Sailing – Riveted

Hey Guess What?

Laura Domela — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 21:49:23 +0000

I know, there's not been anything interesting here in ages now! That's because we're just at home working (and catching up with friends, and blowing the leaves off the deck over and over again). Kevin's had a couple business trips, and I've been cleaning up my photo studio and preparing for a few shoots. Maybe I'll post a photo of my nice clean studio!

But in the meantime, check this out! We made the cover of the 2016 Waggoner Cruising Guide! Pretty sweet!!

This was taken (by Mark Bunzel) in front of Kynoch Falls, at Kynoch Inlet at the Fiordland recreation area in British Columbia.

If you cruise by boat in the Pacific Northwest (or just want to read about the area from a boater's perspective) and don't have a Waggoner Guide, you should have one. It's full of great information about anchorages, marinas, local knowledge, and great tips. (The Waggoner Guide covers the area from Olympia all the way to Ketchikan, AK). The 2016 edition is not out yet, but I'll see if we can hook you up with a preorder link soon!

Thanks Sam and Mark!

Sailing the F16 Viper

Laura Domela — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 19:40:25 +0000

(Posted by Kevin)

My brother and I grew up racing catamarans. We had Hobie Cats – first, we had a 16' that we raced together. Then, we bought a pair of 14's that we could race individually. Finally, I bought my own 16' and we each raced with another person as crew. We both did pretty well for the amount of time we spent in the sport. We won a few regattas in the starter classes, and each filled up a pantry with a bunch of cheesy trophies. Whenever we competed against each other, Craig usually won. He seemed to be a bit better at coaxing speed from the boat, and his tactics were generally fearless and spot-on.

When I moved to Oregon from Texas, my racing dropped off considerably. Then, our father died, Craig married, had kids, and started moving around the country to less-sailable racing locations like Chicago, and both of us ended up going dark on the sailing for awhile.

A couple of years ago, we both simultaneously got interested in sailing again. Laura and I bought our Hobie Tandem Island – for day sailing, cruising, fishing, and Kayaking. Craig, still much more interested in racing – went to racing school this summer and purchased an F16 Viper.

Today, in the Florida Keys, we finally got to take the Viper out together.

This… is a FAST sailboat. It's difficult to find the right words to explain just how incredibly, frighteningly, soberingly fast this thing is. The website of the manufacturer "Australian High-Performance Catamarans" – claims that this is "without a doubt the fastest 16' catamaran on the planet."

I am now officially a member of the group of people who do not doubt that. This boat is high-strung, lightweight, temperamental, and insanely quick. If you lose focus for even a second or two – you'll find yourself taking a sudden and unexpected bath in the Gulf of Mexico. If Ferrari or Lamborghini made a sailing catamaran… it would be much slower and tamer than this thing.

Craig brought the boat down to sail during the weekend here at Long Key. Our campground had a beach that was suitable for launching, rigging, and parking. The first day we were here, we spent an hour or two taking the boat off the trailer, rigging its incredibly complex systems, and getting it into the water. As we were rigging, the wind was coming up to a menacing blast. By the time we were ready to sail, we were both pretty apprehensive. The winds were probably in the 20-25 knot range, and that's near the maximum for a very experienced racing crew on a boat like this (which we are not). We set sail and very conservatively went out and made a tack or two. Waves were whitecapping and we had to keep the sails almost completely powered down just to keep upright and to keep some semblance of control. We gave up after only a few minutes and gingerly moved the rig back up on the beach.

Today was a different story. We finally got to take the boat out and explore its full potential. The wind and waves were still strong, but less intimidating than yesterday. He showed me the ropes (heh) on the new boat – what to adjust, when and where to move my weight, and how the boat behaved under different points of sail. Before long, we were rocketing upwind at something over 20MPH, flying a hull, with both of us out on trapezes – standing horizontally on the side of the boat as we skimmed across the water.

Then came the really tricky part. We turned downwind at an angle, deployed the massive spinnaker, and held on for dear life. On a broad reach with the chute up, this boat is capable of incredible speed. I was out on a trapeze at the very stern of the boat – hanging out over the water with all my might – trying to prevent the leeward bow from plowing into waves and causing the boat to pitchpole (something like a forward cartwheel). I succeeded almost every time. During one rocket-ride, we were jibing (turning) through the wind with the spinnaker up, and I didn't release the tension quite quickly enough. In less than two seconds, we went from crazy forward speed to upside down in the water. After assuring that we were both still holding onto the boat, we went through the righting procedure, got the boat back upright, and were on our way sailing again.

All was well. Oops, except for one thing. My super-awesome iPhone waterproof case only works if you fully close and seal it. Apparently I had not. During the crash, I was fully submersed for a couple seconds, and was swimming in the ocean for a few minutes after that. The iPhone officially did not survive the incident.

The boat ride was without a doubt the most intense and exhilarating sailing experience of my 30+ years of sailing. I now have the utmost respect for anyone who masters one of these F16 or F18 catamarans. The skill, strength, and stamina required are daunting. I need to hit the gym a bit harder before my next outing.

If you want to see extreme competitive action in boats similar to (but much larger and more capable than) this boat, watch the America's Cup World Series and, of course, the upcoming America's Cup. This time, it's all being sailed in catamarans and the action will be incredible.

(Posted by Kevin)

(Not) Sailing Today

Laura Domela — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:17:12 +0000

We went out to the sailing center/marina in Coconut Grove with Kevin's brother Craig today with the intention of taking Craig's boat (a Viper F16) out for a quick sail before getting it set up on the trailer for him to bring down to the keys this weekend. Unfortunately, Craig's Toureg had a flat tire when started to leave the house, so we ended up doing a little detour over to the tire shop where he left his car to get some work done.

By the time we got to the marina it was a little late to go sailing if we were going to make it down to the Keys before dark. (We still didn't make it before it was dark dangit…but I think our spot is really cool. We'll know in the morning.)

Anyway, I snapped a few pics while we were screwing around with putting the boat on the trailer for transport.

Craig's boat, undercover:

Now, we're in a waterfront spot at Long Key State Park in the Florida Keys. We'll show you what it looks like in the morning when it's light out. I've got high hopes from how it seems in the dark.

Deception Pass and Fidalgo Island/Bowman Bay

Laura Domela — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 01:47:12 +0000

Late this afternoon (after we finished a TON of work) we headed north to check out Deception Pass State Park. Again today, the weather was perfect. This is a lovely state park. Campsites are wooded and large. There's a lake (Cranberry Lake, good for kayaking and fishing, no motorized boats — electric okay) and nearby access to West Beach:

This is Cranberry Lake (totally mellow lake):

We headed back to the main road and crossed the bridge at Deception Pass, parked, and got out and wandered around a bit. Gorgeous.

We were down on this beach (North Beach) collecting more rocks to stick in the rock polisher when we're home next. (View from the Deception Pass Bridge):

View of the Deception Pass bridge from North Beach:

I loved this rock, but it was too big for the rock polisher (At least Kevin said it was — I wasn't totally certain). I opted just to take a photo of it and then threw it back. But now, as I'm posting this, I'm wishing I still had that dang rock. Call me Lucy. It's fine. Just look how cool those lines are…how they meet up and then don't meet up, interrupted by some dramatic geological event. Why didn't I keep that rock??

Okay so anyway…see this little island in the photo below? That's Strawberry Island. It's just past the bridge as you're coming in from Puget Sound. To the right of that island is Ben Ure Island. Well, I've got a story to tell you about ol' Ben Ure.

According to Wikipedia:

In the waters of Deception Pass, just east of the present-day Deception Pass Bridge, is a small island known as Ben Ure Island. The island became infamous for its activity of smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants for local labor. Ure and his partner Lawrence "Pirate" Kelly were quite profitable at their smuggling business and played hide-and-seek with the United States Customs Department for years. Ure's own operation at Deception Pass in the late 1880s consisted of Ure and his Native-American wife. Local tradition has it that his wife would camp on the nearby Strawberry Island (which was visible from the open sea) and signal him with a fire on the island's summit to alert him to whether or not it was safe to bring his illegal cargo ashore. For transport, Ure would tie the illegal immigrants up in burlap bags so that if customs agents were to approach then he could easily toss the bags overboard. The tidal currents would carry the discarded immigrants' bodies to San Juan Island to the north and west of the pass and many ended up in what became known as Dead Man's Bay.

Not a cool guy. At all. And interesting that they chose the term "illegal Chinese immigrants" as a euphamism for "slaves."

Seaweed in the current, taken from the bridge:

Deception Island and Puget Sound, from the bridge:

Under the bridge:

We kept on heading north for a little bit thinking we'd turn around when it was convenient. I looked at the map and noted there was a bay pretty close called Bowman Bay and thought we could check it out and then turn around and head back. We thought we might take the Hobie out at Oak Harbor and sail around there and Penn Cove this evening on the way home. But when we got to Bowman Bay, it was so pretty and it looked like there was a little wind picking up so we opted to sail here.

Here's what we did:

It was gorgeous. We saw a handful of harbor seals, a dozen or so Dall's porpoises, a huge bald eagle, and several tufted puffins!!! So cool.

We stopped and picked up a few more mussels and some clams for dinner tonight. I cooked 'em the same way I did the mussels the other night, and served with a salad of fresh greens and halved sun gold tomatoes from Red Dog Farm.

Tomorrow we're headed back down to Langley (with the Airstream this time) to visit some friends (friends with chickens!!) before we head back to Lake Pleasant/Seattle for the weekend. I've got a shoot on Sunday, and we'll be heading home on Monday morning.

Exploring Whidbey Island

Laura Domela — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:11:51 +0000

For our lunch break today we decided to do a little island exploring. First we drove back up to Oak Harbor and picked up some fresh Penn Cove mussels for dinner tonight (and some salmon for dinner tomorrow night), and a few clams I'll toss in with the mussels for variety.

Then we checked out the other state park I researched online (Fort Ebey State Park) to see how it would be to stay there. It's wooded, on a bluff but with no view spots, but very pretty. Sites looked like they had water/electric, and were large and pretty and private. We both had 3 bars of Edge from AT&T. There's a beach, and a gun battery, and lots of trails. Looks good. I'd stay there.

We also went to check out the Lavender Wind Farm (gorgeous, lots of beautiful, fragrant lavender, chickens, cool gifty things in the gift shop, including lavender cheddar and fresh eggs). Cyrus (whose blog is here), commented on one of our recent posts and told us about a very cool organization called Harvest Hosts. For $35 bucks a year you can stay overnight at one of many, many participating farms and wineries (as long as you're self-contained and don't require hookups) with no nightly fee. The stay limit is usually 24 hours unless you buy a bunch of wine/produce/eggs and maybe help out a little on the farm and then ask nicely if you can stay longer, please pretty please. Rockin' great idea, isn't it? These are the kinds of places we like to visit anyway, so I plan to be using this frequently. Anyway, the lavender farm looked lovely…the RV parking spot may even have a slight water view…couldn't tell.

After the lavender farm we headed south to go check out the town of Langley. Adorable little town! (Thanks Kathy H. for the tip!)

We returned to camp, worked a bit more, then took the Hobie out for an evening sail. Well guess what? We ended up directly under the pattern for another round of F18 touch-n-goes. Sailing. In nature.

Remember, this was taken with my iPhone. Which makes things looks way further away than they really were.

We saw about 6 harbor seals and one porpoise. Here's where we went:

Now, I'm going to cook up some mussels in the classic French, steamed with garlic, butter, white wine method, probably with some garlic bread and salad.

Today’s Mish Mash of Events

Laura Domela — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:07:47 +0000

Here's what we did today.

We had breakfast (fresh farm eggs from the farm market yesterday on top of steamed spinach, bacon, and a sprinkle of pecorino). And here's another ship, of course:

We drove into Cathlamet to have lunch and stop by the market. Here's an osprey and nest on top of a bridge on the way:

Passion flower outside the cafe where we ate:

A cool little free library kiosk in Cathlamet:

Then we put on the wetsuits and dry jackets and went for a sail. We started out so calmly…meandering back through Steamboat Slough with just a little bit of wind in the sails, kickin' back quietly watching osprey, heron, eagle. And then, soon as we rounded the tip of that island all hell broke loose as we headed back to camp. HUGE swells, TONS of wind (around 18mph). The Hobie handled (and Kevin handled the Hobie) very well in all that craziness. See here where it looks like just a straight line back to the Airstream? Heh, yeah. It's a bit misleading.

Sure was fun though!

This afternoon’s sail track

Laura Domela — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 21:44:23 +0000

Distance:		16.6 miles
Elapsed Time:		3:34:31
Avg Speed:		4.6 mph
Max Speed:		8.7 mph

We made ourselves a little figure eight around Welsh Island and Tenasillahe Island this afternoon. Fun! We saw plenty of ospreys, several herons, and one very large bald eagle. This is the southern tip of Tenasillahe Island:

This little cabin is in Red Slough (the slough that divides the two islands, where there is basically nothing else…) Kevin and I always just call it the Deliverance Cabin:

Afternoon Sail in the Columbia River

Laura Domela — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:30:57 +0000

We headed out with the Hobie this afternoon to do a little sailing. The wind had picked up but it wasn't looking quite as rough as it was yesterday (um, whitecaps and 3 foot swells, wind 18mph? Yeah, we were soaked).

It was beautiful out this afternoon and we headed down river for a bit before we decided to take a little detour through a slough that cuts through Welsh Island (see our track below). The Hobie Tandem Island is so good for everything around here. You can sail as much as you want (top speed today was 7.7mph), and then if you want to go explore somewhere like these little back sloughs and there's little or no wind, just furl the sail and pop in the mirage drives and pedal a bit. We never needed the mirage drives today because the wind remained our friend even through the "swampy back roads".

Dry camping status report, Day 3:
Solar/battery state of charge: 90%
Fresh water: 3/4
Gray water: 1/8
Black water: 3/8 (because I've been pouring dishwater in there occasionally)
AT&T cell service is good
Verizon data card working fine
No Sprint service whatsoever, as usual
The park has showers so we're taking advantage of those.

A busy day of ship watching here at Skamokawa

Laura Domela — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:39:27 +0000

People standing on the shore while the Pontovremon passes in front of them:

Just as this guy — Morning Menad, below — was coming in (carrying Hyundais from Tacoma) we noticed it was going to pass an outbound ship — the Alaskan Explorer, an oil tanker headed to Valdez AK from Longview WA. Kevin decided to grab the hex and get some aerial footage. I took stills with my Nikon. I think his footage will win.

Our neighbor taking a photo of his granddaughter with ships:

The Alaskan Explorer was loooonnnnnggg (about 950 feet long!)

(Kevin's hexacopter in the upper left, following the Alaskan Explorer)

This was yesterday afternoon:

This is such a great place to dry camp. It's so quiet, with the occasional visual drama of an enormous ship that looks like it's passing only 30 feet from the sand outside our window. We've got a great spot to keep our boat, and sailing here in the Columbia is gorgeous. (You can see both directions for miles, so it's easy to make sure there are no ships coming while you cross the ship channel.) Also, you can keep track of the incoming and outgoing traffic here at The Ship Report.

Sailing on Paulina Lake

Laura Domela — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:52:25 +0000

After we got back from the drive up to Paulina Peak and the Obsidian Flow, I took my mom out on the Hobie for a nice sail around Paulina Lake. She snapped these photos and since I'm always the one behind the camera on this blog, I figured I'd post these. Thanks mom!

(Posted by Laura)