A couple months ago I had the opportunity to help my friend Jimmy deliver a sailboat from San Juan Island to his home in Kirkland. In western Washington state, there is water everywhere, and consequently, lots and lots of boats. I have had the good fortune to participate in a few sailing races while living here and enjoyed them immensely, so I immediately jumped on the invitation.
The trip would be fairly simple, all we had to do was sail out of Friday Harbor, across the Puget Sound, and into Kirkland. It was to take a day, at most. However, unexpected things happen out on the water. Perhaps an hour into the Sound, a heavy haze rolled in astonishingly quick. We were totally blind, we couldn't see more than 10 or 20 meters in any direction. Though it doesn't seem like an immediate hazard, being blind on a boat is a real problem. If a shipping container or other heavy vessel was headed straight for us, we wouldn't see it until it was right on us. Jimmy decided we better turn around, and either wait out the fog or take a different route.
After turning around, it became clear that the fog was not going to let up. We decided to take a different route around Whidbey Island. We headed towards Deception Pass, a small waterway under a bridge connecting the Sound and other bodies of water to the east. There is a natural current that runs through Deception Pass caused by the changing of the tide. The current is so strong, it creates whirlpools and eddies that suck boats right through, rocking and tossing as they go. Once through the pass, the fog was starting to lighten up, and we could start making our way to Kirkland at a decent clip.
There wasn't enough wind to sail. Though originally we were prepared with a crew of four to man the boat, we were now relying solely on the motor. With only one person needed at the helm, the other crew were free to relax and enjoy the setting sun and briny freshness of the water. We each took turns steering, napping, and sun bathing on the deck. Heading south through Skagit Bay and Saratoga passage and losing sunlight, we decided to dock in Langley for the night, at the southern end of Whidbey Island.
The next morning, the sun rose strong over the water and burned off a low mist. We took a short trip into Langley to get some supplies for breakfast, got back to the boat, and ate slowly. We weren't in a terrible rush, and passed the morning swimming around the boat and sunbathing. About midday we again made way for Kirkland, sailing south towards the locks which connect the Sound to more eastern bodies of water like Lake Washington. The locks are an interesting piece of technology. They consist of two gates in a channel that function like dams against the freshwater upstream. One gate is opened, and boats are ushered in and tied against the walls of the channel. The gate is then closed behind them, and water slowly let in from the forward gate, which raises the water level to be even with that of the lake. The forward gate is then completely lowered, and the boats are free to travel the freshwater lakes and bays of Washington.
The rest of the way to Kirkland was easy. We got in at sunset, tied up, and congratulated ourselves on a job well done. But really, it was a privilege to be invited on the boat. Every time I sail, I learn a lot, and this trip reminded me of a few good lessons:
- Be prepared: before we got into the locks, I didn't know my knots well enough, and I wasn't sure exactly how to handle the procedure. This caused some problems for the dock workers and made our crew look bad. I should have asked the right questions and been more informed before the trip to avoid looking clueless.
- Be adaptable: in the immortal words of Robert Burns, the best laid plans of mice and men and sailors oft go awry. Or something like that. In any case. being adaptable is important. Things don't always turn out exactly how we expect them to. We might expect a clear day and get fog on the Sound, or we might expect a solid job and then be laid off. Whatever the situation, being able to immediately change course in order to beat the circumstances is a valuable skill.
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