Day 265 A new home.

It took a while, but we made it to Brownsville, our new home(at least till the end of February).

We were up by 5:20 this morning and I was off by 6:20.  I left in the dark.  Sun up isn't till 7:50 this far North.   Now being on the water on a pitch black night in a fog can be less than enjoyable.  It is hard to figure out where the water ends and the sky begins.  It is like flying blind.  You are going forward but you're not sure where you will end up or what you might run into out there.  Being all alone makes it even more of a challenge.  Tracy had to take the car down to Brownsville.  It is hard to imagine what courage it took centuries ago setting off across the water not knowing where you were going or what could happen out in the cold dark ocean.   

I headed East across the strait and took off South down the Admiralty Inlet toward Puget Sound.  About two hours in I received a call on our VHF radio to "Vessel heading South toward Bush Pt"--hey, that's me!!!  I called him back--he was probably surprised I was actually listening.  I've yet to get a call back from the boats I've called.  He turned out to be a BIG freighter heading South right behind me--ok, three miles behind me but still, he was coming up on my stern.  He asked that I stay as far to the West of the strait so he could get past me.  He was far enough back that he wasn't showing up on my radar screen yet.  I changed course--West of course--to get out of his way.  A few minutes later, up he came and past me he went.  At about the same time, another freighter was heading North and they crossed in the channel.  All in all, I passed probably six ships as I made my way South.  

Now it didn't help that it was cold, cloudy and a good bit of fog.   Visibility was down to a half mile at some times.  I'm glad we had radar and a good chart plotter.  It made the trip much better.  The last three days had been great--lots of Sun, but today there was no Sun at all.  Oh well, this is the Northwest after all.

The reason I left so early was that there is a large bridge I had to pass under to get to Brownsville.  By early afternoon, the current caused by the tidal flow would be approaching 4.5 knots.  Not a fun place to try and get through as the pass is only about 1/10th of a mile wide and 4.5 knots can really slow down your boat and could ruin your day.  As the bridge is just across the bay from Brownsville, I had some miles to go to make it before noon if at all possible.  Now it is a 38 mile trip--at 6.5 knots, it would take time.  I passed under the bridge exactly at high tide when there was no tidal flow at all.  Perfect!!!  

Now here is what actually happened when I got to the bridge.  The chart said that there was a 75 foot clearance under the bridge.  It didn't say if that was at high tide or low tide.  No real problem as I only needed 62 feet--water line to the top of Zephyrs mast.  The tide was at its max--11 feet.  If you take the height of 75 feet and subtract the 11 foot high tide, that still would have left me 2 feet to spare.  That is assuming that it was measured at 75 feet at low tide, not high tide.  As I got closer, it just didn't seem like Zephyr would pass under the bridge without taking off the top of the mast(new) and all its nice shiny new rigging.  With what we had paid to have it done, I turned chicken and slammed Zephyrs transmission into reverse.  Cluck, Cluck, Cluck!  Just at that moment,  Tracy called to check in.  With Zephyr at a standstill, I had her go up to the marina office and find out if the 75 feet was at high tide or low tide.  It was at HIGH tide so I was safe--big sigh of relief!!  Into gear--nice and slow(cluck cluck cluck) and under I went.  I was clear!!!  Now just a few miles to go and I would be at our new home.  A half hour later, I was at the dock with Tracy grabbing the lines to tie us up.   We were home!!

After a quick lunch at Wendy's, we were off to find the local West Marine.  They aren't that far from the marina and have a lot more than the store in Port Townsend.  We bought some anti freeze for the forward head tank.  I really don't want it freezing again.  I really don't enjoy sticking my head down into a stinky bilge again if I don't have to.  As it it supposed to  be down to 25 tonight and what ever is in it could freeze--bad!!  Now there will no longer be that problem.  Yea!!

Now for a nice quiet night at the marina.  Tomorrow is another day--hopefully with some sunshine.