Barkley Sound Day 2 – Our Asymmetrical handles more wind than we can…

Well, today we got up around 8am, slowly started to prep, filled the water tank and then got ready to shove off.  It was blowing 12-14kts from the south as we untied from the dock which makes it harder to avoid bumping the boat next to us.   Luckily Devon’s dad coincidentally showed up as we were untying and helped us get going.  This is the first time I’ve taken the boat out since we had the prop re-adjusted.  So far so good, not as much prop wash pulling the rudder while under power so that’s good.

We made decent time through the bridges and locks, about 2 hours total, and we lucked out with the train bridge being up.   One thing I did as we departed Kirkland was to set the fuel tank manifold to pull from the smaller auxiliary tank and return to the main tank through the engine.  I figured I’d like to use the fuel that’s in the small tank and then refill it with fresh fuel.   I knew I had to check the tank levels repeatedly to ensure that the main tank didn’t overflow and the aux tank didn’t run out.   I checked repeatedly until we got to about the University Bridge and then I forgot to check for a while.   And then the engine died, because we ran the aux tank empty.   Crap!   So I switched the fuel feed to the main tank, pushed the prime pump on the engine a bunch of times and got it restarted.   Crisis averted.   We had another brief interruption leaving the ship canal because we lost a fender off the stern.  Luckily another sailboat that was behind us kindly picked it up.   We exchanged the fender with the boat hook and then made our way into Shilshole for fuel.  Since the wind was still blowing pretty good from the south I spun the boat around and let the wind push us against the dock to tie up.

Two new things:

• Diesel pump #2 at Shilshole is a larger nozzle, that wouldn’t fit into the fill for our tank. It’s the only one there that has the larger nozzle.   So we had to switch to pump #1 which worked fine.
• The aux tank being the empty one, and the main tank being nearly full, we only filled the aux tank. I had previously estimated that tank as holding about 40gallons of fuel.   Turns out I was way off.  It’s more like 20 gallons, maybe 25.  This puts our total fuel tankage at 85gallons.

We left Shilshole around 1pm and made for the North.   We powered up while cleaning up the fenders and lines, cockpit, etc, then since we had about 13-15kts of wind from the South we put up the Asymmetrical and shut down the engine.  Pretty soon we were averaging 7kts on our way north, with just one sail up.  Then things got a bit hairy because as we neared Point-No-Point the wind increased to 18kts.  Going dead downwind with the Asymmetrical we weren’t heeling, but the boat was sort of swerving as the waves, currents, sail motion, and wind was moving the boat around.  Then the wind increased to 20kts, then 22kts, then started gusting to 26 and 27kts.  At this point it was uncomfortable because the boat was sort of rocking back and forth as it swerved while running downwind at 9+kts through the water.   So we put out about half the main and doused the asymmetrical.   Still doing 7kts through the water with just part of the main out we brought out a little of the genoa, then as the wind slowed a bit let the rest of the two sails out.  As the wind fell more and the flood current strengthened we were only going about 3kts over ground, so we decided to motor for a while.  After that we made decent time to Port Townsend and arrived about 6pm.  Dropped anchor just south of the Ferry terminal and so far it’s pretty okay. For dinner we had saffron rice, salad, and BBQ steaks that turned out great with the Cab Franc we opened.   After dinner it was time for bed, after washing the dishes of course.  Now it’s raining, a sound I really like to listen to at night.   Tomorrow we make for Victoria.

• Anchored at Port Townsend, WA in 30 feet of water
• Engine Hours: 1411.2hrs – 1416.2hrs = 5 hours
• Max Boat Speed – 9.1kts (through the water)
• Max Wind Speed – 27kts from the South
• Water Consumption – 182/8 = 22gallons (including washing all the dishes)
• Distance Travelled – 42nm
• Fuel Purchased – 20gallons
• Barometer at 1009mb and holding, slightly dropping