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From Chris Bennett with comments from Jamie Orr
We began our voyage on the
evening of Thursday Sept 4, planning to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca from
Victoria to Port Townsend that evening.
However the marine forecast advised of a small craft warning. Being in no mood for an uncomfortable
wet trip, we retired to a nearby Chinese restaurant before sailing to nearby
Chatham Island. We dropped the hook
in 2 fathoms, set up the boom tent, and turned in for an early night. John Ewing took the cabin and Jamie Orr
and I slept under the boom tent.
Jamie’s boat, a Chebacco 20, named ‘Wayward Lass’ has cockpit floorboards
that can be raised to create a comfortable sleeping platform and we spent the
night under the stars listening to the wind blowing off the
strait.
I’m still not clear on just
why we chose to spend a night at anchor when we could have been in our warm
beds, but have to admit it allowed an early start on Friday. The anchorage is a beautiful little
cove, with good shelter, and I plan to visit it again sometime soon, this time
with the family.
The next morning we sailed for
Port Townsend. Fog, strong
currents, and occasional tidal rips kept things interesting and we were glad to
have a hand-held GPS to assist with navigation. The main hazard in a fog-bound strait
crossing is ship traffic so we flew a radar deflector from the main flag halyard
and kept a close watch for ‘rivets in the fog’.
This was the foggiest trip
out of the four I’ve made to Port Townsend. Going over, at least it was clear when
we started, but coming back we found ourselves in fog almost immediately. We carried on, which highlights the
dangers of deadlines and steady jobs.
This wasn’t a very good decision – there was no danger of getting lost,
but there are several big ship lanes in the strait, not to mention tug and barge
traffic, which I like even less.
After a few hours, the sun
appeared and the wind died away so we motored until just off the entrance to
Puget Sound where the wind began to pick up. We hoisted sail and turned the corner to
Port Townsend. In the distance gaff
rigged cutters, tall ships and graceful sloops criss-crossed the entrance to the
port and we had a glorious sail amongst this fleet of classic wooden boats. We landed at the town marina fuel jetty
and after clearing customs relaxed with a beer in the cockpit. Jamie’s friend
John Kohnen joined us after securing his Jordan skiff Pickle (you may have run
across John’s amazing nautical web site – ‘The Mother of All Maritime
Links’). The evening was spent
sampling local brew and blues music at the Port Townsend Brewery and enjoying
fish and chips at a nearby “classic” eatery, before turning in for the night at
our marina berth.
I don’t know how I’d survive
Port Townsend without fish and chips at Sea-J’s. They’re right by the Boat Haven, and
always seem to be open when I’m hungry.
Saturday dawned cloudy and
threatening rain, but we soon forgot the weather in the excitement of attending
one of North America’s best wooden boat shows. (Second only to the Depoe Bay Wooden
Boat Show and Crab Feed!)
While Jamie and John met with
some of their friends from Oregon and Washington, I visited the boats and
listened to some of the speakers at the show. There were more than a hundred boats on
display ranging from strip built kayaks and sailing cruising canoes through
stout cutters such as the Pardey’s Taleisin to substantial sail training
vessels. I admit to a bias toward
the smaller boats, but despite this, there was much to keep me occupied. Sam
Devlin (a boat designer and builder in nearby Olympia) had a number of boats on
display including a newly designed 19 foot stitch and glue catboat – The Wompus
Cat. I chatted with one of Devlin’s
boat builders who has built the Devlin Egret for his personal use. This is a 15 foot rowing/sailing skiff
that looks like a slightly beamy dory.
It was the first boat that I built and I found it interesting to compare
notes on the conversions he had made to improve her sailing and cruising
capabilities. John Guzzwell’s Dolly
was there, although her new owners, a Japanese couple, seemed a little
embarrassed by all the attention.
Dolly is based on Guzzwell’s Trekka, a 21 foot Laurent Giles design that
Guzzwell sailed alone around the world in the 1950’s. Other boats of note included a beautiful
Fox Island 22 designed by Joel white, two Lyle Hess cutters (sister ships to Lin
and Larry Pardey’s famous Seraffyn), Carol Hasse’s beautifully maintained Nordic
folkboat, and a gold-plater version of Ian Oughtred’s MacGregor sailing
canoe.
The show’s speakers were equally
interesting and I attended talks on cruising in small open boats, sail making,
and rigging. Carol Hasse, based out
of Port Townsend, was one of the founders of the festival more than 25 years ago
and has built a reputation for crafting the world’s finest cruising sails. After listening to her detailed
explanation of the differences between typical sails and those built for
extended cruising, I came away with an increased appreciation of the art of the
sail maker. From the presentation
by rigger Brion Toss, I learned that you should not increase the size of your
standing rigging in order to make your boat ‘stronger’. Doing so simply increases the strain on
the boat because you need to use higher tension to correctly tune the thicker
wire. From the small boat cruising
talk, I learned that one should pay attention to the contour lines on a
chart. In areas subject to tidal
currents (such as the strait we had just crossed), closely-spaced contours
indicate steep underwater slopes that can cause lumpy seas and tidal rips. On our return trip, we were to see this
in practice as we crossed several of these areas, nearing Victoria. In the afternoon Jamie and the two Johns
went for a sail in Wayward Lass to get a close up view of the schooner
races. We met for supper and then
wandered back to the festival where we took another turn around the displayed
yachts before turning in.
It’s always fun to sail at Port Townsend, but the high
point of my (and Wayward Lass’) day was passing Bryony, a 45 foot cutter – I
must admit though, that she had a reef in her main, and as soon as she shook
that out, she was gone! Watching
the schooner race we stayed out of the way of the racers, but saw some (I think)
non-competing schooners from very close as they overtook us -- the Lynx, a
replica 1812 Privateer (a topsail schooner of maybe 100 feet) went by to
windward only a few feet away.
Barlovento won the schooner race by so much, that I think they should
offer another first prize for the “First Finisher after
Barlovento”!
That night, Jamie’s new tarp was
put to the test as rain and wind battered our shelter. The weather forecasts were misleading on
the eve of our final day, predicting much stronger winds than actually
occurred. We put off our planned 4
am departure based on these forecasts, but decided around 8 am that it would
make sense to catch the remainder of a favorable tide. We departed under motor and the return
crossing was uneventful, with conditions mild enough to permit a brew-up in the
cockpit. We enjoyed a cup of tea as
we motored with favorable currents for the first couple of hours. The remainder of the crossing was
against a 1-2 knot current and the wind rose enough after lunch to give us a
gentle sail into Oak Bay Marina. Jamie cleared us through customs and retrieved
the tow vehicle. We were home by
supper, tired, but content after a weekend fully immersed in sailing and wooden
boats.
Juan de Fuca Strait is a big
place, and the forecasts are usually pretty accurate, but they missed by a mile
on Saturday night. However, we did
get some rain squalls in the marina that wet the bottom of our sleeping
bags. The rear of the shelter is
wide open, which is fine at anchor, but in the marina, we can’t swing to face
the wind. Luckily, most of the rain
came in on Chris’ side!
Overall, it was another
thoroughly enjoyable weekend at another Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. See you next year! (If the weather gods
smile!)