Puget Sound – Riveted

Another Successful Seattle Boat Show

Laura Domela — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:00:13 +0000

We had a fantastic time at the Seattle Boat Show this week. Our Slowboat team gave ten different seminars spread over the eight day show, and we could not have asked for better audiences. Several sessions were standing room only! We stayed at Elliott Bay Marina the whole time and commuted back and forth to the stadium. Most of the time, the weather was horrible…rainy and windy! We were glad to have Airship all tucked into a slip on C dock.

We did get some beautiful skies and even some sun, which was a nice surprise.

While not attending the boat show, we spent some quality time with friends in the area, and managed to visit some of our favorite local spots:

Fat Bastards from Pike Place Market (we shucked ’em ourselves)

Soup dumplings at Dough Zone (shhh, we went there three times!!)

Shigokus and caesar and cava at the Taylor Shelfish Farm oyster bar

LimeBikes — public bikes for rent that you’ll find all over the city now

We took advantage of a non-rainy day to check out the on-the-water parts of the Seattle Boat Show. This is Bell Harbor:

Safeco Field structure silhouette

Yesterday we did laundry and shopped for groceries and got some more work done, and this morning we cruised an hour across to Blake Island, where we were the only boat until about an hour ago.

We immediately got out and hiked the trail that rings the island (about 4 miles). On this one hike we saw raccoons, deer, geese, herons, and eagles. It’s very “wildlifey” out here today!

The last time we were here was last year after the 2017 boat show, and the place was covered in snow!

Tomorrow I think we might head up to Poulsbo and then over the next couple days hook around into Hood Canal, making our way down to meet friends at Alderbrook next weekend. It’s nice to be back in the South Sound!

Headin’ South

Laura Domela — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 11:44:42 +0000

We are headed to Seattle this week for the 2018 Seattle Boat Show, where our Slowboat team will be giving a handful (well, two handfuls — 10!) of seminars about subjects that include cruising the Inside Passage to Alaska, flying drones from boats, photography, and how to live on a boat in Seattle without a permanent slip. Check out the full list here if you’re interested.

We left Anacortes Monday morning just before 10am. We took the Swinomish Channel route since it was an hour before max ebb at Deception Pass and well, we’ve done that before. We had a nice easy cruise down to Langley, with winds in the 5-10kts range, and only one spot with enough chop to get the windows salty. Tuesday in the San Juans is supposed to be a little nasty (E wind 25 to 35kts becoming SE 30 to 40kts in the afternoon. Wind waves 5 to 7 ft) but Puget Sound doesn’t sound bad.

Seals here on the dock at Langley, Whidbey Island

I had the helm all day while Kevin wrote an article and did some work, and when we got settled we showered and did more work before walking up to town for dinner and groceries.

Langley at dusk.

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Langley waterfront at dusk

We had an early dinner at one of our favorites spots in Langley — Prima Bistro (where we took no food photos, but we shared some kusshi oysters and charcuterie for starters, then ordered two entrees to share: the cassoulet and the pan roasted chicken with polenta, braised endive, and rosemary-gorgonzola pan jus). Everything was delicious, and we took more than half the cassoulet back to Airship for another meal.

The Star Store mercantile next door is open until 8pm so we grabbed some fresh produce and eggs and called it an early night!

We left Langley this morning before 9am. The weather was gray and rainy but we never saw more than about 10kts of wind.

We did, however, pass a big submarine as it headed north:

Pretty cool to see at such close range!

Port Townsend to Eagle Harbor

Laura Domela — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 04:27:38 +0000

On Thursday we drove from Portland to Anacortes, and then on Friday morning we cruised from Anacortes to Port Townsend. It was nice chill cruise down Rosario Strait and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Townsend. So calm and boring that I didn’t take one single photo. We arrived in Port Townsend and went for a walk around town for a bit, stopping in the little shop I like called “Getables” and picked up some Eaglemount Rhubarb Cider. We made dinner aboard, then in the morning Kevin attempted to diagnose the float switch/gray water pump/float switch issue we’ve been having (pump runs and pumps out the gray water, but then keeps running after it’s empty so you have to go turn off the breaker to it to get it to stop). We eventually left Point Hudson Marina and stopped briefly at Boat Haven so we could walk up to West Marine and get yet ANOTHER float switch. The brand new one we put in (to solve the same problem) a few months ago appears to have been bad. (Learned after taking apart the cabinetry in the head to remove and then test the gray water pump itself…which was fine).

The marina at Boat Haven has temporary dockage just past the fuel dock, and it’s an easy walk to West Marine — if you ever need to stop in.

We got what we needed and Kevin finished the float switch replacement while we were underway. Gorgeous cruise today…down through the Port Townsend Canal (with about 3 kts of current with us, woohoo) and into the sound. The light was soft and silvery and the water was mostly calm.

Barge loaded with crushed cars looked pretty cool chuggin’ along in the VTS lanes just north of Seattle:

We thought we might go down to Blake Island today, but since we got such a late start from Port Townsend (~11am) we instead opted for Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island. No room in the marinas on a Saturday night, so we tied up for the night on the City Dock and walked down to the Harbour Public House for dinner and a beer. Dinner was just okay. I had fish tacos (pretty good, nothing fancy, fish definitely the highlight) and Kevin got a boar burger. The yam fries with the burger were cold (they brought another order) and the burger was just so-so. We’ve always gotten fish & chips here…maybe that’s the secret!

Tomorrow morning we’ll head across Elliott Bay and into Seattle for some Seattle Boat Show festivities. Should be a fun and busy week!