Tawodi Sailing Adventures

The Captain went off to drive a big Brig, home again home again Jiggety Jig.

  My tour on the Lady Washington has ended and I am back home in San Diego on my own little boat.  I left Washington state early Saturday morning on my motorcycle and rode south down the coast.  I stopped in Arcada for breakfast then rolled on.  It was foggy on the 101 so I slid over to the 5 for a while, then back over to the 101 in the afternoon.  I made it thru Washington and Oregon by early evening and was in Crecent City for dinnertime.  I had a big ribeye steak and a baked potatoe then went off to find a hotel room.  Many hotels were sold out and those that had room wanted too much, so I just kept going south.  I made it to ‘drive thru tree road’ in the Redwoods at 2am, I stopped and laid my bike cover down as a ground cloth and slept in my clothes till about 04:30.  Then I woke up and kept going.  My parents mentioned they were going to be in Ventura, CA on Sunday and although I did stop for a nice breakfast, I made it to Ventura by 3pm.  I met up with my parents and we went out to a late lunch.  I had a double cheeseburger and a large milkshake, then we walked around until 4:pm when they checked into their hotel.  They continued walking but I went and slept in their room for an hour, then I showered and said my goodbyes.  Home was calling.  I made it to San Diego by 9:pm and was home in bed by 10.

I’ll miss adult summer camp and the great crew of the ‘Lady’, but it is good to be home. 

My latest tour of duty aboard the Lady Washington is drawing to a close, which means my time at adult summer camp is almost over.  We transited to Bellingham, WA yesterday from Blaine, WA.  We fired two cannons at the harbor entrance to announce our arrival, which is way more fun and effective than a horn.  Our time in Blaine passed quickly because we were having so much fun.  We were well supported by the locals, most conspicuously by Capt. Richard Sturgill and the crew of the Drayton Harbor Maritime organisation.  We were given a vehicle to use for provisioning and running around and to ferry both crews to the Birch Bay Waterslide Park on our crew training day, where we trained in water safety and learned about hydrodynamic friction, stability, inertia, buoyancy and water-tight integrity.  We also were shuttled to a party held by Capt. Richard and Co. in his backyard/bamboo forest.  They provided plenty of food and drink as well as great company and a fire pit which we hung around late into the night singing sea shantys, not to mention something like a gazillion chocolate chip cookies.  While in Blaine we also hosted dockside tours of the vessels and took groups out for adventure and sunset sails as well as our weekend battle-sails.  On the Saturday battle the Hawaiian Chiefton was on her game and won the day, so I handed over my sword to the other Captain.  On Sunday we redeemed ourselves and I earned my sword back.  It was returned polished, which was a pleasant surprise as it had tarnished somewhat during the circumnavigation of the southern ocean.  While in Blaine several of us took the opportunity to walk over to Canada, which was about a 1/4 mile away.  I walked around in Peace Park for a while the returned to my own country, which did not have pedestrian access at the border crossing so I had to go through secondary like a suspicious car.  After waiting in a line reminiscent of the DMV I was eventually cleared to return.  While waiting in line I could see our ships out the window of the Customs building.  We are here in Bellingham till Sunday when we leave for Annacortes and Family Camp in the San Juan islands, but I won’t be aboard.  My last day is Saturday when I turn the ship over to Capt. Jeremiah and return to Aberdeen where my motorcycle is stored.  Once I have my bike I’ll be riding down the coast back to San Diego and my own little boat/home.

Lake Union has been fun, but it’s time to leave.  We had our last sail this evening, Monday.  Last night was the last good night to go out on the town, because we’re underway early tomorrow morning, around 6:am.  Last night I walked up into the neighborhood where Kathleen used to live, under the shadow of the ZinoGen building, which we call the Zombi factory.  I found a great little bar called the Mars Bar, conjoined with the Venus Cafe.  The place wasn’t crowded, in fact there were only 3 customers when I walked in.  Soon the Kareoke started and we took turns singing songs to each other, bartender included.  After a while a few more people came in and it was clearly a local crowd, but they all went out of their way to make me feel welcome, including dedicating a group of nautical themed songs to me.  A fun last night.

Tomorrow we transit.  We must get out past the Fremont and Ballard bridges before 7:am because they won’t open during morning rush hour.  Once we get past the bridges, we go through the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and under the BNRR bridge to rejoin the Puget Sound.  We plan to go north up the inside of Whidby island and through Deception Pass.  The Pass should have slack water at 6:pm so that is our target time of passage.  From there we’ll pick a nice anchorage for the night.  The next day, Wednesday, we’ll finish the transit to Blaine, arriving in the afternoon sometime.  It should be a lovely ride.

The 4th of July holiday has passed us by and we, the crew of the tall-ship ‘Lady Washington’ survived it.  Saturday the captain of the ’Hawaiian Chiefton’ and I built a boat in about 2 hours for the Quick and Daring race, and then passed the torch to crew members for refinements so we could get underway for our afternoon charters with the big boats.  When we returned in the evening I was not satisfied with the water-tight integrity of the hull, so I reinforced it with duct tape.  One of my crew stayed late to paint the boat and by dark she looked great and ready to race.

Sunday, the 4th dawned and I discovered that the solvents in the paint had attacked the duct tape, it was all falling off.  I quickly borrowed a staple gun and fastened the tape with staples.  We had a morning charter and a battle sail in the afternoon.  By the afternoon Lake union was a zoo.  They had blocked off half the lake with the fireworks barge and safety perimeter and the other half was filled with drinking boaters at anchor.  I have sailed through ridiculously crowded anchorages before, but not with a 208 ton tall-ship.  There were some close calls, and I mean CLOSE.

Toward the end of our battle-sail, wherein Captain Jimmy of the ‘Chiefton’ and I teamed up against the drunken anchorage, which we called the ‘Jimmy Buffet Fleet’, the Quick and Daring race began.  We had each left a crew member behind to race the boat we had built so we left off firing on the anchorage and proceeded to the race course for the Quick and Daring.  The fleet of quick built dingies got off the line and our boat and crew was fast downwind, no matter where they wanted to go.  They struggled with the second leg of the three leg course, so we swooped in with the 112′ Brig and towed them upwind to the finish, while barging the course and firing cannons at the rest of the fleet.  They disqualified us for cheating, but we cheated with style and everyone seemed to enjoy the show and the spirit of fun.  Later, at 8:pm, we got underway a for a third time that day with a group of spectators aboard for the fireworks show, which didn’t start until 10:15pm.  The show was fantastic but the traffic was fully insane.  We somehow made it back to the dock without any collisions just before midnight.  It was an 18 hour day for all aboard, but fun just the same.

Next weekend we have a Pirate-themed wedding, a ‘Make a Wish’ charter and more battle sailing.  We’ll be doing dockside tours, maintenance, and afternoon adventure sails until then.  The Center for Wooden Boats has been a great host and there certainly were some lovely boats here throughout the weekend festival.  On tuesdays they hold the Lake Union Duck Dodge, a version of Beer-can racing.  On wednesdays the power boats come out en mass for a Drink and Drift type of gathering.  All of this with sea-planes coming and going, it’s quite a show.

I am onboard the tall-ship ‘Lady Washington’ and we are here at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union in Seattle.  There is a festival this holiday weekend and it is fun to be a part of the activities.  Yesterday, the 2nd of July there was a big barbeque and ice-cream social.  The ice-cream was served aboard the tugboat ‘Arthur Foss’.  Afterward there was chanty singing aboard both the ‘Adventuress’ and the ‘Hawaiian Chiefton’.  I have to give the nod to the ‘Chiefton’ for being more realistic, if less lyrical.  Today we have a battle-sail in the afternoon, but before that we begin construction on our entry for the ‘Quick and Daring’ race.  We must construct a boat primarily of cellulose in a short period of time and tomorrow we will race said boat against the other entries.  We are the Peoples’ entry.  All other competitors have been prepairing for months.  We went out last night and bought some plywood.  Our design, which had to be submitted for approval yesterday was scrawled on the back of a scrap of paper late in the day.  Mostly the design exists within the head of the Captain of the ‘Chiefton’ and myself.  We begin constuction at noon and then tag-team with crew members because we must get our boats underway for the Battle sail in the afternoon.  Tomorrow we have an Adventure sail in the morning, a Battle sail in the afternoon and are also getting underway with spectators for the fireworks on Lake Union.  We will punctuate the fireworks with cannon blasts.  In the middle of the day, two of our crew will race in the ‘Quick and Daring with whatever we construct.  This is my work for the next few weeks.  Kathleen calls it adult summer camp.  Remember, these boats move forward only because of volunteerism, and if you wanted to be a part, you too could sail with us.  Just go to the Lady Washington website for scheduling and contact information for the office.  I should be returning to San Diego at the end of July or the beginning of August.