Saturday we sailed up to Port Gamble, WA to join up with the D is for Debauchery gang (the neighbors from D-Dock). The sail up was awesome, we sailed downwind under the genoa with 15-20kts of sustained wind and fast currents pushing us over 9kts SOG from time to time. It was a great downwind sail and good experience for Dawn and I doing a run in winds more like I’ll expect we’ll see in the trade winds. As we rounded Foul Weather Bluff and headed into Hood Canal the wind moved to be pretty much on the nose so we furled up and motored into the very narrow entrance to Port Gamble Bay.

There were already 4 boats rafted up and Dave from s/v Epic and Mike from s/v Bamboo were were there in the dinghy to take our anchor out after we rafted up. Now that’s service! Cue the drinks… ;-)

We put the crab pots out and proceeded to catch 4 freezer bags of Dungeness and rock crabs across the flotilla. Dawn cooked them up after Jason from s/v Danika cleaned them. It was a great team effort that ended up with delicious crab in my belly.

Between Saturday night and Sunday evening (I’m writing this offline on the boat on Sunday) the winds have been at time gusting as high as 35 kts!! The mass of anchors we have out are holding well, but it does make for a pretty bouncy ride. There have also been a couple of large squalls that have through giving the boats a good washdown. I have some pics of the worst of the downpours where you can barely make out the shore from the boat.

Port Gamble is a nice pretty well protected anchorage. Had we setup further to the south I think we’d have been less rolly. Its not very protected from a northerly wind. The town itself is an old company town; still owned and maintained by the lumber company which founded it even though the mill has closed. I’ve not had a chance to go ashore but I hear there’s a small general store which includes a shell museum and not much else.

<Back home on Monday Night>

Sunday night was the worst night at Anchor in terms of comfort, but we learned a lot about anchoring in high winds (30 KTS+ and chafe). One of the boats almost broke free from the raft when a line chaffed through. In the morning we had a line which had almost chaffed through as well. Lesson learned there… chafe gear… have it, use it!

Sunday night shore side reunion at Hamburger Harry’s was also a huge success. If you have not eaten (or worn) one of their burgers… do it.

Thanks to s/v Epic, s/v Danika, s/v Bamboo, s/v Wasabi and the other friends who shared various rides for a great weekend!

I’ll post pics and a post pointing to them later this week.