Back to the islands

We left Kingston on Saturday afternoon heading for Port Ludlow. The first half of the trip was dead calm and flat water. Then as we rounded Point Nopoint the wind came up quick. I was definitely tired of motoring along so this was a welcome sight. Unfortunately things didn't go quite as I had planned. The forecast was for calm wind. We had left late in the day so I knew we weren't going to be slogging along in a light breeze taking our time sailing. So I hadn't secured the boat as I normally would have for anticipated sailing. Now we had 20 knots almost on the nose. I told myself – aahh, it's good enough, and promptly set the sails. I would like to say that I won't ever do that again, but instead I will say “I hope I never do that again”.

Jan was downstairs when I got my wild hair. I set the main and then rolled off to catch the wind. We heeled a bit more than I wanted, but it was okay. Then I pulled out the genoa and started tightening sheet lines. Needless to say, we took off like a rocket. The boat immediately heeled quite a bit more than I had anticipated. By now I was dashing around the cockpit trying to get the sails adjusted to right the boat. When things finally calmed down I looked downstairs. Jan was looking up at me none too happy with a bunch of food spilled out across the floor. Oops. Oh well, no sense crying over spilled milk (or spilled anything else for that matter). It was a wonderful sail all the way into Port Ludlow harbor – great time!

As we pulled into the harbor I spotted a familiar boat. We were heading for the dock so we could walk up to the store but figured we would do a drive by to see who it was. As we came close we spotted 2 people in a tender coming up to the boat, and sure enough, it was Jon and Marcella climbing back aboard their boat Grand Allusion. We swung by, said hello, and told them our plan to run to the store. We let them know that we would be back out to anchor up shortly and invited them to come over.

We tied up and walked down to the store. Then back to the boat and out to anchor up. After we got the anchor set we started cleaning up the mess that I made downstairs. We were just getting into it when Jon and Marcella stopped over. It was really great to chat the evening away with them.

The next morning Grand Illusion left heading south for Seattle and Rapture left heading north for the San Juan Islands. We were so looking forward to getting away from “civilization”. Jan and I couldn't believe how much we have fallen in love with the remoteness of the islands.

Our next trip down south is scheduled for the end of July. We plan to attend the Signature Yachts All Fleet rendezvous in Port Ludlow over the weekend of July 25^th. This has been a great time in the past and I am sure it will be a great time again. The rendezvous will be on the weekend of the Port Ludlow waterfront festival. It is a great time!! They have live music, a car show, coast guard helicopter simulated rescue, and lots more. The big bonus for us this year is Jason is bringing our grandchildren over to spend the weekend with us. Jan is just beside herself in anticipation.

Every morning we make a pot of coffee and take it out to the cockpit. We spend time reading and do a couple devotionals together while we have our morning coffee. It is really nice because everything else is waking up as well. We have a family of geese that often come by (2 adults and 5 babies) and a family of black ducks. The ducks put on quite the show. Apparently morning is bath time for them, and they are LOUD about it! They raise up, splash the water with their wings, and then clean each feather one at a time.