Port Townsend to Bainbridge Island

Went Into town and found a guy to scrub the bottom of the boat. He came out next morning with full scuba gear and spent 45 min. scrubbing what he called 2 inches of carpet off the bottom. We did a little shopping and went back accross to anchor by the park for a little peace from the rolly city front anchorage. Lovely weather and an immediate jump in boat speed under power from the clean bottom. Suddenly we can go 7.5 knots at 2500 rpms instead of 6.5 at 3200. Should save a lot of fuel, hopefully it will make sailing a bit more fun. Cloudy and cold next couple of days. set up the watermaker, but the water in the cove has too much organic junk drifting in it to try it out.
We get a break in the weather with a little wind, so out into the sound for some sailing. Hot Sauce lives up to her name as we sail along in about 10 knots of wind going 9-10 knots boat speed. It is dificult to tell how fast the wind is blowing once you get moving, because you are moving into the wind making it seem stronger than it is. So when we sail at 10 knots, the wind instrument thinks the wind is blowing 15-16, while the discrepancy is largely the fact that we are moving toward the wind at 10 knots. Yes, it is supposed to be confusing, but you have to experience it to really understand it. We tack cleanly several times and rip back and forth between the open sound and the marina area,. One tack we tried right in the middle of a tide rift, and one of the sheets caught on some mast appendage and we got completely stalled. I tried drifting backwards to use the tiller to position the boat accross the wind, but each time we started moving she just rounded up into the wind. After about 3 iterations of this, I started the engine and forced her back on course. Probably a really good idea that we didn't try to sail off the anchor the other day.

Ran into Russel Brown and Brandon Sanders while sailing, they liked the boat.They are both kind of local legends and are the main reason I got the new board made. Brandon is making the board next week while we will be in Seattle getting the dodger put on. We went back to anchor in the city front and no sooner had we settled in than a bunch of sailboats started sailing by at really close quarters. Turns out we had anchored in the first leg of their Wed. night race course. As the race started they all came blasting down on us scowling at us for being in the way. About this time the ferry tooted its horn and pulled out of the terminal only to stop in front of the fleet. Some started to go in front, when the ferry tooted at them and proceded to park next to the ferry dock right in their path. We laughed a lot at them all milling about trying to wait for the ferry to get out of the way. We could have pulled up anchor and sailed along, but they don't seem to like us going by them as though they were sitting still. We went to town the next day and bought some groceries and diesel, so that we could catch a good tide the next day to go down by Seattle to get the dodger made. We tried out the watermaker, and at first it had a chemical taste( residual biocide from preserving the Reverse Osmosis membrane ), but after a while it cleared up and appears to work well. There is a little water leakage while it is running, so I may have to take it apart and replace a couple of o-rings. Good to know we can make water, now just need to find a permanent installation point. It is rather awkward in shape and takes up a good bit of space.
Friday morning we went to the marina for showers and last minute preparations and hauled anchor at noon to catch a good flood tide to take us down Puget Sound. We set sail immediately and were ghosting alnog at about 7-8 knots with a following wind. We sailed for about three hours, but the wind started fading and we went with the iron genny(motored). The rest of the way down to Bainbridge Island. Got in and anchored about 6 pm. While setting anchor, the dinghy painter got under the boat and fouled the prop. Couldn't pull it free or run the engine, so I broke out my mask and snorkel and jumped into the 16 degree( Centigrade ) water to unwrap the prop. Brrrrr that was cold, but only took a few minutes to get done and the sun shower had been sitting on deck all day and had some nice warm water to rinse off with. Grilled steaks for dinner, and all was right with the world again. I had just read a forum discussion about towing your dinghy while sailing and 2 of the main concerns had happened to us in the last week. The only one left is for the dinghy to get swamped by a wave or wake and sink. I guess I will carry the dink on deck from now on, as I kind of like it and don't want it to sink. Tomorrow we go to Seattle to a marina where the dodger work crew will show up on Monday and begin our new dodger.