Leg three - Seattle.

I have been to Seattle a few times but always focused on boat stuff and visiting my friends Ralph and Roena. That is to say I had not been a tourist here before. 

We have been pleasantly surprised at what Seattle has to offer and realize that in our week here we are only scratching the surface. 

I must say that the search for a croissant has ended at Le Panier. It is a bakery that has been rated in the top 10 in USA. It is run by a French born and trained pastry chef. We went there yesterday and loaded up on bread, coffee and pain au chocolate. 

We have been to the aquarium( excellent), bused over to the Ballard locks and fish ladder. 

Mike and esther treated all of us to an excellent meal last night at an Asian style place. 

They are going to the space needle today ( Mike  is not busy with meetings this afternoon). Robin and I will organize her fast feet ticket and do some bunging out on Tatoosh. 

Robin leaves tomorrow, Mike et al on Saturday morning and Kevin arrives Saturday morning for leg #4. 

The weather continues to be perfect- sunny and 19-20.

 Over and out until start of leg 4

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Leg 3 - ends

I will do a more detailed update later. 

Mini version is that we motored to Kingston in Apple tree cove from port Townsend yesterday. Today we got some sailing in and then motored the last hour into down town Seattle. 

Arrived at Bell Harbor marina downtown Seattle at 4. Well located for doing things with the kids. But some of us older guys are suffering culture shock after San Juans/port Townsend- especially fighting downtown crowds to get groceries. 

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Auto spell

I just read the latest posting and realized I need to do a better job of editing the odd words injected by auto-spell correction. Hopefully you can figure out what the real words should be!😉

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Thursday

We left for port Townsend at 09:00 after some debate. It was decided that this was best weather window to get across Juan de Fuca given the forecast for Friday. 

We saw a sea lion in the water near cattle point( exit into the straight) then passed a rock with a number of them, including a huge bull. We read I our guide that a bull sa lion is larger than any bear. 

As we neared PT, we saw a strang flotilla coming towards us. Then a coast guard boat rapidly approach us. It had the dressed in black crew with a large machine Gun at the bow; we were in formed we were within the security safety zone for the warship. In the middle of the flotilla was a nuclear submarine! There were 2 large support vessels with outriders in front and back. We counted a total of 7 ships not including the sub. Prettying exciting for the kids( and us).

Then a wind built up and we could sera fog bank bearing down on us which caught up to us the temperature dropped, wind picked up and viability dropped to about a mod or less. Then as we approached the boat basin it lifted. 

There is a lot to do and see and we won't get to it all before we leave on Saturday. ( Friday is a layover day here tow air out the front and strong winds on Friday )

Nice surprise to have a call with Nora( and Leah and Neil 😊 befor dinner.  

PS: grampa lost the wrestling match in the V berth. 

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Tuesday / Wednesday

We motored from English camp to Friday Harbor ; no wind to speak of. 

I caused a docking rodeo by choosing wrong open slip ( ie pointing upwind rather than down wind). Wind got our bow as I tried to cut across wind to get into our slip. Tense but at the end no bodily or boat damage so sort of O K??

We are staying here two nights so that  we can have a day to poke around Friday Harbor. 

Current forecast is for a strong front to pass Thursday night/Friday so we hope to get away early and cross Juan de Fuca ( to Port Townsend) before the wind builds. 

Inspired by the whale costumes at the Whale museum the kids were up to their own costume party back at the boat. 

Tonight we had marinated pork tenderloin with steamed veggies and pan fried potatoes with herbs - not exactly living out of cans!!

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Away from E dock!

We left our berth, topped up fuel tank and were under way about 10:40. 

Wind was up to 18 for short while but had at least 15 kts most of the way across haro straight. We got to customs dock at Roche Harbor at 13:00, cleared customs and had our lunch on the customs dock. 

Then a short motor through Mosquito passage to Garrison bay. This is the historic site of English camp( the famous pig war). 

Kids rowed in while we prep dinner; plan is to go back in morning and hike to top of the hill. 

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Leg 3: crew on board

Robin arrived on the 13:30 ferry, followed by Mike and family at the airport at 6.

We moved some things out of the boat onto the car to make room. We have fit the 6 of us and associated gear and it doesn't feel as crowded as we thought. 

Esther made the V- berth look pretty cozy, a lot cozier than when it is a man-cave!

It is raining out, heater is on and the kids are painting in their journals for school ( they are documenting the trip). 

They are going to Esther's sister today, kids will sleep over and we wil take off tomorrow, weather permitting. 

Robin and I will have an exciting day of grocery shopping. 

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Fwd: Maintenance on a boat

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: bruce warren <bruce@bct-consulting.ca>
Date: Thursday, 15 September 2016
Subject: Maintenance on a boat
To: Theresa Turner <turner_3@telus.net>


I am waiting on arrival of robin tomorrow sometime and Mike et al tomorrow night. 

This is a short summary of a not unusual event in the life of Tatoosh. 

I think I have done enough cleaning to pass the up coming inspection so I thought I would do a minor task. Richard has noted that the retainer ring on the cockpit compass was loose, so I thought I'd fix it. So here goes for what should be a 5 minute task. 

- find proper screw driver 

- discover that the screw hole has either been stripped or screws are wrong size 

- search spares on board

- walk up to marina store and get what may be right diameter but are too long

- use new screw to "tap" new thread into hole

- fetch Dremel told to cut screws to proper length 

- discover that Dremel is not working( was working in May!?)

- try to disassemble to trouble shoot the Dremel but I need a star type driver. The ones I have are too big of course . Now have new item for the ToDo list. 

- dig out hack saw and vice grips, crouch on dock and saw off 1/4" of screw without drawing any blood!

- re- assemble, put away tools

Total time: just over 1 hour. Result: 1 item off the list and one item added, progress??

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Leg2-last day

Slow morning with fresh pita bread and coffee for breakfast. With no wind in the offing we motored the one hour back to E dock, had ham and eggs for lunch and started to bung out the boat. 

It started to rain so we went to town to look for books and have an early dinner. 

Richard is off back to Calgary. 

Leg 3 starts when Robim, Mike, esther, Adrian and Anna get here end of next wel. 

That should give me enough time to get Tatoosh from clean enough for 2 guys to clean enough for 2 women!

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Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Leg 2- day 6

Arrived at Royal cove , north end of Portland island by motor- no wind to sail. We are stern tied and enjoying a well earned cup of tea as the sun comes out. 

Will go for a walk about later. 

Over and out

--

Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Leg 2-day5-6

Late update due to poor cel coverage. First the big news- learned that
Neil and Leah are having a boy! They had the big reveal using hidden
blue icing in cupcakes. We toasted with some ship's rum.

Yesterday we arrived at montigue and picked up a morning ball; Richard
at the helm. We had a great downwind sail from Sidney spit in winds
from 12-18 knots.

Today looks like mist/rain and little to no wind.

Mistakes

Yes, last post was a duplicate; and yes, it is day 5 not 4- yes I am tired!

View from galley port. 

Over and out and into our bunks. 

--

Regards,

 Bruce Warren  P. Eng

Day 4 crab update

We pulled the trap and had 3 crabs. I am claiming Victoria for the
bait holder I made ( from pvc piping). Prior to this I would tie the
bait cans in but the crabs would tear them apart and we would pull up
an empty trap with no bait.

There was a 4th crab, a big one hanging onto the outside of the trap
as pulled it up but he let go before he got in the boat- like any
good fishing story The Big One got away.

Leg2-day4-crabs

We are now 2 for 2 tries: I am claiming victory for the bait holder I
made. Before this I tied the cans inside the trap and the crabs would
just tear it open.

Bad news is we got 3 that were not keepers. There was a large one
hanging onto the outside of the trap when I pulled it up- but like any
good fishing story the Big One got away!

Leg2-day 5

We paid for our sailing day yesterday- zero wind today. Motored to
Sidney spit and anchored at about 2:39.

Put out the crab trap; strong current running - we had drifted about
10 boat lengths just getting trap ready. It took some effort to get
back to Tatoosh but all is well. We are just chilling until it is time
to eat, then once the tide has calmed down we will go and check for
crabs.

Over and out

Leg 2 - Day 4 - return to Canada

Simple update for today’s sailing: we left Port Townsend at 830, motored to mouth of the inlet, raised the sails , aimed directly for Oak Bay marina and then didn’t have to touch a thing. We put on the autopilot, tweaked it occasionally as wind was up and down from  16 to 8kts but in general, we had a straight-line, single tack to Oak Bay.As we crossed the US/Canada border, the sun came out, we dropped the stars & stripes and marveled at the lack of traffic in Juan de Fuca.

The customs check was painless, once I got a hold of an agent. Of some concern was that he didn’t seem to have access to Tatoosh’s boat registration numbers!.

We gave up on our quest for a Croissant ( now we have dough to make fresh pita bread, which we can pretend is a croissant) and I have given up my white tilly hat for lost! I only hope it is at lost and found back at Canoe Cove. I got that hat at a charity shop for $5, it fits well and I won’t be out $50 if it goes overboard ( or if I leave it at a shower!!!! Like Canoe cove???).

We took a bus to downtown Victoria’s inner harbour to wander the docks to look at the wooden boats in for the wooden boat festival. Lots of old, pretty boats, with MANY hours sunk into them!

Tomorrow’s plan will depend on the wind, as usual. We will make our way towards Portland or Otter Bay after getting some Canadian bought veg and fruit….

Port Townsend - missing photo's from last post!

Ooops, hit 'publish' before I uploaded the rest of the photos: here goes

Leg 2-Day 3- Port Townsend

Today we had breakfast ( omelette, hashbrowns and ham) before an on-shore coffee at a neat coffee shop that has a similar atmosphere to Weed’s in Calgary. Then we each went on our own voyage of discovery and met later in the day at Propolis brewery for a beer.

I added to my collection of quirky signs, the first two give a feel for the ‘vibe’ here. The third, at the entrance to the court house, confirms that we are not in Canada. [that was further confirmed when I saw a guy driving around in an old armoured jeep-like vehicle that had 3 large machine guns mounted on it and at least one had a magazine fed into it!]

I wandered around the upper residential area in the old town, and it is populated with old homes , most of them restored/kept up. The older downtown is mostly old, 19^th century built brick buildings. These were built in the hay day of Port Townsend. This was THE major port in the late 1800’s, 1000 or more sailing cargo ships would pull in here; ( easier to reach than having to sail down the sound to Seattle). The waterfront had one bar per 75 residents and almost as many bordellos: to extract as much cash from paid-off sailors! This shipping traffic coupled with the promise of the railway ignited the building boom. The double whammy of the cancellation of the railway and the introduction of steam, killed the boom and many buildings sat empty for a long time.

Now it is a busy hub for all things “wooden boat” and what appears to be a thriving art’s culture, along with tourism of course. The rest of the photo’s show the marina near the Maritime centre and examples of the town’s buildings.

Tonight was a vegetarian dinner to use up our veggies before crossing back to Canada tomorrow: tomato soup, salad, corn on the cob. Am going to make up a batch of pita bread dough tonight for bread for the next few days.

We expect to be away relatively early , heading for Oak Bay and the wooden boat show in Victoria.

Wind forecast is sketchy, may have morning wind but looks like it will fade away in the afternoon...which is the opposite of the last few days....fingers crossed!

Weather from now until Richard leaves looks to be cloudy at best and rainy at worst. Let’s hope we at least get some wind with it!