Off The Coast of Ballard: PORT ORCHARD CRUISE

Sloop Tavern Yacht Club (STYC) is mostly a racing yacht club. Despite the name, there are some serious racers in the club and I suspect between Dave Maiser’s old outfit, Windworks and the Sloop Tavern Yacht Club, hundreds and hundreds of new sailors are introduced to the sport and then have a handy mechanism to sharpen their new skills with a frequent racing schedule.

Dana, the cruise director for STYC, planned several spring cruises and the first one was to Port Orchard. The good news is that you don’t have to be a member of STYC to cruise with them. Race, yes, cruise, no. (Although it the spirit of good manners, I think I’ll join).

The cruise was a pretty low key event. The general plan is simple (potluck) augmented by a pony keg lashed to Dana’s binnacle. There were actually 3 groups that attended on 5 boats. Aside from STYC, there was a Windworks boat and a Pacific Northwest Sailing Group (PNSG) boat.

PNSG is a ‘meet up’ group where singles sign up for events then pursue their sport with other singles. I’ve heard of them in the past in context of hiking where someone will throw out a meet-up invite then others confirm they are going.

In all, a very fun group of people — most were relatively new to sailing within the last several years. The cool thing for me was their knowledge of boating. While perhaps a little shy on experience (although that’s debatable, these folks get out a lot) their knowledge was recent. Windworks has quite the instruction regimen with licensed skippers offering lessons on virtually all aspect of sailing.

In an informal setting with some beer flowing the discussions range all over the place, but it kept on coming back to sailing and threaded through the conversation were tips — how to make a boat go faster and how do deal with marine head issues (there’s a book, honest, entitled “How to get rid of Boat Odors: A Boat Owners Guide to Marine Sanitation Systems and Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor”). It's by Peggie Hall, the self proclaimed 'Headmistress'.

These folks had new knowledge. I’ve sailed all my life, but I only know what I know. I may have more Northwest sea miles and knowledge of Northwest coast destinations, but they have many new tidbits learned from a broader group of knowledgeable instructors and most have attacked the sport with an infectious zeal.

Aboard the Windworks boat was Shannon, the vice commodore of STYC, and she noted that ‘Cambria’ would make an acceptable committee boat for some of their local races. I suspect I’ll sign up for a race or two. It’d be a fun way to support the local racing scene as well as a chance to hone marine photography skills.

The potluck ended up on Cambria which was a lot of fun. The pony keg was positioned on the starboard side adjacent to the porthole, so one could reach outside from inside the boat and fill a glass.

Faraz did an admirable job barbecuing on the aft deck in a driving rainstorm. The wind was blowing like stink and the rain was coming down at a 45 degree angle, but dressed in full foul weather gear, armed with tongs, he nurtured the brats to perfection. Turns out he was a native of Ottawa and given the choice of being in a sub zero wind chill Ottawa winter vs a driving northwest rain storm, he’d happily take the rain storm.

The evening was fun, but sleep was difficult Saturday night owing to strong winds buffeting the boat.

While I had planned to come back Sunday, the wind was fairly strong and Monday was a holiday. Weather always gets a vote and while it would have been a nice downwind romp, I didn’t HAVE to get home. I hooked up the antenna for the the TV and FOX came in very clear — I could get the Seahawks playoff game. Warm, secure and the game would be on. Decision made. Stay.

With about an hour before the game I checked in with Dana as she had planned to leave. Somewhat new to single handing, I offered to assist her off the dock but she said she was fine. I headed up to the antique mall to see if I could get some china plates at a reasonable cost (I found a set of 4 — perfect). On the way back, I noticed that Dana’s boat was at an awkward angle. Turns out that about one third of a second elapsed between her releasing her bow line and a strong gust of wind taking her bow away from the pier. With her stern still attached, she had quite the dilemma. She actually had it all worked out with the bow tied to the opposite side of the slip. Stern tied to one side, bow to the other and she was in the final stages of rigging a longer bowline to work the boat back to a proper position. I assisted with getting the bow around, but she would have been fine with no help. In any case, she made the decision to stay put.

Watching the game was painful at first, but alls well that ends well. Off to the super bowl.

Dana and I had a pleasant dinner and conversation then after the previous night with little sleep I hit the bunk early and had a nice quiet night.

I didn't get many pictures of the party itself, but did shoot some birds and scenery:

The oldest serving US aircraft carrier was at Bremerton, the USS Nimitz. The Nimitz is notable for several reasons, not the least of which was the ill fated Iran Hostage rescue effort approved by Carter in April of 1980.