30:30

No, not talking about a rifle.  (Sorry NSA - false alarm)

It is June 30, and we have been off the dock for 30 days so far this year.   That is simply an amazing statistic. 

Since the sailing season started for us in the first week of May, that means we have averaged every other day off the dock, so far this year.  Of course, it is my three-day work schedule that has enabled this, but it has been the weather that has made it possible. 

The last summer I remember like this was  1998, and I don't think it was this good.   If this is Global Warming, then I am all for it. 

30:30

An apology

I feel that I need to issue an apology to the rest of the United States. 

We are going to have a lovely next few days - in fact we will probably get enough heat here that we Seattle hothouse pansies will be whining about it. (In fact at 11:30 and 75°, Jane and I are already seeking shade - guilty as charged.)

But apparently to do this we have to absolutely cook the rest of you.

Sorry.

An apology

That magical time

Here in Seattle it has rained for the last five days.   And yes, we are accustomed to this.   Everyone makes fun of us having 20 different words for 'rain'. 

But the next few days are going to be a magical time.  The temps are forecasted to be in the 80's - we expect to be sunny and warm.

Tonite, here at anchor in Port Madison, we are treated to a harbinger.  Late in the evening, the clouds parted and the sun peeked out underneath them, illuminating the world with a magical, golden light.  And here at the far western end of the timezone, so far north that we are within shouting distance of Canada, and within a few days of the summer solstice, it is still light enough to read outside at 10 PM.

Life is good, and it is only going to get better!

Port Madison, 9:45 PM

That magical time

The old ways are still good

There is a lot of commercial traffic on Puget Sound.  There are big container ships, cruise ships, ferries, tugs towing barges, and military ships.  And all of these move faster than we do in Eolian - much much faster.   Whenever we cross the traffic lanes, I feel a little like the frog in Frogger.

There is a strong tendency on my part to be attracted to the latest new, shiny "gee whiz" gadget.  I'm pretty sure that I am not alone in this.  But you have to go pretty far up the gadget cost scale to get something that can top the good old hand bearing compass. 

A recent crossing from Port Madison to Shilshole provides the case in point.  Just as we cleared Jefferson Head, a tug and tow became visible, heading south in the southbound traffic lane.   I pulled out our trusty old hand bearing compass and took bearings on the bow of the tug and the stern of the barge it was towing.  Then after a few minutes I took the bearings again.

The old adage is that if the bearing is not changing, then you are going to collide.   And tug-'n-tows are long enough that you need to keep track of both ends of the combination (NEVER try to go between a tug and its tow!).

But when I took the second set of bearings, I noticed that a second tug and tow had  appeared from behind the first - he was in the process of passing!   The problem just got more complicated.

Clearly one tug was going faster than the other (he was passing, after all).  Now the choices had become:

1. Pass in front of the entire parade
2. Pass between the barge in the first tow and the tug in the second
3. Wait for the whole parade to pass and cross behind the last barge.

More study with the compass as we continued, our courses converging, convinced me that choice #2 was available to us, but that we were going a little too slowly to make it possible.  So I increased our speed (there was no wind - we were under power), and confirmed that we could pass between the first barge and the second tug.  A little more fiddling with the speed got us into the sweet spot.  And indeed, we cleared both tug-'n-tows nicely, with no drama at all.

We did this bit of piloting with a lowly hand compass. 

To do it with electronics, you'd need to have a GPS-interfaced AIS receiver, or a multi-thousand dollar radar with MARPA capability.

Or a hand compass.

The old ways are still good