despite the mishaps along the way, which we learned a great deal from, we had great conditions, excellent crew & company, and made memories to last a lifetime. Amy and I are grateful for Chris, Katie, Justin, (And Merilee, too) for joining us on this trip. We couldn't have done it without you!
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