Originally published: 8/21/2005; 4:05:28 PM
7/30/05, San Juan Islands–Our boat is gigantic relative to Dad’s 26 foot Columbia. That’s great for the room it provides crew and gear, but it adds a little edge to the marina maneuvering. The Anais, being a catamaran, is extremely agile. It essentially handles like a tank–it can spin on its own axis. My Dad took the helm. We cast off the lines, manned our watch stations and gently eased out of the slip. My Dad had said he’d done it thousands of times in his head since last year [when he got his bareboat certification on the Anais through San Juan Sailing] and his mental prep proved to be outstanding as he executed a flawless departure.
The wind was up and the water was choppy right out of the breakwater. As I prepared to raise the mainsheet I realized just how much sail area the boat carried. Attaching the halyard I could really feel the difference between Anais and Dad’s Columbia. The pitching of the boat and the length and weight of the halyard made it a bit tricky to attach.
We had great sailing to Matia. I drove most of the way. My crew was surprised at how little effort she took underway. The jib is self-tacking and self-furling which means it’s easy to raise, lower, and trim.
A multi-hull does not heel at all, even when sailing close to the wind. We saw many other large, single-hulled boats on nearly the same tack with high degrees of heel. On Anais, you could almost play marbles in the cockpit.
Arriving at Matia we found no available moorings so we sailed over to Sutia’s Echo Bay. No balls were there either so we anchored which was no big deal.
We were all whipped. I couldn’t decide if it was the precautionary Dramamine or the lack of sleep the night before. We basically just hung out on the boat, slept, and read. But Brian and Ken kept busy. They had picked up some crab bait back in Bellingham [frozen salmon parts]. Anais has everything you could ever need, including a crab trap. So, they baited up, threw it over, and 15 minutes later pulled in their first crab. By the end of the night they had pulled in four or five keepers and eaten 3 or 4. [We saved the rest for salad and tacos the next day].
Ken and Dave slept on the trampoline which gave me an empty bunk for a hard sleep. At some point during the night the boat started rolling heavily. I was too sleepy to care. After a couple of bounces to and fro I was back in dreamland. The next morning we decided a large container ship must have past by.
The author raises the main
Ken catches us an evening snack.
On to San Juan Islands 7/31/05 — Sutia Island to Roche Harbour