Seattle Trip Wrap Up

We have family in the area so we spent some quality time with them.

Lisa had some medical appointments to keep so we took care of those.

We visited the North Acres Dog Park several times and Bina loved it.

Dunato's Boat Yard sent me some help and we went through the Hiram Chittenden Locks, commonly called the Ballard Locks.  I was pretty busy handling the boat, even with 2 experienced line handlers, so I did not have time for many photos.  But I did snap these 2 as we sat waiting inside the locks.

Here's a link to some information and a video tour of the locks:

http://www.seattle.gov/TOUR/locks.htm

And then Faraway went into her winter home, Dunato's Boat Yard:

Mission complete.

Seattle Trip Day 16

Sunday August 30 

We left Friday Harbor about 7 AM in calm conditions.

Of course the destination for today was Seattle, however there is more than one way to get there from Friday Harbor.  I had mapped out a course that took us through Deception Pass, which is one of those places where you are supposed to transit at slack tide.  My neighbor at the docks in Friday Harbor told me he had been through there perhaps 20 times and had never paid the slightest bit of attention to the tides, so I was not too worried about it.

This is the route to Deception Pass, the first leg of our run to Shilshole Bay in Seattle.  I broke the route into two parts because my navigation software shows a very accurate ETA to your destination and I wanted to get there pretty close to slack tide.

 And here's the rest of the route from Deception Pass into Seattle's Shilshole Bay.

We arrived at Deception Pass about an hour before slack tide.  I started to go through but then lost my nerve and turned around and waited a bit.

But then some other boats started to go through, so I got in line and went through a little early with them.

It was indeed challenging, especially near the end.  I could see the boat in front of us, which was roughly the same size and weight, as he was tossed around like a child’s toy.  There were large standing waves near the exit that definitely got my attention.

There had been a small sailboat, perhaps 22’, with a small outboard motor behind us.  I was curious to see how or if he made it through with so little power, but frankly I was far too busy trying to control my own boat to look back to see how he was doing.

We made it through OK, and then ground out the last many miles on the approach to Seattle’s Shilshole Bay Marina.

Here is Faraway in her slip at Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle.  Finally made it!

This is a huge marina, with more floats than even I could walk, and we stayed here 3 nights.

According to the older GPS chart plotter we covered 768 miles to get here.

The engine hour meters showed about 102 hours for the voyage, and they never missed a beat.

Seattle at last!

Seattle Trip Day 14 & 15

Friday August 28 & Saturday August 29 

Friday marked 2 full weeks that we have been underway.

We woke up to wind and rain, and very poor visibility.  My first thoughts were that I cannot leave this marina under poor visibility due to all the crab pot buoys that are hard to see even when visibility is good.  It seemed as if we would need to sit in Ganges for at least another day.

But, we walked Bina, had breakfast, and looked up the weather forecasts.  By then the visibility had improved, and the wind had reduced, although it was still raining.

According to the forecasts the weather would be deteriorating the next day so we made the decision to make the short 27 mile run to Friday Harbor.

For the first part of the trip we had to dodge a few more BC ferries, and deal with some choppy water, but after that it settled right down into a calm run.

Friday Harbor is a very popular cruising destination in the San Juan Islands, and so as we approached we sort of fell in with other boats also headed there.  It is a large and busy port.

When we got there I called the Friday Harbor port authority on the VHF radio and was assigned a slip. It was a very tight fit, but with our neighbor’s help we got in and got tied up and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Next I called US Customs, since this was our first US port after being in Canadian waters for quite a while.  I got a bit of a tongue lashing as I was informed that there is a Customs dock out in front of the breakwater and the protocol is that you must stop there BEFORE going into your slip in the marina.

So we had to untie the lines and go back out to the Customs dock.  Fortunately he was not busy so he processed us right away, but I did have to endure another lecture on the correct protocol for clearing Customs in Friday Harbor, which I apparently needed.  You don’t argue with people that carry guns.

Back we went into our slip, and our neighbor was still there to guide us and catch the lines, making it much simpler.

Friday Harbor is an amazing place, and not just the marina.  The town itself is right there within walking distance and it seems they always have something interesting going on.

It will be hard to describe all that we saw and did while here, but I will try.

First off we checked the weather for Saturday and discovered that big winds were on the way.  So we made arrangements to stay 2 nights here.

Perhaps going through my pictures will be the best way to describe our all too brief stay in Friday Harbor.

Our slip in the Friday Harbor marina.  Tight quarters.
They told us they have a "no turn away" policy - they will always find a place for you when you come in and request moorage.

I walked all the floats in the harbor.  Lots of sailboats here.

There's always something happening in Friday Harbor.  Uncle Otto and his band played and sang on Friday evening right up above the marina.

This is "Pop Eye" the tame seal that roams the harbor at will.  So named I assume because he has one bad eye.  He gives High Fives, gives seal kisses, and takes food right out of your hand.

A beautiful sunset in Friday Harbor.

On Saturday morning we went up to the Farmer’s Market which they hold every Saturday.  Unfortunately those big winds did arrive with a vengeance and the vendors at the market were essentially blown out.  

They had erected little canopies and tarps to cover their goods, but the winds were playing havoc with them and by the time we got there they had given up and were taking everything down.  We did manage to purchase some wonderful tomatoes and apples before they closed up.

We had a little drama on the dock during the afternoon, after the winds had settled down just a little.  I had stepped off the boat to take a walk and right across from us some men were dealing with a tense situation, so I helped as best I could.  The boat across from us had untied all their lines but had not started their engines.  The winds had blown the boat up against the dock, and I helped hold it off.  

The man and woman on board were too drunk to figure out how to start their engines.  The man at the helm kept muttering that he had to go back to Seattle.  The people on the boats behind them were screaming at us to not allow him to start his engines and pull out.  There would have been damage for certain.  I helped tie him off and the other men convinced him not to go anywhere for a while.

Later we saw some men in uniforms knocking on the boat trying to get someone’s attention.  I think they were from the Sherriff’s office.

In any case we had a good visit to Friday Harbor and we definitely want to come here again and spend a few days, preferably on a weekend when it is not windy.

Tomorrow, Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle!

Seattle Trip Day 13

Thursday August 27 

Today we took on fuel (for the last time, yahoo!) and headed down the Strait of Georgia for a marina in Ganges.

Today we also had another time constraint in that in order to get to Ganges we had to go through one of 3 or 4 passes, and each of them had different times of slack tide. 

Another time constraint was that the staff at the marina in Ganges had told me that I needed to be there before 5:30 PM in order for someone to be there to assign us a slip for the night.

I selected Active Pass as my doorway to Ganges and it had a slack tide at 4:12 PM.  It is about 9 miles from there to the Saltspring Marina, and so it would be tight to make it before 5:30 PM. 

Here's a more detailed view of the last part of the route, through Active Pass, and on into Ganges.

 

My guide books also show me the direction and speed of the current in these narrows and passes and so I knew that even at peak current it was only 4 knots of current, running in the same direction that we were traveling, so my hope was to get there early and cheat a little and go through early.

Active Pass was indeed very active.  I did get there a little early and started on through.  The current was not a problem, but the 3 huge and fast running BC ferries going through in both directions at the same time were a bit of a challenge.

The passage was made even more confusing when one of the ferries which was behind me (I did not know at the time that it was there) called another boat, and I thought it was the ferry in front of me calling me.  Very confusing and a little scary.  These ferries are large and they go fast.

But we made it through just fine and also made it into Ganges before all the staff had left.

Entry into the Ganges area was unlike anything I had experienced before.  It is a very busy and very shallow area, with numerous boats anchored and on mooring buoys. 

There are a few marinas and several private docks.  But the real danger was all the crab pots set with very small and hard to see buoys.  Even though I was running in high alert mode, we still almost ran over a couple of them.

The Saltspring Marina was an OK place to spend the night.  There was restricted fresh water on the docks due to drought conditions in the area.  (Interestingly enough it poured rain over night!)

I was so busy dodging boats and watching for crab pot buoys on the way into and out of Ganges that I only took this one photo, but it was a good one.  We were treated to a stunning sunset from our slip in the SaltSpring Marina.

664 miles to this point.