All Fleet Rendezvous

We went back to Port Ludlow for the Signature Yachts All Fleet Rendezvous. It was nothing short of wonderful! We are so very blessed to be part of the Signature Yachts family. And that is truly what it is – a family. Robbie's (the owner of Signature Yachts) mom Sharon attends most of the rendezvous and everyone just calls her “mom”. But more than that, it is completely clear and honest that the entire Signature Yachts crew sees and treats everyone there as family. What a great group of people! So if you are interested in a boat, seriously, do yourself a favor and call Signature Yachts to see for yourself. A truly honest boat broker is a rare thing and Robbie has a crew of nothing but honest hard working people... you can count on it because he won't stand for anything short of that.

This year's All Fleet was held the same weekend as the Port Ludlow festival. Robbie always has a few perks that he gives to people and this year was a free admission to the festival. That being said, I am a bit surprised that they charge a fee to enter the festival in the first place. It is pretty much the same as any other street festival that are generally free admission. We spent some time Saturday afternoon walking through the festival to see what we could see. We walked into an artist's booth – Susan Fox. She does painting with acrylic and had some really great nautical work. As we were getting to know each other we told her about our cruising adventure. She got really excited and started telling us about her years cruising. In the end she autographed a small book that she sells of drawings she made while cruising. What a really great treat!!

They had a classic car show with the usual fare of Thunderbirds and Cobras. But they did have a few really unique cars.

Beautiful Edsel

Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this car, but I have never seen or heard of the make before

Timeless Studabaker

This lady had a lot of really nice hand made clay objects

There was a lady walking around through the fair playing a harp. I stopped and shot a picture of her. Then she stopped, smiled, and said to be sure to get her plastic shoes in the shot

We came across a GREAT idea for the boat! Every time we go ashore for a walk Jan pics wild flowers to bring back to the boat for a little color. This plant is growing in a ball of moss wrapped in twine. I would have just bought one from her but I just couldn't bring myself to part with $39 for this little plant. So I am going to pull up a clump of moss out of someone's yard and put a $2 plant in it. I figure we can make a few of them and hang them around the cockpit. They should do really well.

One of the booths had a small golf putting green. If you sunk 2 in a row you got a free shirt. Jan went first – girl has quite a swing! She ended up running across the lot chasing her ball after she gave it a good smack. Then it was my turn. I sunk the first one, then missed wide on the second. She said I could try as many times as I wanted so I tried again. I took 6 shots and sunk every other one. I guess that is what pressure does to a person.

Saturday afternoon Robbie put on a few informational seminars. These were pretty much old news for me, but I am certain that someone got some good information out of them.

Saturday evening it was time to break out the “bow thruster blender”. This thing is a BEAST! It is an actual bow thruster for a boat. For the nonboating reader – a bow thruster is a very powerful motor with a propeller attached that is mounted on the front of a boat below the waterline. The skipper can use it to drive the front of the boat to the side. They are very powerful! Well some genius with a bow thruster laying around and too much time on their hands decided that it would make a great blender. And as a matter of fact it does. I will just say this is the “Tim Taylor” blender of blenders. Everyone has a great time when this unit hits the dock.

Jan getting a refill

Tori at the controls

Tori the mad scientist having WAY too much fun!

We left Port Ludlow Sunday afternoon and headed for Pleasant Harbor. We have heard that the water in Pleasant Harbor is quite “pleasant”. Actually, it is 70 degrees, as opposed to 53 in the rest of Puget Sound. And we want to go swimming!! Pleasant Harbor is about half way down Hood Canal and has the Olympic mountains for a backdrop – absolutely stunning.

To get to Pleasant Harbor we have to go through the Hood Canal Bridge. That's right, “through” the bridge. It is a floating bridge with spans in the air on both ends. Unfortunately the spans on the ends are not nearly high enough for our 65' mast. So the bridge has to be opened for us to go through. You get a really powerful feeling when you stop all traffic and open a bridge to pass through. Well, it is really powerful for the people on the boat, not so much for the people in the cars. Watching the bridge open is quite an amazing sight. They raise a section of the bridge and then slide the adjacent 300' section in under the raised portion.

We have been in Pleasant Harbor for 2 glorious days now. We swim every day off the back of the boat. It is absolutely wonderful!! We noticed an old boat along the shore near where we are anchored. I don't think it is seaworthy anymore. We got brave and swam over to check it out.

This is the view looking out of the harbor

Tomorrow we are leaving Pleasant Harbor (so sad) and heading for Everett. We are going to “make hay while the sun shines” and haul our boat to remove the crud and put a fresh coat of bottom paint on. Then we will be ready for our trip out to sea.