Cruising With Isaiah

Isaiah, age 3, is staying with Grandma and Grandpa for a week all by himself! We are so excited to have him all to ourselves. We knew we had to take him somewhere for one night so we could ride in the boat, sleep on it, and explore some place close. We decided to take a two hour ride over to Kingston and see what the marina had to offer. It was a very nice setting and perfect for a quick run in the boat.

When we arrived in Kingston, we settled in and then went for a walk to find ice cream and watched cars drive onto the ferry boat.

We had lots of time for silliness but also had a chance to learn about boats. Isaiah was very intrigued with opening the floor hatch to see the engine.  The other thing that was very fun was using the toilet. I think we set a record for the number of times!

After dinner we made up Isaiah's bed and he found that to be a great place for Horse and him to sleep. It was a wonderful trip and the perfect length for our first voyage together!

Nordic Tug Rendezvous 2012

This year's Rendezvous was in Port Townsend which is one of our favorite places. There were about 55 tugs present so we made quite a show in the little Hudson Bay marina.

This was a pretty relaxed weekend and we had a lot of time to visit with other Nordic Tug owners. We did tour the Northwest Maritime Center.  It is a beautiful building, campus and gathering place on the waterfront in Port Townsend. The Center provides its own unique educational programs for school-aged youth as well as continuing education for adults. They also host a variety of events and classes produced by other organizations. These include The Wooden Boat Foundation and Wooden Boat Festival, The Wooden Boat Chandlery and Cafe, The Boat Shop and the H. W. McCurdy Library. While we were there, one of the Center's boats was being tested for seaworthiness by the Coast Guard.

 

One of my favorite things about this gathering was meeting an 87 year old woman named Lucy Harrell. She is the proud owner of Whisker III and brought her boat down from Haines, Alaska where she lives at the Haines Assisted Living Center. She didn't know the Rendezvous was going on but when she was in Bellingham and heard about it, she decided to join us. I went on her boat to visit for awhile and learned that she has owned it for 22 years, has put 9000 hours on it, and has traveled from Alaska to Puget Sound six or seven times.  She was amazing! Her boat was obviously intended to be used and was loaded down with crab pots, shrimp pots, and fishing poles. What an inspiration she was!  I did a little research on her from the internet and learned she is a well-known philanthropist in Haines and is on various committees and boards of organizations to improve her community. Lucy also leads "Ancient Mariners Inside Passage" tours for her lady friends who are in their 80s and 90s. As Lucy says, "People always ask when we get off the boat, 'Where are the guys?'" Johnson said. "We got tired of that question so we just say, 'They're chained and handcuffed to the oars in case the engine goes out.'" What a lady!

 

Port Townsend EYC Cruise

This weekend we went to Port Orchard for an EYC casual cruise that brought out about 24 boats! We had a great time and the weather held pretty well for us. We did have one downpour just as we arrived and were tying up, naturally, but then the weather was very nice on Saturday. As we were leaving the Edmonds Marina we noticed that the USS Nimitz was at the naval base.  It is a 1092 foot nuclear-powered multi-mission aircraft carrier that just had a year-long $239 million overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton. They even left an F-18 Fighter out on deck as a display. Normally, they off-load all the airplanes before they come in to port.

 

Friday evening included an informal gathering on the docks with potluck appetizers.  It was  a great chance to welcome other boats as they arrived and to catch up with friends from EYC. Following appetizers, we joined Al & Susan Smith and Jack & Moon Canon and walked into town to find the Italian restaurant we had heard about. We found Lanza's a couple of blocks up from the waterfront and based on the crowd, we knew we had found a winner. What we didn't know, however, was that you do not get in without a reservation! When we talked to the host, he said they had just had a group of 8 that did not show up so they seated us right away. We all gave the restaurant, the service, and the food a 15 on a scale of 1-10. The prices were reasonable and we had a wonderful dinner.
 

Saturday morning we walked up to the Farmer's Market that Port Townsend is well-known for. There were many artisans as well as wonderful fresh produce and amazing pastries - which is where Bob and I spent our time! On our walk back we stopped to look at a large house that we were intrigued with. As we got closer we realized it is actually a boutique hotel that is for sale. It is a beautiful building and I would love to see the inside. Unfortunately, the building was locked when we were there.

We relaxed on the boat in the afternoon and then heard from others that we really needed to go into town to see the Steam Punk convention that was going on.  We had never even heard the term before but quickly learned that it is a group of people that dress up in Victorian/Sci-Fi costumes and draw their inspiration from the Jules Verne era.  According to Wikipedia, Steampunk is a genre that began during the 1980s and incorporates elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative fiction and alternate history. Its setting is where steam power is widely used - whether in a Victorian era Britain, Wild West United States, or even a post-apocolyptic time. Technology includes fictional machines based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Examples include those found in H.G. Wells and Jules Vernes, lighter-than-air airships, analog computers or digital mechanical computers.  There were elaborate costumes, creative weapons, monocles, gears, blacksmith demonstration, etc.  It was very eclectic and a lot of fun to see.

Saturday evening we had a potluck dinner and followed up with music from EYC's own band.

Port Townsend is one of our favorite places we have been so far. We love the little sheltered harbor of Hudson Bay and the seaside-feel of the buildings and homes. It is a great little town for walking, shopping and finding fun little restaurants that are tucked away.

The next morning we headed for home. It was a beautiful and smooth trip and we even had a gray whale come near enough that we stopped and watched it for awhile. The following picture is of one of our club members who found himself in the "forbidden" shipping channel. The freighter called him over the radio to move to the side so they could get by. Not the place any of us want to be - these freighters are fast!

Memorial Day Redneck Casual Cruise

What a wonderful weekend! The EYC cruise for Memorial Day was over to Port Orchard which made for a nice 3-1/2 hour cruise to get there. Unfortunately, we were moored in POYC members' slips so while it was very generous of them to provide the space, we were spread throughout the marina making it difficult to connect with other members. We did, however, have full access to the POYC clubhouse so it gave us a great location for meals and for visiting with other members. This first picture shows the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and some of the mothballed aircraft carriers. Bremerton is directly across the bay from Port Orchard so it was a nice view of the carriers. The second picture shows the view we had from our moorage space. Not as nice as some had but one advantage was that we were protected from the wind and some rough water that others had to deal with.

The theme for the weekend was "redneck" so one of the fun things they did was cook a pig on a spit. The club had never done one before but Ralph Olsen did some internet research, got the supplies, and then proceeded to cook us a fantastic dinner of pulled pork. They did a great job, learned some things to do different the next time, and already have plans to build our own spit to make this an annual affair.

During the day we walked around the street fair in Port Orchard and then took the foot ferry over to Bremerton for their Kitsap Harbor Days. There were lots of craft and food booths as well as a fun car show covering 3 blocks of downtown. I have always liked old cars from the fifties but was never sure which one was my favorite.  I found it! I loved the 1957 Belairs and there were several beautiful ones. My favorite was this turquoise one and have now added it to my "bucket list".  Maybe someday... 

Barkley made lots of friends and enjoyed the attention from this little girl on the ferry. The second picture is of our friends from Bob's model boat club who are the ones that encouraged us to join the Edmonds Yacht Club. They are, from left, Leif & Audree Bentzen and Barbara & Ron Brey. Leif is the one we took with us when we were looking to buy Stargazer and he did the survey on it.  He is an excellent mechanic and we continue to use his expertise. We recently bought some hours of service from him at the annual auction since there are always things that needs to be done on a boat.

On Sunday we took it very easy and just relaxed on the boat with our books. The evening was "redneck" night that included a wonderful steak dinner, costumes and music. The highlight for the weekend was when we commemorated Memorial Day by sharing memories of loved ones who had served in the military.  There were some amazing stories from World War I, the Korean War and Viet Nam. Bob shared Mark's experience of picking up a VIP in Afghanistan who turned out to be a very young female soldier who had just learned her husband had been killed in Iraq. Following the sharing time, the committee provided a bouquet of flowers for those who wanted to remember a veteran who had passed away. I dropped a flower in the Sound in remembrance of my dad who served in the Coast Guard and passed away last year. It was a very moving ceremony for all who were there.

I had to include the following picture of this cute espresso stand across the street from the clubhouse. There's just something about tugboats!

Whales Again?

Today we invited Al and Sharon to go out with us to look for whales before the grays move on from Puget Sound. Last year when we took them out we had the best whale show imaginable. We felt we had spoiled them last year but thought that if we were lucky, we might see one or two. We aren't sure if it is Sharon's "lucky" shirt (she happened to wear the same one as last year) or the fact that Al was in the navy but we saw the best whale show since last time they went with us! We idled for 2 hours and watched three grays swim all around us. They were fairly close and we could hear them as they blew spouts and repeatedly surfaced enough that we could see them quite well. It was so much fun!

No Agenda

We had no real agenda for the evening's cruise other than to spend time with Alley, Mihai and Rylie. We cruised up toward Hat Island and then down toward Mukilteo. We didn't see any whales but enjoyed some time together. Now that Rylie can walk, she had the most fun playing in the salon with the pillows and trying to figure out why the floor kept moving! When we returned to Everett, we had a nice steak dinner topped off with Girl Scout cookies. It doesn't get much better than that!