Brownsville to Blake Island

Blake Island on a buoy, a friendly otter, more porpoises than I’ve seen before off Bainbridge Island, and shopping in Poulsbo: a great, long weekend. Because of contrary wind and currents, we motored most of this trip, but at every turn we were presented with postcard views of middle Puget Sound. Transiting waterbodies like Rich Passage and Agate Passage is always interesting. With a deli, restrooms, launch ramp, free parking, overnight moorage, and proximity to many great destinations, we like Brownsville.

Thursday, July 5, 2007: Brownsville to Blake Island

It’s the morning after the Fourth of July, and we are both tired from being up all night. This means we are running a little late getting the boat trailered to Brownsville to launch on a morning falling tide.

Brownsville

An uneventful highway haul leaves us happily in the Brownsville Marina parking lot. We rig the boat with moderate urgency because the tide is rapidly falling, and I don’t know how much ramp will be left at low tide. Rigging is delayed a bit while I fiddle with a few blocks and line attached to the top shroud tang on the mast, to be used for hoisting our ensign and Northwest Potters pennant.

Brownsville offers a $2 launch and free parking for up to 72 hours. We’ll be out for four days…but by the time we get launched, we may actually be back right at the 72-hour mark. Nevertheless, I talk to the Port of Brownsville folks who promise not to tow our truck if we go over the time limit. (Note to others: be sure to let the Port know if you will be parked more than 72 hours, or your vehicle may be towed!)

We get Whisper into the water as soon as we can. I run the truck and trailer back up to the parking lot, then jog back to the launch. Jan and I motor to an open slip on the breakwater where we spend about 30 minutes finishing up with rigging the boat. It probably took longer than normal because I keep stopping to explain to Jan what I’m doing. At last, we’re off on our four-day getaway.

Rich Passage

Although the usual wind direction is out of the south, today it is out of the north. Our late launch means we have to hustle to get through Rich Passage before the flood current turns hard against us, so the sails remain furled while we cruise south to Rich Passage at 4 knots.

The tide is turning by the time we reach Rich Passage, so I work through the passage by using eddies near shore.

Exiting Rich Passage, we turn to look at Manchester. We had driven to Manchester a few days ago on a blue-sky day, and the view across the water at Restoration Point, Seattle, and Blake Island looked like a postcard.

Blake Island

As we motor slowly into the marina at Blake Island State Park, the park host waves us down to tell us there is no dock space available. No problem, I tell Jan: we can find a buoy or tie to the linear moorage on the other side of the island.

We spy a couple of empty buoys in the small bay south of the marina. As we aim for one, another sailboat lines up for the other buoy. We tie up and talk for a while about wind and waves, and wonder whether we would have a quietier night on the other side of the island. The wind continues to be out of the north, except now it is coming at us directly from Elliott Bay, with little of Blake Island in the way to dampen the waves. We feel ferry and freighter wakes throughout the evening.

The skipper of a large Benetau sloop motors over to talk for a few minutes, admiring little Whisper while he tells us of following a Potter in an Atlantic crossing.

By dusk, the wind is lighter. Waves continue to rock us gently to sleep, and we both sleep soundly through the night.

Friday, July 7, 2007: Blake Island to Elliott Bay Marina

Slow to wake up, we hung on the buoy for a while, in no hurry to slide over to the other side of Puget Sound and into the hustle and bustle of the Seattle metro area.

But we finally decide we better go. Wind is out of the northeast, and it is a little stronger than I’d like. This means to sail to Seattle we would be beating against the wind. Since part of the reason for this trip is to spend some quiet time with my spouse, and because gentlemen don’t beat to windward, I choose to motor straight across. We turn north as Whisper nears the far shore, and cruise slowly past Alka Point toward Duwamish Head.

I notice more trash floating in the water than I usually see. Plastic shopping bags, lumber, styrofoam — those things are fairly typical. What is unusual is the bottle of sunscreen, bottle of shampoo, deodarant container, and similar items, as if someone dumped a ditty bag overboard.

At Duwamish Head we aim for Elliott Bay Marina and cross the bay, timing the crossing to avoid ferry traffic. I call the marina on my cell phone, and they assign me a slip on F dock that gives us a great view of the Seattle skyline and Mt. Rainier.

Later, we have a tasty but noisy dinner at Maggie Bluffs Cafe, then go for a walk to see if there is a way to cross the Pier 90/91 area to access the Seattle Center and downtown core. The answer is yes, but I need to get hold of a detailed map of Seattle before I try this again.

We like Elliott Bay Marina. It is clean, the docks are wide and stable, the showers are included in the price, there is a fuel dock and small store, plus the cafe serves good food.

The view of Mt. Rainier above the working waterfront of Elliott Bay is sublime.

Saturday, July 8, 2007: Elliott Bay Marina to Poulsbo in the fog

We awake to see a bank of low-hanging fog to the northwest, right where we want to go. After breakfast and a brief walk around the marina, we set up to go. Again, we are motoring. Jan and I discuss our strategy for dealing with the fog. Naturally, I believed the weather report that said south winds and clear skies, so I did not bother bringing the radar reflector on this trip.

The breeze is light out of the north, so the fog bank is slowly heading our way. We choose to go, but we follow the depth curve along Magnolia, staying just off the shelf, heading for the West Point buoy. At the buoy, we turn due west and aim for the yellow turn-point buoy in the VTS lanes. My thinking is that if the fog does blow down on us, we can reverse course for the West Point buoy to clear the traffic lanes, and then enter Shilshole Marina or retrace our route to Elliott Bay Marina by following our GPS track.

Crossing toward Bainbridge

As we pass the turn-point buoy, Jan spots a harbor porpoise. Then another. Then a trio of porpoises. We continue due west, but I notice as I look back along our track that the incoming tide is shifting our course to the south. I file that away just in case the fog doesn’t lift.

We’re in deep water, crossing westward toward Bainbridge Island, still in the VTS lanes, and we continue to see porpoises, dozens and dozens of porpoises. We can’t see Bainbridge, but we can see a few white-hulled power boats slowly cruising northward in the fog, and I assume they are following the shoreline. Soon we can see the shore, and we turn northward to follow the shoreline. I throttle back a bit now that we are out of the VTS controlled space. The fog is lifting by now and we can see north of Bainbridge Island.

As we near the north end of Bainbridge, the porpoises fade away. We round the point and head west for Agate Passage. I describe to Jan what it was like last October crossing Port Madison. It is so placid today it is hard to grasp how much I was getting pounded last year.

Agate Passage and Liberty Bay

Agate Passage is always fun. I unroll the genoa and let the north wind drive us south through the pass. Turning westward again to head for Poulsbo, the wind becomes weaker as it becomes obstructed by land. I restart the outboard and we head for Keyport and Poulsbo.

Once into Liberty Bay, I telephone the Port of Poulsbo Marina. They tell me to find any empty slip marked as open, and we do that without incident. Soon we are wandering downtown Poulsbo, looking in many stores for treasures to bring home.

We eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant near the marina.

Sunday, July 10, 2007: Poulsbo to Brownsville

I always seem to get a little melancholy on the last day of a mutli-day trip, and this morning is no exception. I know I have to return to home and work, to all the tasks and responsibilities we left beind for a few days. We are both quiet as we slowly motor away from Poulsbo toward Brownsville.

At Brownsville, we do everything in reverse. We pull into a slip and prepare for takeout by releasing the rudder line and removing the T-bolts securing the keel. I put a longer line on the bow, and we head for the launch. I jog up to get the truck and trailer, and soon Whisper is dripping saltwater on the parking lot pavement.

We took few pictures on this trip. Instead we invested our energy talking and walking. We had a lovely time, feeling little pressure to be anywhere specific at a certain time. The weather was stunning, and the fog added a bit of spice to the outing. But the highlight for both of us was the many porpoises we saw off Bainbridge Island. The exclamations just kept coming: there’s another one!