What a day it was today. We departed Anacortes around 9:00 heading North through the Guemes channel. We had a 3 kt "tail wind" as the tide was ebbing, but as we turned South across the Strait of de la Fuca, we met 3 to 4 foot seas caused by the strong winds from the SE. Our destination was the historic Victorian Port Townsend, located on the NE portion of the Olympic Peninsula. We came here last June with Jan and Greg Brown and it is truly a "must visit" town, with history (founded in 1850's with the central portion a historic district, with Victorian architecture, turrets, towers, gingerbread trim. The downtown buildings date to the late 1800's with old hotels, all on the waterfront). Chris and I saw that "In Bruges" was showing at the Rose Theatre, nationally known because of the visitations of the famous. It opened in 1906 and many stars have visited. But I must tell you about my "docking", or should I say "lack of docking".
The entrance to the marina was from Puget Sound heading directly West. The winds were 30 to 35 kts from the East (gale force). All of the slips are oriented N-S, so we would have to turn 90 degrees to enter a slip. I thought that our bow and stern thrusters would allow us to do that, but as we turned starboard 90, the wind overcame the thrusters and we were pushed sideways to another dock. This was OK, and it would have to do, but it was not the intended dockage, to say the least. Lesson learned is in heavy winds, find an orientation with or against it, not at your beam!
My pictures are not loading well, so I will have to send them later...
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