Blakely and beyond was great this year! We went up early and stayed the first two nights at Deception Pass, with the better part of the second day in La Conner. Thursday, we went over to Blakely to meet all the nice people and see all the nice whales on the Saturday cruise. All of us had a blast. A special thanks to all for making it so special for the kids.
Sunday morning, we left Blakely with Knot Yacht and Helen O and headed up to Sucia. About half way there, one blade of my Honda prop busted clean off for no apparent reason. We used the kicker to get to a nearby private dock and swapped to the larger pitched spare. We were stuck in high gear, but still got to Sucia with no problems. There I put on the stainless prop that was stowed on the boat, and it turned out to be perfect. Still using it.
Monday, the Knot Yacht crew headed back toward home, and we went with Helen O over to Stuart Island and stayed the night. Everywhere we went we got dock space when big boats pulled out just as we got there. Like we planned it, or something. Very lucky, because there were lots of folks looking to tie up.
Tuesday, the kids finally talked us into going to Fisherman's Bay where the swimming pool is. For two nights, no less. Fred and Robbin joined us the first night with Anita Marie. Fred even took care of the slip reservations for us. Wednesday, it was over to Friday Harbor for the girls to go shopping and wandering, then back to Lopez.
Thursday, Helen O and us reversed course and ran up to Doe Island where we had the dock and the island to ourselves. We did have a short visit with The Lynn Marie crew (they even brought Fred with them!) when they honored our request to bring a bit of beer up from Blakely. There were plenty of boats wanting our dock space, so we didn't want to leave. Another neat thing that happened at Doe Island was getting to meet Helesh, who was down from Lake Powell on a kayak excursion. He just happend to recognize the boat name when he passed the back side of the island and stopped by to introduce himself. Neat.
The next morning, Rosario was flat and still, so we shot down to Deception Pass in no time. We got to visit with Tim and Judy again after they loaded the Lynn Marie on the trailer. Tied up there for Friday night (after another visit to La Conner), and Larry and I loaded our boats the next morning.
Then it was back on the road headed for home. I missed one turnoff, and Larry followed right along. Oops. If he would have just followed us through one more parking lot turnaround instead of giving up and heading for the freeway, he and Helen could have had the fresh Krispy Kremes with us. But, that was the last time we saw them.
We got back home without any trouble (except for freeway construction and car-wreck traffic jams around Seattle).
Now I'm back to work. Bummer.
Thanks again to all for everything.