Oro Bay, Boston Harbor, Hope Island

Laura Domela — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 22:51:21 +0000

It was very rainy all night last night in Oro Bay (but we slept well at the hands of our new Rocna anchor). This morning after some work, we pulled up anchor as we readied to head out. It's working well! Look at all that mud:

We stopped at Boston Harbor for some fuel and to see if they had any guest moorage for tonight, but they were full up with some larger fishing boats on the guest dock, and we were a little too big to fit in their smaller boat spots, so we just got fuel and walked up to check out the general store.

Fishing boats on the other side of these slips:

Heading up to the Boston Harbor general store:

Creative dock-fixing:

The general store is pretty great. They've got a great selection of beer and wine, and a bunch of staples and canned goods (as well as some local yummy things), fresh seafood, and some cute gifty items. We picked up a couple bottles of beer, one bottle of wine, some smoked salmon, a couple pounds of fresh manila clams, a dozen Pacific oysters from Chelsea Farms (a local family shellfish farm), and a small package of Cayenne Pumpkin Seed Brittle from a place called Sugar Hill in Port Ludlow (can't wait to try it!)

And then, back to the boat!

Our guy helping us fuel up told us that Hope Island was a cool spot, so we decided we'd head there for the night. We grabbed a mooring buoy and went ashore to register and get a little hike in while it was just drizzling.

Looking back at Airship:

Hope Island is a 106-acre marine park, and part of the Washington State Park system. It is reachable only by boat, and is covered with old-growth forest and a couple miles of hiking trails. It's small and quiet and we're the only ones here.

The original inhabitants of Hope Island were (of course) Native Americans, but the first (white) family to make Hope Island their home was the Louis Schmidt family (founders of the Olympia Brewing Company). They built a home and a windmill, planted vineyards and orchards, and brought a few cattle, horses, and a fox to the island. (Why a fox?)

Anyway, we LOVE cruising in the off season. Honestly…it might be rainy and gray, but this Nordic Tug is the perfect boat for the Pacific Northwest. It's seaworthy and comfortable and we LOVE it.

We had a nice (albeit soggy) hike and then headed back to claim the Zodiac before the incoming tide did. The rain was coming in pretty heavy (and the tide had come in about a foot) so it was good timing.

Airship in the rain:

We shucked our oysters and made a champagne shallot mignonette, and they were delicious!! Another oyster on the "favorite oyster list" — Pacifics from Chelsea Farm.

Oh, and we just opened one of the bottles of beer we picked up at Boston Harbor, and it's good! It's this:

Tonight's dinner will be clam linguine (with the Chelsea Farms clams we picked up) and a spinach salad. Recipe and photos will follow (if it's good, and if I get good photos).

Here's our route from today — Oro Bay on Anderson Island, stopped at Boston Harbor on the mainland, and then moored at Hope Island for the night — 19.8 nautical miles. (We circled Hope Island because it was small and we wanted to pick our spot.)

Tacoma Narrows

Laura Domela — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 22:21:49 +0000

We timed our departure from Tacoma this morning to start through the Tacoma Narrows right around slack tide and at the beginning of a flood. (Flood flows south, ebb goes north.) So at slack the current is still, and as it turns to flood, the current starts south and gives us a little boost in speed. For instance, we usually cruise at around 2200rpm and make between 7-8 knots, and through the Narrows today we were at 2200rpm and going 10-11 knots, so we had about a 3 knot boost from the current.

Farewell committee at the marina:

Some shots as we exited the Thea Foss Waterway:

There were a lot of seals and porpoise (and fishermen) around Point Defiance today. I managed to luck out and get this Dall's porpoise as it did a cute little jump!

Moody landscape on the bluff:

Some shots of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as we passed underneath:

We had a nice cruise down to Anderson Island. It was pretty and fairly uneventful (read: no whales). We're now anchored here on our new Rocna 20. So far so good!

We took the dinghy out for a bit to check out a derelict (but cool!) 1923 ferry that's over here in the bay (more about that in the next post), but it started raining pretty good so we motored back to Airship for a cozy evening and a bit more work.

Here we are in the rain:

And here's today's track – 24.2 nautical miles. And tonight will be Night No. 70 aboard Airship. Woohoo!

Oro Bay – Riveted

Oro Bay, Boston Harbor, Hope Island

Tacoma Narrows