Sept 2-4. Once again, CYC, STYC and PSCC collaborated for a long weekend joint cruise. In all 22 people participated in the Labor Day journey to Gig Harbor. The CYC boats took off Saturday midday with the flood pushing anywhere from .5 - 2 knots favorable. The weather was beautiful, but not enough sustained wind to bother raising sails. Red Sky came down from Edmonds and Those Guys took off from Shilshole, arriving in Gig Harbor in the late afternoon and rafting up just outside Arabella’s Landing. Trips to shore for sightseeing were quick and easy with the public dock so close, but ice cream was nowhere to be found! With just 2 boats, it didn’t feel like a potluck, so we cooked separately, but ate together. STYC’s Odysseus had a slip at Arabella and kayaked out after dinner with a bottle of champagne. Meanwhile, 2 PSCC boats got in around 3 pm, asked around and found a CYC raft up and joined them. Turned out it was CYC-Tacoma! STYC boat Yonder and PSCC boat Boog spent the night in Quartermaster Harbor.

Sunday was cloudy and cool with some rain and some sun breaks - the perfect backdrop for exploring the little PNW harbor village of Gig Harbor. Gondolas passed by on a regular schedule and a great blue heron joined the raft up briefly. STYC boats Keala and Yonder got in around 1 pm and anchored separately nearby. PSCC boat Boog joined the raft up around 3 pm. A gusty (up to 20k or so) south wind made for an exciting sail over from Vashon for those boats. Nine STYC members met up at Heritage Distillery for a reportedly fascinating 2 .5 hr class, tasting and extra cocktail. A hearty lunch at the Tides Tavern beforehand comes highly recommended. Meanwhile, a group of 9 CYC and PSCC members enjoyed a pleasant evening hang out on Red Sky (thank you to hosts Ed & Liz!). We were joined by the crew from Yonder (STYC) after the tasting. The party broke up at about 9:30 pm with everyone retiring to their respective boats.

Monday’s ebb started around 9 am bringing the 2 CYC boats quickly back north. The wind had once again settled to negligible up the west side of Vashon, but a light breeze in the late morning north of Vashon made it possible to sail for a little bit. All in All - a very pleasant weekend and a great experience cross pollinating with other clubs.

On August 5/6, nine boats and about 25 people had a fabulous Commodore Gibson race/cruise to Port Ludlow and return.  The weather forecast was for beautiful weather but light breeze, and it was spot on.  Saturday morning was sort of clear / sort of foggy (you could see the sun overhead, but patchy fog on the water).  But more critically there was zero breeze.  

The Commodore Gibson rules allow a solution to this problem – it allows for a second chance start line at Apple Tree Point (just NE of Kingston) so we all motored there.  There was a modest north breeze there, so we were able to start and have a pleasant sail towards the Foulweather Bluff finish line.  Note the use of the word “towards” rather than “to”.  Even though we had favorable tide, the wind shut off here and there (but held in other places), so that ultimately Charlotte, Those Guys, Wildfire, Altair, and Wind Dancer were able to finish before the wind totally shut down.  The other boats wisely decided to motor the rest of the way.

Once there, Dave Dumont’s Beneteau 44.7 “Monte Solaro” hosted the group to adult beverages and treats, prior to a potluck dinner in the big tent at the Port Ludlow marina.  Theme music for the evening’s festivities was provided by a Spotify channel that featured pirates singing sea chanties.  Who knew that there was such a thing?  That was followed by the ever-popular white elephant prize exchange that featured a wealth of regifted items from previous years.

Sunday breakfast featured communal dining for those who didn’t over indulge on “kamikazes” (the prior evening’s beverage of choice).  The first choice start line at Foulweather Bluff had conditions of zero wind and a 2-knot adverse tide (a twofer), so we motored to the secondary start line, which was just south of Point No Point.  This likewise had zero breeze and plenty of adverse current, so we motored to our last chance start line at Apple Tree Point.  Here there was a light south breeze and minimal current, so it was time to go sailing.

And sail we did, with all the boats making it back to the Meadow Point finish line in lovely conditions.

Results can be found on the CYC race results webpage – http://racing.cycseattle.org/results/registrants-results.html

Make sure to mark your calendars to attend next year’s race/cruise on a summer date TBD.

July 29-30.  A light Northerly let us reach across the sound and then run through Agate Pass to the entrance of Manzanita Bay.  There we anchored and waited for our racing crew member who was coming from Port Orchard in her own boat.  Unfortunately no CYC members joined us and so they missed out on a nice day sail and winery adventure. 

After our crew member arrived and rafted to our boat, we went ashore to the Dock Street public access point and walked the 0.8 miles to the 11 Winery.  The walk is mostly along Day road in the shade, where we saw horses, big trees, and some fierce dogs.  The winery was busy, but we were able to score some chairs and sit under the trees enjoying our flite of 5 of their wines to taste.  Cindy brought some snacks to go with the wine.  For entertainment there was a duo singing South American music and playing guitars.  The woman had a great voice and the man was a phenomenal guitar player.

The evening started with a light breeze into the bay, but by 8pm it was calm and remained calm overnight and into the morning.  We had the usual grilled dinner on the boat and the special Outlaw blue berry pancakes for breakfast. 

Returning to Shilshole we motored up-stream against the flood tide through Agate Pass and then encountered a fleet of native canoers in Port Madison.  They were headed down the Sound.  The predicted cool morning and drizzle did not materialize, and the trip was comfortable.

Another fantastic cruise in the books! 9 boats and 5 cars made up the Mystery Bay fleet for this year, 20+ people in all. Sailing on Saturday was gorgeous with favorable winds and tides and a lovely sunny afternoon/evening. Mystery Bay State Park now has mooring balls for a small fee so there wasn't a raft up this year with most boats choosing a mooring ball or a slip on the dock. Participating were: CYC boats Those Guys, Raven, Paya & Wind Dancer; STYC boats Red Hot, Jou Jou & Allegra; & PSCC boats Bardo and Imagine.  A spontaneous potluck broke out on the dock featuring Ken’s fantastic “Seattle Dogs” and a few other contributions.

Sunday started out overcast with a 10:00 am 3 part tour of the fabulous Mystery Bay goat farm including the milking portion given by the youngest member of the goat farm family, a young boy of about 9 yrs old. The other 2 portions were cheese-making & pasturing. Around noon, a small tractor parade started this year with just 6 tractors but lots of spirit! Once again the kids were invited to ride in the bucket loader of the Mystery Bay Farm tractor. A sunny afternoon was spent at Marrowstone Winery sampling 7 different varieties of their best wines and with a lovely spread of appetizers. Most everyone participated at one point in a never-ending game of bocce ball in the tall grass. 4 dinghies, 1 paddle board and one kayak participated in the human-powered dinghy race, with prizes for all! Sunday concluded with another potluck on the dock and then a small campfire in the park. Cruisers from CYC, STYC and PSCC had a lot of fun together.

Positive tides for the entire day on Monday meant that our departures were staggered. Winds and tides were from the south all day Monday, but another beautiful day out on the water. All-in-all a terrific year for our annual Memorial Day cruise. Join us next year!

Four intrepid boats and crews made the epic voyage to Beautiful Langley-By-The-Sea this past weekend (May 6-7) for a delightful cruise.  Boats and sailors were Charlotte (Jane & Al), Outlaw (Cindy & Derek), Pacifica (relatively new CYC members Alya & Vasilii), and Wind Dancer (Jennifer & Chris). Saturday was mostly an exercise in motoring.  We did see the STYC RTS fleet dead in the water on the west side of the sound, and felt that motoring to Langley was the better choice.

It wasn't exactly summer, but it was quite pleasant.  We had pre-dinner snacks on the dock, then headed uptown to find a place for dinner.  Langley is a lovely little town, somewhat frozen in time from the 1920s.  We had a delicious meal at Prima Bistro, then post dinner beverages and dessert on Wind Dancer.  Many sea stories of epic voyages past and other lies were exchanged.

For 25 participants, CYC had a great cruise to Kingston the last weekend in April. We had nothing but sunshine with a moderate breeze all day Saturday. Then on Sunday the breeze was perfect for sailing, we had plenty of sun in the morning and afternoon, but around 1:00 pm it rained for perhaps 20 minutes before clearing again. Just long enough for this writer to put his foulies on, and then catch the rainbow. 

We had nine boats make the rendezvous including Scott and Linda Seefeldt’s brand new Targa 37 motor vessel Apex. Ron and Peggy Watt on Solstice, and David and Gyung Huntsman on Lolo arrived a day early, and Friday evening at the Kingston Cove Yacht Club house we enjoyed meeting members of the Emerald Rose Yacht Club that was also having their April rendezvous at the Kingston marina.

Saturday, the marina staff grilled hot dogs, onions, and buns for us as their way of saying thanks to the visiting two yacht clubs. Many of our boats got in early Saturday, and all commented on their nice sail. We had Karen Arndt and Erik Noonberg arrive by Washington State Ferry, plus Hans Reinhardt on Eté was able to get outside crew support both Saturday and Sunday by taking advantage of the alternative transportation available via the Kingston ferry. By midafternoon Saturday all our boats had arrived, and we had pre-dinner snacks and drinks on the dock in the gazebo adjacent to our slips. We were inspired by the neighboring Rose Yacht Club’s Annual Margarita Challenge.  A tradition I think we may adopt during a future CYC cruise.

Our club’s Saturday dinner was at the Kingston Ale House where 19 of us met. Later that evening, most of the adults met on the dock’s gazebo where we enjoyed drinks, more snacks, and witty conversation until at least 10:00 pm. Sunday morning many enjoyed having breakfast in the gazebo, and probably an equal number also visited the local creperie for breakfast.

The boats not already mentioned in attendance with crews include Altair, Sea Elegans, Whale Shadow, Wind Dancer, and Outlaw. On their return cruise, crew on at least three of the boats were blessed with orca sightings. With beautiful weather, a star-filled evening, lots of social interaction, and orca sightings, this April Kingston cruise proved to be a wonderful event for many. 

- David & Gyung Huntsman
S/V Lolo

If you were on the water in Puget Sound on Saturday, you may remember it being a light wind day. It certainly was when six boats “sailed” over to Port Blakely. There was an amazing view of downtown Seattle back lit by the Cascade mountains while the resident J-pod swam east from near Blakely rocks. Later that day a transient pod swam north out of Colvos Passage. While the sailing may not have been great, the whale watching was classic.

Six CYC member boats rafted up for the night: S/Vs Monte Solaro, Altair, Gusto, Sola, Caza Viento, and Whale Shadow. We were also joined by M/V Call Back, possible future CYC members. 

In standard cruising style, the afternoon and evening was spent relaxing and socializing. Gusto provided their sailing dinghy, Little Wing, for enjoyment and many people sailed around the bay in her. Everyone that sailed the dinghy seemed to return as their younger and perhaps best self. It's almost magical, what a small boat can do for a person.

All of the anchors held firm for the night. In the late morning, many people took a walk along the forested trails in Fort Ward park. The raft up started to split up around three with four boats returning to Shilshole after five.

(Only six boats obviously pictured … but if you zoom in through the shrouds of the blue hulled boat — Whale Shadow — you’ll see one more coming in to join the raft up. William Bonner took this photo with his drone. He also filmed this video — https://youtu.be/OYKI-3FckoY. I believe he said this was his favorite photo.)

The January Land Cruise was a success with 25 cruisers, including 6 kids and 3 prospective CYC members. We met at Woodland Park Zoo to see the Zoo Lanterns. This year the temperature was 56 degrees, and dry other than a welcoming sprinkle and a departing rain shower. We enjoyed wandering the trails together to see all the lantern animals, birds, and insects. This time one of our favorites was the interactive, talking, giant-sized parrots. It was fun to connect with each other after the holidays. Following the lantern tour, we moved on to dessert at nearby Al La Mode Pies!

CYC’s annual Commodore Gibson race/cruise to Port Ludlow took place on August 6, with the follow on Gibson race back to Shilshole the next day.  Seven CYC boats (Those Guys, Charlotte, Gratitude, Wind Dancer, Altair, Comet, and Second Sun) sailed in the best conditions we’ve seen in years.  There was a nice north breeze both days, with high temperatures in the 80s – it just doesn’t get better.

CG is a pursuit race with the slowest handicap boat starting first, and subsequent boats starting behind by the amount of time they owe the first starter.  Since you get your entire handicap time on the front end, the faster boats are catching up to the early starters through the entire race.  So in theory, every boat would arrive at the finish line at the same time. 

Saturday featured zero breeze at Meadow Point at the appointed 9:00am start time, so the fleet motored to Apple Tree Point (just north of Kingston) to a backup start line.  A light northerly had filled in, so we were off and sailing.   As the breeze built to 10 plus, it quickly became apparent that the J35 Those Guys (Jenny Heins and Tim Huse plus friends) was the boat to beat, which no one did.  They were first to finish, followed by Charlotte (Quest 30 – Jane and Al Johnson), Altair (Sceptre 41 – Suzette Connolly and Paul Baker plus friends), Gratitude (Hanse 415 – Karen and David Barnes), Wind Dancer (Tartan 3800 – Chris McMuldroch and friends), Comet (Jeanneau SO36 – Monica Howell and friends), and Second Sun (Young Sun 43 – Kate and Andy Bereson and kids).

After finishing at Foulweather Bluff, the boats sailed / motored to Port Ludlow, and were able to appreciate what a gorgeous day it was, take in Mt Rainier and Mt Baker in their snow-capped glory, and see how bare the Olympics are now after a string of ninety-degree days melted most of their snow.

Even though it was a lovely day and evening, Karen and David Barnes treated the fleet to Dark and Stormies on Gratitude and the adjoining dock area.  That was followed by a bring-your-own dinner under the marina tent, a shared dessert table, and finally some fiddle, mandolin, and guitar tunes.

Sunday’s return race to Shilshole (the Gibson race) had excellent breeze to start, and it carried the boats all the way to the finish at Meadow Point.  A favorable tide assisted the entire way, and most boats sailed the 17.75 miles in 2.5 to 3.5 hours.  As the highest handicapped boat, Second Sun was first to start, and led most of the way until Altair and then Charlotte caught them between Edmonds and the Highlands.  The finish was remarkably tight with Charlotte finishing first, Altair 2 minutes behind, then Second Sun a few minutes further back.  They were followed in close order by Those Guys, Gratitude, Wind Dancer, and Comet.  And if there was an award for coolest new spinnaker, Altair would win hands down for their bright red asym with a very cool horse graphic on it.

This year’s Commodore Gibson was one for the ages.  You need to get a piece of the fun at next year’s event. 

Jenny (the trip leader) organized the weekend for us CYC cruisers, as she has for previous years, but then, concerned about possible COVID symptoms, she had to bow out at the last minute. What was originally expected to be an 8 boat, 30 person joint CYC/STYC raft-up was whittled down by a variety of challenges (not just COVID) to 3 boats/6 people and another 7 or so people driving in. Since this was a joint cruise, Kristina Southard from STYC was able to keep the cat herd together in Mystery Bay!  Thank you to Kristina for all the organizing work and for driving up and keeping all together for our activities!

What follows is joint report from Derek (Outlaw) and Chris (Wind Dancer). Thanks for sending your notes fellas!

SATURDAY: Wind Dancer (Chris and Jennifer) and Outlaw (Cindy and Derek) left their home moorage Saturday morning and Pert (Scott) was in Port Ludlow already. There was little wind in the morning and soon the tide turned against us, so we motored all the way in the occasional drizzle. Wind Dancer crew were a little perplexed that the Kilisut Harbor channel markers seemed to out of sync. on the chart plotter compared to when they arrived at them visually on both entering and leaving the “S” curves.  Also, they were comparing Navionics on our phone compared to Navionics on their chart plotter, and the depths did not agree, so wonder if there is setting on the phone that made some tide adjustment???

Wind Dancer got to Mystery Bay first and set the anchor, joined an hour or so later by Outlaw. Scott was sailing Pert in the breeze that came up in the afternoon, and joined us making a 3 boat raft swinging on a single anchor. Around 6 the Westerly piped up to a "moderate breeze", which subsided around midnight. We enjoyed a potluck on board Wind Dancer. 

SUNDAY: In the morning we went ashore where we discovered that the State Parks now consider dinghies to be "vessels" and hence eligible for the mooring fee at the dock.  To add insult to injury, the fee is by boat length, but has a minimum of $15 even if your boat is only 8 feet.

On shore we were met by Kristina from the Sloop Tavern YC and a number of Sloop Tavern people who came in cars, as well as by John and Susan from CYC driving in from Port Townsend. The organized activities for the day started with a visit to the Goat Farm. The girl who usually gives the tour was visiting Leavenworth so her dad gave the tour. It turns out running a goat dairy is more complicated than you might think. Others have done this tour before, but it was my first time and I found it pretty interesting. The tour ended with tasting (and purchasing) some of the cheese and yogurt hand made by owner Rachael.

Next up was the tractor parade, which is always fun, and this year had about 7 tractors of all sorts and sizes. Then we got in the cars and went to the Marrowstone Island Winery, where we all bought bottles of wine and took them out to the big firepit where Kristina broke out appetizers for everyone. The owner James came out and gave a personal description of each of the wines. It was cool at the winery, but the fire kept us warm and it was quite lovely.

Later in the day it started to rain, so we cancelled the dinghy race and evening potluck cookout at the park, and the mariners returned to the shelter of their boats while the car people dispersed to the 4 winds. Another potluck on Wind Dancer, and another late day Westerly, not as strong as the previous evening, and calming by midnight.

MONDAY: Because of the falling tide (heading to -1.6 at 1130) the boats left Mystery Bay early. Wind Dancer was pleased to note that the 44 lb Vulcan anchor with 90 feet of chain held our three boat raft for 2 nights with a couple of 180 swing changes, and two evenings of 14 knot winds.  It came up with a lot of mud.  I think about 6 feet of chain was also buried, as it also had a ton of mud on it!

Wind Dancer followed a trimaran sailboat out from Fort Flagler on Monday. They were bicycle pedaling from the trampolines doing 3 knots. Wind Dancer headed to Port Townsend, Outlaw took the Admiralty Inlet route to Seattle, and Pert went through the canal on the way back to Everett. Another no-wind day, but it was possible to find current relief some of the time along the shores.  It was pretty cool still, but at least no more rain.

Wind Dancer anchored between the ferry landing and the wooden boat center at Port Townsend for the morning on Monday – it was very calm.  So, we had a chance to try out our new dinghy.  This is our first RIB, and it rode like a Cadillac, but took lots more throttle to plane than our 1990 Avon Sport boat with wood floors! We had a nice lunch in the Marina Café at Point Hudson.  In the afternoon we brought the boat into the Point Hudson marina.  We walked through town, and also up on top of the bluffs.  Our friend Leroy has his Grand Banks in the Co-op boat yard at the other end of town, so he came by, and we all had take-out fish and chips in the cockpit with some nice late afternoon sunshine warming us.

During the afternoon Monday some of the Swiftsure boats came through, including the winner “Korina Korina”, as well as “Cherokee”, and “Beltane”(Sydney’s ride).

TUESDAY: Tuesday morning Jennifer walked the beach out to Point Wilson. Then about 10:30 we left the marina with Jennifer conning the channel that was only 8 feet deep with the coming -1.7 foot tide!  The channel bottom sand was dry against the West breakwater pilings! After that we motor sailed in the sunshine against a strong ebb, and with a 15 knot Northerly pushing us South down Admiralty Inlet. We got back to Shilshole about 4 PM.

 

OTHER NOTES: Wind Dancer discovered that with the fridge, chart plotter, and now the furnace running all night the decade old AGM batteries get run down in just 24 hours at anchor!  Time to start rationing battery power, and think about new batteries for the future.  The diesel furnace was really nice to warm us up, but it does take power for the various fans, and ignition and water pump.  Scott has a Firefly battery on “Pert”, but these innovative high energy density carbon – foam batteries are no longer available, as the company went bankrupt when they did not get any more government startup funding.  Too bad!

 

Jennifer has been scheming additional new CYC weekend cruise destinations to have a 2 year rotation, instead of the same ones each year.