Langley – Riveted

Langley to Coupeville | Whidbey Island

Laura Domela — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 17:53:18 +0000

Sunset light from the dock Monday night at Langley:

We had a lovely dinner at Prima Bistro (and, after looking at the blog post from our last visit, it turns out we ordered the exact same thing as when we were here two years ago: bouillabaisse and the wild boar ragout over house-made pasta…predictable much?)

The weather was pretty and clear again in the morning and we left around 9:30am for Coupeville. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to Coupeville. By then it had gotten a little windy and cloudy. Our plan was to stop for lunch at Toby’s and then continue north to either LaConner or all the way to Anacortes.

We tied up at the wharf dock in Coupeville which is free during the day, then between 5pm-8pm changes to $5. We hear it’s about to change to $5 for 3 hours at all times of the day, and overnight will be somewhere just over a buck a foot. There were two guys out repairing things on the dock, and it was actually looking pretty good. No upgrades (like water or power) are planned.

Downtown Coupeville (“A Touch of Dutch” on the corner):

There was a guy (Chris) walking around town in a dinosaur costume handing out Valentine’s Day cards (from “Chris” to “a friend”) attached to small bags of candy hearts. He came into Toby’s while we were having lunch and walked around the restaurant handing out Valentines to the customers and the servers.

Then he sat at the bar and had a beer (the server told him it was her Valentine to him). His dinosaur did not look all that happy being smushed onto the bar stool, but I overheard him telling the server how much fun he was having in his costume, passing out Valentines. It was pretty sweet.

We left Coupeville and decided that we’d probably go all the way to Anacortes. The forecast for today was and still is 25-35 knots, wind waves 3-5 feet. Here in the marina it’s raining and gusting to about 30kts, so it’s a nice day to be tucked in and catching up on work and boat projects.

Update from Puget Sound

Laura Domela — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 23:48:25 +0000

Since our little snow-filled adventure on Blake Island a week ago, we’ve been busy! We cruised back over to Seattle on Tuesday (with Sam on Safe Harbour) and stayed at Elliott Bay for a few nights. During that time we did some fun city stuff (mainly involving food)…we had dinner at The Ruins one night with some of Sam’s family (The Ruins is a dining club and event space, very cool), another meal at Din Tai Fung with Sam’s mom (lunch this time…more soup dumplings!), and then Sam and Anna and Kevin and I went to Serious Pie for dinner on Friday night (Tom Douglas’ pizza joint…SO GOOD!). We also drove up to Anacortes to take a test ride on a new Nordic Tug 40 equipped with a Seakeeper for roll stabilization. We were out in some pretty rough water in Rosario Strait and this Seakeeper thing is seriously impressive. Sitting still in 4ft beam waves…steady as can be. (Expensive test ride. This just added a bit more $$ to the price of our future new boat.)

On Friday we were scheduled to head over to Poulsbo for the first day of the annual Winter Rendezvous, but the weather was nasty so we opted to stay put until Saturday morning, when it was much calmer.

None of us had ever been to Winter Rendezvous so we really didn’t know what to expect.

We arrived just in time for the “opening ceremonies” in the Sons of Norway Hall, which mainly consisted of host Chip Hanauer dressed as “the Ringleader” (as in “circus”) and others dressed as characters from Star Wars (I forgot to mention the theme was “May the Fourth Be With You” in honor of the fourth year), as well as a plethora of fur- and horn-clad Vikings…the bar was open, the atmosphere was festive, and people seemed pretty happy to be there overall.

We walked around town a bit, stopped at Sluys’ Bakery, and then headed back to Airship for showers and a bit of work (skipping the “Poker Run” and “Scavenger Hunt”.

Arty photo of a little rowboat in the marina:

We thought we might hit the glogg tasting at 1pm, but Kevin and Sam got wrapped up in diagnosing an electrical thing and we ended up hanging on the boats until bonfire time.

The Winter Rendezvous is pretty much just a big party that people happen to boat to. There were no real “boaty” events (other than the arrival to Poulsbo by boat), but people seemed to really be enjoying themselves regardless.

The weather was so nice on Saturday afternoon that we spent some time on the top deck of Airship enjoying the view and the sun:

Just after 7pm we headed up for dinner at the Sons of Norway Hall, which consisted of giant trays of Spanish paella, with a delicious spinach salad.

The food was good and we enjoyed the evening (even though we left not long after the band started). We met some fun folks, the band was good, and man can those Rendezvousers drink!

On Sunday morning we headed over to meet up with some friends at Port Madison (north end of Bainbridge Island). We anchored a little ways from the Seattle Yacht Club outstation and dinghied in to join the group.

Andy and Jill (and Magnus and Porter) from ThreeSheets NW were there, along with some new friends Ryan and Autumn, whom we met at the boat show the week prior. We all gathered on the top deck of Sam’s boat for snacks and beer, and then Autumn got to work painting the new name of Andy & Jill’s dinghy in freehand red. It came out great!

Before, consulting about the look of the lettering:

Ta-Da!!

Hornpipe is apparently a sailor’s dance with several origin stories, if you’re curious about the name.

For dinner, we all migrated to the SYC facility up the hill to cook together and have a fire. Such a fun evening with great folks!

After breakfast this morning, we left Port Madison and headed for the port of Langley on Whidbey Island. Gorgeous weather today!

Since we knew we’d be in Langley tonight, we called yesterday and made a dinner reservation at Prima Bistro. (We’ll celebrate Valentine’s Day a day early…and then maybe again tomorrow, depending on where we are.)

We tied up on the outer dock (haven’t been on the outside before…it’s nice, and with a great view!) and then walked up and around town, enjoying the sunny day.

Spotted this tiger in the brush on our way up the hill. No explanation.

Now we’re back on Airship doing some work and listening to the seagulls chattering outside our open doors and windows. (Yes, it’s February….gotta get it while we can…last week we had 4-6 inches of snow!)

Poulsbo: Little Norway on the Fjord

Laura Domela — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 22:26:53 +0000

The weather was gorgeous this morning as we left Langley and headed south to Poulsbo.

Langley Marina as we left our dock:

The water was mostly calm for the whole trip today:

I got a bunch of work done this morning in Langley before we left, so I was captain for this trip while Kevin worked on an article (sitting up in the pilot house with his laptop).

Approaching the Port of Poulsbo marina:

Our Nordic Tug in Poulsbo. Poulsbo is also known as "Little Norway on the Fjord" I think we'll fit right in!

Velkommen til Poulsbo!

Founded by Norwegian immigrant Jorgen Eliason in the 1880s, Poulsbo was settled in its early years by a large number of Norwegian and other Scandinavian immigrants because of its similarities to their native countries. In 1886 I. B. Moe, one of the early Norwegian settlers, suggested that the community should have a post office. Moe suggested the town be named Paulsbo (which translates as "Paul's place"), after the Norwegian village where Moe spent his early years. The community's petition for a post office was granted, and Moe became the first postmaster, but the authorities in Washington D.C. misspelled the town's name, probably because of illegible handwriting, and the community became known as Poulsbo thereafter. Poulsbo was officially incorporated on December 18, 1907.

Until World War II Poulsbo retained Norwegian as a primary language. However, during World War II, the military constructed about 300 residential units to provide housing for workers at the nearby Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, located in Bremerton, Washington. The population of Poulsbo almost tripled over three years, and the diversification of the population led to the dominance of English as the primary language.

On October 22, 1975, King Olav V of Norway visited Poulsbo as part of the celebration of 150 years of Norwegian settlement in the United States. [Thanks, Wikipedia]

We got settled and then walked into town for some lunch and a bit of exploring. The harbormaster recommended a spot called Sogno di Vino and gave us a 10% off coupon. We walked around and surveyed the options and it seemed fine so we gave it a try. When we asked the waitress what was good, she just gushed about pretty much everything. Usually, this means nothing, but every single thing we tried was fabulous. We shared a small caesar salad (delicious garlicky dressing), a chicken pesto panini with smoked tomato chutney on the side (amazing), and a 7" wood fired pizza called the "Caleb" which was topped with prosciutto, mushrooms, apple, fig, brie, mozzarella, and a drizzle of honey. It was fantastic. I don't think we'll be hungry again until tomorrow!

We walked around town more after lunch, and stopped at the highly recommended Sluys Poulsbo Bakery for a couple of sweet things (for later, way later):

Viking mural on the side of a downtown building:

The streets downtown have names like King Olaf Vei, Queen Sonja Vei, and the Norwegian heritage shows up everywhere. We're back at the boat working now, and not sure whether we'll stay here again tomorrow or head somewhere new.

This is what's so great about boating in the off season:

The entire guest dock is vacant (except for us). The weather was amazing here today…no jackets! And we sat on the top deck of the boat with an Aperol spritz and watched the sunset. What month is it??

Oh yeah, here's our track from today (35.4 miles):

Slow Day in Langley

Laura Domela — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 21:20:33 +0000

(We're there on the outside dock on the right, inside the breakwater)

We left the boat and headed into town about 45 minutes after the Seahawks playoff game had gotten underway (a big deal around these parts), and the streets were deserted. ("They're all dead inside!")

We wandered over to grab lunch at Kalakala Co. Mercantile, where we shared a bowl of ramen and an Italian panini — both were great. Kalakala is super cool inside. All the stuff is handmade and for sale (most if not all of it by local artists/artisans, I believe):

I love these twig/branch square tables:

After lunch we walked around town a bit and then met up with our friends Rose and Eric and their three boys for some catching up. Here's their youngest with his Seattle Sounders scarf and matching glasses (Seahawks? What Seahawks?):

We had a great visit and now we're back at the boat. It's raining a bit and the wind has picked up again, but it's supposed to be calm for our cruise down to Poulsbo tomorrow morning.

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.

Langley to Port Townsend

Laura Domela — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:55:49 +0000

This morning we got up early and worked a bunch, had some breakfast, and then decided to take one more quick walk up the hill into town before heading for Port Townsend. Langley is such a cute town, even in the drizzly gray.

On the way out of the marina, more of these cool birds. If someone knows what they're called, please tell me. I googled up a storm and still didn't find them. Found the Mergansers, but the ones I saw had different markings:

Here's a blurry closeup of the one with the cool paint job:

The trip around the southern tip of Whidbey and up to Port Townsend was calm and uneventful. A little rainy and gray, but calm waters and beautiful scenery.

Update: Thanks readers! It's a Barrow's Goldeneye!

Arriving at Port Townsend:

We stopped at the Port Townsend Boat Haven Marina first and made a quick trip across the street to West Marine. (Oh, it was nothing, we just, um, lost one of our fenders somewhere between LaConner and Langley…oops!). We then headed north a little ways to the Point Hudson Marina (the marinas are on either side of all the downtown cuteness) where we'll stay the night. I took some photos of town from the water as we passed by:

Our new spot at the Point Hudson Marina:

So, we're back where the whole boat thing started, back in July. Maybe you remember this photo (and subsequent blog posts) of the cute Ranger Tugs that caught our attention in the marina. This was taken from the dinette of the Airstream:

And here we are now with our Nordic Tug, and we couldn't be more thrilled:

(A little less crowded here in late November, isn't it? Still completely charming though!)

Tonight we walked the length of Water Street a couple times, and then came back to the marina and had an early dinner at Doc's Marina Grill. Doc's is convenient because it's right here at the marina/RV park, but we'd eaten there before so we thought we'd go try the well-Yelped Cellar Door in town tonight. Unfortunately, it looks like they had some kind of plumbing emergency and are closed. The sign on the door says they hope to be open on Saturday. Doc's was a good backup.

We'll check the weather again tomorrow morning and decide if we're going to stay here one more night, or head north to the islands!

Here's today's map:

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:

Exploring Whidbey Island

Laura Domela — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:11:51 +0000

For our lunch break today we decided to do a little island exploring. First we drove back up to Oak Harbor and picked up some fresh Penn Cove mussels for dinner tonight (and some salmon for dinner tomorrow night), and a few clams I'll toss in with the mussels for variety.

Then we checked out the other state park I researched online (Fort Ebey State Park) to see how it would be to stay there. It's wooded, on a bluff but with no view spots, but very pretty. Sites looked like they had water/electric, and were large and pretty and private. We both had 3 bars of Edge from AT&T. There's a beach, and a gun battery, and lots of trails. Looks good. I'd stay there.

We also went to check out the Lavender Wind Farm (gorgeous, lots of beautiful, fragrant lavender, chickens, cool gifty things in the gift shop, including lavender cheddar and fresh eggs). Cyrus (whose blog is here), commented on one of our recent posts and told us about a very cool organization called Harvest Hosts. For $35 bucks a year you can stay overnight at one of many, many participating farms and wineries (as long as you're self-contained and don't require hookups) with no nightly fee. The stay limit is usually 24 hours unless you buy a bunch of wine/produce/eggs and maybe help out a little on the farm and then ask nicely if you can stay longer, please pretty please. Rockin' great idea, isn't it? These are the kinds of places we like to visit anyway, so I plan to be using this frequently. Anyway, the lavender farm looked lovely…the RV parking spot may even have a slight water view…couldn't tell.

After the lavender farm we headed south to go check out the town of Langley. Adorable little town! (Thanks Kathy H. for the tip!)

We returned to camp, worked a bit more, then took the Hobie out for an evening sail. Well guess what? We ended up directly under the pattern for another round of F18 touch-n-goes. Sailing. In nature.

Remember, this was taken with my iPhone. Which makes things looks way further away than they really were.

We saw about 6 harbor seals and one porpoise. Here's where we went:

Now, I'm going to cook up some mussels in the classic French, steamed with garlic, butter, white wine method, probably with some garlic bread and salad.