Sailing with Dummies (Seattle to The Dalles Edition)
Monday, April 20, 2009
by Mike

This morning I didn’t even mind the cold. Well, okay, I minded it some. But I was more focused on getting last minute things done in order to take off. I was excited!

Checking around the boat, I found that the left water tank was empty and the left water pump was running. That’s 400 liters (more than 100 gallons) of water gone. A counter on a bilge pump on the left side of the boat showed 18. That means that it took 18 cycles of the bilge pump to empty the 100+ gallons that leaked into left side of the boat. I still don’t know where the leak is, but I turned off the pump and refilled the tank.

Eventually I got around to driving away from the dock. The wind was light, but it’s a tight fit so I was kind of tense about not banging the 43,000 pounds of the Minnow into other boats. Things started out well, I was edging my way forward with small bursts from the left and right engines. Then the left transmission refused to go forward. This was not good.

In order to steer the Minnow at slow speeds it’s necessary to use the left and right engines independently. Sometimes forward and sometimes reverse. It’s actually easy to spin the boat in 360 degree circles in the same place. To spin to the right, just put the left engine forward and the right one in reverse and it spins right around. To make a sharp right turn, do the above and stop the spin after 90 degrees.

Out of the parking place the boat needed make a sharp right turn. With no forward on the left engine I was forced to use Plan B. Plan B was a 46-point-turn. It’s not fast and it’s not pretty. Using the rudder and right engine back and forth a bunch of times, I eventually got the boat to turn “rightish.” The Minnow left the dock without touching another boat. Whew! (this took about 20 minutes)

Once the Minnow has some forward speed, it’s simple to steer using the rudder. So once clear of the marina and in open water it was simple to drive. My worries should have been over. Except that I needed to pull into the next dock area to fill up with diesel. It took two laborious tries, but 1.5 hours later I was back in the open water heading for openness of Puget Sound.

It felt great to be out on the salt water with fresh air. Few concerns and few boundaries. One of the first things I noticed, as I was coiling dock lines and putting up bumpers, was a big, grey, majestic ship. It looked like it was sitting still in the water. There were lots of soldiers lined up on deck. As I was finishing up the lines and bumpers I noticed it was getting bigger.

I rushed inside, hoping I hadn’t missed a radio call from the Navy ship, and checked its bearing and speed. Then I veered off 30 degrees to the right to give it plenty of space. It was going 14.1 knots. I was going 7.5 knots. Before long it passed me. I waved and took some pictures. After it passed me it veered 40 degrees to the right and gained speed. Oops.



Other than a friendly encounter with the huge, high-speed ferry boat, the rest of my sailing was uneventful (the ferry boat was nice enough to make a turn to avoid me, thank you very much). My plans were to make Neah Bay for and overnight anchorage. It was a beautiful sunny day in Puget Sound. Other than being cold, I couldn’t have asked for better conditions. Unless I would have asked for favorable winds.



Question: If I’m in a sailboat traveling from one place to another without the use of sails or wind, am I sailing?



The sun was bright ahead and I was expecting a gorgeous sunset. About an hour before dark I “sailed” into a fog bank. With Neah Bay two hours ahead I thought about struggling to anchor in an unknown harbor in the fog in the dark.

I opted to continue through the night. It felt great to “sail” (solely under diesel power) into the Pacific. Even in the fog in the dark, it felt great. Maybe tomorrow I will raise a sail.

Daily Cuisine:
Some people say the first day at sea makes them queasy. Some expect to be seasick for a day or two. For some reason I find myself wanting to eat a lot. Always health-conscious, I opted to begin with oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies (rather than chocolate-chip cookies). As usual (Barb taught me this) most of the cookie dough was eaten prior to cooking. I must admit that I enjoyed the extra few degrees the oven brought to the inside temperature. Still ravenous from being at sea, I continued with potato salad, apple, bagel with cream cheese, banana (with peanut butter), cheese and crackers, popcorn, ravioli, and several diet colas.