THE BIG TOW

Steve and Jean’s much loved Cal 39, “Mystic”” had been stuck in Blaine since last summer.  Their engine had blown and needed replacement.  Steve’s research concluded that repairs would best be done in Everett, so the weekend challenge was moving the wounded boat some 75 nautical miles from Blaine to Everett.

On board were Steve, first mate Jean, Jerry, and myself.  We were also accompanied by a 57 foot Defever, skippered by Alan along with two other crew mates.

Friday morning dawned early.  Steve rousted everyone at 5am.  We hanked on the Genoa and with Alan’s Boston Whaler lashed to the side, motored out of Blaine harbor hoping to find sufficient wind. 

Unfortunately there simply wasn’t enough wind.  Steve’s plan called for a minimum of 5 knots to hit the slack at Deception Pass at 2 pm and the available wind wasn’t going to support that schedule.  We motored for a bit with the whaler, then Alan and crew came up from behind and the towing began.

The only unexpected thing with the tow was that Mystic had to be rather actively steered while being towed, meaning that someone needed to be on the helm at all times.  It was going to be a long day.

Jean prepared a wonderful breakfast of double yolked eggs (both Steve and Alan are chicken farmers.  Steve has 5 chickens and Alan has some 35,000), hash browns, and bacon.  Nothing like hot coffee, a great breakfast and being on the water!

We begin to suspect things were going to go our way when it turned out that Mystic towed quite well at around 6 knots.  In addition, the current gave us considerable lift and we were doing 7 and sometimes 8 knots over land. 

Mount Baker was our constant companion throughout the day, seemingly changing positions each time we looked at it.

We arrived at Deception pass shortly before noon for a 2pm slack.  Decision – go outside, challenge the 6 knot current, or kill time and go through closer to slack?   There were suggestions on all sides.  Steve wanted to hit the pass right at slack.  Jerry suggested we could try to punch through.  With the current going against us, we could back down if it was too strong.  Alan wanted to go the outside, down Admiralty inlet.  A longer option, but would avoid killing time waiting for slack.

A grand compromise was struck.   We’d try to go through roughly 1 hour early, challenging a 4 knot current instead of 6. 

We watched some Navy action at NAS Whidbey while killing time before Deception pass.

Tensions mounted in the cockpit as we approached the pass.  The current was running.  A 45 boat coming the other way was thrown nearly sideways and was stuggling maintaining course.   Alan was obviously wrestling with the helm and twice the tow line went slack then was forced taut as ‘Mystic’ reached her maximum distance from the Trawler. 

At this point, a parted line would have been interesting,  Alan had deployed his crew on the aft deck for this potential and aboard ‘Mystic’ we had our plan as well.  We were towing the whaler so in theory we could have quickly rigged it and either continued or managed a safe bailout from the current back into the straits. 

Fortunately Alan kept us in mid stream and we slowly eeked out gains and got through without incident. 

Once through we had more decisions – it was too early to stop at Cornet bay nnd while there were other options, we decided to continue to Everett.  Alan and crew hadn’t been through the locks and wanted to spend the weekend exploring Seattle and going through the locks and getting an earlier start on that would allow them to see more.

Approaching Everett we had one more surprise in store.  Alan radioed that there was ‘something large’ in the water.  We all looked and a few minutes later, roughly 25 yards away, a huge gray whale surfaced, blew, and then dove.  Its back looked like a lichen covered gray rock. 

Docking mystic was another drill.  The ‘Saratoga Swoosh’ was blowing and with a stiff breeze we rigged the whaler along side, let go the tow line, and set off to manage a largely dead stick landing.

I was in the whaler managing the throttle, Steve was at the helm of Mystic and Jean and Jerry were managing the lines.  I almost blew it twice, but all in all a pretty good landing with all hands contributing to a successful effort.

With ‘Mystic’ secured, what could have been a weekend long endeavor lasted a mere 14 hours. 

Now – what to do the rest of the weekend?

ROAD TRIP!

With a decent weather forecast we loaded up the car and we’re off headed for the Olympic Peninsula.  Don’t know exactly where we’re going, but with Ron Judd’s book in hand and cell phones at the ready, we can make and shift plans on the fly.  A nice little adventure!

We caught the 8:40 boat and when buying the coffee, the cashier asked where we were going.  “Olympic Pennisula” was our reply.

“Oh” he said, “Ya gotta go to the ‘Ries.  Everything good at the ‘Ries.

“The Reis?”

“Oh ya.  Gotta go. Gotta go.  Everything good at the ‘Ries”

I’m racking my  brains at this point.  Lived here all my life, never heard of the ‘Ries.

He continued on, “It’s all good at the ‘Ries.  They have all the good stuff.  Wineries, Bakeries, Breweries, and Distilleries.  It’s all good at the ‘Ries”.

Ah.  And so it it is.  Let the weekend begin.

We swung  by Doc’s to pick up a flower arrangement and two boxes of chocolate covered strawberries to take up to Tom and Tessa, then swung north up the peninsula.  Quick call to Fort Flagler, still room available so we headed out to Marrowstone island and on the Rangers suggestion took up residence at Campsite 107.  Right on the water.  So far we were the only tent campers among several motorhomes and trailers.  Some of them quite large.

It occurred to me that folks trying to get outside sure bring a lot of ‘inside’ with them.  We set up our own ‘palace’ – a prototype 10 by 12 foot tent, which, by our backpacking standards, was absolutely huge.  You could walk into it standing up, nice.  This is our first experience with a large tent and one could get used to this.  I still like my 4 lb backpacking tent, but for car camping, this is nice.

We took a stroll on the beach and that’s where we snagged the shot of the eagle.  Jodi saw the  bird first and I started shooting.  It ended up landing in a tree right behind us and the camera was clicking away during the landing sequence.

After a quick nap off to Port Townsend to see Tom’s new endeavor.  Very nice spot and looks like the perfect way to enlarge the brand. 

Schooner Martha was there, looking pretty good, without spars or  bowsprit.  Her new colors look good, although I’ll aways remember her blue and white days.

There was also a sailboat race with roughly 100 boats descending on Port Townsend. 

Sunday morning dawned gorgeous and we hiked around Fort Flagler a bit.  The views are nice.  It’s as if one of the early settlers in the Sound said “it’s so beautiful with wide open views, lets preserve it for the public for years to come”. 

The actual sentiment was more like “with these views, heavy artillery would plaster any attacking vessel.  Let’s build a fort here and 3 more like it”.     Which is how Forts Casey, Worden, and Flagler all came about. Paranoia gets funded. The idea was hatched in the late 1800’s, executed in the early 1900’s, and before WWI broke out in 1914, they were obsolete. 

It is easy to criticize with the benefit of hindsight.  Or using what my father called one of the greatest inventions never invented.  The “retraspectascope”.  None of these forts, constructed at considerable expense, ever fired a shot of anger.  But now they are pretty cool.   

We hiked around the batteries where the gun emplacements used to be.  Wonder how many shells are at the bottom of the sound as a result of their target practice?

We did hear about a legendary ghost with a woman perpetually walking her hound mix within the darkend confines of the gun batteries.  I thought I saw her and snapped this picture.  You can see the hounds glowing eyes and the profile of the woman....

All too quickly, the weekend came to a close.  We like Fort Flagler for a quick weekend get away.  Close enough to be a comfortable, no stress weekend getaway with reasonably close attractions.  Once the upper section is open for the summer, we’d camp there.  Slots can  be reserved, but August is probably a zoo.