Sail Cutthroat

Cutthroat Adventures 2009

9 July 2009

Final Preparations to Head South…around Cape Flattery

After another couple of weeks living the cruising life, the time is upon us to head Cutthroat south down the west coast of the United States beginning the return leg of our three year odyssey. Our ultimate destination is San Diego but with multiple stops in Oregon, San Francisco and LA along the way.

Our twelve days in British Columbia was not nearly long enough. We could have easily spent another month cruising those lovely waters and visiting quaint towns, but once again we built a schedule and set expectations for ourselves that if given the opportunity I would have changed. We won’t even go into that discussion. We did visit Sidney, the Saanich Inlet, Tod Inlet, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, Thetis Island (Telegraph Harbor) and Chemainus.

We also joined the ranks of those who can honestly claim that they hit something. Yes, we clipped a rock in one of the inlets. We had a diver down within a couple of hours and his assessment was that we could continue on and take care of it in San Diego. As he came to the surface with a couple of pieces of gel coat (the outer coating of the boat), we thought it wiser to take care of this sooner. Part of that decision was driven by the fact that we were at this boat yard anyway picking up a part for the generator. They could haul it right there and make the necessary repairs. It just took longer than expected – like a week! Of course they don’t work on Saturday or Sunday…and let’s not forget about Canada Day…also a holiday. And there were multiple steps in the process. If you think it’s difficult to live on a boat with both of us and our niece Kathryne and nephew Charlie…living on the boat on the hard (out of the water in boat yard) without running water and limited facilities gives this a whole new meaning. Fortunately the Safeway was within walking distance as well as many restaurants. We went to paper plates and ate out a lot. The Van Isle Marina was right there as well providing showers, toilets, laundry…and internet. So we made the best of it – the crew members were fantastic partners demonstrating their ability to take these things in stride and consider it another part of the journey. We were very proud of them.

We departed British Columbia to meet up with Bruce and Angie on m/v Desert Venture in Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands for the 4^th of July weekend. Roche harbor hosts a fabulous Independence Day schedule from a fireworks display in the harbor, to dinghy races, donut eating contests, lots of music playing all day long the entire weekend and numerous art and craft displays. We arrived on July 2d to insure we got a good spot to anchor. Desert Venture arrived on the 1^st providing us with up to the minute details on the growing crowd in the harbor. It’s a rather large harbor, but by Friday night it was pretty well packed. Cutthroat was a couple of hundred yards further out that Desert Venture and there seemed to be some kind of force field around her, because we never had any close encounters with our fellow anchoring partners. DV on the other hand was more like a magnet for other boats. They all just wanted to be close to her…some apparently wanted to raft along-side…they were in fact that close. At one point, we were actually pushing a boat away with the boat hook. We had a BBQ/grazing party aboard Desert Venture for the 4^th. Roche Harbor has a unique ceremony in the evening for lowering the flags at sunset. The local color guard marches out to the end of the pier and ceremoniously takes down the flags to the Canadian National Anthem followed by the US Anthem. This is accompanied with music, horns, whistles and a variety of noise making devices from the locals and transient vessels. Then the color guard is either pushed or dives into the frigid waters of the harbor. As you can imagine, this was done with extra gusto on the 4^th of July and included the singing of the National Anthem by a young girl visiting who had just recorded her first album in Nashville. So it was quite the event. We gathered in our dinghies to witness the lowering of the flags – us and another hundred plus dinghies. A good time was had by all. Upon our return to the boat, we settled on the top deck of Desert Venture to watch the fireworks and kill a bottle of Bailey’s. All in all a wonderful weekend spent in a lovely location with good friends and cruising buddies.

Sunday found us enroute to Port Townsend to position ourselves for the run into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Port Angeles, our final stop in Washington. The weather was to deteriorate over the next couple of days, and we didn’t want to be forced to get to Port Angeles and cross the straits under adverse conditions. Sunday night the wind howled making us all glad we were at a nice secure dock in a safe port. Desert Venture was still with us, and Angie’s son Nick joined us for dinner.  Bruce kept mentioning a crab fest, but it was falling in the “hard to do” box for a variety of reasons. So on our way from the San Juan’s, we decided that we’d have a Dirt Crab Fest for dinner aboard Cutthroat. Dirt Crab, for those of you unsure…is Chicken in a bowl with corn on the cob, shrimp, green onions (seaweed), andouille sausage, potatoes…everything you would expect in a crab pot minus the crab. We even had the newspaper spread out on the table and a bib for Captain Bruce – couldn’t find more bibs…darn! It was lots of fun and a good way to bring our joint cruising venture to an end. We left Bruce and Angie on Tuesday morning headed for Port Angeles where we would make all the final preparations for our departure from the Pacific Northwest and go back to warmer climates!

Our final crew member, Bob Bergman arrives in just a few minutes and we will blast out of here early tomorrow morning. We’re fueled up, provisioned and otherwise ready to go. The “plan” is to poke our way down the coast stopping in Astoria and Newport, Oregon before going to San Francisco. Bob, Charlie and Kathryne all leave the boat in San Francisco. They will be missed; especially Kathryne and Charlie who have been with us for more than a month and are starting to look like the furniture – permanent. Well, at least the look like the refrigerator – oh, yeah…that’s where they spend much of their time.

This has been one of the best cruising spots I have experienced. It rivals the coast of New England and Maine in so many ways – its sharp contrasts in terrain, the beautiful villages, and the constant change in weather and conditions. From 50 degrees to 80 degrees, sunny days to rain and fog. We will miss it!

So, next stop is Astoria, OR…weather permitting. We’ll keep you posted along the way via email as we’ve done in the past.

Elise and Roger, Kathryne and Charlie

s/v Cutthroat