Celebrating at Seattle Yacht Club

Laurie's uncle and aunt, Don and Doris MacRae, celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary with a party at Seattle Yacht Club on Saturday night. We had planned to drive to the party but then realized it was a perfect opportunity to take our boat over to Portage Bay, cruise around Lake Washington, and have a fun weekend of boating. We left Friday morning and were not even out of Everett before we had something that was photo-worthy. Apparently, a guy decided to go boating at midnight with his dog, managed to get his boat stuck on the jetty and then had to be rescued. Not a really smart move. I would love to know the full story but I have my guess!

The weather was very bad and we found ourselves in some pretty rough water. It was rainy and very windy but the boat rides so nice that it wasn't a problem. It just made for a little excitement and something to talk about later. These pictures show a little of the water that was splashing over the bow and along side us.



One thing we discovered about going through the Seattle waterways is that there is so much to see! We normally go north toward the San Juans or west to the Bremerton area. There is a lot to see when you get there but we thoroughly enjoyed the sights along the way. We have lived here our entire lives but unfortunately, it is easy to take things for granted. We cruised past the Ballard area where Bob grew up and saw his parents' former home up on the bluff. It is the gray house just above the red tree. We also went past Ray's Boathouse which has been a staple in Ballard for a long time. Years ago it was converted to a restaurant and is one of our favorite places to go for dinner.

A popular city park is Gas Works Park where the 4th of July fireworks were located for many years. Also, for tourists who want to travel the waterways, Ride The Duck, is always a fun way to go.

We arrived at Seattle Yacht Club and tied up in the reciprocal moorage. Normally, a yacht club member's home yacht club must be a significant distance from Seattle Yacht Club to be allowed to use their moorage. Because we were going to be attending Don and Doris's anniversary party (they are members of SYC), the club graciously allowed us to use the reciprocal moorage. They have a beautiful facility and we enjoyed walking around the grounds, watching the U of W invitational crew races, and spending Saturday relaxing.



 

 

 

Saturday evening was Don and Doris's anniversary party and what a party it was! They had nearly 150 guests and it was so fun to see cousins and aunts and uncles who I have not seen in a long time. With any MacRae gathering you can be sure there will be bagpipes and dancing and we were not disappointed. The bagpiper could really play and treated us not only to songs for the dancers but to an additional song that left us in awe of his talent. The dancers included my cousin's son, Steven, and three other young ladies. They are all incredible dancers who have won numerous United States championships as well as international competitions.



It was a wonderful party and we left knowing how blessed we are to have a large and loving family. A very special photo we were able to get is this one of my mom, Avis; her sister, Anna Rose; and two brothers, Colin and Don.

We left Sunday morning around 8:30 because our granddaughter, Rylie, is celebrating her 2nd birthday today and there was no way we were going to miss that! The weather report was for wind and rain but we actually had a very smooth ride back to Everett. You can see from this next picture everything that Seattle is known for - the Space Needle, rain, misty and gray! But what a beautiful part of the country it is - beautiful lakes and Puget Sound, mountains and trees. There is no place I would rather be.

The next three pictures show us as we went through the locks on our return home. We were in the smaller of the two locks and you can see from the first picture that the water just ahead is at a lower level than we are. The second picture shows us as the water is being let out and we are lowered down to the lower level of water. Then the gate is opened and we are headed out toward the Sound. 



 

It was a wonderful weekend and the perfect way to attend Don and Doris's party. We had plenty of time to do nothing and it sure beat the traffic jams if we had driven!

Playing Tour Guide For Mom

After two years of having our boat, we had never been able to coordinate a time to take my mom out. When she came up to visit this weekend, we knew this would be the perfect chance. Since the gray whales are fairly plentiful now, we decided to head up to their usual place near Hat and Whidbey Islands. We planned our departure to be just ahead of the whale tour boat. It was a very nice day so it was a very smooth ride and as soon as we arrived we noticed a spout in the distance. We idled for about an hour and saw several whales logging on the service. I was really hoping for some spy-hopping or tail slapping but they were pretty quiet today. It was still fun and a novelty for mom to see.

There had been a huge mud slide on the west side of Whidbey Island just a few days ago that destroyed several homes and threatens many others.  We really wanted to see but it would have taken another two or three hours to go around to that side so we will have to save that for another time.

We had a great time!  Thanks for joining us, Mom!

Poulsbo Getaway

Now that we are back into boating season, we have scheduled a weekend getaway every month throughout the summer to make sure we get out on Stargazer on a regular basis. Sometimes life gets so busy we forget to make time for relaxation but that's exactly what we did this weekend! We spent a relaxed couple of days at the Poulsbo marina and did not do much of anything. It was wonderful! We had a fairly smooth ride over and the weather was okay. Poulsbo is one of our favorite, close-by spots to visit because of its fun shops and quaint, Scandinavian culture. We spent our time reading, walking through town to look at the shops and getting ice cream at our favorite place, Mora. In the past, we had never really noticed that there is a very nice aquarium on the waterfront and decided we should visit it before we left. We did not know that it is only open from 11:00-4:00 so that visit will have to wait until we come again. 

 

 

On our way back home, Bob noticed a sailboat that had run aground so we decided to explore the coastline of Whidbey Island and see what happened. The sailboat looked like it had been there for awhile but there was a cooler, a dinghy and some supplies piled on the beach. I would love to know the story behind it but I suppose we never will.

As we moved near the shoreline we also discovered that there had been a large slide that destroyed one cabin and damaged a second. I did some research and found that the slide happened about six weeks ago. The KOMO news story shows that several homes were damaged. My research on this area also indicated that the homes along this beach are only accessible by foot at low tide! It looks like about a 1/4 mile walk to get to the homes so demolition and rebuilding sounds extremely difficult when equipment can only be brought in by hand or by boat. It was very sad to see the destruction to people's homes. By going to Google Earth and looking at the shoreline near Possession Point on Whidbey Island, you can still see (at the time of this writing) what the homes and yards looked like before the slide.

We had a great time and Barkley was very happy to be back on the boat. The gray whales have begun their migration through Saratoga Passage so we expect to be out frequently in the coming days!

Back on the Water

For all our good intentions of cruising one weekend per month during the winter, we never made it back out since September! It was so fun to be out on the water again and this time we were thrilled to have Mark, Wendy, Isaiah, Mariam and Colin join us. They were visiting for one week before they prepare to move to Alabama for a year. We knew we needed to do a little boating while they were here and Isaiah was asking if we could go out. He had so much fun last summer when he stayed with us and we went to Kingston overnight. We didn't have time to go anywhere overnight and Stargazer is much better suited to day trips with so many people. We decided it would be a great day to go whale watching since the grays are beginning their migration through our area. Unfortunately, we did not see any whales but the sea lions were on the buoy by the marina and were a novelty for the kids. We cruised for a couple of hours and enjoyed our lunch on the boat.

 

 

 

September Getaway

We decided that we needed to get away for a night on Stargazer so made a quick trip over to Poulsbo last night. I looked at some calendars on-line to see if there was a festival or fair going on near a marina but couldn't find anything. We decided since we like Poulsbo, we would just go there. As it turned out, we picked the perfect location! This was the weekend of the Classic Yacht Rendezvous and the marina was full of beautiful old wooden boats.

 

 

Most of the boats were from the 1920s through 1950s and were obviously the pride and joy of their owners. Some were works in progress but many had been completely restored. Following are a few pictures of some of our favorites. I always seem to go for the biggest ones. The first two pictures are of the Olympus, a 92' fan-tail motor yacht built by New York Launch and Engine back in 1929. It's available for charter if you are interested!

This next one is the Cle Illahee, a 45' bridge-deck cruiser built in 1929 by the Vic Franck Boat Company in Seattle.

I loved the sleekness and beautiful finish on 48' Zanzibar.  It was built in 1957 by Stephens Brothers. It's transom would make a gorgeous coffee table!

Even getting away for one night was a wonderful break. We've decided that, if possible, we are going to try to go somewhere each month for at least one night. Such a quick trip took almost no packing and we enjoyed pizza out at a great little whole-in-the-wall place. Our trips will probably be very spontaneous but that is half the fun!

Labor Day Cruise to Port Ludlow

What wonderful weather for an official last weekend of cruising! We had beautiful, sunny and warm weather  by day and the typical crisp air in the evenings that told us summer is coming to an end. We arrived in Port Ludlow about 1:00pm on Friday and were greeted by those who were coordinating the weekend. As it turns out, they were not only assisting us - they were judging us - as we radioed in, docked and tied our lines. We learned on Sunday night that Bob earned an award for "Best Docking" which entitled us to $25 in the EYC store! I almost won an award for keeping the lines neat on the dock. I even coiled each one into a nice, neat coil. What I didn't know was that they are supposed coil clockwise and I had one going the other direction!  I guess there is always more to learn.

 

As soon as we were settled, we went back out with the dinghy and dropped the crab trap. Unfortunately, we did not get any that were big enough to keep. We then left it out overnight and the next morning we did get one great big one that we later shared with friends as an appetizer before dinner. They had never eaten crab direct from the sea before so we had  a lot of fun and introduced them to the joy of a fresh catch.

 

 

One of the highlights of the weekend was Bob's class for the kids on building sailboats. He made up 12 kits and they were invited to come a build a boat. Nine kids came and since we had some extras, three adults decided to join us. They all worked diligently for a couple of hours assembling, painting, and decorating their boats. It was so much fun and they spent the rest of their weekend showing off their boats and pulling them through the water. I can guarantee that these boats will be proudly displayed back at home. It was wonderful to see the kids learning about building, using sandpaper, hammers and expressing their creativity. They all did a GREAT job!

This year the cruise coordinators decided to offer a dinghy tour to the back part of the bay. John Keyes brought a long rope with 14 short ties branching off from the main line and tied it to his dinghy.  We gathered together 14 other dinghies that tied up to it and then we filled our boats with guests that wanted to come along. The "tour" lasted about an hour-and-a-half and was a huge hit! We all floated together at about .8 knots (that is VERY slow!) but we visited with people we hadn't gotten to know and saw some beautiful scenery in an area that we hadn't been to before. Everyone was raving about it and encouraged the committee to do it again next year. A frequent comment we heard was "I felt like I was 10 again!"

 

Several christenings took place this weekend. Anytime a boat is renamed or a new member joins the club, they have an opportunity to have their boat christened at one of the EYC cruises. Our good friends, Al and Susan Smith, celebrated the christening of their Nordic Tug Sunshine. We met Al and Susan at the Nordic Tug Rendezvous in 2011 and they joined the club shortly thereafter. The christening of a boat has become a real ceremony since our fleet captain, Rob Meldrum, researched the historical aspects of a christening and implemented them for the club. In the following pictures Al is describing how the boat got its name, Susan is laying some flowers and greenery on the bow, and then the champagne bottle is broken over the bow.

We had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to more cruising in 2013 with the EYC crew.