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?