Cruise of the Ketch Julia

[J.Madison]

Another great run today up the east side of Lummi and back across to Sucia. Flew the reefed main and mizzen with the staysail in a stiff breeze. Fun when going with it at 7 knots.





Been seeing quite a bit of this guy, which is always cool.



Topped up the water tanks for the first time. Looks like we've been using about 4 gallons per day for 3 people without being particularly careful. Could probably cut that in half if we stopped rinsing the dishes in fresh water. We've used 15 of our 70 gallons of diesel in 3 weeks, including two long days of motoring to get from Seattle to Friday Harbor in a flat calm. The old Perkins is more efficient than I thought.

[Mark0]

The plot thickens ! 4 months of boat work, have "moved out of apartments" , crew is tracking water and fuel usage, and will need to make a decision soon. From you other thread you have that nice piece of land just sitting their waiting for you that doesn't have buildings with maintenance needs. Sounds like an opportunity for a longer voyage. Don't let it slip by

Glad you are are having fun !
Mark

[StevenBauer]

Longer voyage? Love the sound of that. Thanks for the great pics.

[J.Madison]

The dream is alive!

After some strong winds and a few good shakedown "incidents" we've had a week of calms.

Matia Island is stunning, with old growth forest and dramatic shoreline. The anchorage only holds two boats.



Sunsets at the west end of fossil Bay are perfectly framed by the hills and very secluded even with the busy Sucia harbors nearby.

[cstevens]

That’s the view in my avatar. Lovely!

[WI-Tom]

What a great thread, and a great adventure. Thanks for posting.

Tom

[J.Madison]

Well the easy life in the San Juan's has been very nice, but we've put it astern and started westward toward the Pacific.

The first stop is Port Angeles. Anchored up close to town to tackle some projects in preparation for open water. Sewed new lee cloths, rigged up the reef lines for that very deep 3rd reef, and dug into some engine maintenance.

That is where things went a little wrong. After an oil change and rebuilding the raw water pump, I noticed that the engine water pump pulley was loose. Although still working, the bearings are totally shot. This is an old Perkins part, and one I don't have a spare of.

Once it was clear we would be here for a while, it was time to admit that the starter motor I had repaired didn't seem to have the torque it used to either. Replacing the solenoid and adding the house batteries to the starting bank didn't help. Dang Lucas motors unsoldering themselves... Better get one of those too.

So we're anchored up here, hoping the wind stays westerly until the mill is up and running again. I have considered warping into the dock for more protection, but will hold off unless the forecast deteriorates. Parts are on order, it is amazing what you can find online these days. The engine will be half new by the time we get going again.



The locals are squidding from the dock at night. I might give it a try while we wait.

[Hugh MacD]

There's always something, right?

[Mark0]

"started westward toward the Pacific"

Yessssssss ! So exciting to follow along.

[Larks]

Better to have the problems now than later. Where you are looks like a destination itself Johnathon, not a departure point, how nice to be leaving idyllic cruising grounds to find other idyllic cruising grounds.

[AJZimm]

When you do finally get things sorted and are able to head west for the big left turn, be prepared for a high likelihood of westerlies or calms, mixed with fog, as you head towards Cape Flattery. Three years ago when we did that about this time of year, it was dead flat calm all the way to Neah Bay, with serious fog for the last 10 miles or so. Still calm the next morning, too, when we motored out and headed south.

In any case, it's all good. You'll have a great time. Good luck!

[J.Madison]

Our trip down the Straight this far was in a perfect mirror calm. Saw our first whale of the summer, a solitary Minke. The orcas have been conspicuously absent this year. Since we've been in Port Angeles the pattern has been the typical calm foggy mornings and 25 kt+ westerlies in the afternoon. I think I will try to catch an ebb tide early in the morning and motor most of the way to Neah Bay in a calm. I prefer to sail but it seems like either it's strong wind and current directly on the nose, or the current is favorable but pushes up very steep short waves against the wind.

Fog doesn't scare me as much as it used to since we added GPS, ais, and radar. I kind of like it really, in short doses.

This whole area is an amazing cruising ground. I see boats from Southern California here who have bashed upwind for a thousand miles just to get here for a short season and I'm going the other way.

For me it's more about just sailing somewhere than it is the destination. I want to see what it is like to command my own boat on the open ocean. I want to experience multiple days on the same heading with nothing to do but work the boat, eat, and sleep.

Maybe we'll hate it, I guess we'll find out! It was more of a mental blow to be delayed by mechanical issues than it should have been because we had finally psyched ourselves up to really go for it only to be stopped at the last minute.

No matter, it's not winter yet...

[Hugh MacD]

Looking forward to your adventures! If you put in at Astoria drop me a PM should you need to run errands. I'm about an hour & a half upriver in St. Helens so no biggie.

[J.Madison]

Thanks Hugh.

We are back in action! It's been a bit of a drama involving one water pump that toured most of Europe before heading this way,, and a backup one that came from just down the road but had to spend some time at the machinist getting modified. In the end they were both ready at the same time so we have a newly installed pump and a spare too.

There is a great old machine shop here, that was very accommodating of my small rushed jobs.

Water tanks are full, fuel filters changed, new starter installed, lee cloths are ready, and a hundred other jobs done. It hasn't really been vanishing weather though.



Lots of interesting boats passing through here. That aluminum boat hails from Hamburg, the one next to it from Holland. Lots of tough looking ocean boats, the bloated white storm-trooper-looking motor yachts have all been left behind in the San Juan's.

We head for Neah Bay at first light. Unfortunately I don't think we can go ashore as the tribe is taking covid very seriously. Good for them, but I was hoping to see the museum there on the village buried by landslide before European contact.

It feels good to be be mobile again. Momentum is on our side!

[Hugh MacD]

YAHOO! Looks like you'll have a nice weather window coming south. Safe trip!

[The Jeff]

Good luck! I'm enjoying your updates.

[J.Madison]

Made it to Neah Bay. This place is dramatic! Fog and winds over dense forest, big swell, sea stacks, and the knowledge that the northwestern-most point of the continental US is right there. It feels like we have come to the edge of the known world, sitting at the top of a big cliff.

The passage here was mostly in the fog, the AIS came in handy. Kind of cool to be hailed by huge ships by name. I hope I didn't make them too nervous tacking along the edge of the traffic lanes.

[Hugh MacD]

Hope you guys have a clear day for rounding Tatoosh...it's an amazing island!

[jpatrick]

Made it to Neah Bay. This place is dramatic! Fog and winds over dense forest, big swell, sea stacks, and the knowledge that the northwestern-most point of the lower 48 states is right there. It feels like we have come to the edge of the known world, sitting at the top of a big cliff.

The passage here was mostly in the fog, the AIS came in handy. Kind of cool to be hailed by huge ships by name. I hope I didn't make them too nervous tacking along the edge of the traffic lanes.

Fixed that for ya, Jim. Having lived in Alaska for way too long I still take a bit of umbrage when the state is voted off the continent.

Jeff

[cstevens]

Fixed that for ya, Jim. Having lived in Alaska for way too long I still take a bit of umbrage when the state is voted off the continent.

Jeff

LOL. I always feel funny referring to our region as the "Pacific Northwest". Pacific, maybe. But it's not the "north" to anyone in Canada or Alaska. Salish region seems more appropriate and more accurate to me now. (Not to mention that cruising around a bunch of places named after Spanish and British guys seems presumptuous at best, but that's another subject entirely). With apologies for the thread drift.

[J.Madison]

Fixed that for ya, Jim. Having lived in Alaska for way too long I still take a bit of umbrage when the state is voted off the continent.

Jeff

Fair enough! Though next the Hawaiians will chime in to remind us that they are lower than all 48 of the lower 48.

Then somebody from Australia will point out that our map is upside down anyway.

It's Jon by the way.

[jpatrick]

It's Jon by the way.

Oops. Sorry I got your name wrong. I would have bet money I'd read the other someplace here. This is why I don't bet much!.

No more thread drift here. I love your boat and am envious as all get out of your trip. Enjoy the journey and each other as it all progresses. Take care.

Jeff

[J.Madison]

We made it to Newport! That is about 240 miles down the West Coast, near the middle of the Oregon shore. We had a good first passage, with a little bit of everything. The calm weather we waited for was a bit too calm at first, we rounded Tatoosh Island into the open ocean and set sail but were slowly getting sucked back into the straights on the tidal current. So the motor came back on and we slatted and banged our way into the evening in a leftover swell with no wind.

As we were leaving the straight of Juan de Fuca and entering the open ocean a pod of porpoises joined us! This is something I have heard of in tropical waters, but I had no idea that our cold water porpoises did it too! They zoomed in front of the boat and played in the bow wave. I think they were Dall's Porpoises. It was very special to us, we considered it a good omen to happen at the beginning of our voyage.

The wind filled in enough to keep the sails full about midnight, and things quieted down to a perfect downwind sail in 10-15 kt.



The wind increased throughout the second day, eventually hitting 20-25 kt for about 8 hours. We were thundering along at 8 kts under double reefed main and the big jib, overpowered really. The swell built up and would occasionally roll us gunnel to gunnel as we ran before it. I don't want to speculate as to the size, but we definitely felt like we were looking up at them from the cockpit. Not bad for the open ocean, but gave us an idea of what it can be like out there.

A second of pod of dolphins then joined us! These were different, I think they were Pacific White-sided Dolphins. They loved the big bow wave we were throwing. When we decided to hand the big jib, I went out on the bowsprit to gasket it down, and they were right under me, wondering what I was doing.

That settled us down to a more reasonable 6 kt. We passed about 13 miles off the Columbia River, and I think the confused seas were partly due to the outflow of the river, as there was an odd break happening on top of the swells at a different angle. Nobody got sick, but we didn't eat much food either....





The wind eased off in the middle of the second night, and we eventually found ourselves motor sailing in a very light headwind as we came in to Newport.

After trolling a very large tuna lure on the surface for a few days, we were surprised to catch a nice coho salmon. I thought the lure was way too big, and I didn't think they would bite at the surface at 6 kt either. I guess I was wrong.

We could not have had calmer conditions for crossing the bar, which was good as we missed the end of the flood tide by an hour. My brother and sister-in-law live in Newport and they got some photos of us coming in.

[StevenBauer]

Fantastic! Thanks for bringing us along.

[cstevens]

Congratulations on getting out of port and onto the first leg of your voyage! When you were stuck in Port Angeles with mechanical difficulties I was worried that you would be there for weeks and miss the window. Good to see Julia and crew heading south.

[WI-Tom]

Thanks for sharing your journey with us here--cool thread!

Tom

[Bobcat]

Thanks for taking us along. Newport is one of my favorite places on the Oregon coast. I've had purposes at the bow of the boat but I was never able to get pictures of them. Good for you photographing them

[Hugh MacD]

Awesome! Great photos! I love the dolphins off the coast here Enjoy Newport and if you gat a chance go hit Nana's Irish Pub across 101 in Nye Beach (if you're so inclined). On the south side of the Bay there, you can also check out the Hatfield Center and the Coast Aquarium. If you like hoppy beers Rogue has a variety. The food's "formula pub food" but it's within walking distance pf the transient docks.

[Buch32]

Just stumbled across this thread. Certainly signing up! It's through couples like yourselves we can follow and dream too.
Not to waste your time but would love to find out about the good ketch Julia. Apologies if I have missed it somewhere but would love to know her history.

[Mark0]

Hi Buch32,
You should check out the thread: http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...Served-Dyneema , it's a great read.
Cheers,
mark

[Buch32]

Thanks Mark, have just done so and just love it .The Ingrid is such a beautiful design. This is what I signed up for a number of years ago. My own resto has been slow and sometimes disheartening but reading posts like this sure boost the morale. My resto is "Restoring a 1965 Alan Buchanan32" if interested.
Dennis

[J.Madison]

We had a nice recharge in Newport. They have some seriously big trees in those hills.





The good photos from Kaylee Madison.


There was a brief weather window and we decided to jump on it. We headed out freshly showered and laundered, into a perfect 10-15 kt breeze and a diminishing swell for the 80 miles to Coos bay. That was all the distance we could make before the gales resumed.




Conditions were lovely. We had full sail up and the self steering was doing all the work.





In the middle of the night we came across something we have been missing, whales! Way too many, way too close as well. The moon was not bright so all we could hear was spouting and even some grunting as we disturbed their sleep. I saw a few big shapes in the dark, and a few spray plumes silhouetted. I slowed the boat as much as possible and tried to let them move on before continuing. At one point I heard spouts on both sides of the boat, close! THAT will jolt you awake, and maybe give you nightmares too.


We crossed the Coos bay bar in light wind and fog at first light. The wind filled back in with its usual 25 to 30 so we are happy to have made miles while the going was good. We'll be anchored bow and stern in the river for a few days waiting for the next chance to jump south.

It really amazes me to see the distance we've covered so far. Almost two entire states transited. We're really starting to look forward to warmer weather as we get farther south. I haven't really been warm since the San Juan's, and I can't seem to wear enough clothes on those long night watches.

[WI-Tom]

Very cool--thanks for posting the update. Not too many whales on the Great Lakes, so I'm a bit envious...

Tom

[Hugh MacD]

Indeed! Glad you got up for some hiking Some great trails and viewpoints down there. Thanks for sharing! Keep your eyes peeled for sea otters down along there. They'll be within 5 miles of the coast. If you see any these guys would appreciate a report: https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-es...index-eng.html We spotted one down around Arch Cape years ago, but that's the furthest south I've heard of them.

[Bruce Hooke]

Wonderful! Thank you for the reports.