Bell Harbor Marina – Riveted

More Seattle Waterfront

Laura Domela — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 16:32:14 +0000

We had a nice afternoon around Bell Harbor yesterday. We grabbed some fish & chips and a beer up at Anthony’s for a late lunch and then did a bunch of work from Airship the rest of the day. The sun popped out beneath the clouds and made for some gorgeous light.

I snapped this quickly from the back of Airship last night. I love how the lights of the city bounce off the low cloud layer.

We’ll head over to the boat show later this morning. Kevin’s “Connected Cruising/WiFi in the Wilderness” seminar is today at 2:15pm…should be a good one!

Docking Downtown

Laura Domela — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 21:03:34 +0000

It’s always fun arriving in Seattle by boat. We left Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island around 11am this morning and headed across Elliott Bay to Seattle. Elliott Bay was a bit choppy: wind 15-25kts and wind waves maybe 3ft. No big deal, just a little wet.

Mt. Rainier with some lenticular clouds:

Approaching the city:

Port side view:

Starboard side view:

We’re now tucked in at Bell Harbor Marina. I washed the salt off of Airship and now we’re just doing a little work and doing a little tweaking on our boat show seminar slides. Should be a fun week!

Good Morning Seattle

Laura Domela — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 15:45:13 +0000

Gorgeous view of downtown Seattle from Airship this morning:

We met some new friends for brunch (delicious eggs benedict with dill hollandaise) at Lola yesterday morning (Hi Elaine and Fred! Thanks again!) and then did some work at the boat before we headed over to the boat show for the afternoon. This is a very small portion of the very large boat show.

The Nordic Tug booth ("booth" seems a funny term for what this is) has a brand new Nordic Tug 34 (beautiful…I want those countertops!) and a 39 that's a couple years old (but looks brand new), and they're playing Kevin's beautiful aerial copter video that he made at Patos Island (two places in the "booth" … check it out if you stop by…or just watch it here).

We roamed around and talked to people we knew and looked at boaty stuff, then returned to Airship so Kevin could finish up an article.

Later on we met up with our friends Sam & Anna and had dinner at a place up on Virginia and 2nd called Shaker & Spear. It was delicious! Kevin and I shared a beets and butter lettuce salad with goat cheese, and octopus with warm cannellini beans, celery, and salsa verde as first courses, and then shared two entrees: seared scallops with sunchoke purée, brussels sprouts, with a caper and blood orange sauce, and albacore with farro risotto, butter poached radishes, with an olive and orange tapenade. Super yum, all of it. Fun day!

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):

Sunny Seattle in February (again)

Laura Domela — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 21:53:02 +0000

It was another beautiful day in Seattle today. Perfectly clear skies and bright sun…warm, even!

We had some more visitors (hi Rebecca and Brian!) mid-day today…we hung out on the boat and visited, grabbed some lunch up at Anthony's, and then hung out on the top deck soaking up the sun and visiting some more. This is Jackson, their son, working on his sketchbook/journal:

Today's entry so far: "We went on a bot with frends" complete with cool drawing of a boat with lots of portholes! So sweet!

I can't get over what a gorgeous day it was/is today! We walked up to the market this afternoon to get some fresh oysters for dinner tonight (a friend from art school who now lives in Seattle is coming over…someone I haven't seen in way too long!) We got six Kumamotos, six Kusshis, and six…oh shoot, I forgot the third kind. Bah. Anyway, tonight we're having oysters, and then Cubano sandwiches (with Kevin's 72-hour pulled pork). Looking forward to another fun evening with good people!

One more shot of the pretty blue sky!

Seattle Valentine

Laura Domela — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 13:53:10 +0000

Great Wheel on the Seattle waterfront, with Valentine's Day themed light show, reflected:

Yesterday our friends (Lisa and George and their girls Maya and Lily) came by to say hi and check out the boat. We grabbed a bite up on shore and then we took 'em for a quick cruise out to Alki Point and back. It was a gorgeous afternoon and a fun little cruise!

The other day when we realized we were going to be in Seattle for Valentine's Day, we decided we felt like going out for dinner rather than cooking. I did a little research on Open Table to see if there were any nearby (decent) restaurants with availability, and found a 5pm slot at Roberto's Venetian Trattoria. The place sounded fun so we went for it.

Roberto's is kind of buried in the layers of the Pike Place Market, but it's a cool spot. Casual but nice, and the food was good! We shared some carpaccio and a caprese salad, two half orders of pasta (spaghetti carbonara and a papardelle with cinghiale). As a main, we split an order of the pesto halibut, and then shared the recommended tiramisu (which was much more like the creamy tiramisu we had in Italy, than the usual cakey versions you find in most U.S. restaurants). All was good and the portions were on the smaller side, so we didn't leave there feeling stuffed. We would definitely go back.

Roberto giving directions in the kitchen (velvet pin-striped jacket, pink/patterned dress shirt, red scarf…perfect):

After dinner we headed down the stairs to the waterfront. We thought we might take a ride on the Great Wheel, but everyone else had that same thouht and the line was huge, so we just walked back toward the marina along the waterfront. (We also learned that this week is Octopus Week at the Seattle Aquarium!!)

Back at Airship. (Awwww, so romantic…red pilot house lights, pink ferris wheel in the background).

Today, more visitors x2! It's a fun and social weekend in Seattle!

Gig Harbor to Bell Harbor

Laura Domela — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 14:32:45 +0000

This morning (after a cute sendoff from these two friendly ducks) we left Arabella's Landing in Gig Harbor. We made another stop at the guest dock of the Tides Tavern and had a "brunch" of fish tacos before heading north to Seattle. A bit of fog coming in:

Heading out of the harbor:

Visibility in Colvos Channel was pretty limited, but it cleared up after not too long. Nice view of Mt. Rainier:

Gorgeous sky behind us:

Just as we were nearing the tip of Vashon Island, I got a text from our friend Sam (he's got a Nordic Tug 37) who saw us on AIS. I had just opened my vessel tracking app and seen him around the west side of Blake Island, and I texted back "We see you too!" and then pretty soon we saw a little boat speeding toward us fast, and guess who it was?? Sam and his girlfriend Anna coming all the way out to say hi. We slowed and chatted for a few minutes and then they took off back to Blake. Fun!

There they go!

That's Blake Island in the background:

On our way into Seattle, right off of Duwamish Head, we saw some pretty dramatic splashing (and RED in the water) ahead of us.

We slowed to see what the commotion was. It was a sea lion eviscerating a large salmon (at least I think that's what it was), so we hung out for a few minutes and watched him fling that thing around SO hard (even though surely it was dead by then):

Yay, nature!

The approach into Seattle from the water always feels dramatic:

We're back at Bell Harbor for a few days with many visits with friends scheduled. Should be a fun weekend. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Route from yesterday:

Foggy Morning, Seattle Skyline

Laura Domela — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 16:29:40 +0000

I popped up and took a couple photos this morning as the sun was coming up through the foggy skyline.

Oh, and the sea lion is back. I expected today that he be in a food coma, laying on a rock somewhere pattin' his tummy, but no. He's apparently still hungry.

Sunny Seattle

Laura Domela — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 22:33:20 +0000

It was a gorgeous day again in the city today. I worked all morning (and watched my buddy the sea lion), and then this afternoon I took a break and walked up to the market to grab some lunch and a few things. I stopped at Beecher's Handmade Cheese get some cheese (we're currently hooked on "No Woman"), and then did a little walking and shopping for some miscellaneous things I needed.

I returned to the boat by way of the Public Market to stop and get another dozen oysters for dinner. (Kevin returns from a business trip tonight, so I'll be shucking them all for myself. Don't worry though, we'll get more tomorrow!)

I got back to the boat and chatted with some fellow Nordic Tug owners over from Bremerton (Hi Charlie and Sharon!) and then got back to the boat to find my buddy the sea lion, still lounging around here in the harbor. It's now after 5:30pm…he's going on 10 hours (at least) of lounging around eating fish. Rough life!

I just heard a particularly loud breath and looked out to see him about 5 feet from the back of the boat. I snapped, but it was too low light and too quick to set my camera up properly, so here's more blurry wildlife for you:

I think he's bigger than I originally thought…he's probably about 10 feet long, and HUGE. I said "hi" to him. I think this was him saying "hi" back.

Sea Lion in the City

Laura Domela — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 16:34:29 +0000

This morning I got up and walked back to my computer to start work (standing height at the back counter) and as I took at look at the city from the back window I noticed something floating in the water. It was big and my first thought was “whale” (probably because there was recently a dead gray whale found underneath some pilings right near here). But there’s also a ton of debris that floats into this little harbor…probably it’s a lost fender or something. I got my Nikon out with the long lens and what do you know! Turns out it was the fin of a giant sea lion.

Pretty soon the sea lion came up for a lazy snarfy breath and then went back to fishing.

This guy is about 8 feet long! I took a few photos from the back of the boat, and then walked out on the dock (in my slippers) to get a better view.

He was curious and came right over to check me out, listened to my camera click, and then went back to fishing:

Looking back at Airship from the dock across the way:

This was at around 8am, and I was out there for maybe an hour watching him and taking photos, and it’s now 11:30am and he’s STILL out there. I hear his big steamy breaths right from the boat. There must be a LOT of fish at the entrance to the marina this morning!