Launching: Today was the big day. We tied ribbons on the gunnels with "bon voyage" wishes written on them by the guests, and we purified the boat with the smoke of burning sage and cedar. I said a prayer for protection from harm and for harmony with nature, and after a christening with salt water (because of its ultimate destination, the ocean), we carried Raven to the water to the sound of beating drums, and set her in. Her hull weight is about 125 pounds, and the sailing gear adds about 46 pounds more. Six adults, one child and a dog, a total load of 967 pounds, brought the hull to the 6" waterline, leaving 12" of freeboard!
Maiden voyage: We loaded "Raven" with 830 pounds of food, water, camping gear, people and dog, and leisurely sailed the channel to Cypress Island from Washington Park near Anacortes on Fidalgo Island . We beached in order to switch to motor because it is very awkward to remove the 30-pound motor from the transom while in open water. I would have to sit up on the gunnel and carefully swing the motor into my lap, which I've done, but only when the water was perfectly still. So, after we got the motor going, we moved along quite quickly to Clark Island for the night.
At half-throttle, the motor tools along twice as fast as paddle-power, and sips only a pint of gas per hour. During our week-long trip, we covered 91 miles (79 nautical mi.) on about two gallons of gas, and would average almost 7 miles per hour, or 6 knots.
I learned there is a price for speed, that motoring through the waves can get us wetter than paddling. The wakes of the heavy, overpowered pleasure yachts (that I call "tractor boats " because they plow up the ocean) are especially nerve-wracking, requiring us to throttle down and divert our course to take the waves at a shallow angle.
Sailing: The Tyvek sail proved it was the right cut. I expected to sail most of the way with our beautiful new dacron sail, but we used motor power for all but a few hours of our trip. The tidal currents are too strong to sail against: we tried, and went backwards relative to the islands, even though the wind was moving us forward relative to the water! If we had had a stronger wind, the
opposition of wind and tide would have created a nasty chop. The one time we did sail, it was downwind with the direction of the tide, and even then sailing through tide rips was like shooting rapids in an awesomely powerful river. So we mostly played around in the bays of the islands.
Beaching: The keelsons worked extremely well. Every night we dragged "Raven" up the gravel to the logs above the high tide mark, and the varnish of the hull was barely scratched. The worst damage of the trip was a small hole in the exterior fiberglass of the side, caused by a wave action against a dock, undoubtedly from the wake of a "tractor boat." I had tied an old lifejacket onto the side as a bumper, but obviously that was not enough protection.
Peace: Our best time sailing so far has been on local lakes and reservoirs, following our trip to the San Juans. Sailing is so peaceful, it's positively therapeutic!
The End....For Now
The Stripper's Guide to Canoe-building by David Hazen is available from:
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