We’re back on the boat, after a 2-week break to run home & make sure everything was still OK. We flew from SFO to Bellingham, arriving 12:30 AM, walked across the parking lot to a Holiday Inn and crashed until morning. Took a shuttle from the hotel to the boatyard where our boat was already in the water (after a haul-out for bottom paint & a couple of other things) ready for us to get cruising again. We had to get almost all of the food off the boat when it was hauled, so the next step was to re-provision. The original idea was to spend one day & night in Bellingham, then start heading south, taking our time in Puget Sound, waiting for the weather to cooperate for a trip down the coast, back to California. Unfortunately, the grocery store in Bellingham is several miles away from the marina, and we had no way of getting there (or back, with all of our groceries). So we decided to take off from Bellingham, not spending the night, and go over to Anacortes, which has a store across the street from the marina.
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| Anacortes |
There actually is a little more to the story… there was contact with a boat broker in Anacortes who specializes in Nordic Tugs, and he was very actively looking for boats to be listed for sale. I’ll save you the sales pitch, but, overall, the market seemed very much in my favor if I was willing to sell. As much as I love this boat, there are just a couple of things limiting it’s usefulness. If it is such a great “seller’s market,” it may be the right time to move over to another boat which does not have these limitations. Ultimately, we decided to list the boat for sale, since the timing was right, see if it sells, and start looking for another boat. We signed the listing agreement on Friday, the broker had 3 or 4 showings on Saturday, and today (Sunday) I got a text saying he is expecting an offer tomorrow. We’ll see…
We ended up spending a few days in Anacortes, and contacted local friends we met in Kwatsi Bay while cruising the Broughton Islands. Dinner at their house one night, and dinner at their yacht club another, then crab picante pasta last night on the boat, thanks to the fresh crab they gave us. Thanks, Kim & Bill…
We took off this morning from Anacortes, thinking we would get down to Oak Harbor, or maybe Honeymoon Bay. It was a minus tide (very low), so going through the Swinomish Channel and LaConner was pretty interesting. Even though we saw as little as 5 feet depth on the depth sounder, we never touched bottom, and got through the channel fine. We got to Oak Harbor before 11AM, so decided to make it a full day and go all the way to Edmunds. We pulled into the marina around 4 PM, got all situated, then walked in to town to check out the brewpub scene. We are very impressed with the town of Edmunds. A lively, active town center with interesting shops and restaurants. They are having a “Tall Ships” weekend, with some classic sailing ships shooting blank cannons at each other out in the Sound.
We were looking for a decent restaurant to celebrate my 25,567 days on this earth (70 years) but didn’t really trust the online reviews. Thanks to Marie & Gerry Philipsen (who live in Edmunds), we were directed to an excellent restaurant and had a fantastic birthday dinner.
Tomorrow we will keep heading south to Seattle. We haven’t decided if it will be before, during or after the eclipse, but, assuming we don't get lost in the dark, we hope to be in Bell Harbor, at the foot of Pike’s Market, tomorrow night…
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