To close out our 2011 cruise on the morning of September 17 we headed south down Rosario Strait, along the west shore of Whidbey Island and into Admiralty Inlet. There is lots of commercial traffic in that area, so you venture into the vessel traffic lanes with a keen eye on the AIS in order to make sure you aren’t going to run over by a freighter moving at 20 knots. We will able to successfully cross without any major issue.
On account of the timing of the currents and the shorter days, we knew we needed an intermediate stop for the night between Anacortes and Winslow (Bainbridge Island). We decided to try the inner harbor in Port Ludlow. While the entrance is a bit shallow (~15 feet), it was short and straight with no current. Additionally, it was very protected from winds, a important consideration given the forecasted high winds for the next day. To top it off, the anchorage was remarkably scenic. While there were many homes along the shore, they were landscaped nicely and not closely packed.
The next morning, September 18, we elected to take a rest day and not move. The weather wasn’t terrible but docking with significant winds (15-25 kts) is not my favorite thing. The winds the next day were forecasted as light.
The early start on September 19 put us at the Queen City Yacht Club docks in Winslow before noon. We used the afternoon to start the boat cleaning process. Marcia working the interior while I tackled the exterior.
On September 20, the weather remained lovely for the final miles across Puget Sound, through the Ballard Locks and along the Lake Washington Ship Canal to our winter moorage in Lake Union. When transiting the locks we do our best to select a less busy day and time and calm winds. With just the two of us on board, we want to stack the odds in favor of an uneventful “lock-thru” and everything went smoothly. The time from Winslow to Lake Union, three draw bridges that had to open and one lock-thru was less than three hours.
The distance on this leg was 85.7 miles bringing the total trip distance to 3465.3 nautical miles. Total engine hours were 577.4 which works out to 6 miles per hour of engine time. Our actual speed is a bit faster since the engine hours include the time from when we weigh anchor or unmoor at the beginning of the day to the time when we are secured at anchor or dock at the end.
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