Our Sailing Weekend

Seal sunning himself on buoy

Yesterday we sailed on a long trip to nowhere. It was a glorious 8:30am start out on Possession Sound. The one essential item missing was the wind. We made it out to Gedney (Hat) Island at a very slow pace but we were enjoying the quiet morning. We were almost at the halfway point. We decided to start the motor since the wind was almost non-existent. My dear husband pulled the start cord of the motor and the cord didn’t retract back into the motor. We immediately turned around because the motor is needed to put the sailboat back in the marina slip. Well the trip back to the harbor was fast in comparison to the calm slow trip to Hat Island. When we motored the boat into the slip we were still optimistic. Mark was pretty sure he would be able to fix this easily.

A few hours later we were on our way again. We had made a side trip home to pick up a couple of books we wanted for the trip, a boat motor manual and a book about Washington state harbors. The wind had picked up but was coming from the north, northwest. Tacking most of the afternoon didn’t get us more than halfway again. We finally decided to turn around and come home. The wind direction wasn’t helping us go to Langley. I was very disappointed. I had my heart set on going to the Langley quilt shop.

I love sailing but thought we were going to sail to different places, not just in circles. Okay enough of my complaining. It wasn’t anyone’s fault and we are learning valuable lessons each time we sail. Lesson learned this sail – have a back-up plan in place. In a few weeks we are either going to go Langley or Kingston. Both have quilt shops, LOL. Maybe Mark shouldn’t put me in charge of planning our trips!  

July 23, 2010

On another note, we sailed with Mark’s cousin Dana and his wife Kathy on Friday night.  First we had a quick dinner and then sailed with Dana and Kathy Charles.  The weather was perfect and Dana took some great pictures of our sailboat from the Jetty Island dock.   Dana and Kathy are moving to Kirkland from Las Vegas next month.  It will be wonderful to have them living so close!  Now we will have two more relatives living close by.  My brother Joe lives in Tukwila.

 

Captain Mark

First Mate Jeanne

Jeanne and Kathy on Jetty Island

Dana

Mark and Jeanne   –    July 18, 2010

On Sunday, July 18th we sailed with my brother, Joe Hill, on Possession Sound.  Here are a few of the pictures Joe took.   The weather was perfect for sailing that day.  Just enough wind to make the boat heel but not too scary.  This is the day we ran aground.  It was lowtide and we got a bit too close to Jetty Island.  We were able to sail ourselves out of the shallow water without too much trouble.  Learned a valuable lesson that day.  Pay attention to the tides and follow the charts.  The green on the chart means a shallow depth!

Joe and Mark  –  July 18, 2010

Gedney (Hat) Island