Chasing Salty Lady

by Chuck July 23, 2002

Dana's sister Shelley told us she and the boys would be going out on Salty Lady with Ron and Sue to do some salmon fishing off Possession Head, and invited us to meet up with them so she could see our boat sailing. We agreed, and so we put the sailboat in the water about 2:00 p.m. Ron said he would be out until around 3:00 p.m., so we figured we'd meet them somewhere past Mukilteo.

We headed down the river and out into the Sound, then hoisted sails and tried to sail south toward Mukilteo. The water was quite rough, and we had quite a bit of trouble making headway. The wind was fitful, and when it died down the waves would pound us to a halt. Eventually, we started the motor and motor-sailed out to the middle of the sound where we picked up the wind.

Once we had some wind, we headed south on a broad reach. We made good progress, and even sailed quickly through the ferry lanes, a place where we usually lose the wind. Today though the wind held until we were about half way down the pass between Mukilteo and Whidbey Island, then died out. We decided to turn and head back toward Everett, motoring for a while then sailing whenever the wind came up.

The whole time we've been looking around for Salty Lady, but there's no sign of her. Katie was playing with the FRS radio, and said she thought she heard something, but we couldn't make anything out. Turns out Ron was trying to hail us, they were bottom fishing in the lee of Gedney (Hat) Island due west of Everett. Thanks to our blue genoa, they could see us, but Ron claims he couldn't catch us in the chop. I don't think he was trying too hard, since he has a 26-foot Tollycraft.

We tacked our way back up to the ferry lane, then turned on the motor and motor-sailed through the ferry lane and back to the mouth of the river. When we got into the calm water in the lee of Jetty Island, we turned off the motor and sailed under main alone back to the boat launch.

Dana was at the helm when we started into the docks, and I'm afraid I got a little short with her when she headed for a launching dock when we needed to be at a removal dock. It probably wouldn't have made any difference, but she just handed me the tiller and said "You do it." So I did. We turned, went back out of the docks, then turned and sailed under bare poles back to the removal dock. I turned the motor off in the calm area inside the boat launch docs and sailed her right up to the dock, then stepped out and made her fast. Ron was waiting for us, and helped us get the boat out of the water and on to the trailer.

We dropped the mast, tied the boat down, and headed back to Monroe. It was a rough trip, but the first time we'd tried to go somewhere and used sails and motor as needed to get there.

Tags:

Sailing

Sailing around Hat Island

by Chuck July 19, 2002

We managed to get all the way around Hat Island on this sail.

This is another entry where the original just says "More soon..." I never got around to writing any more, and don't really recall all that much about the day.

I do remember cutting through the water across toward the tip of Hat Island. And another sailboat over hauling us and then sailing away as we rounded the north tip of the island. The wind seemed to die as we got on the west side of the island and we had to motor for a while, then it came up again as we got to the south end of the island.

I think this is the trip where I managed to get Odyssey sailing wing-and-wing, but that could have been another trip.

I do know it was a good day on the water. Most are.

Tags:

Sailing

Finally we get to sail

by Chuck July 12, 2002

We motored out to the flats west of Jetty Island to meet Salty Lady. Ron and Sue were doing some crabbing, and had anchored up in the shallows for the day.

When we go there we motored in close to exchange hellos, and to see how the crabbing was going. After we said "hi" we headed off to set the sails. Ron took so pictures as we hoisted and set off for Hat Island.

I'd spend more time telling you about our day, but it would save us both time if you just took a look at my Possesion Sound sailing story. It's even got pictures.

Tags:

Sailing

Bobbing about

by Chuck June 14, 2002

Our second trip out on Odyssey wasn't as successful as the first, mostly because the weather gods weren't cooperating. Oh, it was a fabulous day out on the water, sunny, warm, blue skies. But there was one thing missing...

Wind.

We spent an hour going about half a mile. There was just enough wind to keep the sails full, but not enough for us to go anywere. Dana was pretty frustrated, but it was nice to be out on the water.

Tags:

Sailing

Maiden Sail

by Chuck May 31, 2002

After a couple of months of preparation, we were finally ready to Odyssey in the water and give this sailing thing a try.

My old version of this log says "more soon" but I honestly can't remember much about our first day out on Odyssey. Seems like I should remember more, but other than hoisting the main sail and then the genoa I can't picture much about that day.

That's probably a good thing, actually. Our first day sailing wasn't the fiasco it could've been.

Tags:

Sailing

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