Sailing on Liberte

Saturday, I joined Debra and Rob on Debra's boat Liberte for a gentle slow sail, uh, not much wind in the late afternoon.  But the weather in general was gorgeous and a dolphin entertained us for a while in the middle of Budd Bay.  Wonderful day to be on the water.

 

 

Boat shopping - just looking for now

I went to the Boats Afloat Show in Seattle last Saturday, 17th.  There are always more motor boats than sail there, but there was enough sailboats to get the salt water in my blood moving.  I also looked at a few boats at a couple yacht brokers on Lake Union.
My 'plan' is to find something in the spring 2012; but as they say in the cruising world, plans are written in the sand at low tide.  Some favorites, yesterday and today anyway, are Tartan 3800, Island Packet 380 or 350..... previous favorites are Pacific Seacraft 37 or Crealock, Westerly Sealord 39, Freedom 36, Valiant 40, Passport 40 (need to look at some of these somewhere).
And when I checked with the local marina where I would want to keep it, and live aboard, the waiting list is a year out, yikes.  So I will get on the list soon and then keep looking for the right boat.

Will have to change the name of this blog if I buy a boat, right?

Fisheries Supply Swap Meet and Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival

It was a busy, and hot Saturday, yesterday here in the Pacific Northwest.  Up early and drove to Seattle for the fall Fisheries Supply swap meet.  Lots of people with spaces and tons of good boat stuff (well mostly it was) to sell.  Since I don't have a boat, there wasn't anything for me to 'need' but Terri found a few good deals.
Then we headed to Port Townsend for the 35th Wooden Boat Festival.  What a great day looking at boats and boat stuff.  A friend, Jeanne Rhynne, has her boat Grace in the show, so we certainly looked her up.  We also ran into lots of Olympia sailor friends, Mary F., Micki & Rob, Maria & Bryon, Jo & Scotty.
And what a surprise when I also ran into some sailor/cruisers I met over 3 years ago in Mexico.  (I thought she looked familiar.....)  Ewona & Arek (hope I got the spelling right); they used to have a large sailboat named Ariel and sailed to the South Pacific in 2008.  And they were here with Rich on Jazz, a Beneteau 38 sailboat. He's here in the northwest now but has done lots of cruising since I last saw him over 3 years ago.  What a small world.

Ariel - Arek & Ewona's boat - they sold her in New Caledona a couple years ago.  This photo was taken in  the Barra de Navidad Lagoon.  Did I mention she makes delicious cinnamon rolls......

I met Rich from Jazz, first in San Diego in the fall of 2007 and this photo was from Turtle Bay, Mexico.

Labor Day Weekend on the Water

We found Mary C.  Well actually she wasn't lost (she would never get lost on the water) but she probably wants to be.  Anyway, Terri and I left on Saturday morning from Swantown Marina on her Catalina 30, Gratitude, in search of Mary.  We headed north towards the Narrows.  We sailed for a few hours from McNeil Island to the Narrows Bridge, and then headed into Gig Harbor to check it out. As always there were quite a few boats already at anchor. Our first attempt put us way too close to another boat, so we weighed anchor and moved forward.  (Terri really needs to get an anchor windlass…..)  The second try was good although we were a little concerned about being close to another sailboat.  We finally got their attention and they were not concerned, so we stayed put . My back and hamstrings were thanking me…..

We found Mary that evening in Gig Harbor, or rather, she found us at anchor there.  (Okay, so she may have given me a few hints about where to find them…)  They came over in the dinghy and we went to the Tides for a beer with them.  They have been out cruising for a couple weeks and were looking forward to some Tides Tavern food.  

The next day Terri and I headed for Filucy Bay for Sunday night.  We found lots of room there and dropped the anchor in about 25 feet of water.  First time was a charm there (whew).  We rowed over to the Longbranch Marina, or I should say Terri rowed us over there and back, to check out the facilities (hey, I was the human anchor windlass); she hadn't been there before.  The way there was upwind, and the trip back was downwind.

Lots of sun all weekend.  We left Filucy Bay on Monday morning and motored back to Olympia.  We tried sailing for about an hour, but there just wasn't enough wind to make it worth keeping the sails up.

Great weekend on the water!

This tug was heading north; see the sailboat on the aft 'deck'; very cool.

Terri was trying to get better sail shape but notice the smooth water.

Okay, just posing on the bow.