My son and I went out a week ago, venturing through the Ballard locks with the skiff for the first time. I’ve been through the locks on other boats, my first trip being on Weatherly, the 1962 12 meter America’s Cup winner, and I’ve also been through on a Tartan 37, and Melges 24 but this was my first trip through on my own boat. I’ve seen people do crazy things in the locks, like undoing their bow line first and being turned sideways from the rush of water as the gates open. Well we didn’t have any drama like that; in fact it was pretty anti-climatic. We were the last boat in and the gates started to close even before we had our lines secured. We were down and moving out within minutes. Being so low I couldn’t even tell when the gates opened!
We headed out towards Shilshole and then headed south around West Point and into Elliott Bay. We stopped in the water, by Elliott Bay Marina, when we had a nice view of downtown and Mt Rainier, and ate our lunch. We watched a small group of sailboats going around in practice circles and a few fishing boats. We continued our cruise past the grain elevator and along the waterfront, waving at a few people in their Edgewater Inn windows, watched workers driving new pilings for the Pier 57 Ferris Wheel, going as far as the Colman Ferry terminal. We needed to head back to Elliott Bay marina to pick up my wife and daughter. We did some more sight seeing before heading back in for the day.
As we headed back towards and around West Point the wind had picked up and was a bit choppy but the Skiff cut through the waves like a warm knife through butter. The skiff is a bit tender at rest but I really appreciate her rough water qualities. She’s also very frugal. Our trip put a bit over 5 hours on the motor and yet we used less than 3 gallons of fuel!
Barca da Fantasia : My PT Skiff Journal 