LaConner – Riveted

Hood Canal to Port Townsend to LaConner

Laura Domela — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 23:07:54 +0000

We had a wonderful weekend exploring Hood Canal with our friend Kathy, and we wrote all about it here on Slowboat.

We left Alderbrook on Monday morning and cruised all the way to Port Townsend (~58nm in about 8 hours). The weather was perfect, so the long cruise was chill and productive. It’s easy to work while we motor along at 7.5 kts in calm water.

Leaving Alderbrook with a view of the Olympics

We arrived in Port Townsend just before 4pm and took a walk into town and back before it got dark.

Point Hudson Marina at Port Townsend

Back on Airship after our walk, we broke out the two dozen Shigoku oysters we’d picked up the day before from Taylor Shellfish Farms in Shelton, did some shucking and then had those for dinner along with a salad and a cup of soup. Delicious!

Beautiful view of the sunset from Airship

We left Port Townsend yesteday morning by about 8:30am and headed for Deception Pass and LaConner. The clouds were rolling in, but it was still calm and beautiful out:

Deception Pass

We knew we’d hit Deception Pass right at max flood, but the current would be going with us and at just about 4kts, so it was really no big deal.

Looking back at the Olympic range.

We arrived in LaConner just after noon and met the folks over at American Tugs to take a look at their new model called the Waypoint 36. We’ll be writing an article or two about this new boat on Slowboat…stay tuned.

LaConner from the Swinomish Channel

Last night we had dinner in town at the tavern (LaConner Pub and Eatery) and tonight (Valentine’s Day) we’re going to have dinner over at Oyster & Thistle (one of our fave restaurants in LaConner). We’re still trying to decide whether to stay in LaConner and walk the 15 minute walk to dinner (potentially in the rain), or continue on in Airship to Anacortes and drive the 20 minutes or so. It seems to have stopped raining for the moment, but you never can be sure around here in the winter! I think we’ll stay put. We’re getting a lot of work done, and we have rain gear if it’s raining later!

I Fixed It!

Laura Domela — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 22:16:33 +0000

Yeah I know, I'm the one who broke it in the first place, but I fixed it!

The other day in La Conner while approaching the fuel dock, I set myself up poorly. Not familiar with (or prepared for) the intricacies of the current in Swinomish Channel, I left our moorage at the marina and headed over to get fuel prior to heading the rest of the way to Seattle. I started to dock with the current (wrong) and was fumbling while trying to regroup and spin around to dock against the current (recommended) and I did the thing…the thing I never thought I'd ever do: I broke/sheared the shear pin in the stern thruster. Well crap. Somehow I must have flipped directions too fast and so there ya go. No more stern thruster. Good things: (1) I don't normally use the thrusters when docking, and (2) A lot of boats don't even have stern thrusters. Bad thing: I was going to have to fix it. Booo. (The bow and stern thrusters on Airship are through-hull, and they allow you to move the bow and stern sideways, for maneuvering in tight spaces.)

Once we were in Seattle tucked in at Bell Harbor, we did a little investigating. The stern thruster is in the hull, back behind the drive shaft and PSS seal (remember those things?) and the access is from a hatch inside the back cupboard, underneath the microwave. Before removing the microwave, I stuck my head down the foremost hatch and with the flashlight, ascertained what model of thruster we had: Side Power SE40/125. Also, right on the thruster itself there was a label that said:

That what I thought I remembered from poking around down there when we first bought the boat. Sweet! So out came the microwave, some bowls, the alcohol, and out came the tools.

Looking into the hatch after I'd removed the thruster motor (it's heavy):

This might give you a feel for the workspace:

Unfortunately but not surprisingly, we found that the previous owners of the boat (*cough cough* the dealer) had at some point used the spare and never replaced it. Awwww, fail! This is where it's supposed to be:

Broken shear pin. No spare.

So we started calling around. Fisheries Supply: special order only. Fisheries gave us a list of places to try and we started calling down the list: nope, nope, nope, nope. Our friend Sam (who was working the boat show) went up to the Side Power booth to see if they had any. They did not, but they suggested we call CSR Marine over at Shilshole Marina. We called them, and woohoo! They had one, and said for $20 it could be ours. (Shear pins are normally about 4 bucks, and CSR Marine did not usually sell to the public, but whatever, it would mean we could fix the thruster and put the salon back together today.)

New shear pin, installed:

Me, re-installing the thruster motor and the reconnecting the power to it:

Ta Da!!

(I wasn't going to buy a spare for $20, but we've got one ordered and we'll be sure to put it where it belongs for, um, next time?)

LaConner to Langley

Laura Domela — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 22:00:34 +0000

We left LaConner early this morning around 9am. I know, that's not super early, but by the time we left we'd both showered and cooked breakfast and made coffee and topped off our water tank, so considering all of that, it was early!

On our way through the lower part of the Swinomish Channel we saw many, many geese flying in cool formation overhead:

And then just out from Maple Grove Beach on the northwest tip of Camano Island, our sonar was picking up SO MANY FISH! For about 10 minutes we had solid lines of fish showing up at about 75 ft, like this:

Wouldn't it be cool if it just showed you the orcas, like this, just once?

We got into Langley (on Whidbey Island) at around 12:30pm, washed off the boat, paid for two nights, and headed up into town for some food and some wandering. We had lunch (and delicious espresso drinks) at Useless Bay Coffee Company. Look at Kevin's latte art:

We shared a jalapeno burger and some fish tacos and both plates were excellent! After lunch we stopped at Callahan's Firehouse to watch some glass blowing. Next we stopped into The Star Store and picked up a few things: a nice pair of wool fingerless gloves for Kevin, a pretty sweater for me, a new tea towel for the galley, and a proper captain's hat for whoever happens to be manning the helm. Score!

Next we stopped in at the Ott & Murphy Winery Tasting Room for a little wine tasting (with a view!):

We shared one tasting and brought 4 bottles back to put in Airship's wine cellar: a viognier, a syrah, and two bottles of their red blend called L'Entente (syrah, petite syrah, mourvedre, and viognier).

Here's a quick snap of the (full!) wine cellar:

Now we're just chillin at the boat (watching Deadliest Catch, heh). It's rainy and a bit windy outside and we plan to stay put and wait out what is supposed to be a windy day tomorrow.

Tomorrow we'll go back up into town and explore some more, and probably hit Kalakala for lunch. When we passed by today it looked like they had a couple of ramen specials that sounded perfect for a gray rainy Sunday.

Gray marina at Langley:

Tonight we're going to use some of the pulled pork we made and froze at home last week in some Cubano sandwiches. (Kevin brined the meat for 4 hours, smoked it for 4 hours, cooked it in the sous vide for 60 hours, then finished it on a hot grill to get a good bark on the outside. I made a Carolina vinegar sauce for it — apple cider vinegar, red chili flakes, sugar, soy sauce, ketchup, and pepper.) It came out so good and works wonderfully on a Cubano.

Oh yeah, I forgot to post these shots from yesterday. This is as we were about to enter the Swinomish Channel, between Anacortes and LaConner:

Here's a map of today's route (about 30 nautical miles):

No whales today, but we did see a few seals and some porpoises. They're out here though…we'll see some this trip…I just know it.

We’re Back in LaConner

Laura Domela — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 23:07:15 +0000

We left Anacortes late this afternoon and cruised Airship through the Swinomish Channel over to LaConner. As we were casting our lines off, I tripped on a cleat (dur) and bit it on the concrete dock (skinned knee, no big deal) but my RayBans decided they'd take a dive off my head and down to the harbor floor. Bum. Mer.

Once we were docked at the marina in LaConner we walked to town to find a pair or replacement sunglasses (non Ray-Ban, but they'll do the trick). I know, it's shocking that we need sunglasses in the Pacific Northwest in the winter, but it's totally true.

We stopped for a beer at LaConner Brewing and now we're back at the boat working a bit. We'll grill up some salmon with pesto sauce for dinner in a little while, and then head south early tomorrow morning (to, maybe, Langley?) to wait out the projected higher wind and windwaves on Saturday afternoon and Sunday before heading to Poulsbo on Monday.

(That's us on the far left, in front of the bigger boat on the guest dock, if you didn't spot us already.)

Map of this afternoon's route through the Swinomish Channel to LaConner, WA:

Wood Things for the Boat

Laura Domela — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 14:35:00 +0000

While in the cute little town of LaConner, WA a couple weeks ago, we stopped in a shop I wouldn't normally go into: The Wood Merchant. It's not that I don't like hand crafted items made out of wood, it's just that…I don't know. There are so many of those kinds of stores and they all seem to have the same stuff.

Something caught my eye in the window though, and we ended up going inside, and they have a whole bunch of cool things in there! There were two things that stuck with me, that I kept thinking about since that visit. So when we found ourselves with a little extra time on our way back to the boat from Lummi Island last week, we made a detour back out to LaConner…mainly for one of these endgrain cutting boards:

It doesn't stay on top of the stove, that's just where the light was best to get a photo of it. I'll use it mostly as a serving board for charcuterie and cheese. Also, this long wooden, um, bowl? to use for serving bread or crackers. It's about 3 inches wide, and about 12 inches long, and I love it:

What we didn't expect to pick up was this folding wooden stand for Kevin's iPad (here we are watching Top Chef after dinner):

It looks like this without the iPad on it, and folds flat for easy storage:

A handful of times now while staying on the boat we've used the iPad to watch our Slingbox from home while sitting at the dinette after dinner. (Our cable box at home is connected to a Slingbox, and then accessed from the iPad Slingbox app, so we can watch our DVR'd shows from the road with our unlimited AT&T data plan.) We don't have a stand, so we either hold the iPad up the whole time, or sometimes we use a wine bottle with a non-slip pad under the iPad, but this is MUCH nicer.

Anyway, La Conner! Cute shops! Even this touristy wood stuff shop!

Coupeville and Langley (Whidbey Island)

Laura Domela — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 02:07:07 +0000

This morning we got up early and after a shower and a quick breakfast we said goodbye to LaConner (above) and headed toward Coupeville, a small wharf town in Penn Cove on Whidbey Island.

Crumpled shack on the way out of the Swinomish Channel:

Bald eagle hanging out on a piling, watching us pass by:

Surf shack on Whidbey:

We decided to stop in Coupeville for some Penn Cove mussels at Toby's. Toby's is the red/white building on the left:

Approaching the wharf:

Docked and heading to town for lunch:

Not too busy at this time of year, is it?

Toby's is great…a dive(ish) bar, with really good steamed Penn Cove mussels with garlic bread.

A little view of our Airship out the window:

Perfect bar ambiance and super nice people.

And the mussels were REALLY good:

Here's our route from LaConner to Coupeville:

We headed back out to Airship after lunch and then made our way further south to Langley. The weather was kinda crappy, but still totally fun in the boat. Looking back from the pilothouse window:

A bit of wind, and some wind waves (2-4 feet) but Airship is so solid. Nothing creaks, clanks, or blams at all. Even in this!

We arrived in Langley and met up with some good friends (Hi Rose, Eric, Ben, Tim, Nate!) and it was a blast to have them on the boat with us for a bit (us there on the far right)! This is when we saw them last, on Whidbey with our Airstream (too long ago!)

After that visit we headed up into town to wander around a bit and popped in to say hi to some fellow Airstreaming friends who own the Poppybank Gallery (Hi Leslie & Chris!) It was nice to see their gallery finally (beautiful spot…if you're in Langley you should definitely stop in and check it out). They asked us if we had time to join them for a drink or for dinner, or if we had plans. Rose & Eric had recommended Prima Bistro, so we said we'd planned to go there, and it turns out…Leslie and Chris were planning to have dinner there tonight (it's Monday – bouillabaisse night!) so we all walked over and had a delicious meal there! Drinks, charcuterie, cheese, and then bouillabaisse and a wild boar ragout over house-made pasta (oh hi, Italy!) The food was fabulous, and we had a nice time catching up and visiting with Leslie and Chris. The last time we saw them was at Dave and Ann's Farmlet in Petaluma.

What a fun day on the water, and a great evening catching up with friends!

Oh, here's our route from Coupeville to Langley:

Heading to LaConner

Laura Domela — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 22:54:59 +0000

We got up this morning and headed out to grab breakfast, a few things at West Marine, and then some crab and seafood pâté at Black Rock Seafood in Anacortes. Breakfast was delicious — at Dad's Diner a Go Go. We ordered the highly recommended biscuits and gravy (they make all their own sausage, smoke their own bacon, etc.) with two poached eggs, and the Franco Mexican French Toast (I think that's what it was called) which was super creative and yum: A bacon-wrapped, stuffed jalapeno embedded into a piece of fluffy french toast, topped with a poached egg and a creme fraiche. We couldn't decide which dish we liked best! I'm not a biscuits and gravy lover normally, but holy moly this was good! The gravy was filled with house-smoked bacon and house-smoked sausage and had such great flavor.

Food photos (biscuits and gravy first, french toast second):

After we were fed and erranded and seafood-supplied, we headed for LaConner, via the Swinomish Channel.

A couple ships in the bay:

The wind picked up and it was a bit choppy on our way over to the channel, but not too bad. The Swinomish channel is an 11-mile long salt-water channel that connects Padilla Bay to the north with Skagit Bay to the south, separating Fidalgo Island from the mainland. The Swinomish Channel is the smallest of the three entrances to Puget Sound—the other two are Deception Pass and Admiralty Inlet.

We got a spot in the LaConner marina for the night (after some tricky docking!) We docked on the inside of the dock (not the channel side) thinking it'd be a little calmer tonight, but the wind kept blowing us off as we tried to dock! We decided to come at the dock from the shelter of this big working boat so maybe it'd block some of that crazy wind, and it worked! Here we are:

And here's our route:

The first time I was in LaConner I was on a family vacation (sometime in the late 70s or early 80s) and they had a couple of Renault Le Cars they used as police cars in this cute waterfront town. They looked like this:

They don't have those anymore, but the town is still super cute! We walked around a bit, went in a few shops, and took some photos:

There are public docks you can tie up to if you want to just stop for a few hours and explore.

Shadow self portrait on the main street:

Many of the buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places:

Fun signage:

Waterfront on the channel:

Before heading back to the boat we stopped and had a happy hour appetizer of clams (in a coconut chipotle broth, yum!) and a couple of local beers at La Conner Brewing Co. (a brown and a stout). It was all really good and our bill was $14 bucks.

It was a gorgeous day and now the wind has died down and the forecast looks pretty great for the next few days.

Our working boat neighbor, just after sunset: