Leaving for Rendezvous
Our dear friends, Les & Rose Dobbe, former owners of a Selene 53 originally named "Voyager" (now "Asante"), joined us again this year for the West Coast Selene Rendezvous. We're trying (with their full cooperation) to pull them back into the Selene family!
They met us at our home in Gig Harbor and we left fairly early Tuesday morning, headed north in Puget Sound. The weather forecast suggested that the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Washington State and Canada might be relatively rough, so we decided to take the more protected route up the east side of Whidbey Island. The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a 90-mile long, roughly 20-mile wide strait that separates Vancouver Island from the northern Washington Coast. Because it's connected directly to the open Pacific Ocean, it can be pretty nasty at times. Frankly, it's nothing that our Selene can't shrug off without a second thought, but it's often not pleasant. My wife, Roseanne, especially prefers to avoid the strait.
The primary way to avoid most of the strait of Juan de Fuca is to go up Saratoga Passage, on the east side of Whidbey Island. This passage is protected from the wind and waves by Whidbey Island. While it can be windy and rough as well, it's nothing like the Strait of Juan de Fuca. So.....in keeping with a key principle of boating: "Happy Wife, Happy Life", we decided to take the somewhat longer, but more protected path up Saratoga Passage.
Now, the trick is getting back out from behind Whidbey Island. There are again, two options. The first, and most direct way, is throgh "Deception Pass" -- which is a narrow passage between Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands. It opens up to Rosario Strait and it's only about 10 miles from Deception Pass into the protected and scenic water between the San Juan Islands. The problem with Deception Pass is that it's a "tidal rapid". That means that for the majority of the day, water pours through the narrow pass at alarming rates--sometimes up to 9 knots. Worse yet, because of the uneven bottom and narrow passage, the current often forms large whirlpools that can be dangerous for almost any vessel.
The only safe time to travel through Deception Pass is near the slack current period, as the tide reverses. For a few minutes, the pass can be just completely calm, but within 15-30 minutes, it can become dangerous again as the current builds in the opposite direction. Bottom line: you don't mess with Deception Pass. The slack current times (which, surprisingly, do not correspond with high or low tide) are well known and available in a variety of tables and software. You have to plan your passage to arrive at a slack current. During the slack, Deception Pass can be completely docile. Not so much during a strong tidal exhange.
Fortunately, there's also a very nice Washington State Park right on the point that forms Deception Pass, and the state recently installed a new large dock as part of the park. The dock is less than a mile from the tidal rapid of Deception Pass, but it's protected enough from the current, that it's a good place to stop. I suspect that the dock will be very busy in the summer time, but when we arrived on April 14, the huge dock was completely empty!
We met up with two other Selene friends that were also headed to the Rendezvous--Dan and Marsh Gallacher (and their dog Meeka), board their Selene 53 "Turnagain", and Nat and Angela Annamalai on their Selene 62 "Chloe". There was plenty of room on this huge nice dock. We shared a delightful dinner on "Chloe".
Slack the next morning at Deception was a convenient 8:30 am, so we agreed to pull off the dock about 8 am. We actually got going a little bit early, and while Deception had calmed down really well by the time we got there, we were reminded of why you time this pass. The pass itself was fairly benign, but there were some pretty good size (maybe 5-6 feet) standing waves at the outer entrance, created by the remnants of the outbound (ebb) tide. We got tossed around just enough to remind us not to mess with Deception.
It's a fabulously beautiful trip through the heart of the San Juans. Deception Pass is on the southeast side of the islands, and Roche Harbor is on the Northwest side, so you pass right through the middle of the group through a series of winding passages on the way to Roche Harbor. Fortunately, the passages between the islands can have strong current, but few, if any, of them demand the careful timing that is required at Deception Pass.
We arrived in Roche Harbor shortly after noon and got tied up in our spot for the upcoming weekend of fun and relationships! We had 33 Selenes in attendance from 36 to 66 feet. We were also delighted to welcome 22 first-time attendees!
There's always some adventure thrown in just to keep it interesting. This year's "adventure" was no shore power. The entirety of San Juan Island (maybe the whole island group?) was without power due to a collision with a power pole on the mainland.
No problem! We've been itching for a chance to test our awesome new Lithium house bank. "We don't need no stinkin' shore power!". Power was restored later that afternoon, so the real test of the new batteries will have to wait.
The Rendezvous, as usual, was full of seminars and time to socialize with many of our Selene Family. Many people have commented over the years that part of what draws them to the Selene boats is, of course, the beautiful, seaworthy, comfortable boats--but it's also the community. We often refer to it as our "Selene Family", and it really is that. What a great group!
Sunday rolled around so quickly. But we have another week to get up to the first annual "Prawndezvous". We'll cover the week of cruising and Prawndezvous in another post.
Photos of the Rendezvous courtesy of Selene Americas and the Rendezvous organizing committee.
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