July 14, 2012 - Fisherman Bay fireworks and sailing camp

It's our annual Fisherman Bay 4th of July fireworks trip.  This is also our daughter Cindy's birthday trip as her birthday is on July 3rd.  This time our niece from the Boulder CO area will be with us.  Cindy and Bekka are good friends and Bekka is only 1 year older than Cindy.

The week after 4th of July Cindy and Bekka (and 6 other kids from La Conner) will be in a week-long sailing camp.  Everyone has really been looking forward to this experience!

Our small flotilla in Fisherman Bay, Lopez Island.

4 very different boats.....
SportFisher, Cabin Cruiser, Coastal/Ocean Cruiser, Sunbridge overnighter.
Our first "cruising" boat was just like the one on the right (Bayliner 28' Contessa).
Now we have the big one next to it (Hatteras 48 LRC). 

Another great fireworks display by Lopez Island

Nice fireworks!

The girls, and Zappa playing in the water.

Could you ask for a better evening?  Anywhere?  Perfect!

Climbing the rocks on beautiful Sucia Island.

Bekka and Cindy pose as a WA State Ferry passes by.

Playing in the pool at "The Islander Resort"

First day of class;  getting familiar with the boats.

Fletcher (teacher) hangs out in gale force winds (not).

Now that's a lot of people in a small boat...

Vaughn, what are you doing?

Good times at sailing camp!

Vaughn at the tiller, Aidan manning the mainsail.

The whole class:
Captain "Red Eye" Russ, Braden, Cindy, Vaughn, Grace, Bekka,
Mason, Aidan, Fletcher (teacher), and Will.

Final Exam time: Aidan and Mason tip over their boat,
then right it, and then sail it back to the dock.  Good Job!

Our friends on their way home from "Sailing Camp"

Crazy weather;  that's a major lightning storm behind us.

Cindy's 10th Birthday.  Kevin on the left.  Cousin Bekka on the right.

Chocolate fountain!!!!

An hour before fireworks.  Cindy is "tooting" an air horn.
Kevin is tooting something else  :-)

Bekka having fun behind the wheel.  

Bekka guides us past "Thea Foss", a famous NW yacht.

Here's a good page with info about the 1930's 130' Thea Foss

http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=thea-foss-4286

Exploring the tidal pools at Patos Island.  Canada in the background.

Amazing rock formations on Patos Island

The kids harvest a large Bull Kelp.  

Playing around in China Caves, Sucia Island

Rock climbing China Caves.  This is better than a playground
climbing wall !

Bekka enjoys driving the dinghy.  Headed for Little Sucia Island.

Bekka says "swim faster Cindy, it's cold water!"

Beautiful Sucia Island

Steve, Kathy, Kevin, Bekka, and Cindy.  Sucia Island.

June 24, 2012 - Hope Island birthday cruise

Cindy, for her 10th birthday party, wanted to invite her friends to spend the night on the boat with her.  We said sure, but just two friends.  She invited Natalie and Roxy, her two best friends.  Kevin spent the night with her Aunt Pat, which made the boat trip even more special for Cindy.

The weather was TERRIBLE Saturday when her friends arrived at around 3:00 on Saturday afternoon.  It was raining, there was thunder, and as I was listening to the NOAA Marine Weather Forecast on the VHF radio they had instructions on what to do if you are about to be hit by lightning!  I have NEVER heard this before on the NOAA VHF forecast and I've been listening to it for more than 15 years of boating.  Yikes, we are going out in this.

Oh, the instructions went something like this:

 "If your skin begins to tingle, or your hair starts to stand on end (that cue doesn't work well for me) then crouch down on the balls of you feet and get as low as you can while minimizing your contact with the ground.  Don't be the tallest thing around you".  

Anyway, the boat was warm and dry inside so it didn't really matter that is was rainy, foggy, and we could occasionally hear thunder.

May 28, 2012 - Kiket, Griffin Bay, Fisherman Bay, Spencer Spit

Finally, a 3-day weekend!  The weather forecast is decent for the first part of the weekend, with the exception of some strong winds on Saturday night.  It is supposed to cloud up and perhaps rain on Sunday and Monday. We are going anyway!  3-day weekend don't grow on trees you know  :-)

Friday afternoon after the kids got home from school we walked down to the boat to start our weekend.  How nice to live SO close to our boat that we can leave the car at home and just walk down.  We have to wait a little while for the tide to come back up though, as there are some dangerously shallow spots between our slip and Kiket Island.  Another foot of water is all we need.

We motor over to Kiket Island for Friday night.  This has become one of our most frequented anchorages.  We typically have it all to ourselves.  Not so on Friday night.  There are actually two other boats here.  That is quite rare.  The kids worked on homemade pizza for dinner.  Yum!

Working on pizza.  We bake it in our convection microwave oven.  Nice!

After dark I go to check on the anchor light (something I always check).  Much to my surprise it's very dim and not going to do the job of  illuminating our position.  So, I have to fix it.  But how?  It's up on a mast and I don't have a ladder.  I guess I'm just going to have to climb it!  I replace the LED light bulb with a regular bulb and we are good for the rest of the trip!

Up I go.  In the dark.  

Ohm-meter in hand.  We need a working anchor light.
The problem is the LED light bulb.  Half of the LED's are burned out.

Saturday morning I wake up early after a pretty calm evening at anchor.  I pull the anchor at about 6:30AM and start motoring while Kathy and the kids sleep.  I want to get through Deception Pass at slack tide (7:15AM).  I'm not the only one. The Krogen 42' that was anchored close to us is right behind us all the way through Deception Pass.  I really enjoy these early mornings underway with a fresh cup of coffee in hand, a favorite old album playing on the stereo, and spectacular scenery in every direction.

Deception Pass behind us.  The weekend ahead of us.

This weekend we are testing WiFi and cell modem coverage around Lopez Island so we can perhaps have some internet access this summer while boating.  On our way over to Griffin Bay we swing by Watmough Bay and find coverage isn't too great.  Same story at Aleck Bay.  The coverage at Griffin is almost non-existent.  Hmmm.  This isn't promising.

We anchor in Griffin Bay, after some trouble getting the anchor to grab.  It seems that if you go too close to shore the bottom is mostly gravel and the anchor just skips through the rocks without ever getting a good bite.  We move out a bit and find solid holding.  We back down on it HARD.  The anchor is set, and set well.  That's good with the expected blow coming our way Saturday night.  We dinghy to shore and start hiking.  This time we are headed for Mt. Finlayson.  We've wanted to hike here for a few years now but never have.  It's a nice little hike, with one section that is quite steep.  The view is spectacular.  We stop and have a snack and soak in the fantastic scenery.  We live in such a beautiful part of the world....

This would be a creepy tree on a moonlit night!

Fantastic moss covered forest.  

What a nice calm day.  The Cattle Point lighthouse is just over  Steve's shoulder.

What's that in Kevin's ear?!

Hiking around Mt. Finlayson

Nice new map at the trailhead showing the trails around Griffin Bay

We stop at the sand dunes on our hike back toward the boat.  We have enjoyed these dunes many times before.  It  seems that the vegetation is slowly overtaking the sand and someday they are going to be gone.  But for now, we take advantage of their presence by playing here several times a year.

AIR TIME!  Playing in the sand dunes at Griffin Bay

Kevin goes airborne off a dune.

A small Fox, and several bunnies near the sand dunes at Griffin Bay.

Saturday night the wind does kick up just as forecast.  And it blows HARD.  We don't have a good weather station on board Adagio, but I do have a primitive hand-held wind meter.  It is showing constant 25-30 knots winds with gusts higher.  That is about what was forecast.  The wind is howling all night and I don't sleep much as a result.  But the boat holds fine and we have no problems.

Sunday after breakfast we motor over to Fisherman Bay.  Virtually no cell access here, but great WiFi opportunities.  We play on our favorite sand beach for hours.  It is actually a very nice day.  No rain whatsoever and the sun is quite warm.  So warm that I manage to take my patented "beach nap" in the warm sand.  Ah, life is good.....

Snack time.  Cindy enjoys a "Ding Dong" on the sand beach.

Baseball on the beach.  Cindy pitching.  Kevin connects for a "homer".

Dad just want's his beach nap.  "Come on guy's, I'm sleeping here!"

Kevin takes us back to 'Adagio' after several fun hours on the beach.

We head to the "Islander" for dinner.  It's a nice break from the usual boat "camping".  On our way there we attempt to drag race with the "Evening Magazine" float plane.  For the first hundred yards we are winning.  But, with 750 horsepower, we are no match for the de Havilland DHC-3 Otter  float plane and it leaves us far behind.  In fact it's probably back in Seattle before we sink our teeth into our delicious "Islander" dinners.

Ready to race.  I guess a 12' dinghy is no match for a 750hp plane!

It's a very calm evening in Fisherman Bay.  Monday morning brings some rain showers.  But after an hour or two of drizzle the sky opens enough to let some sun rays poke through.  Monday is a pretty nice day, much to our surprise.  We play lots of games in the morning.  We pull our anchor and start motoring back home.  There are a lot of boats on the water today.  Wow, we aren't used to this.  We stop at Spencer Spit for lunch and drop the anchor.  There are only 3 buoys left on the north side, and apparently none on the south side.  Quite a change from a few years ago when there were at least 20 buoys to choose from.  Anchoring is just about the only option now.

After lunch we pull the anchor and head back home.  The trip seems to take forever.  It's somewhat frustrating at times to be limited to 7.5-8.0 knots.  But the fuel savings can't be denied, and we certainly spend more time enjoying the journey and the fantastic scenery.

This was a great trip out.  The boat performed flawlessly.  We spent many fun hours playing games together.  The beaches were excellent.  The weather was much better than expected.  Any complaints?  Only one; 3 days wasn't long enough!

May 13, 2012 - Hope Island

Yes another trip to Hope Island.  Kevin has baseball games on Saturday afternoon which would normally wipe out almost any chance of going boating.  But, Kathy figures out that if we left a car close to Hope Island (on the mainland) we could get out on the boat and then dinghy her and Kevin into shore when it was time for baseball and they could drive over for the game then come back.  Weekend saved!

The weather was spectacular this weekend with temps in the 70's.  This is the warmest it has been since last September!  I seriously think we need to move to a warmer climate :-)  But, where else would we have such excellent boating opportunities?

After the game Kathy picked up Cindy's friend Mary Lou and then also got Kevin's friend Maddoc.

Kevin and Cindy check out our new cushions.

Mary Lou and Cindy take the plunge.

Cindy and Mary Lou warming up after swimming.

Mary Lou goes tubing.

She went for a long time.  Maybe 20 minutes.

Cindy's turn for a spin.

Kevin and Maddoc playing on the driftwood.

Kevin and Maddoc built a fort out of driftwood.

Maddoc and Keving in the dinghy, headed back to the boat.

All four kids in the dinghy.

Mom opens Mother's Day cards.

Hiking around Hope Island.  BEAUTIFUL weather!

Cindy and Kevin start a new beach fort.

two kayaks stranded by a LOW tide.  They had to hike 1/2 mile through the
gunky mud to get to the water.  Ooops.  Watch those tide tables!

May 6, 2012 - Hope Island

Just an overnight-er, but it was great to get out and spend some time on the water.