It’s a Small World

Gabe and the 5 kids were waiting at the Marina gate by 7am, raring to go. Today’s discovery was Ft Flagler Historical State Park. Jenn and Gabe’s mom were driving there and bringing lunch while the rest of us stuck to the sea route. The sun shone as we headed off, but just past Travis Spit we could see the dreaded fog bank. We have spent time in heavy fog before on Lake Superior, but this boat didn’t have radar, plus we assumed there was a lot more boat traffic here.

Before long we were shrouded in the gray blanket and our only source of navigation was electronic. I have the ship finder app on my phone, so we could at least tell if we would collide with anything massive. More worried about the little boats or floating logs, my eyes constantly scanned the water while Heath helmed or helped others helm. Occasionally you’d hear the fog horn of a passing ship, but otherwise we were truly alone. It thinned for a bit when we passed Protection Island, but thickened again shortly after. It gets old and tiring to sail in fog. You can’t let your guard down for even a minute. Everyone was thoroughly relieved when we popped out of it as we rounded the point at Point Wilson Light and were once again bathed in Sunshine!

Ft Flagler is an old military fort that was built in the late 1800’s and manned during WW1, WW2, and the Korean War. Built to defend the entrance to the Puget Sound, there are huge concrete bunkers/batteries lining the cliff edges that you can explore. It was quite fascinating! The barracks and hospital are still there as well and we spent several hours walking around on the shady trails seeing the sights.

The tide was out when we arrived, so some of the kids and I beach-combed while the responsible adults got lunch around. There were an astonishing amount of large sand dollars to be found, but no orange worms.

We headed back to John Wayne late afternoon, stopping for some fuel and a quick black tank pump out at Port Townsend Marina. Not a great experience. Never had I ever been the one to hold the vacuum head against the sewer outlet on a boat, and clearly I didn’t do it quite right. All I know is that disgusting liquid squirted on my feet and my scream was enormously loud. It nearly caused the people in the passing boat to have a heart attack. And now I have learned something. Always disappear when it’s time to pump out.

The trip was entirely wind less, but the atmosphere had cleared and you could see the Cascade Range of mountains in all their glory. Truly gorgeous.

Gabe picked up pizza for a late supper at their house, and Heath and I took advantage of the nice shower. Someone kindly took us back to the Escape for our last night on board. The night was so gorgeous I hated to go below. Seals were swimming and making odd snuffling noises, the marina was peaceful and you could still see the silhouette of the mountains against the fading light. Red and green buoy lights flashed intermittently to mark the way for the night sailors, while the stars shone brilliantly overhead.

“Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away“ – Valancy