Ghostsailor's Monthly Update

Day 2 (WED 7/2): The Crossing (Ang)

O.K.  So the crossing of Juan de Fuca channel has always been one of those things with me.  The first time on the Pondo May, I spent the whole ride over the side.  It was horrible.  Since then most of our crossings haven’t been all that bad, but this time it was.  We woke up to fog and decided Curtis and Cynthia would take the lead.  It was pretty flat and calm as we left.

Pretty soon the tide rips picked up and it started getting crazy.  All of us were on deck, including the kids and I finally had to tell them to go below.  The seas were so confused and the waves so high, I didn’t feel it was safe  for them.  I went down below with them, because they were scared.  I was worried about Scott up on deck by himself, so I kept getting up and checking on him.  Of course, that didn’t make me feel so hot, so I’m not going to go into to detail , but all three of us (the kids and myself) ended up getting sea sick.  Kind of a bummer.  Things started smoothing out and the fog started clearing right about the same time San Juan Island came into sight.  We went through Mosquito Pass to Roche Harbor and planned on staying for a couple days.  We were all happy about that.

Pictures from our 1st couple weeks of the trip:

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So, the decision was made, we were going to leave around 4 a.m.  Ughhh!  We were all so excited that we didn’t sleep a wink.  Six and half weeks sailing around the Pacific Northwest  up into Canada.  It should be an excellent adventure.  Our neighbors Curtis & Cynthia aboard Winddancer were planning to leave with us, so when the alarm went off Scott and Curtis were already up and were ready to leave.  I guess they both couldn’t sleep.  We headed out of the marina with a nice South wind that was beckoning us.  We put the sails up and we were off.  As we sailed north we saw a giant mass bearing down on us.  As it came a little closer we realized it was the HMS Bounty heading south:

 What a beautiful sight.  Tall ships are amazing.  I get all giddy whenever I see them.  Today would be a very exciting day for me, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  We arrived in Port Townsend around 10 a.m. and anchored right in front of the downtown area.  Curtis and Cynthia decided to get a slip at Point Hudson Marina.  We anchored right next to the schooner Zodiac:

They left a little bit later.  It’s beautiful uner sail:

And then we saw the La Nina.   She is a replica of one of Columbus ships.  She would be heading south to Tacoma as well for the Tall Ships festival in Tacoma. 

We decided to go do a little beachcombing, but were exhausted from the early morning.  We headed back to the boat for a little R&R.  As we were relaxing I looked out toward the entrance of the harbor and saw what looked like sails from a very large sailing vessel.  And then  behind that I saw more.  Another fleet of Tall ships were on their way into Port Townsend before heading to Tacoma for the festival.  It was a beautiful sight.  First one in was the Lynx

And then the Hawaiian Chieftan

And then the beautiful Lady Washington:

It was a perfect day for me.  The kids thought it was pretty cool to see so many pirate ships and then they started firing off their cannons.  What a show. We weren’t even expecting it.  It was a great first day out. 

Pictures from this adventure will be posted here:  July 2008

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Pictures from June 2008 

June 2008

June was a busy month for Ghost and her crew.  The two swabbies were getting ready for the end of school and couldn’t contain themselves.  Zak finished the first grade and Ellie graduated from preschool:

She is so excited for kindergarten in the fall.  They both are excited for our fun summer in Canada.  Ghost has been the busiest of all of us.  She was hauled out of the water for a scrubbing and fresh coat of  paint:

She looks absolutely beautiful.  Life on the hard was definitely an interesting experience.  Ellie stayed with our friends, Bob, Shari, Sydney, & Annie in Olympia and Zak stayed with us.  Zak had so much fun fishing off the dock in the yard (Scott did, too!):

The only bad thing about the whole thing was the weather was absolutely beautiful, some of the hottest days that we have experienced so far this summer and we were stuck away from the marina.  We sure missed that breeze that we sometimes complain about on the docks.  Oh well.  Well, July 1^st we take off for six weeks up to Canada.  Everyone is extremely excited.  We will try to keep you updated as much as possible. 

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