The sailing adventures of SV Meriwether and her crew
Seven weeks ago we left the marina in Bellingham. We have not been back to one since. It feels good to be self sufficient enough to effectively never need a slip again – this in large part to the composting toilet and the water maker. However, some weeks back – before the resurgence in COVID cases around the world –...
Before the decision was made [by the Canadian border closure] to head into the South Sound this year, I had heard from other more experienced sailors about Blake Island. It is the closest marine state park to Seattle, so it gets it fair share of boater traffic. Everyone spoke highly of it, and I was excited to put it on...
While docked at Port Townsend last August, only two months into our sailing lives, we met John and Kate on their beautiful 43 foot Hans Christian, Stardust. The Hans Christian is a second-cousin to our Baba. Not directly related but you can see a lot of similarities thanks to good genes in the early line of Hans’ which was a...
Although the forecast showed we would have a nice breeze coming from the North East for this day’s sail, the actual wind would be nothing of the sort. I do not even get all that bothered by it anymore. The unpredictability of the wind in the Puget Sound is just reality, and it either gets accepted or becomes an ulcer....
It took some convincing, but Kerri did eventually agree to leave Port Gamble and continue on to new adventures in the south Sound. Liberty Bay outside of Poulsbo was our destination. Liberty Bay is only 10 miles away as the crow flies, but the route to sail there is more than 30. And to make matters worse, the weekend –...
With the clam season open – Kerri with license in hand thanks to our stop in Ludlow – and a huge trail system nearby I knew this was going to be a week of early starts and some proper exercise. Kerri isn’t known for her early rising, but something about bi-valves and fungi would get her moving this week. And...
The morning we were ready to leave Port Hadlock, a nice northerly breeze was blowing, as forecast – for once. If it were to stay this way – which it did – we would have an easy eight-mile down wind cruise to Port Ludlow where we needed to stop for a fishing license and ice cream (guess who wanted which)....
It happened regularly when we were land based nomads; that “I’ve been here before” feeling. Once we anchored in the waters just outside of Port Hadlock, chilled for a night, then set out to the laundromat just up the hill the following morning, that feeling came around once again. Yep, we have been here before in the van in 2018,...
Hunter Bay proved to be a peaceful place for the work week. Well sheltered, our boat barely moved all week no matter what the wind was doing just outside the bay, but we were ready to move on. Saturday was advertised as no-wind and drizzle, while Sunday was partly cloudy with good wind speed and direction. So we decided to...
For our next sail, we decided to turn back to the South – not that we could go any further North from where we spent the past week anyway. The wind wasn’t going to be the most cooperative, still blowing from the south-ish for the foreseeable future, but we were determined to head that way anyway. On our chosen day...
