Prior to the last five days, I hadn't been out in my boat or even seen it since mid-September. For four months I'd hoped for some decent weather so I could sneak away for a spin. Luckily, that just happened here in the San Juans as the snow melted, record rainfall subsided, waves were less than one foot and wind light and variable for three days. Time to cruise!
I headed to Sucia Island Friday morning and shared the dock with six good-sized powerboats. Seems I'm usually still the smallest boat wherever I land. Anyway, MikeR had the same craving, and motored to Sucia a day later. As his advance man, I texted him about dock availability, and that the big boys had gobbled up a lot of space. But you can raft to me, I assured him.
On Saturday morning I got a rapid knock on my window. A woman on a 32' Nordic asked if I'd heard about the tsunami off Tonga. Holy cow, a tsunami? I hadn't, and watched as all but one boat nervously untied and headed away from the dock, into fog yielding maybe a half-mile of visibility. I started my engine and prepared to leave the dock, but as I received more information about wave size in Puget Sound from multiple sources, stayed put. Long story shorter, I didn't feel a bit of wave activity in Fossil Bay, and MikeR said he might have experienced minor waves as he motored north of Orcas at 19 knots, but maybe not. What he did find was a virtually empty dock waiting for him on that unique day. I'm just grateful that our coastline didn't experience something much worse, and hopeful that Tonga's tsunami-hit people and islands recover quickly.
I headed to Sucia Island Friday morning and shared the dock with six good-sized powerboats. Seems I'm usually still the smallest boat wherever I land. Anyway, MikeR had the same craving, and motored to Sucia a day later. As his advance man, I texted him about dock availability, and that the big boys had gobbled up a lot of space. But you can raft to me, I assured him.
On Saturday morning I got a rapid knock on my window. A woman on a 32' Nordic asked if I'd heard about the tsunami off Tonga. Holy cow, a tsunami? I hadn't, and watched as all but one boat nervously untied and headed away from the dock, into fog yielding maybe a half-mile of visibility. I started my engine and prepared to leave the dock, but as I received more information about wave size in Puget Sound from multiple sources, stayed put. Long story shorter, I didn't feel a bit of wave activity in Fossil Bay, and MikeR said he might have experienced minor waves as he motored north of Orcas at 19 knots, but maybe not. What he did find was a virtually empty dock waiting for him on that unique day. I'm just grateful that our coastline didn't experience something much worse, and hopeful that Tonga's tsunami-hit people and islands recover quickly.
