Pacific Northwest – Riveted

Airship in Seattle

Laura Domela — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 22:16:29 +0000

This heron was hanging out on our dinghy on Saturday morning. I very quietly lifted the top hatch on the door to the cockpit and snapped a couple of photos before it took off:

We headed up to Anacortes from Portland on Friday afternoon and got to the boat by about 9:30pm. On Saturday we did a bunch of work on and around the boat. One of our projects was replacing the fuel pump on the Mercury outboard (which I did, with Kevin's guidance) and then making sure it ran nicely before giving it the boot and replacing it with a Torqueedo Travel 1003 electric outboard. More about that later, but early reviews are positive.

We did some provisioning and then headed to LaConner for the night. (About 9.5 nautical miles.)

We got up early and did the rest of the cruise to Seattle on Sunday and got into Bell Harbor marina around 5pm. Approaching Seattle by boat is always a treat.

Closer shot of the paragliders along the bluffs:

Last night, all tucked in (we're just to the left of that rightmost piling):

This morning we got up and made breakfast and did some work, and then around 1pm we headed over to the floating portion of the Seattle Boat show, figuring we should take advantage of the dry day. We poked in and around a bunch of boats, but both of us decided we came away just loving our boat even more. (Awwwwww.)

Here we are today, partly cloudy. Can't beat this location for a city marina, really.

LaConner to Bell Harbor, downtown Seattle (about 55 nautical miles):

Hey Guess What?

Laura Domela — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 21:49:23 +0000

I know, there's not been anything interesting here in ages now! That's because we're just at home working (and catching up with friends, and blowing the leaves off the deck over and over again). Kevin's had a couple business trips, and I've been cleaning up my photo studio and preparing for a few shoots. Maybe I'll post a photo of my nice clean studio!

But in the meantime, check this out! We made the cover of the 2016 Waggoner Cruising Guide! Pretty sweet!!

This was taken (by Mark Bunzel) in front of Kynoch Falls, at Kynoch Inlet at the Fiordland recreation area in British Columbia.

If you cruise by boat in the Pacific Northwest (or just want to read about the area from a boater's perspective) and don't have a Waggoner Guide, you should have one. It's full of great information about anchorages, marinas, local knowledge, and great tips. (The Waggoner Guide covers the area from Olympia all the way to Ketchikan, AK). The 2016 edition is not out yet, but I'll see if we can hook you up with a preorder link soon!

Thanks Sam and Mark!

Airship in Fossil Bay

Laura Domela — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 17:35:24 +0000

Fossil Bay, Sucia Islands, March 2015

Flying Around Fossil Bay

Laura Domela — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 13:41:50 +0000

Kevin shot some aerial/quadcopter video of us in Fossil Bay over on Sucia Island the other day and made a short video.

The weather wasn't quite as beautiful as as it was for his previous Sucia Island quadcopter video, but this is a different view of the bay on a gray day and gives a good overall feel for where we were moored in the bay (and Ev Henry Point there on the right of this frame, where we hiked the other day):

More Sucia Island Hiking

Laura Domela — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 20:22:20 +0000

I wish everywhere I walked was flanked by this gorgeous fairy land moss and fern:

So far in our travels around the San Juan Islands, Sucia Island is our favorite for hiking. Today we hiked two more trails we had not yet hiked: the trail out to Fox Point (not too far, steep, gorgeous views of Fox Cove and further islands), and the trail and loop around Point Ev Henry (also hilly, takes you along both sides of Point Ev Henry so you get views of Orcas Island as well as Fossil Bay and beyond). We saw (up close, because we were up near the tops of the trees on the cliff) two bald eagles, and then down low (looking down from the cliff into a little sheltered rock cove), a very large sea otter.

This map shows our hike (starting on the blue dot at the dinghy dock) out to Fox Point (farthest left), then the Point Ev Henry loop, and back to the dinghy dock. Then the map also shows our dinghy ride around the bay and back to Airship (because we forgot to turn off the tracker, not because we wanted to show you the dinghy ride, but whatever):

And here are more photos:

Up high with the eagles:

Down there is the otter's cove:

Otter on a rock, lower left:

We got to this sign and weren't sure what it was trying to tell us.

I finally settled on "There's a spot, over there." We went over there, and this was the spot…a little round marker on a concrete post designating this point as Point Ev Henry:

Nice views of Fossil Bay on the way back:

And would you get a load of the campsites here on Sucia? They're SO pretty with fantastic views, and there are a bunch of 'em.

Here's a map of the state park that shows all of the camping areas (click to enlarge):

Most of the other boats that were here in Fossil Bay yesterday (there were 6) have gone home now. There's only one sailboat left…over on the park dock. Off season cruising is the BEST.

We're just going to chill and do some work (I know, even on Sunday) this afternoon and maybe watch three more episodes of House of Cards tonight (via the unlimited Verizon plan, hooray!)

Flying Around Watmough Bay

Laura Domela — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 14:22:17 +0000

Here's a short quadcopter video Kevin made yesterday while we were moored in Watmough Bay on Lopez Island:

Pretty spot, isn't it?

Good Morning from Watmough Bay

Laura Domela — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 18:01:21 +0000

It was a little bumpy overnight last night, and the wind/current/tide/wave combination made it so occasionally as we swung, the plastic mooring ball would bump the hull of the bow (aka the bedroom wall). It might have been a bit quieter on anchor.

We grilled some king salmon for dinner, and it turned out great! I made a glaze of maple syrup (3Tbsp), Dijon mustard (1Tbsp) and lemon zest from half a lemon, and brushed it onto the salmon filet, then topped the salmon with some partially cooked bacon (so we wouldn't overcook the fish while trying to crisp the bacon), and then brushed more glaze on top of the bacon…delicious (with a side of asparagus). It's a keeper!

View of the cliffs filling the galley window:

This morning after breakfast and a bunch of work (and a quick copter flight for some Watmough Bay aerials, coming soon), we took the dinghy to shore for a little hike.

From the trailhead you can actually hike up to the top of the cliffs on the north side of the bay, but we only had a bit of time to play around since Kevin had a call he needed to be on at noon. Before going back to the boat, we took the dinghy out for a quick loop around Boulder Island. We've been thinking about what we might ideally want for a new dinghy someday, and we've been entertaining two ideas:

(1) Versatile and quiet, like the Portland Pudgy with add-on sail kit (that telescopes and stores inside the boat!), and a Torquedo rechargeable electric motor:

(2) Fast and Comfortable, like the Apex Eurosport dinghy with bigger motor we saw at the Seattle Boat Show last month:

We're leaning toward fast and comfy. The Apex 11 Eurosport in this black and white color looked so sharp (and wouldn't show nearly as much of the diesel exhaust that our white Zodiac does), has built-in LED nav lights (and a step!) at the bow, seats 5, has a nice comfy for-2 driver's seat with storage underneath and a built-in gas can storage compartment. It's pretty dang sweet.

I think we'll head up to Garrison Bay today (on San Juan Island, near Roche Harbor). We haven't been there before and it's a known quiet anchorage with much to do nearby. We may stay a few days, even, since the wind/waves are supposed to pick up a bit soon.

Kingston to Pleasant Harbor

Laura Domela — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 23:38:34 +0000

We left Bell Harbor/Seattle this morning just after 8am. It was such a beautiful day (again) that we wanted to spend most of it on the water if possible.

Passing a couple tankers anchored in Puget Sound:

We stopped in Kingston to grab some breakfast/lunch.

The Port of Kingston is a very well-maintained, attractive marina with guest moorage free for 2 hours (and cute picnic areas right there on the dock):

We walked up to a little spot called J'aime Les Crêpes and ordered two different savory crêpes: (1) "Chicken" — grilled chicken, provolone cheese, spinich, toasted almonds, with artichioke pesto, and (2) "Special" — black forest ham, swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms, spinach, green onions and dijon mustard.

These hit the spot! We walked around a bit and then hopped back on Airship, fueled up, pumped out, and continued on our way.

Our initial plan was to head north toward Port Townsend, through the Port Townsend canal, and stop in Port Hadlock for the night, but as we passed Point No Point and were approaching Foulweather Bluff, we thought it would be a shame to miss (this time) Hood Canal, so we rerouted on the fly and headed toward Pleasant Harbor.

You just can't beat a (mostly) clear day view of the Olympic mountain range:

The sun was at the perfect angle to completely blind us as we tried to enter Pleasant Harbor:

We made it though, and headed over to the Pleasant Harbor State Park dock (just inside the harbor on the right):

Home Port Marina is just next door:

We took the chairs up to the top deck and had a cocktail while watching the pastel sky turn to navy. Kevin took these two shots:

And here's one I shot just before we came inside:

Dinner tonight is going to be an easy grilled chicken and zucchini.

Here's our track from today:

Total nautical miles: 51.31
Total time: 7 hours 47 minutes (30 minutes stopped)

I was at the helm most of the day, and Kevin worked (I did most of my "today" work last night and early this morning). On our cruise today, Kevin wrote a 1500-word article, had a couple of phone briefings, worked with our sales and operations team via chat, and answered a plethora of email. Not bad for moving office, is it?

CampsitePhotos.com

Laura Domela — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:21:00 +0000

Okay so maybe I'm late to the party, but whatever, I'm here now! This is a fantastic site, and sounds like it's going to be growing more fantastic-er in the very near future. They've got 600 campgrounds (with all sites photographed) and will add another 100+ this year (mostly in Northwest, but other states too).

You search for sites by state or region, and then once at the park's page, you can look at every single campsite (as well as get some general information about the campground.

This is Cultus Lake, in the Cascade Lake Highway area in Oregon:

(Photos: www.campsitephotos.com)

Check it out (unless you already know about it and are rolling your eyes thinking "What kind of Airstream travel bloggers are you guys that you've never heard of this site before? Slackers.")