On the water again at last!

I snapped the above sunrise a few weeks ago from our condo on Commencement Bay.

We planned to meet Steve and Tracey last Saturday for the Gig Harbor Yacht Club boat parade but the weather was so abysmal, we decided to stay put. The thought of anchoring out there in the rain didn’t appeal to any of us! So, we sat around at home and watched quite a few boats head that way. Hope they had fun! (We’ll make up for it tonight when they come over to watch the Tacoma Yacht Club parade from our front windows!)

On Monday, Touch of Gray motored up Colvos Passade to rendezvous with Coorie Doon in Poulsbo. It’s been over two and a half months since we’ve used the boat, so it was nice to hear her start up – with just a split-second hesitation. Nick spent a little time Sunday hosing off the worst of the black grit – she’s in need of a good cleaning. Otherwise, good to go!

Really nice cruise north…and really good to be out!

The USNS Bob Hope was anchored near Blake Island. Interesting factoid: very few ships have been named after a person who was alive at the time of christening. (She is a vehicle cargo ship for Army vehicle prepositioning, per my research.)

We arrived in Poulsbo to find our friends Jeanie and Steve already tucked in, along with boating buddies of theirs Karma and Larry (in a Ranger Tug 29 “Good Karma III”). The marina was mostly empty – no surprise during the week in winter.

That afternoon, we welcomed Nick’s sister Kit aboard ToG. She is staying with us at our condo for a while until her new place in Friday Harbor is available. Kit had a few things to take care of that morning, so drove up to Poulsbo a bit later that day.

We all happy-houred on ToG and then had dinner at Tizley’s Europub.

Tuesday morning after a pastry from Sluys Baker, Kit departed, and the six of us+Gus took a walk to Fish Park.

The three boats then left Liberty Bay, Good Karma headed for her slip at the Des Moines Marina, with Touch of Gray and Coorie Doon moving on to Eagle Harbor.

Interesting tow job along the way. Not sure where this was all headed, but it would have been interesting to see them get to their destination.

Both boats left for home early Wednesday morning. No rain, but chilly. Nick stated that he is, “just a half a skosh ‘over’ winter boating.” If it’s not freezing…or raining, and if there is a nice dock, boating friends, and something to do, it can be tons of fun. The drawbacks – cold, wet weather, foggy windows, and no quality “off the boat” activities – can make it downright miserable.

It was a fun trip and we’ll try to get out again. We have tentative plans to take the boat up to Friday Harbor over the new year when Kit moves – we’ll see!

A few other interesting things lately:

I never knew there is an observation tower at the Port of Tacoma. We visited. Nick was underwhelmed. I will definitely return when I can see a ship coming in.

Not sure we’ve ever seen the ramp to our dock horizontal – such high tides!

WSF uses the East Passage for…well, whatever it is they do…training, testing. Although we have a ferry route close by (Tacoma-Vashon), we don’t see the ferry from our unit. So, it’s weird to look out the window and see ferry activity. Two of them did repeated loops south over last weekend.

I recently discovered the Ship Report. I am enjoying the podcast. Wish there was something like this for Commencement Bay!

Read this morning about legislation in the works affecting the Port of Tacoma: Tacoma Harbor Navigation Improvement Project. This covers a lot, including dredging the Blair Waterway.