Here you will find tales of voyages past and present on our trusty Pacific Seacraft Dana 24, "Sockdolager," and our Bigfoot29 powerboat, "Raven," from Port Townsend, Washington, USA. In 2009 we sailed north from Puget Sound up the west coast of Vancouver Island to the Queen Charlotte Islands (now called Haida Gwaii.) In 2010 we went back to the west coast of Vancouver Island. In July 2011 we left the Northwest, sailed to Mexico, and in March 2012 we crossed the Pacific to French Polynesia, then on to the Cooks, Niue and Tonga. We spent several months in New Zealand, and in May 2013 loaded Sockdolager (and ourselves) on a container ship for San Francisco. In June and July 2013 we sailed north along the California, Oregon and Washington coasts, and in August we arrived home. In October 2016, Sockdolager found new owners, and we began cruising on Raven, a unique wooden 29' powerboat. In 2018 we cruised up to Glacier Bay, Alaska, and back. But in 2024 we had the chance to buy Sockdolager back (we missed her), so we sold Raven. We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures as much as we enjoy having them. (And there will be more.)



Thursday, June 3, 2010

Attention on deck: They're off. Really.


When the shore feels like Velcro: Last year Karen waxed poetic about sailing off into the briny blue, the vasty deep, the billowy acres etc, but this year after all the delays, the latest one being a little bout of food poisoning for Jim, we are just grateful to be going out to busta wave. So we will keep in touch periodically as civilized towns with wi-fi cafes present themselves, but our intent is to get good and lost in the wild again. Here's a little free-verse poem. Happy Spring.

Our boat's green bow is a plow.
The slippery sea-loam chuckles,
delighted to be cleaved
and tossed aside all a-shimmer, tickled
that the crop it raised
on this sunny, wind-scudded day
is quiet joy.


How do you like our new look for Sockdolager? (kidding, kidding.) This is the Lady Washington during her "battle sail" with the Hawaiian Chieftain in Port Townsend Bay last week. Cannon fire, hearty huzzahs and piratical utterances of "Arrrrgh!" were the order of the day. It's very cool to be outnumbered by square-rigged ships bent on each others' mock destruction. Cannon fire was fun and deafening.





Here's another view of the sails and rigging close up.





























And for comparison, here's our rig. 3 sails. Simple, huh?


Jim is hooked on fishing. Beyond redemption, actually. Last summer he invented a new technique. I am not making this up. With an expert flick of his wrist he managed to hook a salmon rig onto the out-of-reach float line of our crab trap and drag it to the boat where, viola! we pulled it in. We must have saved 100 calories on that one. In the session pictured below, he managed to catch one pillowfish, a LAMPrey, and a WALLeye. We're gonna eat gooooood this summer.


Actually, Jim is just winding up some 130-lb test fishing line on his hew herkin' rig, which replaces the old, nice, civilized, more delicate rig that had a puny 40 lb test line. After hooking Codzilla two weeks ago and watching the entire boat being held still in a current, (see below) we ain't takin any more chances. Not nohow, uh-uh. Next fish lands in the oven. Note the prehensile toes. Very handy for clinging to the boat.

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