Kinetic Kaos

We took off last Thursday to see where the wind would take us, and since it was blowing from the south when we left, we decided to go north. We'd never been to Port Ludlow, at least from the water, and so decided to anchor there for a few days and see what we had been missing.

Ludlow is a somewhat unusual community and equally unusual as an anchorage. Ashore, the community is composed largely of retirees (although you will find the locals as you get higher up into the hills off the water) and doesn't look anything like a conventional small town. It's built around a resort and golf course; there are a few nice restaurants, mostly associated with the resort, but the closest thing to a grocery store is the local mini-mart, and as far as other services go, if the resort doesn't do it, it pretty much isn't available. In recent years, the place has garnered a reputation as a quiet destination for the rich and famous, and it's certainly well-designed to cater to the affluent recluse... houses are tucked into the trees, the resort is quietly classy, and the views are classicly beautiful. I can't comment on the golf course since I'm not a golfer, but isn't 27 more holes than usual? The excesses of the wealthy!

The bay is well-sheltered, particularly the further in you go, where the high hillsides draw close and block the winds (although a pair of underwater cables can make anchoring problematic). If that's not enough for you, though, the inner bay, accessed through a shallow channel near the base of the main waterway, is almost entirely enclosed. Although anchoring depths in the inner port are acceptable for a boat our size, two to three fathoms, I didn't feel like braving the entrance, with a least depth that is pretty close to our nearly one fathom draft. It would be fine at high tide, but then you are limited in when you can leave. I didn't have any premonition that I would have some pressing need to leave, but still... I decided to drop the hook in the outer bay.

We had a day of rain and I came down with a wicked cold, but our diesel cabin heater decided to work more often than not so we had a couple of pretty nice, quiet days working and reading. Unlike many anchorages, Ludlow doesn't see a lot of traffic. We had only a single companion at anchor (and I didn't see anyone on deck the whole time we were there) and I can't recall rolling at the hands of an errant wake even once.

Ludlow is only about six miles from Port Hadlock, where my parents' mooring buoy is at, and we thought that while we were so close we might swing past and pick up a generator that I had stored up there... Mandy was jonesing for more power and sunlight is bound to be in short supply in the coming months here. When I e-mailed Mom to see if they would be around for us to come get the thing, she mentioned something I had completely forgotten: it was the first weekend in October, time for the Kinetic Skulpture Race in Port Townsend!

We seem to end up going to the race by happenstance more often than by design, which happily fits in well with the event's general theme of merry unpredictability. Since we were so close, it seemed like fate was once again calling us to the race.

As it happened, we had to be back in Seattle by Sunday afternoon, and wouldn't be able to watch the main event on that day, but we hauled anchor Saturday morning and beat the tide through the cut (the Port Townsend Canal, between the mainland and Indian Island) and got to town in time to watch the always exciting outcomes of the mandatory pre-race Brake and Float Test. The skulptures are created with varying degrees of inspiration and workmanship and there are inevitably some contestants who fail one or the other.

The wind had shifted to the north and was whipping down at Hadlock in the south end of the bay but it was pretty nice in town next to Hudson's Point where the Float Test happens. We were late and didn't have a great view but various degrees of dampness witnessed among those coming back up the ramp attested to a number of flotation-related issues among the contestants.

As is typical, I forgot my camera, which is a pity this year particularly as some of the costumes were particularly good. There was a Alice in Wonderland theme and frozen in my mind's eye is the sight of the White Rabbit throwing a few back on the other side of the window at the iconic Town Tavern (which is unfortunately no longer the Town Tavern... but to fans of "An Officer and a Gentleman" it will live on in its former glory!) after the Float Test.

We had a great dinner with my folks and their friends Pete and Nancy and Brent and Janet. Brent (the same gentleman who did the delicious ribs we served at our wedding) and Janet cooked and it was as excellent a meal as we have come to expect from them. I got a good night's sleep and a hot shower and then it was time to head back south.

The wind, in addition to switching direction, had also upped its intensity, and was bombing down at twenty to twenty-five knots from the north. We only inflated our little six foot raft, since the dinghy is a pain to assemble for such a short stop, and I paid for it by taking several cold North Pacific waves in my lap on the way back out to the boat. Once aboard, though, we raised sail and took off like a banshee going south. We only put up the main (except to manuever into the cut) but kept hull speed or close to it for most of the trip. We made it in a little over four hours, a thrilling down-hill sleigh ride under blue skies and sunshine.

We weren't the only ones out, either, and not everyone was quite ready for the ride. We overheard pan-pan calls for four different capsize incidents resulting in persons in the water, two engine overheat/fires on board, and what sounded like it might have been a collision between the Vessel Assist Everett boat and someone else. We were busy trying to wrestle our main down and negotiate the flurry of kite-surfers and sailboarders whipping around the north breakwater at Shilshole by then so I'm not sure what exactly happened. But the Seattle Vessel Assist boat was absent from its slip at the base of our dock when we got in and I have no doubt they were having a busy day.