Judy and I went for a little walk after supper this evening. Our destination was the Point Hudson Marina in Port Townsend’s “Down Town.” The route was just over a mile and a half. What we didn’t think about was the 230 foot high hill between nearly sea level at the park and nearly sea level at the marina. On the way back we were smarter, we ducked around the end of the hill on “F” street, but that made the return trip almost 2.5 miles, but that hill was only 117 ft. We reached the corner of “O” street and Cherry and were contemplating one last hill to climb, probably about 100 feet when an angel of mercy drove by in a State of Washington Rangers pickup. If we got her name right it is Elishia. She recognized us from the park and stopped to offer a ride back to our camp. It knocked about 7/8ths of a mile off our return trip.
The photo is a San Diego yacht, the “Pacifica,” about 50 ft long and it appears to be a yawl. The wheel is definitely ahead of the mizzen mast and it appears the rudder must be ahead of the mizzen also, the defining characteristic of a yawl. I am speculating that we will see this boat in the Classic Mariners Regatta starting June 5th. First race is noon on the 6th.
Category Archives: Sailing
Sailing on Monterey Bay:
We started for the town of Monterey and as we approached we ran into fog. Bad sign! We turned around and went to Moss Landing instead. There was a thin layer of fog there also. It was lunch time, so we pulled out the picnic lunch and climbed aboard Regal Jug, (still on the trailer,) and had our lunch. Half an hour later it looked as though the fog might break up, so we determined that we should set up the boat and get ready. About an hour later we were ready to launch, the fog had cleared and a 10 mph sea breeze had set in. About 2:20 we got underway and dodged a few dozen zodiacs and kayakers As soon as we cleared the entrance buoy we raised the sails. At 2:38 pm we set off on the port tack for Santa Cruz. After about an hour we changed course and headed back to the marina. We were perhaps 15% of the way to Santa Cruz.
Shortly after turning about the Skipper Emeritus began to feel the need to be on dry land again. It isn’t often that you can be hard on the wind and still have a following sea, but that is what we had. I tried every trick I knew, but to no avail. The fish got my lunch and then I felt fine again.
Landing again back at the launch ramp was a bit tricky. Again we were inundated with zodiacs and kayaks. To make things interesting, however, the motor would not idle back. It would run half throttle or more, but as soon as you idled back it would stop. I was at the helm with Glen on the fore-deck ready to get a line ashore. I finally got a bead on the float and no kayak’s between us and the float. I got the motor running and made a high speed run at the dock. I only idled back when I was sure our momentum would carry us to the dock. Glen was able to step off onto the float with the bow line and then snag the stern line from Judy. It wasn’t pretty, but as they say in airplanes, “Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, If the airplane is still usable it is a fantastic landing.” Well, Regal Jug suffered nary a scratch and the bottom paint is still all in place. It was a fantastic landing.
When we returned to Gilroy, we put the motor on the test stand and did a little tuning. Yes, it had been professionally serviced just a couple weeks ago, but a little twitch of the idle jet was all it took and the faithful old Honda would once again tick over at a dead idle without a hiccup.
Be sure to check out the website at
For a photo gallery of the adventure.
Gary and Judy
True Blue:
Well at least a true blue bottom. Glen has the vision of mooring Regal Jug at Moss Landing over on Monterey Bay. The bottom paint that I put on Regal about 23 years ago was mostly gone.
Continue reading True Blue:
The Great Sailing Adventure – Epilog:
As I think back over the past 12 days I have to wonder: What should you expect when you take a family of seven people and cram them into a smallish 40 foot boat for nearly two weeks? A “National Lampoon” style family vacation with big ugly old land yacht? A “Captain Ron” style sea cruise with pirates chasing us? Perhaps a Robin Williams style RV movie with a disaster at every corner where the RV, (boat,) winds up perched precariously on a rock. Of course not! Continue reading The Great Sailing Adventure – Epilog:
The Great Sailing Adventure – Anchor Drill:
For our next destination we chose Mill Bay on Saanich Inlet. We got there and the marina was bran new and the floats were beautiful. We went up to sign in and asked about the showers. Well would you believe that the marina was so new there were no showers, no restrooms (oops I mean washrooms, we are in Canada). Well we still had enough daylight left to pick an alternate. Cowichan Bay was only about eight miles further on and we had never stayed there before. Continue reading The Great Sailing Adventure – Anchor Drill: