The Kokopelli cruises of recent years have become frustrating, as light winds and dropping lake levels make it increasingly difficult for our diverse group to actually sail anywhere. Most of the beaches where we used to camp are now perched atop 100 foot high sandstone cliffs, well out of reach. And the light air sailing is annoying, since the power boat wakes roll you hard enough to spill any wind from your sails. The vertical rock canyon walls don't stop these waves either, but merely rebound them back into the channel. Traveling up the busier side canyons is akin to boating in a washing machine.

Added to these difficulties were the rains of 2006, with over 3" during the week. For once, Thayer wasn't bragging about never needing a tent at Powell! Somewhere during a long, wet night, as I perched upon my duffel of bedding, and felt the water wash past my ankles (did I mention I was inside my tent?), I decided there had to be a better way to go cruising. A discussion with the soggy crew the next morning came up with the radical notion of going to the Pacific Northwest, to avoid the rains in the desert! Or maybe the thinking was, if we're going to get wet, we might as well go see someplace new.

So this year, the intrepid Kokonauts traveled to the Wooden Boat Show ,in Port Townsend, Washington. Several of our members have been visiting the area for years, and Dwight and Joan Nicholson even bought some land there, and were in the process of building their retirement home. Dwight let us camp on his lot (complete with Porta potti!), so with a free camp site only a mile from the show, it was a winning situation.

Port Townsend is situated on the northeastern corner of the Olympic peninsula, and was the worlds leading exporter of douglas fir for decades. Lumbering, combined with the ferry terminal and rich salmon fishery, led to a prosperous community, with many nice old homes. When the extractive industries faltered in the sixties, and home prices plummeted, Townsend became an attractive destination for counter culture types who were tired of life in the big cities.

The dream was to buy an old place, and work a variety of jobs, while you lived cheaply, and built a boat. Eventually, you would sail off over the horizon, and see the world. Some of the Port Townsend crowd did just that, but found they had left a prettier spot, with a better lifestyle, than anything they could find in their travels. So eventually, many of these sailors returned, and found work in the local marine businesses, using the skills they had learned while home building their boats.

The area is now under siege by baby boom retirees, who wish to escape Seattle (3 hours away), enjoy the relatively dry weather (they're in the rain shadow of the Olympics). Happily, Townsend has done a good job with their zoning, and doesn't have the highway strip mall sprawl that's ruined other scenic spots (like nearby Squim and Port Angeles). So it is a charming place to retire to, if you can tolerate the gray weather and 50 degree water.

The town faces east, and is divided into the touristy waterfront area "downtown", and a quieter residential area, on the bluff 200' above. Along the waterfront, there's a large marina and boat yard complex (P.T. Boat Haven) south of town, where hundreds of boats are stored, and many more are under repair on the hard. On the north end of town, there's a small artificial harbor, perhaps 200 yards deep, cut right into the point (Point Hudson Marina). There, a pair of floating docks is surrounded by marine businesses, including a couple of small working yards, a sail loft, a rigging loft, boat building shops, and Pygmy kayaks. This small harbor, with beach to the north, and great views of the bay and Cascades, is the perfect venue for a boat show.

The event is well run, and reasonably priced ($24.00 for 3 days), with a busy schedule of events on friday/saturday/sunday. There are 4 "stages" used for the lectures, which cover everything from rigging to spar making to celestial navigation to weather basics to beach cruising to varnishing techniques to new woods for boats. There's also a music tent with hourly performances all day each day, nicely located right next to the food vendor. And the kids area, with the usual model builders pounding away, plus stage performances and nature walks. What's best about the whole thing is that it's all locals, with home grown talent on display in every area. The opening music act was a young woman of about 13, crooning classic torch songs, while her Dad and his garage band cranked out the rock behind her. Terrific stuff.

In the water, the boats were rafted up 3 or 4 deep, with friendly owners aboard to show the vessels and tell their stories. The variety was exceptional, and ranged from the 97' 1924 vintage power yacht Olympus, down to some beautiful small dinghies. There were over a dozen schooners, many 25' to 45' cruising boats in both sail and power, and a wonderful array of open sailing designs. There were also lots of pulling boats, kayaks, multi-oar boats and shells around. The folks around Townsend seem to prefer double ended designs, and I also noticed a lot of functional engine wells tucked into these otherwise traditional craft. It's probably the only place I've been where the number of gaff, gunter and lug rigs outnumbered the marconi boats.

Each day featured on the water events, like friday's small sailors race (<26'), Saturday's rowing and schooner races, and Sunday's big sail by, where all the departing boats just go out and sail around together. On the periphery of the event were some larger ships, open for inspection, and available for day sails, like the square rigged Lady Washington, the big schooner Adventuress (1913), and the 90' S & S yawl Odyssey (1938). Most of these big guys have to work for a living, and are crewed by cheerful youth groups. They work the shows, take week long elder hostel cruises of the San Juans, or mainly just day sail tourists out of the busier ports.

Everyone I met at Port Townsend was pleasant and knowledgeable, so there was little of the "carny" atmosphere that often goes with these big events. Compared to the Wooden Boat show at Mystic, Port Townsend's is really down to earth, both in price and atmosphere. Mystic cultivates a museum atmosphere, with reverence for the traditions, and lots of academic knowledge, but relatively few sailors involved. Port Townsend is a working boat maintenance center, with ten times the building activity of Mystic, and much more approachable craftsmen.

My only complaint with the Townsend show would be that there's too much to do and see in just 3 days. Each evening, I would pour over the next day's schedule, and make the hard decisions about which lectures/performances to attend the next day. Then in the morning, I would arrive with my agenda worked out, and proceed to miss everything I had planned to do, as I got talking to folks about their boats and travels. With the spectacular weather, it was hard to drag myself into the lecture rooms, and I spent many happy hours on the point, watching the wonderful boats sail by. The big schooner race finished right off the harbor, and it was thrilling to watch these big vessels hug the shore as they went past. There was over 2 knots of current running against them at the point, so the guys inside often passed the folks staying out in the deeper water. Where else can you watch a beetle cat pass a 60' schooner !

IF YOU GO: Port Townsend is 3 hours from Seattle, whether you take the ferry from Whidbey island, or drive around through Tacoma. There are not a lot of motels or public lodging in town, so many people just come for the day on the ferry. Fridays are more for locals, while Saturday and Sunday afternoons are most crowded.

Folks who were there for the weekend seemed to camp. The park at Fort Worden has 2 camp grounds, with RV hookups and tent sites ($31/night), and also old officers quarters available to rent. The Jefferson county fairground has simpler camp sites, for a more reasonable $ 12/night. You can also buy a shower there for $ 1.00.

Port Townsend is a very bicycle friendly community, and everything's within a couple of miles of each other, so I'd suggest two wheels for getting around town, to and from the camping areas. If you arrive by boat, you can anchor right off town, and land a dink anywhere ashore. You're fine in the prevailing westerly winds, but if it blows hard from any other direction, you'll want to move into the big marina, or to an anchorage across the bay.