Departing Neighbors

We had the pleasure of having Pachuca berthed nose to nose with John and Marty's Bayliner 38 Maris Stella. They were very helpful with good information on cruising the San Juan and Gulf Islands.

This morning they departed for their return to Lake Washington.

(John and Marty, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them with the left mouse button.)

Visit to Point Hudson Marina

Point Hudson Marina is adjacent downtown Port Townsend. It will be cordoned off and be the center of the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival (Sept 11-13).

All of the frame buildings at Pt Hudson have the US Coast Guard look and feel. Indeed, the sail loft on the town side of the marina was once a Coast Guard armory. So marina and its surrounds represent what must have been a major US Coast Guard base.

If you enlarge the photo of the house shown in the bottom photo you will see that it was the Commander's beach house. Presumeably he went back to the comforts of Seattle during for the winter months. Great duty, huh?

The photo of Capt Bob trimming the sails of the fully wooden boat shows the trailer/RV park along the beach front.

Port Townsend History

Port Townsend is a pretty town in a magnificent setting, which is not unusual in this part of the world. However, the size and quality of many of its buildings sets it apart from its sister towns on this side of Puget Sound. The dates on the buildings in the accompanying photos indicate that Port Townsend's heyday was in the late 1800's. Brenda and I thought that this was all the result of a timber and fishing boom, but when visiting the court house building a local explained that the history was more complex yet simple at the same time. Below is my understanding of what happened.

In the 1880's Port Townsend was the city of Washington State - the principal port and destined to be the state capitol. Regional development was focused on the town and the population reached 8000. Seattle was a small town. The rail head was at Tacoma. I could envision the bay in front of Port Townsend filled with square riggers from all over the world, given that Port Townsend would have been the principal port for the entire Northwest.

Then it was decided to push the railroad not up the peninsula to Port Townsend, but to Seattle. The local said that "overnight" the population of Port Townsend plunged from 8000 to 800 as the action shifted to Seattle. Only recently has the population reached 8000 again.

This story reminded me of the competition between Esperance, Albany, and Perth in the early days of Western Australia, settled when the railroad between Kalgoorlie and Perth was built.

Many of the buildings and houses of Port Townsend have a Victorian flavor. The two photos at the bottom represent the confidence of the era. The building with the grey stone is the post office. The one in the bottom photo with the red brick is the court house. The clock tower is 100 ft high and the clock keeps correct time.

Port Townsend Street Scenes

The schooner with the tan sails is framed by the "Tree of Life", donated by a Chinese emperor's son.

The small frame building numbered 1303 is a dental office, high on the ridge with spectacular views that can be glimpsed through the window.

The flowers are dahlias and liliams that seem to thrive next to the beach.

There is a photo of the foyer of a beautifully restored hotel.

Brenda took the photos of the resting guitars. (While my guitar gently sleeps)

The skate part was the best that I have ever seen and well used by young virtuosos who provided great entertainment with their amazing feats.

Rigging Stuffup

This morning when I visited Dan at Port Townsend rigging he had a shock for me. When he removed the roller furler drum to replace it with the new one he found two deep scores around the headstay which had been caused by screws being placed too deep during the modification work that had been done in Honolulu. The headstay, less than three months old, was a total write-off.

If I had opted for the repair of the old drum rather than total replacement the problem would not have been detected and the forestay would have eventually failed without a doubt. Dan had offered the repair option in good faith trying to offer me a way to hold down costs but he said that he has learned a lesson from this experience.

The photo shows the scoring of the wire. After photograhing the section of wire I returned it to Dan so that he could put it into what he calls his "scary box" with which no doubt he will terrorize his customers.

Pachuca Back In The Water

I was given all of 20 minutes notice that Pachuca would be lowered into the water this morning. I was the only person on standby who was ready so I got the hoist. Pachuca had been on the hardstand for about 34 days.

Fortunately I was assigned a berth right on the fairway leading to the lift. There was a gentle wind from slightly starboard of the bow. When the slings freed me I asked the lift driver to pull my stern to his side, my starboard, with his boat hook. I then gave the boat a bit of reverse and the prop walk moved the stern to port. As I drifted back the wind would move the bow to port and I would give the boat a short burst of reverse to bring the stern to port. I got about 3 boat lengths downwind of the berth then I drove forward and eased into the berth on the port side of the fairway. Brenda was in position on the jetty, took my lines, and also reminded me to put out my fenders, which were inboard and all ready to be put over the side. The whole thing was calm and drama free.

Late in the afternoon I tried to connect to the power and found out that the jetty has 30-amp plugs whereas the hardstand area had 20-amp plugs. I will try to organize a 30-amp plug tomorrow.

Brenda in Seattle

Brenda's plane from Honolulu arrived one hour late but otherwise the trip went well. I had made my way to Sea-Tac airport through a sequence of two buses, one ferry, one train, and one more bus. On the return trip we cut out the train and with good connections made it from Seattle to Port Townsend in just under 5 hours. The duration was not a problem because the weather was good and the trip was a good touring experience for Brenda. I took the photo of Brenda on the ferry to Bainbridge Island, with the Seattle skyline in the background.