A Walk in the Forrest: A Memorial Day on Whidby Island

May 27-30, 2011

Taking the ferry, Mukilteo to Whidbey Island

The three day weekend provided by Memorial Day this year provided a perfect block of time for a mini vacation. Along with my family, we met up with the Kings and other Alaskan, ex pats, we knew from our Glacier Bay days.

A decrepit piling

Whidbey Island is a beautiful little island about 30 miles North of Seattle, provided a convenient drive down for me from Bellingham. Between our four families we rented a house less than a mile from the beach on the South end of Whidbey Island. A stroll down to the beach made me question why we ever left the ocean: the confluence of water and land has a special feeling. Scuttling crabs, and the smell of seaweed and sea, not to mention the therapeutic effects of mud between toes.

The whole gang

Dad and his favorite treat. We thinks he loves them more than us

Successful day for Skylar, finding himself two girlfriends and a boyfriend
After a couple hours on the beach, food supplies were needed. A habit we all carried from Alaska is socializing via food. A side trip into the quaint town of Langley to pick up said groceries as well as a chance to get some window shopping in for the moms, under Mike's recommendation.

A windy day in Langley

Sailing Adventures

Beth taking advantage of excess crew

The next day was a planned boat day. Jim and Beth are in the process of updating their sailboat's equipment for an international "sail-about". Follow Jim, Beth and Glen on their day-to-day adventures as well as on their more substantial, far reaching voyage they will begin in the next couple of months, on the blog they all maintain here. On Sunday, we all drove fifteen minutes from the house to Useless Bay where Kiana shuttled us out, with gear and food, two by two on a dinghy to the 44 foot Ijsselmeer (pronounced: Ice-uhl-meer). With a new main sail, new man mast wiring, new rigging, a new fiberglass deck, and many other spiffy additions, the boat that Beth, Jim, Glen and Misty (the newest member of their family, a Skchipperke puppy) call home was looking top notch. With a short but very insightful sailing lesson by Beth, we learned the difference between the jib, mainsail, and mizzen as well as their respective halyards, man-overboard protocol, how to avoid a swinging boom, and, most importantly, what not to put in the head.

Food is a common theme

Taking my turn at the helm

As my first time sailing, two things in particular surprised me. I guess I hadn't really put a whole lot of thought into it beforehand but the first thing that surprised me was the noise, or rather lack of it. The wind wasn't entirely cooperative and so we started off the adventure under diesel power. Kiana raised the sail entirely on her own (more a tribute to the high density, low friction sail runners they recently installed than to Kiana but I suppose we can giver her some credit) and Jim killed the engine. It was far from quiet out on the water, with the happy chatter of the moms, the sounds of the ocean and wisps of wind streaming through every crack and crevice of the Ijsslmeer, but the sudden absence of the deep static emanating from the engine hold, somewhere unseen below deck took me aback. A certain sense of peace accompanies the knowledge that you are one layer closer to nature, dependent on her wind but at the same time limitless in range with such a power source such as wind. This brings me to my second point of surprise. Sailing is an immense amount of work. With ten people on board to serve as crew, mom and Sally were looking forward to finding a place to sit and relax, letting the men and children do the brunt of the work but this was not so. Granted we were all armature sailors, taking lead from Beth, Jim and Glen, but when we were under way, there was always something to do, a shifting of this line or that line, tightening or loosening the jib, raising the mainsail a little more, or shifting directions, transitioning the boom from one side to another (a very intense process as the sail whips pass you with quite a bit of force). We sailed for a total of probably two or three hours and that night I was exhausted. Day in and day out, with night sails, being out at sea for days, I can't imagine the constant vigilance combined with physical labor of winching and pulling that accompanies sailing adventures exceeding three hours. Needless to say I have a new appreciation for Beth, Jim, Glen and other sailors lifestyle. Though an immensely rewarding mode of transportation, there is an awful lot of work that goes into maintaining and sailing a sailboat. This summer I do hope to find myself on sailboat again, now able to tell the bow from the stern and port from starboard.