Pleasant Harbor – Riveted

Pleasant Harbor to Port Ludlow

Laura Domela — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 01:17:36 +0000

Our original plan this morning was to hang out at Pleasant Harbor until a little before low tide and then book it out to Duckabush in the dinghy for some more oyster gathering. It was pretty windy this morning though, and we decided to walk up onto higher ground to see what it looked like outside our little pleasant harbor, and whoa! It was WAY whitecappy. We decided to bail on the Duckabush plan and head for Port Ludlow instead (and maybe find another spot for future oystering).

When we first left Pleasant Harbor, we were met head-on with some pretty hefty waves. The forecast this morning said 15-25kt winds and 2-4 foot wind waves (upgraded from "less than 1 ft" forecast last night to a small craft warning today). But we've been in 2-4ft waves several times before and the it's no big deal for the Nordic Tug (it's always us we need to worry most about). I'd say our first few miles today were solidly on the 4 foot end of that spectrum, and it was dramatic but FUN! Nothing rattled or creaked, even when we were slamming down pretty hard (not even the non-plastic dishes, mom!)

Kevin took this video to give you an idea of the high seas drama:

And here I will address the freakin' windshield wipers. OMG. If you're like me, you watched that video and all you could see was the fact that those windshield wipers are TOTALLY NOT IN SYNC. The first two are usally fine, and the far right one is like, whatever dudes, I'll do my own thing thank you very much. Each wiper has it's own on/off/intermittent frequency switch, and I always carefully turn them on so they are perfectly spaced…click…click…click. They are perfectly rhythmic for about 3 minutes, and then the right one will all of a sudden, out of the blue, wipe twice, messing up the WHOLE THING. The only way to get them back in order is to turn them off, start the click…click…click…again, repeat. What is UP with that, Nordic Tugs???

(To be fair, we were in a bit of chaos here, so I may have just jammed those switches on high gear with no regard for rhythm, but trust me, it happens just like I described above most of the time. Wipe. Wipe. Pause. Pause. Wipe wipe wipe. Wipe. Wipe wipe.)

Alright. Rant over. Gorgeous view of the Olympic mountain range, huh?

So, the waves eventually mellowed out and as we were passing underneath the bridge just south of Hood Head, we noticed a bunch of cars parked, and then a bunch of people on the beach with buckets, and then a few boats anchored. Just north of Hood Head (according to my map of open public shellfish beaches) was a good oyster and clam beach, and it was just after low tide so we decided to anchor and see if we could get some more oysters. The Rocna grabbed and held quickly, we deployed the dinghy, and off we went.

Here's the route from Pleasant Harbor to Hood Head:

The wind picked up though, and the tide was quickly rising, so our haul of about 12 (large) Pacific oysters was hard-won. We headed back to the boat with our loot, only to get stuck bringing up the anchor. We need to pull it from the other direction, but as mentioned before, the wind and the current was against us and it was pretty tough to get the boat around to the other side of the anchor. Eventually we got it loose (good practice!) and were on our way again.

It wasn't much further to the marina at Port Ludlow and now we're set up and chillin'. Look at this view!!

Route from Hood Head to Port Ludlow:

We wandered around a bit as the sun was setting. There's a resort here with what looks like a pretty good restaurant, and some nice trails. The marina was closed when we got here, so we'll go register in the morning, check out the store (cuz we need more panko breadcrumbs and horseradish), and maybe have breakfast up at the restaurant. Some shots from our sunset walk:

I'm a sucker for a cool totem pole (must be those early childhood memories in Alaska):

Kevin took this one (love it!):

I cooked up our hard-won oysters as an appetizer (but we're thinking that might have been enough to be dinner), and we're listening to the new album from Whitehorse (Leave No Bridge Unburned), sipping Manhattans. It was a pretty great Saturday, with some challenging conditions and a ton of fun.

Tomorrow (we think): Port Townsend.

We Harvested Our Own Oysters!

Laura Domela — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 20:27:12 +0000

This is the best feeling, gliding across a wide expanse of calm water, with no one around for miles. Sometimes I let myself imagine that the water is land, and the feeling is surreal because you really can't get this experience driving a vehicle across land. There may be a few middle-of-nowhere on a motorcycle spots that get close, but it's probably not quite as peaceful as being on the water.

We left Alderbrook this morning around 7:30am. We thought we might head up to Quilcene Bay where I found a couple of public beaches open for oyster harvesting. We stopped in Hoodsport again at the public dock (which was much, MUCH calmer than it was a few days ago) and walked up to the Shell Station next to the Hood River Market to get ourselves some shellfish licenses.

Today was cloudy with some occasional sun and blue sky, and water that was calm as can be for our cruise back up the canal.

I was browsing the good, public, open oyster beaches, and found one just south of Pleasant Harbor that looked easily accessible by dinghy, so we headed to Pleasant Harbor again.

We arrived at about 11:30am, and low tide was at 11:52am, so Kevin quickly deployed the dinghy while I grabbed a couple oyster knives, a couple bowls, and a couple of ziploc bags and a towel and then we headed south around the point toward the Duckabush public tidelands. According to the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, Duckabush was formally a commercial oyster beach, and is a superb place to harvest oysters. We also checked the shellfish safety information and all looked good for our chosen spot.

Heading around the point in the Zodiac:

Hey look! Oyster beds!

The rules for harvesting oysters is that each licensed person can get 18 oysters. The oysters must be shucked on the beach and the shells left at the same tide level where the oyster was found. The low tide was 3 feet, so we mainly just hung in the Zodiac and gathered and shucked from there. Pretty quickly we each had our limit so we headed back to Airship for some recipe research. (We each had one fresh on the half shell right there and it was great!

We figured we might pan fry them with some Panko bread crumbs back at the boat, so we opted to get some of the larger ones. This here's a big'un (so delicate, though):

This one had a little Chiton buddy so we put him back:

Counting travel time to and from Duckabush, we spent about an hour and a half total…36 oysters and a really fun experience! The oysters are EVERYWHERE and it's super easy to find single oysters (rather then clumped together oysters, harder to shuck).

See you (maybe) tomorrow, Duckabush.

Kevin, drivin' the Zodiac:

On our way back into Pleasant Harbor, just around the point, Kevin tapped me on the arm and pointed. There was a large bald eagle flying just in front of us toward the rocks with a fairly big fish hanging from his talons.

We killed the engine and rowed along the shore watching him tear at it. All I had was my Fuji x100s (fixed, wide angle lens), but I managed to get a couple of cool shots, even though the action was pretty far away for that camera. The eagle is just to the left of that stump:

We may have gotten too close for his comfort, because he made a few loud calls and pretty soon two more bald eagles were flying overhead and hanging out in the trees near him. Was he calling for backup so he could enjoy his meal, or advertising he had a fresh kill to share?

It was a great first oyster gathering experience and I think we may head back over at low tide tomorrow, before we head north toward Port Townsend. We'll probably go to Port Hadlock tomorrow, and then on to Port Townsend on Sunday. The marina at Point Hudson (Port Townsend) is full over the weekend due to the 2015 Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby (which starts today and ends Sunday).

From the PT Leader: "The derby includes 500 square miles of fishing, five weigh stations (Freshwater Bay, Ediz Hook in Port Angeles, John Wayne Marina in Sequim, Gardiner and Port Townsend Boat Haven). It boasts a $10,000 first prize, with new prizes coming in daily. The total purse is more than $20,000, including four $500 mystery fish prizes for fish of at least 6 pounds. Most prizes are donated by area businesses and residents; the largest single donation is the $1,000 third prize, donated by 7 Cedars Casino in Blyn."

Hood Canal – Alderbrook

Laura Domela — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 01:43:50 +0000

This morning we left Pleasant Harbor and headed further south into Hood Canal to explore a bit. Sunrise light was pretty this morning:

We really wanted to stop for an oyster lunch on the beach at Hama Hama Oyster Bar, but we couldn't figure out a way to get there by boat. In front of Hama Hama it's super shallow and covered in oyster beds and stuff, and on either side of the shallow parts it looked like private property. Unsure about the anchorage and after a bunch of research, nothing really gave us that "go" feeling. Plus, motoring the dinghy over oyster beds might not be cool, and when I called to find out their hours and told them we were trying to come visit by boat, they said they had no facilities for that…so, bummer. It was pretty choppy out today too, so if we'd found a place we thought we could anchor…there was the super-chop to contend with. Maybe we'll work out a plan for when we're heading back past on the way north. And maybe it will be calm. Here's a link to the entry from our previous Airstream trip to Hood River, and the Hama Hama Oyster Co.

There it is, calling to us:

We decided to stop in Hoodsport at the public dock and see if there was a good spot to grab lunch, but the public dock left a bit to be desired. As I mentioned, it was a bit choppy, and the dock felt, um, a little rickety. The wind was blowing us into the dock and the waves were keeping us tight against it (smushing the fenders pretty good). We tied onto a metal cleat with the bow line, a metal cleat with the stern line, and one of the wooden rail/cleats with the midship line, but every time the boat surged with the waves, the wooden rail/cleat pulled up away from the dock, along with the plank it was bolted to. I decided I'd walk up to the IGA (supermarket) while Kevin stayed with the boat. Maybe they had oysters in the market.

Turns out, as far as seafood was concerned, the market was a bust. Oh well. I grabbed a few things we needed, so not all was lost. (As famous as the oysters from this area are though, you'd think there would be a couple more places to get some!)

Getting away from the dock was a little tricky, but we managed it, and not like noobs, either.

It started out cloudy, but cleared up nicely by the afternoon:

We checked out the Potlatch State Marine Park mooring buoys, but there's really nothing at Potlatch State Park except for a small grassy park alongside the highway, so we continued on. (Plus, the marinas were sounding pretty good…we could really use a fresh water wash down after all this salty spray!)

Next up: Hood Canal Marina (seemed fine, but it didn't look like there was much to do there either) so we ended up at the Alderbrook Resort. They've got a gigantic guest dock out front, some hiking trails, a really good restaurant, and like Rosario Resort on Orcas Island, your mooring fee lets you use the facilities, which include an indoor saltwater pool and hot tub. (Their water was turned off, but after we paid our moorage fee and asked about it, the harbormaster came out and turned it on for us. Also, the gals at the front desk fumbled charmingly around for quite a while trying to figure out how to process a payment for dock moorage. I think no one has boated themselves here since last summer!)

Here we are, behind the schooner Pleiades (available for charter):

Looking back at the resort from Airship:

It's a beautiful place, nicely landscaped, with lots to do (and probably WAY more to do in the summer months). However, we DID see one guy on a Jet Ski come screaming around the point west of the resort earlier…in a wet suit.

We made a dinner reservation for early evening, and after some more work and a shower, headed up to (finally) have some (more) local oysters. The oysters are harvested from the beach out in front. We had 6 kumamotos and 6 Pacifics (and a couple Manhattans):

Every single thing at dinner was fabulous. First courses: Grand Marnier prawns, a caesar salad. Main courses: seared sea scallops, and crab cakes. We couldn't tell you what we liked the best. This is definitely a great destination spot, and I think we may stay two nights.

View from dinner:

As it got dark, from our table we watched a guy in a cart loading a bunch of firewood into a giant fire pit, lined with 6 Adirondack chairs along the shore. Nice! We went to check it out on our way back to the boat. Toasty warm (with dock lights in the background):

Also on the way back to the boat, we stopped and talked to a guy on the beach who was harvesting oysters by headlamp. It was low tide (a minus 1.2 foot tide or something) and it looked like he was being VERY productive. (Hey! Lunch tomorrow!)

Obviously an extremely low light photo, with my iPhone, of oyster guy with a PILE of oysters:

The sky is clear and dark here, and filled with stars and planets. It's nice to be away from the lights of the city again!

Today's route (26.6 nautical miles, 4 hours 20 minutes cruise time):

Kingston to Pleasant Harbor

Laura Domela — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 23:38:34 +0000

We left Bell Harbor/Seattle this morning just after 8am. It was such a beautiful day (again) that we wanted to spend most of it on the water if possible.

Passing a couple tankers anchored in Puget Sound:

We stopped in Kingston to grab some breakfast/lunch.

The Port of Kingston is a very well-maintained, attractive marina with guest moorage free for 2 hours (and cute picnic areas right there on the dock):

We walked up to a little spot called J'aime Les Crêpes and ordered two different savory crêpes: (1) "Chicken" — grilled chicken, provolone cheese, spinich, toasted almonds, with artichioke pesto, and (2) "Special" — black forest ham, swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms, spinach, green onions and dijon mustard.

These hit the spot! We walked around a bit and then hopped back on Airship, fueled up, pumped out, and continued on our way.

Our initial plan was to head north toward Port Townsend, through the Port Townsend canal, and stop in Port Hadlock for the night, but as we passed Point No Point and were approaching Foulweather Bluff, we thought it would be a shame to miss (this time) Hood Canal, so we rerouted on the fly and headed toward Pleasant Harbor.

You just can't beat a (mostly) clear day view of the Olympic mountain range:

The sun was at the perfect angle to completely blind us as we tried to enter Pleasant Harbor:

We made it though, and headed over to the Pleasant Harbor State Park dock (just inside the harbor on the right):

Home Port Marina is just next door:

We took the chairs up to the top deck and had a cocktail while watching the pastel sky turn to navy. Kevin took these two shots:

And here's one I shot just before we came inside:

Dinner tonight is going to be an easy grilled chicken and zucchini.

Here's our track from today:

Total nautical miles: 51.31
Total time: 7 hours 47 minutes (30 minutes stopped)

I was at the helm most of the day, and Kevin worked (I did most of my "today" work last night and early this morning). On our cruise today, Kevin wrote a 1500-word article, had a couple of phone briefings, worked with our sales and operations team via chat, and answered a plethora of email. Not bad for moving office, is it?