Adventures of Sailing Vessel Merganser: Summer 2013: Cruise (2b)

Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Blakely Harbor, Brainbridge Island

We awoke to a nice and bright and glorious morning. Not sure if the Seattle-ites were still recovering from the evening before, but as we were not dancing around, we felt just chipper, thank you every much.

We wondered if we could make a long passage and see if we could find a place to anchor somewhere between Whidbey and Camano Islands. The red on the map roughly shows our day's run ... but that is getting ahead of the story.

First, we awoke, had coffee, breakfast and then enjoyed taking a look around the anchorage while listening to the NOAA weather report.

If you look very closely, you might notice something about this anchored boat. Do you notice the same things we did?

Do you see it?

Look at the water line ...

We think they anchored in water a little too shallow for them. Oops. It can happen to any of us.

We were underway by 10:00, motoring, then motor-sailing out of the harbor and taking in the sights as we went.

There are some huge houses - mini-mansions - in the neighborhood of this Harbor.

Here's Blakely Rock with the Blakely Statue on it, but the scratch on the lens almost obscures it.

The day alternated with almost no wind, to white-caps, to calms.

Here we have made the corner out of Puget Sound and into Possession Sound. We believe this is looking down toward Elliot Point - Mukilteo (to our south) while Whidbey is to our north.

We actually had some great wind right in here, only to loose it again ... such is sailing.

But as we came around the next corner the wind picked back up. In this picture you can see an edge of Whidbey Island and on across.

The next video is shot from just this location. Mukilteo has a ferry landing, as does Colombia Beach, Whidbey Island. Some of these fishing boats left Gig Harbor with us, powering up Colvos Passage just ahead of us. Rather than turning into Blakely Harbor, they continued on to fish in here. The smaller island you can see is Gedney Island, a private island, only open to those who live there. We are not sure if they work on the Island, or in Everett or Seattle or ??? And if they work off Island, where do they keep a car? Maybe Gedney is mainly "second" homes?

As the sun started to set, the wind picked up from the north and we looked for a place to anchor for the night. All of our planned anchorages were open to the north, as the wind was to be blowing from the south.

It was time to look at the chart once more to see if we could find a place to shelter for the night.

In the meantime, I. took some great sunset and sailing photos.

As the sun set, the moon rose to the east.

We ruled out Gedney Island.

Langley on Whidbey Island has a marina, but it was open to the north (from where the wind was blowing) and not knowing the marina/anchorage, we didn't feel comfortable heading that way - as it would likely be dark by the time we got there.

At the moment, we were safe. The sun hadn't set yet, and it looked to be a full moon with a clear sky. So, we decided to keep tacking along northward.

"Hey, what about this little cove off of Camano Island? Elger Bay. It looks like there would be a cliff to the north to offer protection, and shallow enough water to anchor in." We were in 44 - 64 fathom (264 - 384 feet) at the moment.

"Let's give it a go."
So as the sun set, we continued tacking up the west side of Camano Island, heading for Elger Bay.

The sun had set as we approached the little bay. We decided to send I. and M. to watch the depth sounder as we made our approach. They have used the depth sounder before, but this was their first time with E. up on deck with J. and L. Before, if they had a question, they just asked E. Now they were on their own.

We should mention that MERGANSER's depth sounder is an older model - one of those with the red LED light that flashes the depth and moves around in a circle. The operator can select to use feet or fathoms. 60 feet/fathoms shows as 0, 64 feet/fathoms as 4. This means that one has to be paying attention to which setting one is operating in (and often switch between them) or one can get confused.

J. didn't think about it when I. and M. went to start up the depth sounder, but we were passing over depths of 67, 65, 69 fathoms. On a foot setting, this would mean that the LED flashing light would have gone around many times. No wonder I. and M. were struggling to get it under control.

At last we thought everything was under control as we edged our way into the sandy shore under the bluff. We had dropped the sails, and were just under slow power. According to our chart, it appeared that we would go from 19 fathoms (114 feet) to 12 fathoms (72 feet) to 7 fathoms (42 feet). 7 fathoms is a little deeper than we like to anchor (it's a lot of cable out!) but it would work for the night. We kept drifting over to where it says 7 fathoms on the chart.

The girls called out "6" and J. pulled the variable prop controller to feather (neutral) and stepped out of the cockpit to drop the anchor. Before he reached the side deck, the girls yelled out "0!"

"What?" J. and L. both asked, incredulous.

J. looked over the side. Through the dark water he saw sand. "We're aground!" Quickly the prop pitch was placed in reverse - nothing ... "Let's get a dingy over the side." Over went PIPPI and she was loaded with the kedge anchor. But by this time, J. could see that there is a lot of bottom paint showing. MERGANSER wasn't going anywhere. L. checked the tide: 45 minutes to an hour until low tide. At least we didn't go aground at the height of the tide, we would have been stuck for sure!

J. rowed out the kedge anchor to await the tide. When he returned, J. decided he'll take anyone out for a row around MERGANSER to see what she looks like and to notice (on the real off chance) if there was any damage. The girls hopped in, and all three rowed around MERGANSER. She looked (and was) just fine. Then some of us climbed below to make sure we were not leaking any water through either sink, which we weren't.

After that, we all climbed upon the starboard side deck to wait.

It was at this point, that one of the fishing boats came in. There was a light flashed over onto us, then nothing. And there was a flash-light on shore near one of the cabins that flashed out to sea, but again nothing. There was nothing anyone could do, and we were fine. It was just a matter of being patient, so we hoped no one called the Coast Guard.

Then we heard a helicopter. No, two helicopters. "Oh, no," groaned J. "I hope no one called anyone," sighed L. But both helicopters flew over us and continued on to Whidbey Island. Then we remembered that Whidbey Island has a naval base. Whew.

After a while, the kids scrambled below and hit the sack. L. and J. waited, dozing off and on. There was really nothing to do but wait. The sea was flat calm and what wind there was, was gone.

We went aground at 2155, low tide was about 2230 and by 0005 we started to feel the tide raise us up. By 0105 we were almost up, and J. raised the stays'l and pulled in the slack on the kedge anchor. 0135 we were free and floating, J. pulled us out to our kedge anchor, while L. helmed. We decided to raise the main and sail on the zephyr coming into the bay out into deeper water. By 0250 we were anchored in 7 fathoms of water. Then J. and L. hit the sack, too.

L. awoke the next morning, about 0830, hearing the guys on the fishing boat talking:
"Hey, did you see that sailboat last night?"
"No, why?"
"It was totally over on her side."
"A tug pull 'em off? I sure didn't hear anything."

We kept a low profile until they left to go catch more fish.

Here's the scene of the crime:

We decided to spend the day just hanging out. We were too tired to make another run, and it again looked like northerly winds - although it was quite calm where we are.

The highlights of the day included:

A report from CBC saying that Oreo Doublestuffs Don't Add Up - where they should be 2, they are only 1.87. On hearing this, J. exclaimed, "I knew it!" much to his children's laughter.
M. pulled out a tooth.
I. made some more bread.
J. re-organized / re-rigged the stays'l blocks (swapped some from the main to see if it worked a bit better).
E. invented another game.
L. read some more of her book.
I. and M. spoke to a friend of theirs on the phone (what craziness was this!).
We finally had photographic proof that having a cat is not necessarily the best for tired dodgers (see below).