Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Friday, 22July2016: Skyline to Coupeville

Weather:  Sunny and warm.  Winds:  0 in places else 5-15kts.  Seas:  Flat

Summertime summertime sum sum summertime, and we are trapped by house chores...mostly.

Managed to get away for a bit.  We'd been invited to watch RT's and MM's daughter Em swim in her first Champs Swim Meet, a USA swimming event one must qualify to participate.  A big deal for Em.  So, we made time and went south.

Winds were cracking out of the west through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, smashing into the west side of Whidbey Island making Point Partridge a nasty place to be.  So we decided to go the inland route, something we do not do very often.

Motored out of Skyline around 1130, about 45min late for the slack at Deception Pass.  Managed to sail some to the pass and then motored through with a 3 knot following current...we were doing 9kts under the bridge!  West winds started to pick up again as we passed Cornet Bay and we sailed most of the way to Coupeville, motoring through a few wind shadows.  Winds were such we were able to stay in the channel easily.

Winds were in our face when we rounded Strawberry Point and into Penn Cove.  Since the day had been good, but long, we motored the final 6nm to the Coupeville dock, making things ship shape while underway.  The available shower made the overnight moorage reasonable.  Shoreline walking path to right off the wharf lead to Town Park and made for an easy dog walk.  Toby's Tavern was a few blocks to the left off the wharf.