Christopher & I left home before the crack of dawn yesterday to join in the “5 Clubs Tour“, an event where 5 Jaguar clubs from Vancouver (two clubs in the Lower Mainland), Victoria on Vancouver Island, Oregon, and the Seattle Jaguar Club all converge on one location via differing routes. Since we live in NW Washington we chose to join the Vancouver group where they met just south of the US/Canada border at Sumas, WA.
I chose to go along at the last minute since the weather was nice and I received an email from the Seattle Club begging for participants (they are sort of a “gather and eat” sort of club… not enough driving stuff for my tastes!) Technically I am a “Member at Large” of JCNA, as I prefer to use my Jag Club membership for running slaloms and the Vancouver clubs combined put on 5-6 slalom events per year, unlike Seattle which does only one. Further the Seattle events all seem to take place south of Seattle (The slalom happens in Auburn and this rally started in Tacoma.)
So we drove north a short way instead of south a long way.
It was COLD. Very cold. I hindsight I should have blanked off the radiator partially as the car never warmed up properly.
This is what I get for having a Texas-rebuilt car. The radiator is too good at cooling. The car runs very well when the weather is hot, and has never overheated (a common problem among Series 1 E-types as they age) but the flip side is that at near freezing temps the car never gets really hot enough. There were patches of fog, which of course make things even colder, and the sun came up (finally!) as we went through Lynden… but it did not offer much in the way of warmth.
We were the second car to arrive at the start point (a gas station just south of the border).
Chris & I were well bundled and Chris had even the GTTSR blanket wrapped around his legs. When we arrived I let the car sit and idle and sure enough the engine temp finally rose into the “normal” range of 50°-70°C.
The turnout was shockingly small for two Jaguar clubs: A Mk2, a 420G, a S2 E-type FHC, and an MG B(!).
Plus my S1 E-type OTS. Four Jags and an MG. We motored south. The route was simple, SR9 to SR20, follow SR 20 to the Keystone Ferry on Whidbey Island. I didn’t even need Christopher to Navigate. I know these roads like the back of my hand. If I had been making the route I could have covered the same distance on some nice back roads. Oh well.
We drove along through the fall colors with the other Jaguars.
Chris & I made a couple of stops, but never failed to catch the rest of the pack who were ambling along at a sedate pace. The sun was finally adding a little warmth to the air and the fog had mostly lifted, so ambient temps were a tad warmer and even with my overly efficient radiator the car never got too cold, with engine temps hanging around or just under fifty degrees Celsius.
I saw an MG B going the other way over the Deception Pass Bridge and waved, was that you Roger?
When we arrived at the Ferry terminal on Whidbey Island the middle of the Island and that section of Puget Sound were completely shrouded in THICK fog.
We sat for an hour or so, waiting for the noon Ferry to Port Townsend, but it never came. The Ferry staff came driving up the road on a tractor informing everyone that the ferries were not running due to the fog. All of us had a quick meeting and the majority of the group, who had rooms booked at the destination hotel, decided to run south to the Clinton/Mukilteo Ferry, then down to the Edmonds/Kingston Ferry and drive north to Port Hadlock. The 420G and myself decided to bail out. The 420G back to Vancouver, and I back to Arlington. Chris & I stopped in Anacortes for lunch.
Sorry the trip didn’t work out as planned. I kinda wonder sometimes about these events, as if you don’t have local knowledge you do end up driving the highways instead of the byways.
I was out collecting a car trailer, alas.
Where you are waiting for the ferry, by the way, you are at best on the two boats back, perhaps even three!