As avid readers of this site (if there are any other than close relatives (and I am not sure about them)) will note, we’ve been to Blake Island an awful lot lately. In our defense, sans windlass, we are currently limited to marinas and mooring buoys. We choose mooring buoys over marinas any day. That limits us to relatively few places close to Seattle.
So that’s how Kim and I ended up at Blake Island all by ourselves (but by no means alone) this weekend.
Warning. Spoiler alert! This post contains descriptions and photos of actual boat use. Not the usual fix this, untangle that, install something sort of project post that has bogged this site down recently. Read on if you dare …
Our friends Tim and Carmel, and Cindy came up from Southern California for a day on the boat. The weekend before the Fourth of July was amazingly warm and perfect. People in California think it rains all the time in Seattle. It was nice to show them how wonderful it can really be here. We swore them to secrecy upon their return to California.
They only had one day with us so I picked them up from a dock on south Lake Union in the dinghy bright and early Saturday morning. Kim had breakfast waiting when we arrived. After a quick tour and orientation, we headed for the locks eating breakfast along the way Surprisingly, there was no wait at the locks. We motored in behind one boat and two smaller boats followed us in. We popped out through the locks and headed for Blake Island.
On the way over, Tim and Cindy were playing with the flybridge intercom. Tim ordered up a couple of Vodka Tonics. I called their bluff and produced two high quality drinks. They were surprised and somewhat appreciative. It was 10:30 in the morning. I think they liked them.
Our most recent acquisition for fun on the water is a pair of Hobie Revolution 11 kayaks. The Mirage drive is the appealing feature for us. Pedaling instead of paddling. Having both hands free is great for me. I like to take photographs of things while I kayak around.
As luck would have it, Hobiecat Northwest, the Seattle Hobie dealer is about 300 feet from our slip. Dan was very helpful getting what we needed. We looked at both the Hobie Revolution 11 and the Sport. At 9’7″ the Sport was a better fit on the boat, but just not as much fun to use. For me, it felt pretty small. The 11 is actually 11’6″ and kinda big on our our boat, but faster and more fun to peddle around.
Besides untangling anchor chain last weekend, I was able to get a few additional projects completed … and squeeze in some actual fun as well. The details of these projects are not entirely interesting so I’ll stick to the highlights.
I installed a second chartplotter. A Garmin 7212. With Garmin’s release of the new 8000 series chartplotters, the cost of the 7212 has come way down. Down to the point of affordability … at least for us.
