Underway

After completing Starr's inclining test we moved her back across the canal to her slip at SBMC. The last minute loading and unloading was completed and we cast off at 4PM for Hawaii.

It took about an hour to get through the locks connecting the Ballard Ship Canal with Puget Sound. I'd never been through a lock before, but it wasn't much different than the dry docks I worked on for twenty years as an engineer for the Navy. There were lots of tourists watching us as Starr was lowered the ten feet from the canal elevation to sea level.

Once out in Puget Sound we were on our way. The crew secured the fenders and dock lines and tidied the deck up for sea. It was a stunning evening with calm winds and clear skies as the sun set over the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula.

There is a lot of ship traffic in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, our route to the ocean, so Don decided that it would be prudent to stand two person watches until we were well offshore. Clay and I were on watch at midnight when a 1000+ foot container ship passed us going in the other direction at fifteen knots. We were off Port Angeles at the time, and even though the ship passed two miles from us he blocked out a large portion of the lights on shore. Five minutes after he went by a strange bold line appeared on the radar that was approaching us rapidly from the direction of the ship. "Clay, I think that's his wake!" We had the infrared camera on to warn us away from any logs that might pop up ahead of us, and although it was pitch black outside, the infrared camera screen made it look like daylight. Sure enough, as the bold line approached Starr the screen showed a four foot breaking wave bearing down on us in the otherwise glassy calm. We held on as it hit our bow at an angle. Starr pitched, waking up the rest of the crew, but the stabilizers kept us from rolling. It reminded me of "The Poseidon Adventure" where a tsunami wave suddenly appeared on a calm sea to capsize an ocean liner. Our wave wasn't THAT big, and it didn't damage Starr, but a small sailboat lazing along on a flat calm evening without radar and infrared camera would likely have been caught unaware by the approaching wave with more dire consequences. Good thing we have all these tools on the bridge!

Our departure timing turned out to be perfect with respect to tides. We had an average two knots of push as we rode the ebb tide out of Puget Sound. Starr arrived at Neah Bay, a small protected hidey hole where the Strait of Juan de Fuca meets the Pacific Ocean just after 5AM. We anchored in the dark, and as the dawn broke found ourselves surrounded by sail and fishing boats also swinging to anchors in the bay.

Our nasty offshore weather is still there, but should be gone by noon today. We are taking the opportunity to finish up some last minute engine maintenance and catch up on sleep. We will likely weigh anchor at noon and be on our way.