San Francisco

 

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

 We passed under the Golden Gate Bridge about 4 pm on Monday the 13th of Sept. You can't beat the view. GG Bridge, Alcatraz, Angle Island, San Francisco skyline all in one view. The lights last night were incredibly beautiful.

Our passage from Neah Bay took 6 days. We had good weather and managed to sail most of the way. We averaged 123 nmiles per day.

Nothing broke and all systems operated well. The interior of the boat is completely redecorated and the teak and holly floor has a nice sour dough starter finish. Fortunately I managed to save enough of the starter to grow a new batch. Cinbad the sailing cat spent most of the time in the cockpit and developed a fondness for sitting on the spinnaker bag. We managed to fly the spinnaker a few times and Cinbad was disappointed with its absence.


Approaching





Under the Golden Gate



We were both exhausted and not up to making things shipshape. As we lounged in the cockpit savoring our lunch of baked beans and summer sausage (thank you Debbie Morley) a friendly couple approached by dinghy. The lady introduced herself as a reporter for Latitude 38. We spent the next hour being interviewed. Don’t know which issue will have the article but I’ll post when I know. I wish I had had a bag handy to put over my head. I’m sure the photos won’t be flattering. (NOTE: the next day we discover she is the editor of Latitude 38.)






San Francisco Skyline



It's 70 deg and sunny - in San Francisco! Tomorrow we will dinghy around Richardson Bay and possibly visit West Marine. The nice lady from Latitude 38 offered to drive us to Safeway as well as suggesting that we tie our dinghy to their stern for easy access to shore. You meet the nicest people on the water.





Sucia to Port Angeles

We spent our first night out at Shallow Bay at Sucia. Never again! The sunset was great but it was the worst night I have ever spent on the water.

We rocked violently all night.

As we came into Shallow Bay I dropped our crab trap in 45' water just outside of the narrow entrance. It was a slack flood tide and would likely be good crabbing. The next morning as we were leaving the trap was no where to be found. We looked and looked and finally decided that we would have to leave without it.

A lot of people claim that their traps have been stolen; I'm not one of them. I figure that the current swept it down the ocean floor which quickly dropped to 130'. Now I've lost my entire crabbing rig for the SECOND time. Greg says that we aren't spending any more money on crab traps and I'm bummed.

After 10 hrs of very light wind we arrived at Port Angeles - 9 hr 40 min motoring and 20 min of sailing. There was a gale warning and we were rushing to reach Pt Angeles. The gale never arrived.

We had the unexpected pleasure of berthing next to the Hawaiian Chieftain and the Lady Washington. The captain of HC helped us with our lines as I came into the slip. Our top spreader was almost touching the end of one of their yardarms - a bit of a concern if that gale did come along during the night. His crew put their muscle to it and turned the yardarm to give us some clearance. The crew is a very nice bunch of young folks. I'm envious - they jump over 8 feet from the gunnel to the dock. When the HC was at the Blaine marina I watched one of the young women (it wouldn't be right to call her a girl) swing from the deck on a line and drop to the dock as the ship came into its slip. Tarzana of the Ocean.

Captain of the Hawaiian Chieftain

As we were approaching the Pt Angeles docks I grabbed my phone to see if I could rouse anyone at the Yacht Club. I never called. There was a new voice mail: "Hurt, I've got your trap! Call me." My heart jumped! I was thinking that I would have to ask all of my friends that visited Susia to keep an eye out for my trap but now I wouldn't have to.

A salmon fisherman off of Patos Island had snagged my trap line in 200 ft of water. The current had drug it all that way. He thought he had caught a nice salmon and instead hauled in my trap and broke his fishing pole. He was surprised when I told him where I had set it. I asked how much would it cost to repair his pole and he told me $800. I had been so happy to find my trap and now it looked like it was gone again. I offered my trap to him to cover part of his loss. Turned out he was just giving me a hard time. "A hundred bucks. But don't worry. This happens all the time but usually its commercial traps. Where are you?" Again surprise when I said Port Angeles. The good samaritan lives in Sandy Pt. Friends to the rescue and a win/win solution. Our friend Paul Beyer goes to Sandy Pt frequently and will retrive my trap for me and in exchange gets to use it until I return in 10 months or so. For now any crabbing that I do will be with my cheapie crab ring.

Ready or Not

Ready or not we are going tomorrow, Friday Sept. 3. Today has been frantic packing, transfering, stowing, securing and notarizing.

This new adventure motivated us to get our wills made and our medical directives. We mentioned this to our friends Kelvin and Patty and they commented that they needed to do the same. I told them that if they found a notary to come to the marina we could split the cost. A comedy of errors followed. We met them at the marina today and I asked where the notary was. "I thought you got one." "No, I thought you were." I replied. "Well you did it again Sonia. Now what?" Greg commented more or less. But unlike all the other times I've screwed things up, this time someone stepped right up to rescue me. Turns out the bookkeeper at Semiahmoo Marina, Sharon, is a notary and she was standing right there. Now if we visit Neptune real up close and personal-like, our estate will be nice and tidy.

I have managed to wedge every can and package of food away to Greg's satisfaction. The books are another matter. I took off all of the San Juan Islands books but brought on even more Mexico books.

We did manage to get some good crabs the other day. Paid for my crabbing license.

Greg mounted the abandon ship container on deck under the boom and managed to fill the bed with all the fiberglass shavings. Before falling on my side of the bed they floated down on Cinnamon's head, which he did not appreciate.

We are exhausted and we are going to bed. That's it. We can't deal with anything else.