port ludlow

After enjoying some awesome crepes for breakfast, we shoved off for Port Ludlow. The wind was fluky and light, mostly from the SW giving us a slow motion down wind run. We rounded Foulweather Bluff and the wind came back around to the north. We'd never been to Port Ludlow so our blistering approach speed (2 knots) gave us some time to look over charts and our Puget Sound cruising guide. There's some rocks north of the entrance that we wanted to stay clear of and some shallows off the point to the east of the entrance that we'd also like to pay attention to.

We got into the harbor and drove around for 10 minutes trying to find a spot we liked. There was all sorts of room - only four other boats anchored - but the spot we wanted also has a cable running through it. We finally found a spot in 40' of water and dropped the hook.

Whenever we take off for a few days, we don't like to run the engine much to charge the batteries. And that means, we don't turn the fridge on. So 24 hours before we leave, we crank the fridge temperature down while we have shore power and get everything really cold. Well, we may have been a bit aggressive about the temperature setting. I settled in to make dinner for us - huevos rancheros from my mom's recipe - and pulled the eggs out. The eggs were frozen little golf balls. So rather than cracking them open, I peeled 'em like an orange and dropped them into the simmering tomato-ey goodness going on the stove. About 10 minutes later, one of them exploded like some sort of embryonic concussion grenade sending steaming hot tomatoes and onion shrapnel everywhere.

Here's yet another tip from the good ship Hello World: don't cook frozen eggs.

As the sun set, the temperatures nose dived down to around 25°. We had frost on deck by 6:00PM. No worries, we have a nice diesel heater that should keep us plenty warm. Except that it picked this evening to not work. I was up until 3AM babysitting the tiny ineffective flame, trying to coax it into something with any sort of heat. The problem is, if the flame goes out, the diesel fuel keeps getting pumped into the chamber and in the morning, you wake up with a heater chock full of diesel. Bad. So at 3AM, I weighed the amount of time it would take me to disassemble the heater, remove it from the bulkhead, and throw it overboard. Turns out, that time was better spent sleeping so I shut it off and went to bed. At some point during the evening the cat crawled onto the bed and vocalized his displeasure with the temperature by yowling his fool head off. We grabbed him and shoved him under the covers with us. It took him a bit to realize this was a better alternative, but once he did, he stayed under that comforter. In fact, he didn't come out until we pulled into a marina slip again the following day.

See, everyone? Sailing is fun! Dammit, I say it's FUN!


Enjoying the view from the bowsprit. It's seriously the best seat in the house.


Some Pacific Northwest suntanning.


Clearly, my retinas are not used to the sun.





Once we dropped anchor, we coaxed the cat out from under the settee with tuna juice. Works every time.


The frozen egg/slushball.


Shithead finally finds peace and warmth underneath our down comforter. He wouldn't come out from under there for 16 hours. No peeing. No eating. Just huddled under the blanket. Poor kid.

47°55'12"N 122°41'33"W