For an afternoon, an evening, a day, a weekend, or a 10 day adventure. Let's go!
Sometimes I think I pester the same few people to go sailing over and over and they get tired of it. I also suspect there are many days when you are thinking "It sure is a nice day today, it would be great to get out on the water but Pat is probably busy already". I'm attempting to expand the pool of interested parties and give you a chance to affirm that you are interested in sailing, and what types of adventures you desire.
Aeolus is a 1984 Wauquiez Pretorien, a 35 foot sloop rigged fiberglass sailboat. Wauquiez is a well-respected boat builder known for "over-building" skookum boats capable of sailing anywhere in the world. I take the family to remote destinations throughout the Salish Sea where safety is the top priority. With safety in mind I intentionally sought out a boat capable of far more than I would ever call on it to perform. I keep things up. The boat is in great condition for a 30+ year old vessel.
Aeolus has a stove and oven, fridge, head (bathroom), and sleeps up to five comfortably. The cockpit seats six, and on a fair weather daysail we can get 10 to 12 on board considering seating on deck.
The weather dominates life on the boat. We won't go out if it is blowing more than 25 knots, and anything 10 knots or more we need to consider everyone's comfort level with the conditions. If it's blowing 10 knots or more I will think twice about seating passengers on deck.
You can check current wind conditions at West Point and the Ferries.
Please wear non-marking soles. If they have soles with anything even close to vibram or other black or dark rubbery soles, I am going to look askance at them. Black marks on fiberglass gel coat can be challenging to remove.
Daysails can go from 2 to 4 or 5 hours. Bring some snacks and beverages. Dress for the weather, but realize it is usually 10 degrees cooler on the water.
We can go around Magnolia into Elliot Bay given 3 hours or more. Otherwise we can just do a big lazy circle in front of Shilshole, taking in some combination of the Highlands / Carkeek Park, Bainbridge Island, and West Point.
We can also do an all-day trip to Kingston and anchor off my parent's beach house and enjoy a day on the beach. It is about 80 minutes to motor straight there, or anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours or so to sail it.
Bring some snacks and beverages, Nothing elaborate. Stuff that is easily managed in your lap. If we want to make a meal we might just drop the anchor somewhere to chill while we eat.
Nice places for quick overnights are Poulsbo (approx. 2.5 hours en route), Port Townsend (6 - 7 hours), Blake Island State Park (2 hours, could make for good camping too), or anchoring in Port Madison (1 hour). Tacoma and Gig Harbor are also options.
Bring your usual sleepover stuff. 2 can sleep up in the bow in the private v berth. There is a short pilot's berth on the port side of the cabin, and a double berth that converts on the starboard side and is usually claimed by a single tall person. I sleep in the small aft cabin. Hardy crew have been known to sleep on deck or in the cockpit. Sleeping ashore at a B&B, hotel, or in a tent or hammock are also viable options depending on the location.
We can cook full meals on board. The oven doesn't really do specific temperatures, and the grill is a bit of a lost cause if the wind is blowing, but otherwise you can pull of pretty much anything you might cook at home. Enjoying a great meal at anchor is a pleasure. Of course when we are tied up at a dock we can avail ourselves of any shoreside dining opportunities. Let me tell you about the ciopinno I had in Poulsbo!
Summer sailboat cruising on the Salish Sea is what it is all about. It is a wonderful and unique way to enjoy the natural beauty and environment in which we are very blessed to reside.
We do an annual family cruise in August. Often we will seek an arrangement with friends and family for help splitting up the lengthy part of the journey where we are just getting to or from the cruising grounds. These trips always involve strait crossings, and the weather is going to be what it is, so you have to have a bit of an adventurous mindset and/or have a flexible schedule to wait for favorable conditions. Safety is always the first priority.
Possible car-friendly crew-change locations are Anacortes and Vancouver BC. You would drive your car or our car to the destination and the family would drive it back to Seattle where it will be waiting for your return.
We've also done exchanges in the San Juan Islands where you can use the no wait walk-on ferry option, and you can get pretty much anywhere by Kenmore Air. There is ample parking for a reasonble cost right at the Anacortes ferry dock. We've also done crew changes in Montague Harbor, Bedwell Harbor, and Gorge Harbor using Kenmore Air.
I'm pretty open to itinerary planning for these delivery cruises. Of course there are constraints of speed, tide, safe harbors, etc, and we do need to cover the miles to our destination, so count on a few longer passagemaking days of 8 - 13 hours underway. I'm just happy to have someone along to enjoy the trip with me. Obviously there is a lot more to it than what I've described here. If you are a friend, family member, or former co-worker interested in ever taking me up on this opportunity please get in touch to discuss questions and more details.
We've blocked August off for boat time and would love your help in making it happen. Nothing is set in stone and all options are open, so feel free to make a suggestion that is a variation on this theme, or something completely different. I set it out as a pro forma plan for your consideration in the absence of any others. I could be almost as happy spending a few weeks around the San Juan and Gulf Islands, heading out to sea and Barkley Sound, or even going to the south sound. July is also an option, depending on the week.
If I could design the ideal summer cruise for 2016 and get the requisite delivery crews to help, it would go something like this:
SEGMENT A: ~7 day delivery cruise to Vancoucer BC Shorter is more long transit days, longer would give some room for multi-day stops. Here's just about the shortest version of this segment: Pt Townsend, Sidney, Nanaimo, Vancouver. Kim and Cathy drive up to Vancouver in our car, you get off and drive home. We usually stay at the historic Vancouver Rowing Club where Sloop Tavern Yacht Club members enjoy reciprocal moorage privileges.
~7 day family cruise from Vancouver to Princess Louisa Inlet
SEGMENT B: Crew flies in to Princess Louisa on Kenmore Air ($314/pp), family flies out. We can do a longer cruise (10 - 12 days?) all the way back to Seattle, or a shorter one just to Vancouver or some other point in between where we do another crew swap.
SEGMENT C (optional): Break up the return...somebody does Princess Louisa to Vancouver or even Anacortes/San Juans, someone else does the rest of the trip back to Shilshole.
Getting down to brass tacks of calendar scheduling, Segment A could be about Aug 1 - 7-ish, Segment B around Aug 15 to 24, or it can be shorter or split into the optional Segment C. Or other combinations. Once somebody commits to something specific the dates will start to get firm.
What's the typical summer cruise day like? Usually we are going somewhere. Multi-day stops are great if we have the time, but if we are going somewhere, I like to get up and go in the morning. It is nice to arrive at a destination around the usual "check out" time for buoys and docks of noon or so, and snag an open spot before the late risers arrive. And water is smoothest early in the morning which makes for better strait crossings. We sail when it profits us to do so or if we are not in a hurry, but this means we tend to do a fair amount of motoring when we are trying to get somewhere and cover miles. If we are end up at a park or undeveloped site, we spend the afternoon hiking, exploring, kayaking, or just reading on a beach. Hardy souls can swim from the boat and enjoy a solar shower. It can be nice to spend the time making a great meal for dinner, followed by a movie, stargazing with no city light pollution, or playing with the phosphorescent sea life. If at a marina, we enjoy the restaurants and town and take care of things like showering, laundry, groceries, water, and fuel.
I'm open to going with a crew of one or two guys, a couple, two couples or even a family or daddy/daughter duo. I can probably get Cathy to come along if a like-aged girl is joining us.
Other creative ideas? Many of the destinations we might visit offer on shore camping as an option, and we can also meet the shore-bound at resorts such as Rosario, Alderbrook, Fisherman's Resort at Pender Harbor, etc. Crashing the Foss family gathering at The Islander on Lopez is always a good time too. And it is a looong ways but visiting Bill Elkey at his family place at Pierre's Bay is another possibility. After reading this, one friend summarized it as "if you tell Pat James to meet you with his boat in Nome, he'll be there" which is a fairly hyperbolic way of saying there are a lot of options and flexibility at this point of planning the summer cruise. As soon as folks start committing to one piece or another of "the plan" the possibilities and flexibility rapidly collapse into a fairly firm set of locations and dates, so get your say in while the getting is good.