Update from Puget Sound

Since our little snow-filled adventure on Blake Island a week ago, we’ve been busy! We cruised back over to Seattle on Tuesday (with Sam on Safe Harbour) and stayed at Elliott Bay for a few nights. During that time we did some fun city stuff (mainly involving food)…we had dinner at The Ruins one night with some of Sam’s family (The Ruins is a dining club and event space, very cool), another meal at Din Tai Fung with Sam’s mom (lunch this time…more soup dumplings!), and then Sam and Anna and Kevin and I went to Serious Pie for dinner on Friday night (Tom Douglas’ pizza joint…SO GOOD!). We also drove up to Anacortes to take a test ride on a new Nordic Tug 40 equipped with a Seakeeper for roll stabilization. We were out in some pretty rough water in Rosario Strait and this Seakeeper thing is seriously impressive. Sitting still in 4ft beam waves…steady as can be. (Expensive test ride. This just added a bit more $$ to the price of our future new boat.)

On Friday we were scheduled to head over to Poulsbo for the first day of the annual Winter Rendezvous, but the weather was nasty so we opted to stay put until Saturday morning, when it was much calmer.

None of us had ever been to Winter Rendezvous so we really didn’t know what to expect.

We arrived just in time for the “opening ceremonies” in the Sons of Norway Hall, which mainly consisted of host Chip Hanauer dressed as “the Ringleader” (as in “circus”) and others dressed as characters from Star Wars (I forgot to mention the theme was “May the Fourth Be With You” in honor of the fourth year), as well as a plethora of fur- and horn-clad Vikings…the bar was open, the atmosphere was festive, and people seemed pretty happy to be there overall.

We walked around town a bit, stopped at Sluys’ Bakery, and then headed back to Airship for showers and a bit of work (skipping the “Poker Run” and “Scavenger Hunt”.

Arty photo of a little rowboat in the marina:

We thought we might hit the glogg tasting at 1pm, but Kevin and Sam got wrapped up in diagnosing an electrical thing and we ended up hanging on the boats until bonfire time.

The Winter Rendezvous is pretty much just a big party that people happen to boat to. There were no real “boaty” events (other than the arrival to Poulsbo by boat), but people seemed to really be enjoying themselves regardless.

The weather was so nice on Saturday afternoon that we spent some time on the top deck of Airship enjoying the view and the sun:

Just after 7pm we headed up for dinner at the Sons of Norway Hall, which consisted of giant trays of Spanish paella, with a delicious spinach salad.

The food was good and we enjoyed the evening (even though we left not long after the band started). We met some fun folks, the band was good, and man can those Rendezvousers drink! 🙂

On Sunday morning we headed over to meet up with some friends at Port Madison (north end of Bainbridge Island). We anchored a little ways from the Seattle Yacht Club outstation and dinghied in to join the group.

Andy and Jill (and Magnus and Porter) from ThreeSheets NW were there, along with some new friends Ryan and Autumn, whom we met at the boat show the week prior. We all gathered on the top deck of Sam’s boat for snacks and beer, and then Autumn got to work painting the new name of Andy & Jill’s dinghy in freehand red. It came out great!

Before, consulting about the look of the lettering:

Ta-Da!!

Hornpipe is apparently a sailor’s dance with several origin stories, if you’re curious about the name.

For dinner, we all migrated to the SYC facility up the hill to cook together and have a fire. Such a fun evening with great folks!

After breakfast this morning, we left Port Madison and headed for the port of Langley on Whidbey Island. Gorgeous weather today!

Since we knew we’d be in Langley tonight, we called yesterday and made a dinner reservation at Prima Bistro. (We’ll celebrate Valentine’s Day a day early…and then maybe again tomorrow, depending on where we are.)

We tied up on the outer dock (haven’t been on the outside before…it’s nice, and with a great view!) and then walked up and around town, enjoying the sunny day.

Spotted this tiger in the brush on our way up the hill. No explanation.

Now we’re back on Airship doing some work and listening to the seagulls chattering outside our open doors and windows. (Yes, it’s February….gotta get it while we can…last week we had 4-6 inches of snow!)