We love so many things about Seattle and the Pacific Northwest--the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Puget Sound, and our wonderful community of friends and neighbors. We are trying to say goodbye (at least for a short while) to these facets of our lives here before heading south, and our first opportunity presented itself the weekend before last in the form of a sailing trip on board Tula, our friends' sailboat.
Brent, Heidi and Griffin are the former owners of our boat Raven, and they invited us to sail with them from Seattle to Friday Harbor on their new boat. We jumped at the chance. The weather was wonderful (even if the winds were not) and we had a sunny, relaxing passage from Seattle to Port Townsend. We spent the night at the Point Hudson Marina, where the three boys had a great time prowling the docks for sea life. We spent some of our time ashore exploring the town, and the next morning hauled the three crab pots we'd set on the way in to the marina. They were FULL of Dungeness crabs! We caught a total of 27, 12 of which were keepers. We had a smooth, but at times foggy, passage across the Straits of Juan de Fuca, but after transiting Cattle Pass, the skies cleared and we had a beautiful evening at anchor in Griffin Bay (which is, as you can imagine, a traditional anchoring spot for the crew of Tula).
The boys had a great time tidepooling during the extremely low tide we experienced. After a leisurely morning and afternoon, we sailed out of the bay and motored the rest of the way into Friday Harbor, my favorite town in the San Juans. We had a great time exploring the town, eating ice cream, and soaking in the sights of the harbor.
We had a great time with Brent, Heidi and Griffin, and hope to do it again next year!
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| Amy and Heidi, waiting to be seated for dinner in Port Townsend |
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| Liam with the red rock crab he caught *with a net* |
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| Amy releasing a sea star that found its way into one of the crab pots |
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| The crabbing crew |
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| A very happy Brent with an enormous Dungy |
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| The boys hamming it up in the cockpit |
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| At anchor in Griffin Bay |
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| Yours truly piloting the dinghy to shore in Griffin Bay |
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| One of the many interesting creatures the boys found on shore (I believe this one is a juvenile black prickleback) |
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| The young naturalists |
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| Griffin and Lochlan hoisting the mainsail |
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| Liam and Lochlan on the bow |
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| Brent and Heidi en route to Friday Harbor |
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