The weather forecast for Monday included small craft warnings in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, conditions under which we’d not be willing to cross, so we set our watches for 5:30 a.m. to get an early start, hoping to get across before the wind came up. We crept out of Roche Harbor at 6:50, headed east to the far side of Lopez Island, then stuck our nose into the Strait to check on conditions. There were lots of clouds and high fog, but visibility was good at sea level, wind was light (8-10 knots at Smith Island, lower near the edges of the Strait), so we bypassed Deception Pass and headed into the Strait. The conditions varied during the 90 minutes it took to make the crossing, but never exceeded light-ish winds and 2-3 foot seas, about the limit of our comfort, so we did just fine.
Our youngest daughter Adrienne spent the summer working at an internship in Paraguay, and she arrived in Seattle over the weekend. We were scheduled to pick her up at the dock at Bell Harbor in downtown Seattle on our return trip, so we remained in touch via text message throughout the morning. She arrived downtown via bus, and we by boat, very shortly after noon, so the schedule worked well for our meeting. It’s great to see her again, and we had an uneventful trip back to the Narrows Marina where we’re currently keeping the boat. We celebrated the end of our trip and her return home by enjoying dinner on the deck at the Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor, one of our favorite casual eating spots.
We learned a lot on this boat trip and have a list of things to add to the supply list for future trips, as well as some modifications to make on the boat, but it was both useful and loads of fun, and we look forward to doing another trip like it next summer, hopefully making it into Desolation Sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment