TELEGRAPH HARBOR

The San Juan Island Yacht club was sponsoring a “Telegraph Harbor Cruise” and Mom had asked if Jodi and I wanted to take her on the Cruise.    It was a Hawaiian themed cruise and sounded like fun.  Jodi was charged with the food and spend time preparing for the event.

Telegraph Harbor is on Thetis Island, some 45 nautical miles from Friday Harbor.  Traveling that distance takes time in a 7 knot boat.  Jodi and I positioned the boat at Roche for the departure.  Thursday evening we grabbed a ‘to go’ dinner at the Mexican Restaurant then had a nice sunset cruise up to Roche.   Sunset from the water is always nice.  We docked for the evening at Henry Island, gave Rex a bit of a workout in the new dog run, then called it a night.

The next morning Devin drove Mom to Roche and we motored out of Roche at about 8:45 in the morning under sunny skies.   We had two choices on routes.  The shorter, more protected route through Johns Pass or slightly longer, but much more exposed route around Stuart Island.   I chose the longer route over the objections of the crew (I am the skipper!).  My reasoning was that a fairly strong Flood was running and our speed would more than compensate for the added length, make the duration of the trip to Bedwell customs much shorter.   I was right.  And wrong.   We did top over 8 knots and the trip was a bit shorter than had we gone the inside route, but there was quite a lump and Mom’s breakfast was disrupted by the motion of the boat.   Rex and Kuper would have preferred the quieter route as well.

In any case, we got to Bedwell fairly quickly and checked through Customs without incident. 

As we were leaving Bedwell, channel 16 on the VHF radio sprang to life with a panicky, high pitched voice calling for the Coast Guard.   He too was in the lump where we had just been, but his steering had given out and he was steering just with his engines.  He was talking very fast and had the microphone too close to his mouth.   The panic and emotion in his voice provided the perception that he was battling for his very life.   Death could be imminent and we listened intently to the exchange between the Coast Guard and the troubled boater. 

As events unfolded, it was apparent that death was not imminent, the fellow was well away from any threat, but was clearly distraught at having to resort to a secondary mode of steering his boat.  At about that time, a very professional voice came over channel 16 and asked the Coast Guard to move up to channel 83 alpha.   As background, if there is an immediate, life threatening event, all communication takes place on channel 16 and the coordination of coast guard, fellow boaters and the distressed boaters can be riveting.  If it’s not life threatening, but requires immediate action, most of the communication moves off 16 and goes up to 22 alpha.  If it’s mundane, like a radio check, it moves up to 83 alpha.  So this very professional voice who had asked the Coast Guard to switch to 83 alpha reported that he was a long side the distressed boater and provided very specific latitude / longitude coordinates. He also said the boater was moving along at 4.6 knots (which for us would be a decent speed in a sea with an adverse current).   The professional voice went on to say that given the fellows headway, distance from land, etc, it appeared that there was no life threatening event taking place.  At which point the panicky, high pitched voice chimed in, clearly agitated “well it may not be life threatening, but it isn’t very much fun!”. 

We got quite a chuckle out of the poor fellows perception of his state of affairs.  He requested, and got, a tow from a commercial outfit.  A tow he did not need and a cooler head could have managed the boat to safety with no outside assistance.   Steering a twin engine boat with the engines is awkward, but it can be done.   Perhaps notifying the coast guard of the event would be in order just in case one engine failed would have been prudent, but beyond that, I don’t think I would have put anyone at risk in any sort of ‘rescue’ or tow.

In any case, we were doing fine with the genoa flying to give us some speed and to dampen the effect of the wave action.  For a while we even sailed, doing 6 knots without the engine.

We got to Telegraph Harbor around 2:30, were greeted at the dock with Leis, then went for a nice walk.  Both Kuper  and Rex wore their leis. 

Dinner was with the yacht club group and Jodi’s kabobs were a hit.  I liked the spam rice as well!

We took a nice dinghy ride in the cut between Thetis and Kuper Island and found a lovely wooden sailboat at sunset.

In the morning Ellen came over with her ‘Gammel Dansk’, a Danish bitter.  It’s unbelievably hyggelig.  Meaning it’s pretty good and spreads good feelings (or something like that).

We had scheduled to go over to Chamainus on Saturday, but as events unfolded there just wasn’t enough time to do everything.  So we took a good long walk over to the other marina and went for a nice paddle in the Kayak. 

 Rex even joined us for that one.

Dinner was with the yacht club group with flags flying in the pavilion.

Sunday dawned early.  Owing to time, distance and tide (3 formidable foes), we had to leave the dock at 6:30 am.  Jodi walked the dogs, I prepared the boat and we were off on a beautiful morning.  We saw some good looking boats on the way out.

Largely uneventful trip back.  Long, but pleasant.  Cleaning the boat was brutal as ever, right in the hot part of the day.  Part of the drill, but a fun few days in the islands.