With the house prepared for its listing, we finally got away from endless chores and took some leisure time. Our plans weren’t well formed, we would at least go up to Port Towsend to meet friends. I thought maybe we would head further North to the San Juans, but only if our solar panels were working. It has been so cold, we need lots of power to run electric heaters.

We had spent the prior weeks hopping between marinas at S3 Maritime, where are solar arch was install, then to Fisherman’s Terminal and finally to a friend’s slip in Shilshole. We finally felt ready to get away for a quick excursion before coming back to Seattle to review offers on the house.

Easy sailing

The weather forecast said very light winds coming at us, with a large ebb all day. I expected we’d motor the whole way with about a 4 hour travel time. We made a quick stop at the pump-out station in Shileshole, then to the gas dock to fill the dinghy and top off Spice’s tanks. We finally headed out around 11 am. There were reports of orcas just North of Shilshole, so we were running slow and were on orca watch. Alas, we saw no orcas.

After a couple hours of motoring, we were around Point No Point and the wind was filling in. It was still out of the North, so it would mean up wind sailing, but there was 7 to 10 knots, which was enough to sail. We motored a little closer to Marrowstone island, then set sails. We were making 5 to 6 knots of boat speed, so I killed the engines.

It is a great feeling when the engines shutdown on a sailboat. The engines aren’t particularly loud, you don’t really notice the when they are running. You do notice when sound goes away, when you are left with the sound of water on the hulls and wind in the sails. It always feels like a big exhale that releases all the tension in your body. Everything feels right and good.

After a few tacks, we turned around Marrowstone Point. The water was flat and calm and cloud breaks let enough sun through to give us a great view of Port Townsend.

We were headed for Boat Haven Marina. They assigned us a slip in the designated multi-hull area. As we approached we saw a catamaran and a fishing boat wedged in the corner were were destined for. It didn’t look like there was enough room to squeeze in. As we got closer, it looked like there was just enough room, but we’d need to back in to have proper control. That meant Sarah had to flop all of the fenders and lines to the other side of the boat. I hovered best as I could in the breeze while the fisherman and other dockside people wondered what the heck we were doing.

We arrived on a Friday around 3:30 pm, Steve and Andrea met us at the boat for wine and guacamole. Then we drove a short way to have dinner at a secret restaurant, overlooking the beach.

Secret restaruant beach

The next morning, Steve drove down to fetch us. We grabbed pizza dough from a local bakery, Pan d’More, which also had delicious scrumpets. That evening we planned to make homemade pizzas with another couple at Steve and Andrea’s house.

We spent Saturday catching up on all of the improvements Steve and Andrea had made to their property, including the addition of a detached workout room, loft and sauna. We also inspected their recently refurbished outdoor hot tub. Steve and Andrea had built out a large stone patio creating a great outdoor space between the “Spa” areas and the house.

Horses, archery and pizza

We occupied the rest of the day with a bit of archery practice. Steve setup an archery range out on a field on his property. We grabbed a couple bales of hay from the horse barn for the target. Fetching the bales provided Lillie an opportunity to meet a horse for the first time. Lillie was quite excited about meeting a horse. When we arrived, the horse was much larger than Lillie expected and she didn’t like it when the horse sniffed her. Overall, she enjoyed seeing horses, but she said she’d prefer smaller ones next time.

With the hay bales secured, we returned to the archery range. Steve stepped out a 10m, 20m, and 50m range line. Then we spent an hour or so shooting arrows into targets. Cricket, Steve and Andrea’s dog, was totally enamored with the arrows. She would sit by while we shot, then her job was to track down any arrows that overshot the bales. If there were no overshots, Cricket would go straight to the target and point at the arrows. Both Sarah and I did pretty well, there were just a few shots that missed the bales entirely, and with pretty good groupings around or in the target.

That evening, David, Venessa and Baby G joined us for dinner. David brought over his 1000° Ooni pizza oven, and we whipped up one pie after another. Making good pizza is not easy, but I thought all of the Pizza we made that night were pretty spectacular. After eating way too much pizza, Steve delivered us back to our boat.

Before

After

Sunday ride

The next morning, Steve, Mike (another Port Townsend local) and I planned a morning bike ride. This was my first bike ride in more than three years. I was little worried about whether I could keep up. I got out on my bike 30 minutes ahead of our planned meet up time to warm up my legs.

When we finally got on the road, we all agreed to take it easy. For the most part we did. We rode three-wide along a packed dirt trail chatting for the first part of the ride. Steve was riding his brand new bespoke titanium gravel bike, while Mike and I were sporting the skinny tire road bikes. Mike and I had matching Mavic Kryserium SL wheels, very sporting kit around ten years ago.

I was pretty cautious riding skinny tires on the trial, so cautious I almost crashed. At one point we were on a slight downhill approaching a street crossing marked by bollards in the trail. I approached the bollards, worried that my tires would slide out from under me. I wasn’t well aligned to go past the bollards and if it wasn’t for a last minute and very awkward hip-juke, I would have clipped the bollard and crashed hard. I wasn’t feeling the bike balance and strength I once had. Still, I was having an amazing time.

Later in the ride, we formed a pace line. I grabbed the front of the line to punch a hole in the wind and we cranked along. We did this without any verbal communication, the line formed and we ratcheted up the speed a skosh. I noticed the constant buzz of skinny tires rolling over asphalt mixed with a constant and subtle clinking of bike chains over sprockets. The sounds were even and constant because the cycling of all riders was smooth and constant. I could easily hear the other riders, because one was just 12 inches behind my rear wheel, and the other 12 inches off of the second rider’s rear wheel. I noticed I was smiling ear to ear. I missed riding.

Break to repair a flat

Later in the ride, Mike broke out of the pace line and passed me cranking hard and out of the saddle to pass me on a slight incline. I stood and cranked to keep pace. We crested a hill, and Mike went into a tuck. I followed suit and we hit 44 mph on a long descent. It was exhilarating. I was feeling a burn in my legs, and the smile was still on my face.

Lillie was unhappy to miss out on the big bike ride with Steve. I promised her that I would ride with her when I got back, but that wasn’t good enough. Lillie wanted to ride with Steve. So when we returned to Spice, Steve and I rode down the dock to get Lillie and her bike for our second ride of the day. Lillie was enthusiastic about the ride. Steve joined us for a ride the length of Boat Haven Marina, then Lillie and I continued into downtown Port Townsend for some lunch. During the ride, Lillie was sometimes nervous to ride in the street and through intersections. I would look back to see her little brow furrowed in concentration and maybe a little fear. Lillie did very well, her biking skills are impressive.

Father daughter ride

Family day in Port Townsend

Monday morning was family day in Port Townsend. We had plans to go back to Steve and Andrea’s for Steve’s famous salmon dinner, but the morning and afternoon was just us. Despite rain in the forecast, we set out for a walk to downtown Port Townsend to browse some shops and stroll around. Lillie opted to bring her bicycle. Lillie was on track to log nearly 10 miles of riding over the weekend.

We split up with Sarah going into a mercantile to look for steel mixing bowls, while Lillie and I rode further into town. We came across a playground by the beach, and Lillie just had to stop. She played while I reread Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson. We started to get hungry, so I tracked down a coffee shop for some lunch.

When I got back, Sarah pointed out dark gray clouds dumping their grayness onto the ground. The clouds looked like they were over the top of Boat Haven Marina, I felt the breeze and was sure that it would blow the clouds away from us. Sarah was sure that the darkness was headed our way. A few minutes later, it was clear that Sarah was right.

We packed away lunch as quick as we could, and started back toward Boat Haven. Not much later, the rain started to downpour. None of us had rain gear, and we all got soaked, dripping wet cold water soaked. Initially, Lillie seemed fine. She isn’t usually bothered by cold. About a 1/4 mile from our boat, the cold and wet got to her. She didn’t want to ride anymore, her hands were too cold. She was crying.

I ran ahead to warm up the boat, and Lillie’s room in particular. I bounced between getting Lillie’s room and blanket ready and stripping off my dripping-wet clothes. I was fully prepped when Lillie arrived, we stripped off her clothes and wrapped her in a fuzzy blanket, then delivered her to a pre-warmed room to recover.

We had fully recovered by the time Steve came to pick us up. I grabbed my laser range finder to check all of the archery range markings. When we arrived at Steve’s house, Lillie and I walked out into the field to check the 10m 20m and 50m marks. I stood on the field and pointed the laser. Steve walked up to each mark until I told him he was at the proper distance. I needed a target on Steve that was consistent. I thought I was being clever by taking a distance reading off of Steve’s crotch.

Better than a punch in the nuts

We were working on second mark. Lillie was running around like crazy. I didn’t know why, but I was concentrating on putting the laser on my mark (Steve’s crotch) and was paying close attention to the distance readings. My concentration was broken by Steve yelling, “Nate, point that laser somewhere else!”

Then suddenly I realized what was happening. Lillie had at some point noticed the laser moving around on the field, she started chasing while saying, “Laser, laser laser” over and over. When the laser eventually settled on Steve’s crotch she ran up to him and repeatedly batted at the laser over and over and over again.

When I realized what had happened, I was first mortified about what I had made Lillie do. Then I started laughing uncontrollably. Steve had apparently been tolerating the beating for some time. He said, “I just couldn’t figure out why she was beating me in the crotch over and over, until I saw the laser.”

Did I do that?

Steve’s famous grilled salmon really is quite good. We had a great meal and great conversation. We are hoping Steve and Andrea will join us at many points on our sailing adventure. We also encouraged them to accelerate their plans to build out one of their Land Cruisers as an overland vehicle, so they can parallel us down the west coast of the US and into Mexico later this year. We stayed way past Lillie’s bed time.

Workday

On Tuesday, I spent much of the day connecting the Solar panels up to the boat’s electrical systems. After a few hours of work, we were online and operational! That day, we saw a peak of 800Watts of output, even on a partly cloud day. Having this power will make it much more comfortable for us to stay out at anchor. We need lots of electricity to run our heaters to keep the boat warm in this too-cold spring time.

Back to Seattle

Wednesday was our Seattle return trip. Sarah called around and found us a slip at Elliot Bay Marina. Elliot Bay will be our home for the next week or so while we deal with the sale of the beach house and prepare the Ballard rental for new tenants.

We started out around 10:00 am and were in no rush. The wind was against us, the tide was with us. There wasn’t much wind, 6 kts or less. Not really enough to sail, but we did anyway. We set sails around Marrowstone point, and were making 1.5 kts of boat speed in 4 to 5 kts of breeze. Sarah said, “I said going slow was ok, but I didn’t think it would be this slow.” That prompted me to dig out our Code 0. Sarah and I tag teamed the rigging and hoist. We had to pull the Starlink out of its temporary spot, lest it get smacked by the clew of the code-0. With the sail raised our speed doubled to 3 to 4 kts. Sailing at 3 kts is silent sailing, no water sounds, no wind sounds. We could hear the barking of sea lions far away on the shore.

We played connect the dots of patches of breeze to Point No Point, then beyond. A little later the wind shut off entirely. We motor sailed for a while, then it started to rain. We opted to take the sails down while they were dry. A little later a cold front came through with heavier rain and 15 kts of wind. We opted to motor the rest of the way into our slip.

All tied up and put away, we concluded our first weekend of leisure since we moved aboard Spice. I’m looking forward to more weekends like this one. Perhaps next time we’ll make it up to the San Juan Islands.