Once up in Olympia, I stopped by my friends auto shop and grabbed some lunch. Luckily, he decided to accompany me for some sailing, as I would need his local knowledge in order to pick up some gear I had forgotten. Once at the ramp, I had the boat rigged fairly quickly. As I was pulling the sail out of the bag I had neatly folded it into nearly 1 1/2 years earlier, I realized what I had forgotten: Battens. Knowing that the p15 sail was going to be next to useless without battens, we headed off to the local West Marine to replace the missing parts. $36 and several hours later, we returned to Boston Harbor and finished assembling the boat. By this time, many potters had arrived, including Rick on his p19 "Sherry Lynne", a surprise boat that had not RSVP'd.

My friend and I headed out for a quick sail in what turned out to be the best wind of the weekend. The breeze was blowing out of the SW at a brisk 10-12 knots, and we had a great sail down the Budd Inlet, then back up into the entrance to the Dana Passage. The boat was sailing great and my power boater friend got a good dose of the joys of sailing a small boat. The clouds had pretty much burned off, and the sun was shinning out on the water!

Once back at the dock, the reality of the low tide hit quickly. Though there was still about .8 feet of water above mean low, the dock that the potters had been assigned too was floating in about 10 inches of mucky water. After trying to lift the motor and power in, I gave up and poled in with my boat
scrubber. Not the most graceful, but effective. Shortly after that, Jack Reid tried to follow me in with Slippin' Aweigh, and found himself in the same mucky water. we ended up throwing him a rescue line and pulling him into his slip.

Saturday morning dawned cloudy and still, but did not threaten rain. Folks cooked up various breakfasts on their looking setups. I had the good fortune of being moored next to Bill McClure, and mooched some of his crispy bacon cooked out on his gimbaled cockpit stove setup. Jack provided for some excitement when he managed to set his stove on fire. Jim Sinclair called out "FIRE FIRE FIRE", and the potter folks had many fire extinguishers out in seconds. Jack quickly doused the fire with his own extinguisher. Smoke was pouring out of the cabin, but later inspection did not reveal any significant damage. Careful with that equipment Jack!

After Saturday morning arrivals had launched, we held a quick skippers meeting (another) and discussed the route. Lloyd Jones and his wife Cathy had taken off early, and were keeping up with their friends on a 28' trimaran. The rest of the crew set sail at about 11:00am, and motored out onto the still water. Once in the Dana Passage, a breath of wind came up, and I popped up the sails on El Nino and began relaxing.

Staying close to the shore, I was able to minimize the current and slowly sailed thru the passage. I mounted my video camera on the rail and managed to get some good footage of several p-15's under sail, as well as Larry Yake's M17 "Tullamore".

After exiting the Dana Passage and logging a speed of 0.0 for about 20 minutes, I fired up the motor and caught up to the p-19s that had decided to set sail in the Case Inlet. Winds were light and southerly, so I ambled out on the deck and hanked on the Genoa. I would stay with this sail for the rest of the trip, and was glad I had it. The wind was perfect for wing-a-wing, and those that had poles made good use of them. Boat speed was leisurely, but progress was good, and we spent most of the afternoon drifting slowly down the beautiful inlet. Some people relaxed more than others! I picked my line fairly well, and was able tostay with most of the p19's who didn't fire up their motors. Filmed a little more, especially long shots of Michele Sladko and Bill McClure, who had tied their p15s together into a catamaran of sorts.

The boats quickly changed over into cruising mode, and dinner could be seen prepared on each of the craft. After dinner, we were treated to more entertainment, but this time it was Rick from p19 Sherry Lynne playing old-time country tunes, and Lloyd Jones of p15 Titanic picking out blues songs. Lloyd improvised a little potter lore into the lyrics and a crowd of appreciative captains and crew soon surrounded them.

Moved away from the shore and rafted up to several boats that were moored at a state park buoy for lunch. While rafted we got the call from Bill Velez on Day Tripper that the wind had come up off of Boston Harbor, and I quickly moved out to raise sail and enjoy the wind. The wind speed was ideal for the Genoa, and El Nino really took off once I got the trim and balance right on the boat. Sailed the boat right onto the ramp, and hit the road home by about 4:30pm.

I had a great time, and hope all the participants did too. Look forward to seeing you all again ... reserve some time in September when we plan to do it all over again down in St. Helens Oregon.

Derek Jensen
p-15 #694 "El Nino"
HMS-18 #11 "Hamada"

Dinner started with appetizers at about 7pm, and the good potter folk milled about and chatted. Bill McClure had brought along extra copies of pictures from previous trips, and set them out for folks to look at and take copies.

Dinner was Steelhead and teriyaki chicken, along with a bunch of different salads, provided by the folks at Boston Harbor. After dinner, Craig Bryant supplied some great entertainment with his low water launch of Ida Mae. The trailer had to be disconnected from the car and lowered into deeper water to float the boat, and a number of people got a nice Puget Sound bath helping him out. Friday evening closed with small gatherings on various boats, and some entertainment provided by Jim Mask and his sailing friend Vance, on D-cell powered synthesizer and acoustic guitar respectively. Thanks guys, it sounded great.

Once around the point leading into the Pickering Passage, I sailed within easy talking distance of "Candide", the newly named p19 of Charlie Phillips and Sandy Waugh. As we talked, suddenly I heard the tell-tale whoosh of a Dahl's Porpoise, and managed to video tape a single porpoise as he played near "El Nino", and then later near "Sherry Lynne".

By now the sun was out, and we were heading into a beautiful clear evening. In the Pickering passage, I dropped sails for a bit and motored ahead, only to find the wind rising again. I was there to sail, so I unfurled my sails and had a great 30 minute beat in the passage. Winds were fluky, so I dropped sails along with most of the others and headed into Jarrell Cove.

Once in the Cove, we found the long dock at the state park was mostly ours (another), having only two powerboats to share it with. We ended up taking the entire dock, rafting a few boats as well. Bill and Michele took the inside mooring buoy, and setup a line to haul themselves back and forth to the dock.

As evening fell, the pickers moved out onto the dock, and were joined by Jim Mask on his melodica. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of this great acoustic organ, but I believe that they are also known as a "hooter". Later Jim jumped in with his synthesizer again, and provided the steel drum parts when Rick belted out a few Jimmy Buffet tunes. Thanks for the great entertainment folks. The evening was growing late, so folks retired to their boats and hit the hay.

Sunday dawned overcast, but began to burn off fairly early. Breakfast was unique to each boat, and I had the good fortune of being near Lloyd Jones and his stainless steel stovetop toaster, and was treated to the best boat toast I've ever had, complete with aerosol butter. Nice job Lloyd.

After a group picture and some general plans for the return trip, the boats pulled out of Jarrels cove and headed up the Pickering passage to complete the circumnavigation. The winds were light, so motoring with the current was the only sensible thing. once up around Hope Island, I tied off to Basilisk and went ashore on Hope Island for a quick look around the caretakers cabin. It is an idyllic spot, and I recommend it for anyone who missed it this time around.