Birthday trip
Pictures from March 2007: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/sailormomma/March%202007/
Day 2
We love sailing around without any plans, but twice a day the Puget Sound flushes it's sea water. Because of these flushes and subsequent "bowl refillings", we have to time these passages so that we can "go with the flow".....if you know what I mean? Today we were going to transit the west side of Bainbridge Island. If the tides are not timed correctly there can be some nasty currents.
Of course as I am cranking up the anchor, the wind comes up just a little from the exact direction that we need to go. (Sighhhhh)
We putt along nice and slow until we get some sea room. Zak has really found an interest in charts and following along with our progress. He can hold a point on the bow and doesn't complain while at the helm. It's going to be a great summer. I decided that I would be able to fall off the wind a bit and lazily tack my way up the 5 mile long passage. No matter what the wind does, I feel a lot better with some sail up. I pulled the main up and cranked out the wrinkles. After cleaning up the halyard I headed back to the helm to check on Zak's heading. Not bad for a six year old!
Three hours later we pull up to the linear on the west side of Blake Island. It is blowing about 15 knots and we struggle a bit to get everything secured. In the end I had to jump in the dingy to get the moorings through the proper placements.
Once everything is secured and the solar panels are aimed, we all jump in the dingy with some lunch and do some serious beachcombing. We were surprised at how rich this side of the island is with beach glass. Soon we are all on the hunt. The kids love identifying all the different foot prints that are in the sand. Ellie has it in her mind that she wants to find a dinasour bone! And low and behold she finds two perfect sun bleached bones! We had a blast!
As the sun started to set, the wind started to calm and the kids decided that they wanted to eat dinner outside. It was so nice out that we enjoyed sitting on deck until bedtime. Besides one huge racoon, we didn't see another creature.
And with a star filled night, and a topped off battery bank, we all turned in for a good nights sleep.
Day 3
Today was to be the day we celebrated Zaks 6th birthday. His real birthday wasn't until tomorrow, but we thought it would be nice to dedicate a whole day to him turning 6!
It started off with a big breakfast. Plans were in order for a worthy attempt at ridding the entire west beach of beachglass. The wind and rain, however, dowsed those hopes soon after setting foot on the beach. So it was back to the boat for some freshly made chicken noodle soup- thanks mommy- and preparations for the birthday bash. Zak and I had to leave the boat for a little while while mommy and Ellie wrapped Zaks presents, and finshed up the cake. So, Zak and I took a little dingy excursion around the entire island. It took us about an hour and we got to see another racoon and the St. Patty's day racing fleet.
When we returned, the presents were laid in order on the coffee table and the candles were on the cake. Time to party!
The weather continued to blow. It was a rolly polly ending to a wet day.
Day 4
We decided to catch the last little bit of ebb tide northbound and try and get to the dock with time to clean up and settle in. It was a nice sail home and again Angela guided Ghost into her slip with ease. After cleaning up and putting everything away, I was a little saddend that it might be a while before we can sail again. We have no plans to go sailing again anytime soon, and with the warmer weather approaching, I will be pulling Ghost's main mast for a much needed overhaul. Ah well, that will be my motivation to get it done sooner than later.
