Snow and Wind = low windchill factor

Snowy boat...

11/22/10

25.1 °F Blowing Snow

Windchill:	10 °F
Humidity:	69%
Wind:	22.0 mph from the NE
Wind Gust:	30.0 mph
Pressure:	29.65 in (Rising)
Visibility:	2.5 miles
Clouds:	Overcast 4900 ft (Above Ground Level)

Snowy docks...

Wintertime is here in spades.  It snowed heavily today, and now it’s stopped, but the NE winds are blowing 20-35 knots. Just now, I went outside in semi-dark (5pm) to take the bimini top off before it would destroy itself.  I was shocked to realize how cold and useless my fingers became in that wind!  I had to do the job in 2 trips, warming up my hands in between.  It’s serious enough that now I need to get a canvas maker to make a secondary inside canvas door to slow down the cold that’s coming thru the door…my little Espar heater is going has fast as it can, burning up diesel, but it’s still cold in here.  I’ve hung a comforter clamped on either side of the door inside the cabin and that’s helping, plus now I’ve added an electric heater to help out, so my fingers can hit this keyboard (at least semi-accurately).  I don’t even want to know what my electric bill will be this month.

Snowy port...

If it weren’t so darn cold, it would be kind of fun.  When I walked to the gym today, there were a few people walking on the street with smiles on their faces.  Everyone had to walk carefully, doing the icy sidewalk shuffle (at least that’s what I call it). Not many cars on the road, and the ones that were there were going really slow. I stayed at the gym for a good 3 hours, part of that enjoying their hot tub.  What luxury on a day like this!

and Snowy town

 I did my first Yoga class in a really long time…it was HARD.  Even though there is no jumping around, I was huffing and puffing!  I’ve found out that my balance is not very good, standing on one leg with my arms spinning around like a badly misaligned windmill and hopping around on one leg trying to stay up without using my other leg.  If I keep at it (3xs a week) hopefully my balance will improve.

Fisherman’s Bay

 11/10/10

Blue Bossa in Fisherman's Bay

About 3 weeks ago, I was motoring from Park’s Bay on Shaw Island to Fisherman’s Bay on Lopez Island.  I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the tides, except checking to make sure that the current was going with me. I had a really hard time figuring out where the entrance was, as it is kind of hidden; plus it was really low tide, so I couldn’t help but notice that I was starting to play around in 5-7 feet of depth and could see the bottom really clearly.  My boat draws 4.8 feet, so, after taking a hard look at the entrance, I backed out and went on to Friday Harbor (had to go back because I got a call that I had a gig that night)…but I promised myself to visit Fisherman’s as soon as possible.

Last week, the tides were nice and high, so I sailed (a bit of NW wind) to the entrance, rolled up the sails, and proceeded to motor in.  The channel was well marked, but twisted around until it opened up to a very quiet and really enclosed bay.  There were a couple of nice marinas, but I opted to anchor out.  I had to do a lot of searching amongst all of the buoys to find a clear spot to put my anchor. 

Marinas and Yacht Storage - Lopez Village to the Left

One of the problems that I’m seeing is that the San Juan Islands have a lot of buoys in the popular coves, probably for summer traffic.  During the wintertime, they keep them out, but I don’t trust them and would rather rely on my anchor.  The problem is, there’s not a lot of room to do that.

Anyway, I anchored and sat back to enjoy the quiet splendor of the bay.  It was relatively active around the marina…there were men pulling out boats for winter storage with a small lift.  I launched my dinghy to go to the dock to hike around, eventually ending up at Lopez Village, which was a quaint town about a half a mile from the docks.  It is much more spread out than Friday Harbor, with little shops and some restaurants, and a BIG supermarket (bigger than Friday Harbor).  I should, next time, dock at one of the marinas, and pull out my fold-able bike as the roads there are nice and flat for cycling.

Westside isthmus

Separating the west side of the bay to the San Juan channel is a narrow sandy isthmus that opens up to a larger peninsula forming the other side of Fisherman’s Bay entrance and where there are some beautiful houses.  The low terrain allowed some really nice sunsets.

Before I took the dinghy back to BB (Blue Bossa), I stopped at a docked fishing boat selling fish.  I purchased a nice big fillet of salmon, cooked all of it, but only ate about a third.  The other 2/3rds I decided to make a salmon stew for the next couple of days.  Chopping up a ton of vegetables along with a quart of Trader Joe’s pepper and tomato soup, beans, some herbs etc., I enjoyed another two dinner’s worth of yummy stew.  I love that stuff for winter times.  Perhaps, in my solitary wanderings,  I may become a better cook.

Life in Friday Harbor

11/20/10

A cold day in Friday Harbor, winds from the NE blowing 20+ in gusts.  Sitting in Blue Bossa, warm because I have the heater on, boat rocking around a bit because the harbor is not at it’s best with a NE wind, wind chop coming around the point and working under the floating breakwater. A lot of liveaboards, including myself, have put at least a couple of more lines out on the various fingers of the dock to keep their homes from hitting the sides of the docks hard.  It snowed last night, but the snow melted as soon as it hit the dock and boat.  Walking around town today, I had two coats on, a warm long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, long underwear, and pants, as well as thick socks, tundra hat, and gloves.  I must have looked like the fat version of the gingerbread man walking down the street.

Where does one start with a blog?  I guess my goal with this is sort of a travelogue with comments.  For the next few months, I will be based in Friday Harbor and only going out in good weather to various places in the San Juan Islands or to Canada.  But my little outings will be good to a) get away from Friday Harbor, b) learn more about Blue Bossa, c) learn more about the tides and currents and weather phenomenon in the Northwest, d) relearn the finer aspects of cruising on a boat, and finally e) enjoy the San Juans at its most uncrowded.

Friday Harbor is a self-contained little town.  Incredibly busy during the summer with crowds coming over on the ferries, seaplanes and a huge influx of yachts filling the harbor and overflowing into outside anchorages, it is quiet and peaceful during the winter season, much more to my liking.  It has all that one would need within walking distance, including a post office, pharmacy, a couple of markets, a gym, big Ace hardware store, a theater, tons of nicki-nack stores, a couple of video rental places – there’s even a small West Marine store, which I frequent a lot for small odds and ends.  Lots of restaurants of varying quality, one restaurant in particular, the Rumor Mill, sponsors a lot of different musicians either local or from outside.  I’ve even played there (more about that later).

I opted to keep my car with me for right now.  It’s handy to wander around the interior of San Juan Island (lots of parks and hiking areas), or go to the mainland to pick up big stuff that I need.  I’m also keeping it to drive down to my brother Rick’s family in Bend for Christmas.  It’s hard to get rid of wheels when you’ve lived so long with them.  I just need to gird my loins and join my nephew and niece who don’t have cars and are able to exist just fine without the expense of owning one.  But I have the ultimate “escape vehicle” (Blue Bossa), so I’ll probably need to sell it come February, before I go north by boat.

I’ve been able to play music with some of the musicians here, which has been fun.  As soon as I got settled in here, I subbed for a piano player and played at the Rumor Mill with the San Juan Jazz Quintet.  Everybody was super nice, and I made some connections.  I’ve subbed for a couple of other times, and I have 3 gigs coming up, 2 for November and 1 in December.  I would like to play more, but there isn’t a lot of stuff going on in Friday Harbor during the winter.  Such is life.

I joined up the gym for the next 3 months to see if I can gain a bit of muscle tone and lots of weight loss.  So far I’ve been doing a lot of swimming (they have a nice Olympic size indoor pool that’s warm) and some weight lifting.  I’m hoping to join a yoga class.  I would like to get in shape for a surf trip that my brother Bill and some friends have been cooking up…hopefully a trip out to Nicaragua or El Salvador during early June.  At 61, I’m feeling my age, and my surfing has dwindled down to nothing.  Now I appreciate old farts in their 70’s going out at Cowells and standing up on their surfboard.  So...loose weight and gain muscle.  Easier said than done.

The weather has been varying.  November is definitely winter time, and so far, I’ve seen the appropriate amount of bad weather, usually just rain, but occasionally a good whopper of windy conditions will come up.  So far I’ve seen a strong southerly come thru with driving rain, a really windy westerly, and finally today a strong NE wind, with sub freezing temperatures.  It’s so different here, as I am surrounded by islands whereas Santa Cruz, with the view from our old house on Princeton Street, would see wild and whooly storms with the full onslaught of the open Pacific Ocean, with its huge swells busting against West Cliff Drive, briny foam whipping down the street.  Much more dramatic.  Maybe I should spend a winter on Western Vancouver and really see the action.