The Pictorial Highlights of Our 2021 Cruising Destinations

11/24/21. Cider and beer achieve the perfect temperature on the back deck. It is so. The diesel stove is alight and filling the salon with a wonderful warmth and ambiance. In the bay and in the air outside the salon windows, there are loons, Canadian  geese, buffleheads, merganzers, pidgeon guillemots, arctic terns, harlequin ducks, scaups, goldeneye, western and eared greebes, gulls, and others soaring, swimming, fishing Aves going about their birdly endeavors… Can’t help but notice them. Active little bunch, they are. In juxtaposition to the cold beer and cider stored on the back deck, I noticed yesterday, on a walk about the village, that there were roses blooming. Go figure. Winter is just around the corner. No one told the roses…

11.26.21. The spring summer and fall seasons of 2021 have come and nearly gone by. Volumes of water sloshed under our keel during those months. We shared time with fellow cruisers and friends throughout the Salish Sea. Good times. Yesterday was Thanksgiving, delightfully spent with good friends at their home in Port Townsend. It was an avant guarde sort of meal. No menu. Finger food. Fresh hummus, crisp crackers and sliced vegetables, pot roast, roasted potatoes, steamed carrots, and gravy. Good wine was swilled and conversation blossomed. After its transit from GN, the pot roast and gravy were reheated on top of their kitchens wood burning stove. Our range of discussion was rather like word association football. A word is uttered and opinions fly. Of course being in our late 60’s and 70’s we did touch on health. Boy howdy, between the four of us, we could fill a small hospital ward. It is so. It was that kind of gathering. Delightful.

Winter is officially a few weeks away. We’ve already had several of our October / November wind events, accompanied by rain. At this time of year, boisterous weather generated in offshore waters, makes its way to us via the Strait of Juan de Fuca and around the Southern terminus of the Olympic mountains. In between the events, we experience glorious days of clear blue skies accompanied by crisp temperatures. This fall has been no exception to that pattern.

11.28.21 The Olympics stand shoulder to shoulder to our west. Silent and solemn sentinels, they have accepted and adapted their strategies to block severe weather from the Northwest and West from reaching Port Ludlow. First Nations peoples knew that Port Ludlow was a wonderful place to spend the summer, but not as good during the winter… because in the Fall and Winter, southerlies are the norm and they blow right up our collective pants legs. Modern peoples are not connected enough to weather patterns and topography to understand those seasonal relationships. Because of that, our marina was built on the North side of the bay. When SE, S, SW wind blows with enough force, there is enough fetch between the southern shore and northern shore to make for a bumpy ride in the outer marina. That’s where Great Northern resides. Last night was such a time. Wind 20 to 30 knots. Gusts in the 35 knot range. Wind chop in the two foot range. Great Northern spent a lot of the time rocking. Not that she rocks all that much, shes a heavy thing… but the outer dock we are attached to was rocking and flexing in creative, serpentine ways. GN is, of course, attached to that writhing beast. It rocks. GN rocks and dances about. It is a slow enough dance, but a dance none the less. It can be a long dance as well. That is the nature of things on a boat. It is nearly winter. The time of storms. We will have more semi-sleepless nights to look forward to. Imagine for a moment or two, your house, condo, apartment, cabin rocking about for 8 hours or so. Yes, you certainly get used to that movement, but the howling wind can be a bit unnerving. What if a cleat might pull out of the dock. That could start a casade… Not something most have to worry about. For the most part, it doesn’t worry us, but…

Enough of that… next up… the places we visited last cruising season:

But… let’s take a brief moment and look closely into a recent pre-cruising modification performed in early spring. This easily follows the concept that cruising about in a boat is nothing more than fixing boats in exotic locations, eh?:

Yaks I say… American yaks. These 3 have English names to boot… and are part of the American Yak Conservancy don’t cha know. Once native to the Himalayas, they no longer appear only in Asia. While there were only about 600 yaks in North America 30 years ago, the continent is now home to at least 5,000 registered yaks. They are quite docile, highly trainable, and are apparently very good at adapting to differing environments. In fact in Chimicum, a few miles from where we winter, it is possible to buy Yak cheese and other products… Who knew that there were yaks lurking about.

That gets us from May through early July. That is all for now. Hope you enjoyed some of this, we certainly did and are looking forward to our next cruising season in 2022…

Blair, Les, and Leo