We took Kingsley for her first sail a few weeks ago - the weather and sailing was perfect. We sailed almost straight west and ducked some of the north wind to float in the warm sun near Port Madison. On the way back we dodged some race boats practicing. We think some of them were finishing the Three Buoy Fiasco - a somewhat locally (PMYC) sponsored race. Until I get captain wifey in the mood to race we'll have to settle for being the press boat:) 

Ahoy sailors! Just a few summer pics from the Lake Washington Thunderbird sailboat fleet. Ahhh, shorts - I remember those. Snow-birds: stay warm this weekend!
   ~Paul   ETC

   Pia is a sailboat. Read about her story (and her amazing owner) here. We met both of them one night in Port Townsend, or I should say, we met both of them one windy night in Port Townsend.
   Earlier that day my friends and I left Lake Washington in Seattle aboard a 26' Thunderbird sailboat. We were crew on the sailboat, delivering and racing her over Labor Day weekend in Port Townsend. The day started out like this - 

   The winds were steady and, although they were against us, didn't seem to slow us down that much...at first. As we headed north in the Admiralty Inlet we started to notice that we weren't making that good of time as the waves picked up a bit.

   As we got closer and closer to our destination, it became apparent that we probably wouldn't make it by night fall. We could see the town in the distance but had to battle the wind and wave after wave on our bow, our little outboard doing the best she could.

   Luckily we were on the south side of the town, 'protected' in Port Townsend Bay. Imagine what was going on in the Strait (of Juan de Fuca) just around the corner! The picture and video above is the last footage I took before we eventually made it safely into the marina, where we still had to battle the wind to dock our little T-bird.
   That night we awoke to the sounds of the lift - we had heard that some folks had rescued a sailboat that had sent a mayday call earlier in the evening, around the time we were coming over. It turns out the boat had been punctured on a nearby island and was taking on major water. The word was they were trying to reach Port Townsend from the other side, they had engine trouble, couldn't sail, and got blown up against some rocks. The Coast Guard had also been called in to rescue some boaters in a different boat (a powerboat) who had capsized in the very same waters.
   We eventually went back to sleep and awoke the next morning to lighter winds and a busy marina as the T-birds & crew prepared for a day of racing.

   The sailboat that had gotten rescued was Pia. We walked over to the yard to find Pia and see the damage.

   We said hi to the owner, who introduced himself as 'Mench'. He told us the story, how he was a boat builder and had brought Pia back to life. He thought he had lost her last night. He vowed to bring her back to life yet again (read about that amazing story here). It's an amazing little tale of dedication and perseverance, we were equally sorry it had happened and blessed that we could be connected in a little way to such a story. Good luck Aho'i!
   ~Paul, Josh   ETC

Last weekend it was so nice (55 degrees with light wind) that we decided to take Kingsley out for a spin. We stopped over at the fuel dock for the first time to top off our diesel tank for the winter, they say this prevents condensation in the fuel tank and thus water in the fuel line. We thought we were getting low, less than half a tank, but it turns out we were actually just above half a tank. $46 and we were out of there.

After quickly crossing the shipping lanes, and that huge guy pictured above, we sailed close to Bainbridge Island and Port Madison before returning home.
   ~Paul, Amber, Kali   ETC

Here's a quick video of catching that tanker wake...

We continue sharing the only surviving documentation (what happens in Port Ludlow stays in Port Ludlow) of our summer man-cruise from Shilshole Marina to Port Ludlow, Washington. After an action-packed sail over on day 1, we finally woke up and fixed some breakfast on the sea-B-Q and headed out for a day on the water.

We're not sponsored by Cherry Coke, it just happened to be the early morning beverage of choice...it is a man-trip after all.

We sailed a little in light winds around the Hood Canal bridge and motor-sailed back North, almost to Port Townsend.

Thanks to my buddy John who pulled a little too hard on the Furlex, I had to do a repair job while underway...it didn't take that long to figure it out, good thing I had a set of torque wrenches aboard...

A great day two on the water!
   ~Paul, John, Micah

Everyone's Travel Club here with a few posts this week from our summer man-cruise. Yep, that's right, we cut the lines, left the wives at home (except my wife had to stay with friends because we took the house), and sailed ol' Kingsley girl North to Port Ludlow (just South from Port Townsend). We set out to do manly things - eat, drink, and be merry...with a little poker mixed in. Falling asleep early because we were so tired from a day of sailing wasn't part of the plan, but let's stick to the highlights from day 1!
   We shoved off on an overcast summer day with typical NW summer light winds. They picked up as we got just North of the Edmonds ferries.

As we rounded Point No Point to head West we had some great sailing. The waves chilled out a little and the wind was on our beam (Kingsley likes that).

There was even time for shenanigans. 

We used our radar a lot.

And eventually made it to the Port Ludlow Marina (6-7 hours sailing the whole way with the wind against us). Stay tuned to the blog this week for more man-cruise adventures!
   ~Paul, Micah, John   ETC

We took ol' Kingsley girl out for a sail the other day (we're running out of sun up here in the Northwest) and did a sail-by of the green buoy near Shilshole Marina...and what did we see? A steller sea lion! And, well, we're no sea lion experts, but if that really is a steller the poor guy is endangered here in the North Pacific...read more about it here.

We closed down the day by taking Kya the dinghy on a little motor...until she suddenly stopped...then I realized there was just a kink in the fuel line - no biggie.

   ~Paul, Amber, Micah   ETC

ETC took the family for a little sail a few weekends ago. We set out sailing South from Shilshole marina, towards downtown Seattle in Elliot Bay. It was an almost normal sail until our poor little dinghy Kya came undone from the mothership. Luckily we noticed she had gone missing - the bad part was we had to wait out some giant cargo ship wake before we could turn around and grab her. We did get her back on the first pass and completely under sail...not bad!
   ~Paul, Amber, Kali (the cat hiding down below)

   Everyone's Travel Club here with a quick post about our dear Kingsley. She sails! OK we knew that. Well, she sails fast! Or about as fast as she ever will...I think.
  I thought that all displacement boats (Kingsley) had a top speed of sorts, referred to as the boat's hull speed. This was determined by a cool mathematical equation, read about it here. Well, after reading myself, I'm a little confused.
   Anyway, on a beam reach the other day with 17-20 knots, this was about as fast as we could get Kingsley to sail - 7.4 knots (Amber swears she saw 7.5). Not bad considering it's our house moving that fast!
   ~Paul, Amber, Jon, Ann

   We weren't the only ones catching some speed - check out Little Mo!

   Wait a minute, could all of this cleaning be for something? Oh ya, Kingsley is a sailboat...key word...sail...
   We've taken her out 4-5 times so far, fixed a few little sail things, otherwise it has been smooth sailing. We'll post some pics from last month's haul-out later this week.
   ~Paul, Amber   ETC