The Things I Do...: The 2019 Salish 100, Day Five

Wednesday, June 26th

Surprisingly, despite hearing the occasional scampering of little feet above me during the night, I slept pretty well. There were some filthy little footprints on deck in the morning, but we escaped more or less unscathed, with only a little bit of cleaning up to do after last night's trash panda party.

Today we were facing another significant challenge, and that was to get across the ferry lanes without being run down by one of those car-carrying monsters. Typical WA State Ferry stats are
Length: 460 feet, beam: 90 feet, draft: 17 feet, passengers: up tp 2,500, vehicle capacity: over 200, and 4 engines with 16,000 horsepower, and a top speed of over 18 knots!
It goes without saying that we did not want to get in their way. The problem was going to be trying to organize over 100 boats, leaving at different times, and traveling at different speeds, into a safe passage through the ferry lanes, with ferries crossing every 15 to 20 minutes!

There was no wind to speak of, so another quiet day of motoring lay ahead. Fortunately for me, with an outboard motor this was a non-issue, but I was wondering how the human-powered boats were going to get across those ferry lanes without getting into trouble, or worse -- being run down. The plan was to have groups of similarly paced boats leave at predetermined times, in between the crossings of the ferries, to minimize boats being strung out in a mass of chaos. It ended up being very similar to herding cats though, with boats spread out all over the place, exactly what the organizers were trying to avoid. The VHF radios were going nonstop, with skippers giving updates on their status, organizers and chase boats trying to keep everything under control while updating us on the ferry positions, and the usual fun banter.

I motored east a bit to get an earlier view of the eastbound boat coming out of Rich Passage, and when I thought I had enough time I started to cross the ferry lane. Nope! Less than five minutes later I realized there was no way I was going to be able to get across without ending up in the path of the westbound boat! They travel so fast that I seriously misjudged the ferry's speed, and before I knew it that monster was barreling down on me...so I turned tail and ran! When I could see he was well clear and I was sure the eastbound boat had passed safely by I made my second attempt at crossing, and made it through without issue, the motor going flat out just in case. There were a few scary moments for some of the rowing craft and some of the becalmed sailboats, but eventually everyone passed through the ferry lane and we slowly made our uneventful way north to Kingston. The entrance to the harbor was very windy as usual, but being so close to the marina I kept motoring in.

The harbormaster in Kingston was just wonderful. It was obvious he was very excited to have us all there, and went above and beyond to make sure all the boats had a berth for the night, although most of the fleet was rafted up with multiple boats in each slip. I lucked out and only had a single boat in front of me, so no one would be crawling over my boat to get to the bathrooms in the middle of the night.

I was very excited to be in Kingston because my wife was coming over from Seattle for a quick visit, and I was really looking forward to seeing her after so much time alone. I took a wonderful shower (the Kingston Marina has great showers!), and once she arrived we ate our fill at Jaime Les Crepes across the street, had ice cream, then walked the docks, socializing and enjoying the afternoon before she went back home. Feeling kind of lonely I headed for the big evening BBQ that Kingston Mercantile had planned for us. I had a nice time, ate some more good food, sang some sea shanties, and listened to the final skipper's meeting before heading back to the boats for what I thought was going to be a relaxing evening.

It was when I got back to the boat that I overheard some skippers talking about tomorrow's weather forecast. Yikes...!