Puget Sound Cruising Club

PSCC Meetings are held at North Seattle College, (NSC) 7:30pm, on the third Friday of the month, in the Library Building, Lower large Concert Hall, Room #LB1142 (large performing arts room on the ground floor). Park in the West lot. Show up between 7:15 and 7:30 and just follow the people in. Your $5 donation at the door helps cover our room rent. Guests are welcome at all PSCC meetings and raft-ups.

PSCC Cruises are usually the weekend following the meeting, the fourth Saturday and Sunday of the month. Boats flying the club burgee generally raft up or occasionally dock in the early afternoon. We often end up having appetizers and drinks in someone's cockpit, or arrange a casual potluck meal on Saturday night and Sunday brunch. Please download the Raft-Up Tips. Members occasionally arrive by ferry or car and are dinghy'd to the raft. If you want to join the raft-up, but can't sail there, please be sure to contact someone for a lift! We are often out cruising, and hope to see you on the water. . .  Download the 2018 PSCC Cruise Calendar and make plans to join us soon.

Sorry No July or August PSCC Meetings or Raft-ups Planned - we are off cruising!
Look for a PSCC Burgee, and you are sure to find a boat and crew you'd enjoy dinner with! Create your own raft-ups and potlucks, and you will have meet-up stories for the Fall.

Sept. 1-3, 2018  PSCC Labor Day Raft-up in Garrison Bay, San Juan Island
  
Join us in the San Juans for a fine, warm summer raft-up in protected Garrison Bay. Back when the windblown Americans were living in tents and chasing pigs over by Cattle Pass, the Brits were snipping their roses and sipping their tea in Garrison Bay. Join us if you can, there is plenty of space to anchor in shallow water, we are sure to have some good potluck meals and a fine time. Relax. There are no sign-ups, no one to rsvp, so just show up and surprise us, a fun way to finish off the summer cruising season.

Sheryl and Mike, the new commodore, will be at Garrison Bay for Labor Day, and Mike reports "The activities available at Garrison Bay are: Hiking, Fishing, Crabbing, Touring English Camp, a National Park, and Westcott Bay Shellfish Co., which is accessible by hiking trail or dinghy. The anchorage is protected, has good holding, and very large."  Join us on your way home from your summer cruising!

PSCC Meeting  September 21, 2018  Friday 7:30pm at North Seattle College
    
Behan and Jamie Gifford, have sailed more than 50,000 nautical miles, cruising around the world, with their three children, Niall, Mairen, and Siobhan. Leaving from the PNW in 2008, aboard their Stevens 47, s/v Totem, they've visited 48 countries and territories, from Mexico to Martinique.

Behan, a UW graduate with a career in consulting, marketing and advertising, chronicled her families adventures at www.sailingtotem.com, and with cruising families wrote Voyaging with Kids, a guide to family life afloat. Jamie Gifford, a recovering racing sailor and experienced offshore sail designer, has returned to work as a sailmaker and rigger for offshore and regional sailors. Behan and Jamie provide coaching services, to mentor hopeful cruisers towards a successful life afloat.

While you may have seen the Giffords on Good Morning America, or at another event, for the Puget Sound Cruising Club, Behan will talk about Hidden Treasures. She'll talk about positive experiences that occurred in unexpected ways or places along their route. She will have plenty of pictures and experiences to share with the Puget Sound Cruising Club.  Everyone is welcome at our meetings and events, so don't miss this first Fall meeting!

Sept. 29-30, 2018  PSCC Annual Tequila Race with Blakely Harbor Raft-up and Hors d’oeuvres potluck.
     
Come to the September 21st meeting to find out more about this fun race, and download the Race Rules PDF. Race around Blake Island with ridiculous and frustrating handicap rules. Winner pours the Tequila. Join us for a fine, warm summer raft-up, in local protected Blakely Harbor. Download the Raft-up Tips pdf and come, even if you've never anchored before. We are a pretty helpful lot, you should know by now. . .
Relax, again there are no sign-ups, no one to rsvp, so just show up and surprise us, a fun way to meet sailors, and share a meal or two. Yea, there is usually a breakfast potluck too. Here's more pics from last years Tequila Race.

PSCC Meeting  October 19, 2018  Friday 7:30pm at North Seattle College
    
Nancy Erley on Tethys | Two World Circumnavigations. Join us for a fun story or two, and a tech-talk on Night Navigation.

Nancy Erley led two voyages from Seattle around the world aboard her Orca 38 sailboat, Tethys. “As the skipper of an all-woman crew, Nancy fashioned a circumnavigation that should go down in the record books as one of the soundest, most seamanlike journeys in the modern cruising era. Like all competent voyages, Tethys circumnavigation was notable for its lack of disasters.” George Day, publisher Blue Water Sailing magazine.

Forty Camels – the captain wears many hats. Nancy Erley shares one of those nearly unbelievable cruising stories from transiting the Red Sea with her all women crew on their first circumnavigation. An entertaining and humorous presentation and about a somewhat character building passage.

Night Navigation - How to travel safely after dark when you have to, and stand a night watch at sea. A technically rich presentation covering night vision, navigation aids and lights on shore, vessel identification, collision avoidance at night, radar, night time deck safety protocols, watch scheduling and more.

Nancy holds her USCG 100-ton Master of Ocean license, is an Instructor Evaluator-Ocean for the International Sail and Power Association, a HAM radio operator KI7DP, and an advanced scuba diver and delivery skipper. Women who would like to learn with Nancy can join her as crew aboard Tethys in the Pacific Northwest. Try: www.tethysoffshore.com