Well, the plan was to check out of the Blakely Island Marina today and after taking nice sight-seeing cruise, head over to stake out our spot in Blind Bay, just north of Lopez Island, and drop anchor for the night. However, when it comes to boating, the operative word is “flexible”, and as the weather started to look like it was going to get pretty rough, we decided to just stay put for another night. As it turned out the skies clouded up quite a bit and the winds picked up, but by early afternoon, things had calmed down enough for us to take a short cruise to explore the waters between Shaw and Lopez Islands. Even though the weather ended up not raining on our parade, we were still glad to have errored on the side of caution.
Heading down through the channel between Shaw and Lopez Islands, we came upon a nice spot called Indian Cove, just off the south-east side of Lopez Island, where we dropped anchor for a couple of hours while we had some lunch and just relaxed. The overcast skies and placid waters were a nice compliment to the solitude of the cove as we were the only boat around. We headed back to Blakely Island Marina around 4pm, across calm waters that included a lot fewer boats out and about.
Arriving at our new slip (the one in which we had been staying was already reserved, so we needed to moved down three spots for our extended stay), we again performed the ritual of hosing down the boat in order to remove as much of the salt as possible, then proceeded to clean up a bit before settling down to enjoy a cold brew as I read a magazine…okay, while I looked at pictures in a magazine. So what if I’m not “hooked on phonics” and prefer to leave reading to people with much better powers of concentration than I. Not after I started paging through my boating magazine, a guy walked by and told me not to work too hard, at which I replied “I’m doin’ my best, but at some point, I’m gonna need a refill”. He told me to just pace myself and I thought that was some pretty darn good advice.
Having finished my second beer (fortunately, I paced myself while refilling) and subsequently losing interest in the pretty boat pictures, I dragged myself out of my padded deck chair and threw a couple of turkey burgers on the grill as Lysa finished a load of laundry. Man, them was some tasty burgers, even if they weren’t from a cow, mad or otherwise. After dinner, Lysa and I had a rousing game of Scrabble, and as usual, she beat me like a drum. Although, I did put up a good fight and would have won were it not for her disallowing me to use the word “xmen”, which as anyone who reads comic books or has seen the movies will tell you that “xmen” is a word for the super mutants who fight the evil mutant forces to keep us mere mortals safe from harm. Oh well, it was worth a try.
After the less than fair Scrabble game, we headed up to the marina’s general store so I could finally try out the delicious, hand-made ice cream I’ve been hearing everyone rave about, but to this point, had not timed my visit in order to sample this legendary frozen dairy delight. As we approached the door, we were struck with the sudden realization that the store closes early on Sunday and I had again missed out. While my taste buds were ever so disappointed, my bulging waistline let out a big sigh of relief. So, with the sun starting to set, I turned my attention to food for the eyes by sticking around to take some photos of the bay and cloud shrouded sky. While life is better with ice cream, there are some pretty amazing substitutes when the store is closed.
Tomorrow we head out for our two-night stay at Friday Harbor Marina on San Juan Island!
Heading down through the channel between Shaw and Lopez Islands, we came upon a nice spot called Indian Cove, just off the south-east side of Lopez Island, where we dropped anchor for a couple of hours while we had some lunch and just relaxed. The overcast skies and placid waters were a nice compliment to the solitude of the cove as we were the only boat around. We headed back to Blakely Island Marina around 4pm, across calm waters that included a lot fewer boats out and about.
Arriving at our new slip (the one in which we had been staying was already reserved, so we needed to moved down three spots for our extended stay), we again performed the ritual of hosing down the boat in order to remove as much of the salt as possible, then proceeded to clean up a bit before settling down to enjoy a cold brew as I read a magazine…okay, while I looked at pictures in a magazine. So what if I’m not “hooked on phonics” and prefer to leave reading to people with much better powers of concentration than I. Not after I started paging through my boating magazine, a guy walked by and told me not to work too hard, at which I replied “I’m doin’ my best, but at some point, I’m gonna need a refill”. He told me to just pace myself and I thought that was some pretty darn good advice.
Having finished my second beer (fortunately, I paced myself while refilling) and subsequently losing interest in the pretty boat pictures, I dragged myself out of my padded deck chair and threw a couple of turkey burgers on the grill as Lysa finished a load of laundry. Man, them was some tasty burgers, even if they weren’t from a cow, mad or otherwise. After dinner, Lysa and I had a rousing game of Scrabble, and as usual, she beat me like a drum. Although, I did put up a good fight and would have won were it not for her disallowing me to use the word “xmen”, which as anyone who reads comic books or has seen the movies will tell you that “xmen” is a word for the super mutants who fight the evil mutant forces to keep us mere mortals safe from harm. Oh well, it was worth a try.
After the less than fair Scrabble game, we headed up to the marina’s general store so I could finally try out the delicious, hand-made ice cream I’ve been hearing everyone rave about, but to this point, had not timed my visit in order to sample this legendary frozen dairy delight. As we approached the door, we were struck with the sudden realization that the store closes early on Sunday and I had again missed out. While my taste buds were ever so disappointed, my bulging waistline let out a big sigh of relief. So, with the sun starting to set, I turned my attention to food for the eyes by sticking around to take some photos of the bay and cloud shrouded sky. While life is better with ice cream, there are some pretty amazing substitutes when the store is closed.
Tomorrow we head out for our two-night stay at Friday Harbor Marina on San Juan Island!
1 comment:
Man this is some fun reading Mark - love the commentary on crabs vs. chickens. Sounds like you are off to a great start!
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