Wednesday, May 8, 2013

First report from Alaska cruise from club member Mark Bastin

We cast off on Monday (6 May) around 3 pm. Glorious weather and a clean hull allowed us to sail at 6 knots in shorts an Tshirts!  We had to beat our way up though and eventually the wind died and the temperature dropped and we put on our layers of clothing and started motoring. At night we had strong wind against for a little while and Laszlo bravely motored into the spray while Jenny had gone to bed and I was dozing inside. We dropped the hook at 44 past midnight in Port Townsend. The inside of the boat was a disorganized mess and I end up sleeping on a pile of all of our boat cushions on top of the lowered table. I sank in between them in the rolly anchorage and had a miserable night. We managed to leave at half past 8 and sailed right out. We even put the spinnaker up but half an hour later there was even too little wind for that and we motored to Friday Harbor. (We went through Cattle Pass at 10 knots.) We wandered around town but didn't make it to the post office during their island opening hours. I have to pick something up and am writing this while I wait for them to open this Wednesday morning.  Then we reorganized all of our stuff inside the boat (I'll have to keep sleeping on the dinette) and started the grill to feed the ravenous crew pictured below. Just in time or I would have had a mutiny to deal with!

1 comment: