seapuppy

Since you guys have posted your adventures...I figured I'd better do the same...especially since we left thursday after work...

Thursday afternoon -
got off work and raced home after we saw that the weather guessers had given us a break..originally we were expecting to leave first thing friday morning but they said it was 5-10kts with seas 1ft or less....after checking several sources around here...we got excited and raced home for gear/food/dogs...
made it to the boat and loaded the gear onboard and called the forklift over to put us in the water...grabbed the lines and tied up to the ramp dock...once we got the engines fired up and warming...we got the dogs onboard and away we went....left Everett for Roche Harbor ...
once we got out of the river and into the puget sound, the water got snotty...mainly from wind chop....not big but enough to scare the wife unit a bit after our big adventure last yr with 14ftrs...

we made it past Hat island and the water started coming from the south and hitting us on the beam...after about a mile or so, we got into smooth water and it was that way the rest of the trip....at first we were only doing about 20mph...but once the water laid down we got up into our cruising speed of 32mph....several times we cruised at 33mph due to absolutely flat water.....

as we made the turn north around oak harbor..the water was like a mirror but the wife was starting to stress at deception pass.....we hadn't even gotten there and she was already winding up....

Now for those that have never been thru deception pass...it's about 50 yds across (+/- a few yrds) with a tidal rush that leaves a 6ft standing wave and rushes thru at about 14 - 18 kts....it has whirl pools and upwellings that make the stern of the boat dance and slide around..... the only way to go threw is to go thru at plane and fast...avoid the whirl pools and logs....oh yeah..and the occasional fishing boat sitting in the middle....I had to get around this idiot blow boater who was barely going thru.....luckily the tides were just about at slack tide and was only rushing thru at about 5kts...so it was easy getting thru....

the next hurdle for us is crossing the Straights of Rosario...about 5 miles of open water about 500-1500 ft deep in a few places.... freighters come thru there and if it's foggy....and all you'd be is a little bump....so..you need to be aware of 1) water condition and 2)fog.....we've been thru it all...this time was easy peasy....we had a nice ride across and the water was flat calm...just amazing too us as we've experienced 4-6ftrs....

once thru lopez pass it was just a matter of avoiding boaters and islands....we went thru deer pass and made a right towards Roche harbor.....Roche harbor is an extremely well protected harborage and was a lime port in the old sailing days that later became a resort and finally a huge popular marina....

as we approached the marina I began calling the marina on vhf 77a....they heard me but I never heard their answer.....so..it seems my vhf bit it in the upper channels...we came into a slip in the guest dock where I was directed to go to charlie dock 16.....are you kidding me??...why am I the red headed step child (which our dock hand was red headed)....


oh well...fired back up and backed out to go to the other side of the marina where the big yachts were...luckily we were where the smaller big yachts were...40 ftrs and we are 35ft by length...once docked and powered up..it was walk the dogs time..get something quick to heat and crash...it took us from about 5pm to 8:30 from dock to dock with some of the most breath taking boating available....

Friday Morning:
woke up to sunshine (FINALLY!!!..SOME FRIGGIN SUNSHINE!!!)...