Sailing With Josh

Archives

I was rinsing down the anchor gear on deck of Sampaguita, my 1985 Pacific Seacraft Flicka 20, back in my home port when a dock mate walked by. He asked,” how much anchor rode is that?” “300 feet,” I replied. “Do you really need that much?” “Yes, if I anchor in 60 feet of water and I put out 5:1 scope, I do.” I have used all of it at times. In the… Read More

Ramsay Hot Springs. I’ve been here before, but it was well worth the return. Plus, it had been almost 2 weeks since my last shower. It was a two night anchorage as I planned a rest day here also. The first night I went in at 9pm and got the place all to myself, which is mostly a lucky break. I got to do a bit of au natural. The second night… Read More

The Last Age of Sail I awoke to a generous amount of wake as fishermen were coming and going from the Kingston Marina. No matter though, I was not interested in hanging out. I weighed anchor at 8:35am and with a light SE breeze and sailed from of the anchorage. I tacked out of the cove against the waning flood and sailed east toward Point Wells. The going was slow and 3… Read More

I sailed out of the Utsalady Bay anchorage at 9am with a light South wind and a waning flood tide. I sailed around the North end of Camano Island and beat my way down Saratoga Passage. The flood turned to ebb but the current was “weak and variable” in this area. Still, I made decent progress. As I approached Camano Island State Park, I got a lift from the wind as its… Read More

In the morning I went for a paddle in the kayak out to English Bay. I ate a snack, window shopped at the Maritime Museum and checked out the boats tenuously anchored there. It was a good bit of exercise, paddling there against the northerly breeze but this meant the ride back was easy. It was fun to see all of the boats and shoreline attractions. It is just another form of… Read More

The morning was overcast and I awoke with a vision of Vancouver. I noticed there was a woman who seemed to be living aboard one boat and three men on another at the Govt. dock, so I thought to myself, “they must shower somewhere.” So I asked the woman and it turns out there are showers for the Govt. dock in Snug Cove. Who’d of thought? In Canada, the Govt. dock is… Read More

I highly recommend a visit to Sucia Island in the San Juans Archipelago. This was my first time and am glad I finally made it. Its location on the northern border of the San Juans has been a deterrent for me in earlier trips as it was not in route to my previous destinations. I also read that there can be up to 700 boats here which is not the density I am… Read More

  I woke up with the intentions of going ashore, provisioning at the Safeway, getting some fuel, charging some electronics(phone, computer, camera, VHF) and buying Bob some beer. But as I made tea, ate some breakfast, and did the dishes, the wind started to build from the South. Port Townsend seems to have its own microclimate which doesn’t correlate with any of the area weather forecasts, so especially as a non-local, it is… Read More

This is while anchored in Joe’s Bay in the Broken Group in Barkley Sound. As soon as I entered I was swarmed by hummingbirds. I’ve never seen anything like it. They were unafraid. They would fly inside the boat. They would try to feed from my jacket. Below the are trying to feed from the red cap on my solar shower. Even though they were ever-present(they did disappear at sundown, but reappeared in the… Read More