9 boats cruised to Port Orchard this weekend on an apparently record breaking temperature weekend! There temperatures hovered at plus or minus 100. 4 boats left Shilshole and Elliott Bay at 11 AM Saturday for a gentle sail downwind towards Restoration Point, and then the turn into Rich Passage at the South end of Bainbridge Island. Around Blake Island we saw 4 freighters anchored waiting for slips to unload cargo. Joyride led, Wind Dancer, Jubilado, and Sea Geek through the passage, while Serendipity came through an hour later, and Nancy Louise sailed across later in the afternoon after waiting a couple of hours to come out the Ballard Locks.
With a gentle breeze cooling Port Orchard, we met up with Maggie May, Amelia, and Anakena at the guest dock where we mingled, and met friends we hadn’t seen since 2019 - prior to the pandemic. Some crews, went ashore to find an air conditioned pub, and an appreciated cool ice cream shop. Instead of tramping up to the hot shore for a potluck, we enjoyed hors d-oeuvres in each other cockpits. Later, tired, we all slept with hatches open until the cool morning arrived.
Sunday the 20 of us gathered under the shade of the picnic shelter of the party float for breakfast of eggs, cobbler, bread, and other fun food. As the temperature rose to about 80 degrees, we began our departures for home. Maggie May headed for a week in South Sound, while Anakena provisioned for a month in the San Juan Islands. Boats headed for Seattle, were swept out by a 4 knot ebb current through Rich Passage. As we headed out into Puget Sound we were greeted with a really strong Northerly thermal of up to 25 knots! On hearing this our commodore thought we might have had a ripping good sail back up the sound, but on Wind Dancer we were pretty tired, and just enjoyed the shade of the bimini, and the nice ebb tide with the occasional spray over the bow as we motored home.
Shilshole was about 90 degrees, and at home away from the water, it was at least 10 degrees warmer. Two boats were air conditioned, but we were all lucky to feel the breeze come through the hatches both days at Port Orchard. I never thought it before, but we may add a ‘how to stay cool cruising in Puget Sound – air conditioning, fans, hatches and wind scoops’ topic to our list of cruising topics!
This was our 8th weekend cruise of the year. Each one has been enjoyable. Our next cruise will be for a low key fireworks July 3rd anchored in Poulsbo, after which more of us head off for summer cruises, until we return for the Commodore and Gibson races / cruise to Port Ludlow in August. Our July and August Second Thursday cruising socials will be on Zoom, maybe we will have a clubhouse event as well, but we expect to return to clubhouse pot lucks in September.
Thank you everyone for a fun flotilla sail out, and very enjoyable relaxing weekend.
Stay cool this week, and Happy cruising!
Chris and Jennifer
Wind Dancer
