Friday's Tale

Friday was a day of unabashed silliness, we left Kingston and headed north toward Port Townsend. We had a 2 knot current against us and so speed was not great however once we tweaked around with Ben (Our Cetec Benmar Autopilot) for a while he started working! At first not well which made our course rather a zigzag affair!

Once we rounded Pt No Point the wind came up a tiny bit and even though the current was still hard against us we decided to put up the sails. Attitudes sailed wonderfully! In such a light breeze it was marvelous to see the sails fill and Attitudes leaning over jus' treking along! Of course with current hard against and wind light and on our nose the game was up well before we called it. We spent several pleasant hours tacking back and forth gaining not 1 inch on our course but also not losing any. At one point I took heart as it seemed we started to make trees on Mount Olympus. On a particularly lovely stretch I called Sinan for help and stepped off into the dinghy - camera in hand. I took pictures of Attitudes seemingly sailing away and pictures of the Victoria Clipper passing. (I was quite sure she would swamp me.) Eventually I tired of normal pictures and attempted a bit of steering trying to run the dinghy out to the side more, something like water skiing. It only partially worked but was quite fun.

At this point I realized how foolish it was to hop off into a Dinghy in tow, leaving my computer mad slightly deaf husband on the mothership. I tried to grab the tow line and pull myself in but realized quickly that putting that much weight forward was quite exciting! I then rather hopefully tried a shout out but to no avail. Sinan was in the pilot house on his computer. Luckily I had brought along my iPhone! I quickly called hoping he would hear the ring.

Back on board we continued our lovely sail, dodging ships as we went back and forth across the shipping lanes. Eventually however, the time did occur to me and after several exciting unplanned tacks We hauled in the sails and the iron Genoa came on. At this point we were still well away from Port Townsend but look! Pt Ludlow is right there! Off we headed in a new direction. "Do we have a reservation?" "No!? Well okay pull into the back of the end pier."

After tidying the boat (only a bit). I sat down with all the spare rigging bits plus some I had bought for the purpose to rig the dinghy mainsheet. My first try was almost, but not quite, right. However the test sail was marvelous. Ghosted out of the Marina and then caught more wind to play dodge with incoming boaters. I did get quite wet - probably should've dried out dinghy first. We did that and added a cushion before pushing Sinan out to enjoy the very last bit of wind that evening. I then made the final change to the mainsheet blocks and hopped in to try her. Oops I did say the last bit of wind right.... I made it about 10 feet and sculled back.