We have our fist Hope Island Dash time of the year. September 14 Fjord, with Eric & LeeAnne Egge aboard, rounded the Island in 2 hours 24 minutes 55 seconds. That corrects 1 hour 41 minutes 22 seconds, a very respectable time, but it does not look at all unbeatable. Eric wrote about it for us. We have his letter below.
If you do not know, the Hope Island Dash is a contest for fastest time around Hope Island. George Hansen proposed the Dash in 1991. We have been awarding the Andrew Jackson Trophy, for best Dash time of the year, since. The full rules are in your Handbook, under Hope Island Dash. You have till May.
I noticed that the Dash rules had been changed to an all year cycle, providing many more opportunities for a wonderful sail. We hadn’t been out on the boat since the tugboat races and that wasn’t really sailing, so we were looking for a reason. Thursday was a warm, still day with an approaching weather front predicted. Around 1530 I noticed the wind had filled in from the west, so I called LeeAnne to suggest meeting me at the boat with snacks, instead of mowing the lawn. We motorsailed out to the shoal to get started as early as possible, knowing the westerly rarely lasts past sunset.
What a wonderful sail! Starting about 1725, a quarter mile east of the Shoal, we close reached to Dofflemeyer, catching the eddy that stays there even during the flood current. After a fast beam reach towards Hunter Point, sporadic puffs varying from SW to NW became prevalent as we entered Squaxin Passage. It took 4 tacks to work our way around the south end of Hope, then we reached, then ran wing and wing around the north end and as close as we dared to the Squaxin Island shore, hoping the westerly would be better farther from Hope Island. The wind is best described as swirly in this area. As we passed abeam of Hunter Point we checked our time, and much to my surprise we were still well over a 5 knot average, the sun was still up and we could see dark water ahead, showing the westerly was still blowing from the mouth of Eld Inlet.
Another fabulous beam reach towards Boston Harbor seemed too good to be true, then the boats wake sounded strange with extra splashes and an occasional whoosh sound ... A harbor porpoise swam with us for at least 10 minutes. We’re not cetacean experts, but it was 4 or 5 feet long, olive gray mottled with a rounded head and small snout. Sometimes it swam right next to me in our quarter wave on the leeward side, sometimes in the stern wave 8 to 10 feet behind . Several times she, gender assumed, I’m not expert at that either, would roll on her side in the quarter wave and look me right in the eye. We had a similar experience about a year ago in the same area, and just like last year she left us just as we entered Budd Inlet.
The wind was easing off as we passed Burfoot Park reducing our speed to about 4 knots but providing a good opportunity to break out the snacks and a cold beer. Clouds in the west were turning bright orange on the underside, it was so amazing that I forgot to look at Mt. Ranier. Or maybe it was because I was sitting on the leeward side closest to the chips and dip. It looked like the wind was dying for the night, but one more set of puffs filled in taking us to the finish line at 1950, maybe half mile east of the shoal.
As we were leaving the boat at the marina, I picked up my jacket and realized I had actually sailed the entire Hope Island Dash in short sleeves. Even without the sunset and sea life it would have been a great sail. We posted a respectable but vulnerable time for the Dash, and the lawn got mowed Saturday.
Eric Egge, Fjord