I had another great weekend, this time spending it on Puget Sound aboard the Perspicacious, a San Juan 28, owned and skippered by the WYC Head Fleet Captain, Goran. We were among a party that included all of the club's three keelboats, as well as Idefix, the sailboat that won the 2010 Transpac Race from San Francisco to Kauai. We all set out yesterday morning for Kingston, where we spent the night aboard the boats before sailing back today.
Goran's quite the sage when it comes to sailing, and we also had a few interesting discussions about foreign affairs, among other things. He took a walkabout after college and has been pretty much everywhere in the world, so for an International Studies student, he made for great company.
The first task was sailing through the locks between Salmon Bay and Puget Sound. We all got into the locks and tied off, and bantered with some of the many kids who were watching from the bulkhead above us.
We made our way across the sound in a relatively short amount of time, helped along by a southerly wind. Having practised what we needed to practise and now having little else to do, Goran and I mischievously decided to show off our sailing prowess by sailing circles around Deception, one of the club boats, which was going far slower than it could have been going. Deception's crew just gave us a dumbstruck look and weren't lured into any friendly competition.
As we got closer to Kingston, there was still lots of both daylight and wind, so we decided to head back out. Along the way, we came across Rascal, the club's Ranger 26, which was skippered by the class instructor. Goran decided he'd teach me some racing tactics, so we came right up to Rascal's windward in an attempt to steal its wind. Rascal's crew, however, caught on to our malevolent intents and, after trying some evasive tactic, managed to pull ahead of us. They tacked upwind, and we followed in pursuit. The strong winds heeled us over to the point that our gunwales dipped down into the water and Rascal's crew, we later heard, could see our keel. Rascal was a slightly faster boat, and as it got farther away, I worried that we might lose, but it turns out that Perspicacious can point higher into the wind than Rascal by about 10 degrees. We also did a better job of trimming or sails. So after beating upwind for a while, we did finally pull ahead, and Rascal never caught up again. Goran and I both, however, wanted to render our victory beyond dispute, so we sailed farther and farther ahead until Rascal's crew could read our boat's name on our stern.
As sunset approached, we headed toward Kingston, hauled down our sails, and docked in the harbour. It felt odd being in Kingston without continuing on to camp (where Andy was actually holding down the fort for Ken this weekend). But I didn't spend too much time thinking about it, since there was was much merry-making at the picnic hut on our dock.
I think I was the last one to wake up this morning, and although we only had a half-hour before shoving off for home, I thought that that would be plenty of time to get one of Kingston's famous crepes. Silly me. The line was out the door, and ahead of me were all these Californian women with a gaggle of bratty kids. I gave up and left with a snarl.
The journey back was great. The sun was shining and the winds were fresh but manageable. We stopped at the Shilshole Marina to "pump out," meaning empty the holding tank for the head. It's one of the less glamorous aspects of sailing.
We passed again through the locks, and again some little kids were waving at us. I took in the pleasant scenery along the passageway from Puget Sound to Lake Washington, and just for the fun of it, Goran and I calculated our speed by dropping potato chips off the bow and timing how long it took to reach the stern. We had just enjoyed a few beverages, so it was tough trying to convert from feet-per-second (28 ft / 3.9 sec) to miles-per-hour and then to knots, but we did finally come up with 4.4 knots, which seemed like a plausible answer.
All in all, it was a fantastic little cruise. But now I think it's time for a shower and a long nap...
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