Some day there will be some good wind…
April 22nd, 2010 | by Marilyn | Published in Ship's Log | 1 Comment
We are really keen to take Rainshadow out for a good sail. Today looked promising, after a few days of grey drizzle. By noon, the excellent weather station at Skunk Bay was showing wind speeds of 15-18 knots, and there was even a promise of some sunshine.
So we headed down to the dock and took Rainshadow for a spin. Problem is, the wind died to practically nothing about the time we got out there. We ghosted along for about an hour, watching the porpoises feed in the tide rip off Foul Weather Bluff. Then we spotted some tall ships away to the north, heading to Port Ludlow for the weekend. So we started up the trusty Perkins diesel and away we went to get some closer pictures. These ships were beautiful!
After being out for about 3 hours, we headed for home because we were sick of the sound of the engine. Just as we were getting there, the wind seemed to pick up, but we still motored into our harbor instead of trying to sail again because we just didn’t believe there was enough wind to try.
Check out the wind gusts map for the day, shown below. Where the big dip is in the afternoon, that’s exactly when we were out. And just as we were docking, the wind jumped up to a pleasant 13 knots. The sun was shining, and it was a lovely evening. Too bad we gave up too early – maybe next time.
- One of the beautiful tall ships we saw while out. This must be the Lady Washington from Grays Harbor, which is the WA state official ship
- The other tall ship we saw. We could read the name on this one: Hawaiian Chieftain from Grays Harbor, WA
- Rainshadow looking all happy after her outing. It turned into a lovely evening.
- Wind gust map for the day, as recorded by the Skunk Bay weather station
April 22nd, 2010at 8:58 pm(#)
If you want to learn more about the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftan tall ships, go to this website: http://www.historicalseaport.org/web/index.html
You can buy passage on one of their voyages, or go on an adventure afternoon sail. In the case of the folks who bought passage on this day from Sequim to Port Ludlow, it ended with an afternoon motor in very calm seas. They probably started the day in good wind though, as there was a small craft advisory for the Strait of Juan de Fuca.