Issue 152: Sept/Oct 2023
As we approached the marina in downtown Poulsbo, trees clad in brilliant orange, gold, and red leaves along the town’s waterfront came into view.
It was a spectacular fall weekend years ago, and we’d brought a couple of friends along to enjoy a sailing trip to the picturesque town on Washington’s Liberty Bay. I can’t remember what we did that weekend or what we ate, but I distinctly remember the crispness of the air and the lovely softness of the autumn light.
I’ve always loved fall, though I know it can feel bittersweet. The summer boating season is over, the days are getting shorter, and the Big Dark — those seemingly endless months of gray that residents of the Pacific Northwest dread — will soon descend. But that reality is tempered by the knowledge that unlike in some parts of the country, where boats must be hauled out for the winter until the following spring’s thaw, we live in a place where it’s possible to sail year-round. For that, I feel incredibly fortunate.
In Puget Sound, where we do much of our sailing, the climate is mild, there’s rarely snow, and the water temperature hovers around a chilly 50 degrees or less for much of the year. We’re used to wearing fleece and puffy jackets on the boat even in summer, so winter sailing doesn’t feel all that different. One of the first projects we undertook after buying our boat was installing a Webasto forced air heater so we could sail all year and stay warm. Five years ago, we added a cockpit enclosure, which has been a game changer — what was previously an exposed outdoor area is now an extra room that can double as a solarium in inclement weather.
There are appealing reasons to cruise in the off-season. Anchorages are blissfully empty, trails uncrowded, tourists departed. There are few things I enjoy more than a walk on the beach in winter or a rainy day spent holed up in our saloon with a cup of coffee and a good book, listening to the sound of raindrops on the cabin top.
One of our most memorable winter sailing weekends was more than a decade ago, when we took friends of ours for an overnight trip from Seattle about 9 miles across Elliott Bay to Bainbridge Island. It was Brian’s birthday, and his wife, Kristen, had arranged a surprise party at a pub on the water for him. A light dusting of snow fell that evening, and after a fun evening at the pub, we walked down the docks back to the boat surrounded by a winter wonderland. We had a lively sail back to Seattle the next day in about 15 knots of crisp wind, punctuated by Kristen’s delighted whoops from the cockpit.
But our off-season sailing has been sadly limited since buying our 1984 Passport 40 in 2012. A rolling refit, which has involved replacing almost all of the boat’s systems and undertaking countless other projects large and small, has meant taking her out of commission each year in fall or early winter. And since boat projects inevitably stretch on longer — often much longer — than we anticipate they will, we’re usually scrambling to have Rounder ready for the official start of boating season each May.
One winter, Rounder was wrapped in a Conestoga wagon-like cocoon and confined to the dock for about five months while we refinished her decks. Another year, we replaced the countertops in the galley and rebuilt the refrigeration. In the months before and after the coronavirus pandemic hit, we spent long days in a rented shipping container repainting the boat’s mast as part of a full rerig. Last year we tackled the remaining big winter project, replacing the boat’s rudder, rudder post, and steering system, an undertaking that stretched out for close to half a year.
We’ve now completed most of the major projects on our list — or at least, the ones that won’t require taking the boat out of commission for months on end. As fall gets underway this year, I’m looking forward to getting out on the water, revisiting some of our favorite places and discovering new ones, and enjoying the stillness and beauty this season brings. And maybe we’ll finally get to use that heater.
