VARUNA
INTRODUCTION: The title 
may be a little misleading, but let me explain . . . I was lucky enough to be born and raised in Seattle to a father and mother (actually, most of the time, my mom), who loved to sail. Mom and Dad took me out sailing for my first sailing experience when I was an infant in a boat named Cirus.
The first boat I can remember was a Blanchard 33. It was built at the Blanchard Boat Works which was located on Lake Union very close to the University Bridge. It was built in 1947. Our family bought it in or about 1953. It was 33.5′ in length, had a beam of 8.75′ and a draft of 5′. VARUNA. It was a beautiful boat.
Now for the Christmas part. . . Every summer until 1960 we took a 9 day trip in the VARUNA to the US and Canadian San Juan Islands.
I’d encourage you to read about the beginning of this sailing adventure in my previous post. All you need to do is – click here
If you want to get right into the adventure, this is the way Memoir 1 ended:
“On one occasion, we were heading north. I was at the helm, which I loved, and my 
dad was down below in the cabin. I was watching the compass, watching for boat traffic and looking at the chart. I thought I was doing a great job until our keel touched bottom and the boat lurched forward. I had never seen Dad jump out of the cabin and into the cockpit so fast . . .”
NORTH TO DECEPTION PASS
Dad jumped out of the cabin and into the cockpit with speed I had never seen before. He grabbed the throttle and pulled all the way back to an 
idle position. He put the engine in neutral to insure that we did not run up on the bottom and get stuck on rocks or a sandbar. He put the engine back in gear, pushed the throttle forward, pointed the Varuna out into the channel and we slowly eased into deeper water. Dad assured me we had just barley scraped bottom and there was no damage except for my pride. Lucky me! Dad patiently reminded me that I not only needed to look at the charts for navigation aide, but also for water depth.
Just a kid then, I’ve never forgotten that advice. (As a side note, His advice came in handy when in 1974 a friend and I took a 22’ cuddy cabin outboard skiff from Lake Washington to Ketchikan using only charts for navigation.)
As we continued to head north on Saratoga Passage that gray Saturday morning with no 
wind, we needed to make a decision as to our best route to the San Juan Islands . We had a choice of going through Deception Pass or going through Swinomish Channel, past La Conner.
Swinomish Channel is a beautiful trip, but the tide needed to be high in order for us to get through. We didn’t 
have a depth sounder and as I remember, there were times when we used a lead line over the side to make sure we had enough water. The other interesting part of that route was a bridge at the end of the passage we needed to raise before continuing to Anacortes.
Our other option was to go through Deception Pass at the north end of Whidbey Island. This is a quicker route, but we 
needed to go through close to slack tide. The current can run 8 knots through the narrow pass and that is faster than the Varuna’s top speed…yikes.
On this trip we decided to go the Deception Pass route. We got there early as the tide was still flooding so we anchored in Cornet Bay and waited. As slack tide neared we pulled up 
anchor and entered the narrow gut between the rocks lining the pass. One Even at close to slack tide, we had to avoid whirl pools, but sometimes you get caught in that swirling water. We hit one of those on this trip and it slammed the Varuna around, but Dad pulled hard on the tiller and got the boat back on course.
ACROSS ROSARIO STRAIT TO DECATUR ISLAND
We always felt relieved after motoring through Deception Pass and my brother and I would be eager to get ashore. We sailed from the Pass across Rosario Straits to our first stop 
at Decatur Island. We towed an 8 foot pram that had oars and a small sailing mast. It was called a Sabot and had room for 3 which meant at least 2 trips to shore for the family.
We always had a great time on Decatur. Great beaches and a great place to explore. We anchored there for the night 
and celebrated with canned Chef Boyardee Ravioli and canned peas cooked on the boat’s wood stove. A great meal. Prior to dinner, Dad would have one Scotch and water with a piece of ice cracked off our 20 pound block of ice in the ice box.
My brother and I had a Fizzy 
with no ice. Dad told us we had to conserve ice. Fizzies were tablets, like Alka Seltzer. We put them in a glass, poured water on top and they would fizz just like a can of pop. There were many flavors. My favorite was root beer and I think my brother’s was cola. The amount of chemicals in one tablet must have been staggering.
Our first long day of a great vacation had ended and we all went to bed early after a quick card game under a kerosene light.
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More in the next installment – Great highlights from our San Juan vacations
To read Stan’s sailing Memoir 1 – CHRISTMAS IN JULY – click here
Really enjoyed the writing and the images! Thanks for sharing!