Seabiscuit and Beyond: April 2021

Location: Olympia, WA, USA

We have been enjoying some spring cruising in Puget Sound. The days are getting longer, there is more sunshine and less rain, the trees and flowers are blooming and the birds are starting to migrate north. At the end of the last blog, we had just arrived in Roche Harbor. Since then, we have been traveling south through Puget Sound, returning to some of our favorite places and exploring new places we haven't been to before.

Cruising east through Guemes Channel to Anacortes.
Mount Baker is in the background on the left and the Coho Ferry is in dry dock on the right.

March 4 - 8, 2021, Roche Harbor: We arrived in Roche Harbor on March 4 and settled in at the Roche Harbor Marina and Resort for a few days. Roche Harbor is one of our favorite stops in the San Juan Islands and we had some nice weather while we were there. As per Washington Covid-19 guidelines, the resort restaurants were operating at limited capacity. The marina was open but since it was early in the season, there was plenty of space available at the docks. We worked on some of our leftover projects from the boat yard and took some long afternoon walks.

Dragonfly Spirit Pole
San Juan Islands Sculpture Park

The Frog Prince

The Southern Resident Orcas, carved from solid western red cedars.

The circuit board for our Wesmar hydraulic stabilizer system.
This was one of the leftover projects from the boatyard. We were still working on getting the system calibrated, but we couldn't get the starboard fin to go to neutral; it either wanted to go hard right or hard left and wouldn't center itself between the two.

The Mausoleum at Roche Harbor built by John McMillen to honor his family. McMillen was the founder of the Roche Harbor Lime and Cement Company which is now the Roche Harbor Resort. Weird US - Washington provides a good description of the symbolism built into the structure.

Dave re-installing an overhead light in the pilot house.
The 2x4s are holding up the starboard overhead beam cover. The port beam is still exposed.
We use Sikaflex 291 to hold the beam covers in place. It provides good adhesion, but allows for easy removal when we need to take down the overhead panel for access to the wires. We had taken the panel down when we were in the boatyard so that we could install the wire transit blocks for the cables going up the mast.

March 9, 2021 - Roche Harbor to Friday Harbor (10 miles, 1.5 hours): We left Roche Harbor Tuesday morning for a short run to Friday Harbor. The marina there is a popular summer cruising destination and they are good about fitting visiting boats into the available slips. We stayed for two nights, did some boat chores and explored the town.

B inside the forward storage locker, restowing the 2x4s used for the pilot house overhead beam reinstallation.
We stow extra lines and fenders in this locker.

B standing with the Brickworks pig in downtown Friday Harbor.

There is always a project on a boat. While cooking Dave a delicious supper in the microwave, i.e. reheating leftovers, I broke the door opener. He removed the latch and found that one of the pegs that holds it in place had broken off. He epoxied a small bolt to the opener to replace the peg and that fixed it. Now we are "gentle" when we open the microwave door.

Dave reinstalling the microwave in the galley.

The Port of Friday Harbor marina as we are leaving.

March 11, 2021 - Friday Harbor to Anacortes (20 nm, 2.5 hours): We left Friday Harbor on Thursday morning and headed to Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes.

We still hadn't resolved our issues with the Wesmar stabilizer system, so we made an appointment with a techician to do some troublehooting. He figured out that the two hydraulic hoses for the starboard fin were reversed, changed them around, did a few adjustments, tested the system at the dock and we were back in business. That was the last major outstanding item from our boatyard projects. Now we are back to regular maintenance, repairs and chores.

The sunshine and warm weather continued. We took long walks along the waterfront and through the nearby neighborhoods, ate at some of our favorite restaurants and bought fresh produce at the local farmer's market.

The Coho Ferry in dry dock at Anacortes. Prior to Covid-19, the Coho made twice daily runs between Port Angeles and downtown Victoria, BC. All sailings are currently cancelled but they plan to be back up and running again once the border re-opens for non-essential travel.

We had been checking the availability of Covid vaccines in the nearby areas and were able to get Dave an appointment in La Conner.

March 16, 2021 - Anacortes to La Conner (10 nm, 1.5 hours) We left Anacortes at 9:30 and headed south down the Swinomish Channel to La Conner. La Conner is another of our favorite stops and we spent the first two days enjoying the town; the link here provides a good overview and descriptions of the historic sites that you can see on a walking tour of the town. We were both able to get our first Covid vaccine shots (Pfizer) while we were here.

B at the Old Fir Log in downtown La Conner. The tree was logged in the Mount Baker forest in the late 1950s and was brought to La Conner to be preserved and displayed. They estimate the tree was over 800 years old and there is a timeline display (on the right side of the slab) that shows the historical events that occurred during the tree's life span. As an example, when Magellan left Spain in 1519 to sail around the world, this tree was already over 350 years old.

A view of some of the historical buildings in downtown La Conner, the Swinomish Channel and the west side of the channel.

There was some weather moving through the area, so we decided to stay and work on some of our projects.

Our wine cabinet got damaged when we were rolling across the Haro Strait from Victoria to Roche Harbor. The door was torn off the drawers and we had to make some repairs then glue/nail it all back together. This is the cabinet on its back with books on the door to add weight while the glue dries.

Running Ryd-Lyme through the main engine (top) and the generator (bottom).
This is a regular maintenance task to clean the calcium out of the heat exchangers.

The pipe coming down from the chain locker (the white pipe at the top of the photo) had a hole in the elbow so we patched that with JB Weld.
We are re-varnishing the taped off area of the deck (sole) of the forward cabin

March 21, 2021 - La Conner to Langley (27nm, 3.5 hours) We timed our departure from La Conner on Sunday morning to catch the current flowing south down the Swinomish Channel. The south end of the channel into Skagit Bay is shoal so we also wanted to make sure the tide was above the low water mark. It was cloudy with some light rain and the wind was blowing 15 - 20 knots. The journey was uneventful and we were tied up at the dock in the South Whidbey Harbor (Langley) before noon. We had lunch and worked on our projects then walked into town. We stopped at the grocery store for a few things then had supper at Ultra House - a Japanese Ramen restaurant.

Monday afternoon the sun came out and we went for a walk up the hill and along the shore line south of the harbor.

Seabiscuit at the dock, South Whidbey Harbor (Langley)

A rabbit near Edgecliff Park in Langley.

March 23, 2021 - Langley to Port Ludlow (23 nm, 3.3 hours): Our next stop was Port Ludlow, a place we hadn't been to before. We left the Langley marina Tuesday morning and had calm seas and light winds for our journey across the Puget Sound traffic lanes. We tied up at the Port Ludlow Marina and walked up to the hotel for lunch. For our afternoon walk, we went to Ludlow Falls, a small waterfall in an old growth patch of forest. Some of the trees around the falls were 300 - 400 year old Douglas Firs and Red Cedars. We spent three nights in Port Ludlow. There are a lot of walking trails through the woods around the resort and we walked a different path every afternoon.

The totem pole at the Port Ludlow Resort. When we called to ask if they had space available for us, they said yes and told us that when we could see the totem pole we should call them on the VHF radio for our slip assignment

Seabiscuit at the outer dock, Port Ludlow Marina

Ludlow Falls

B near a springboard stump on the Osprey Trail. A springboard stump is the bottom part of a tree (the butt swell) where the loggers cut notches to place springboards. They stood on the springboards so that they could harvest the tree above the butt swell.

March 26, 2021 - Port Ludlow to Pleasant Harbor (26 miles, 3.5 hours) We left the Port Ludlow marina at 10:30 and headed south down the Hood Canal. The Hood Canal is a 65 mile fjord carved by glaciers. A floating bridge crosses the entrance to the Hood Canal. The west end of the bridge has a vertical clearance of 33 feet and the east end has a vertical clearance of 50 feet. With our fixed antennas we have an air draft of 37 feet, so we passed under the east end of the bridge. There is a large Navy base along the eastern shore of the Hood Canal with clearly marked restricted areas and patrol vessels plying the waters nearby. Bangor Naval Station is the homeport for a fleet of nuclear submarines. We counted four submarines moored near the shore as we passed by. The weather was nice and we had an uneventful voyage.

We tied up at the Pleasant Harbor Resort Marina mid-afternoon then went for a walk along the south side of the harbor. We had a lazy morning on Saturday, reading books and watching three fat seals sun themselves on the dock in front of us. Saturday afternoon we went for a brisk walk along the shore. We ended our walk at the Galley Grill where we had beer and supper on the roof top patio. Sunday we were planning to cruise down the to Alderbrook Resort at the south end of the Hood Canal but there were gale warnings and it was raining so we decided to stay at Pleasant Harbor for another night. The wind and rain finally quit about 15:30 so we took a walk to the public boat launch.

Three seals sunning themselves on the Pleasant Harbor docks

Dave standing at the end of the boat launch dock looking east towards the Pleasant Harbor Marina.

After our brisk walk, Dave with a beer at the Galley Grill rooftop patio.

March 29, 2021 - Pleasant Harbor to Poulsbo (49 miles, 6 hours): I have been checking into the Great Northern Boater's Net (Ham Radio 3870 KHz) most mornings and one of the boats checking in had been lauding the bakery in Poulsbo, Sluy's, so we decided we needed to try it for ourselves. It was a beautiful, sunny, crisp (39F/4C) day and there was frost on the docks when we pulled away from the Pleasant Harbor marina at 9:00. We went north up the Hood Canal with the ebb current pushing us then rounded Fairweather Bluff and had the flood with us as we headed south. We cruised through Agate Passage, between Bainbridge Island and the Kitsap Peninsula, then around Point Bolin and north into Liberty Bay Inlet. The Port of Poulsbo Marina is near the head of Liberty Bay and is in downtown historic Poulsbo, also known as Little Norway.

We tied up in a slip at the harbor about 13:00 and checked in. This was our first visit to Poulsbo so we got some suggestions for things to do and places to see, then went for a walk along the boardwalk northwest of the harbor. We ended up at Western Red Brewing where we had a nice cold beer. From there, we went to supper at Sogno di Vino, a small Italian restaurant downtown.

Daffodils blooming along the Poulsbo boardwalk overlooking Liberty Bay.

The beer tap line up at Western Red Brewing, Poulsbo, Washington.

Sluy's Bakery opens at 5:00 am so we were up there early Tuesday morning getting our breakfast, apple fritters and coconut crunch bars. Of course, what would boating be without projects and chores. Dave worked on changing the o-rings on the main engine heat exchanger and changing the transmission fluid while I walked up to the hardware store and the grocery store. It was a nice, sunny afternoon so we walked south along the shore of Liberty Bay and on the way back, stopped at Valholl Brewing for a beer on the patio.

Draining the antifreeze out of the main engine heat exchanger in order to change out the o-rings.

Dave on the patio at Valholl Brewing, Poulsbo.

Early morning on Wednesday, we went to the bakery again for cinnamon buns and sour cream cake donuts. More chores. Late afternoon, we walked around the head of the bay to the west side and ended up at Rainy Daze Brewing. Are you seeing a pattern here? We aren't doing very well on our weekly weigh in. We walked back into town and had supper at a restaurant near the waterfront then called it a day.

A stout and a red ale at Rainy Daze Brewing, Poulsbo.

April 1, 2021 - Poulsbo to Gig Harbor (28 nm, 4 hours): We fired up the main engine at 6:15 and moved over to the pump out dock to empty our waste tanks. While Dave was doing that, I walked up to the bakery for one last sweet breakfast before leaving town; I got peanut butter/chocolate chovannahs, blueberry cake donuts and sugar and glazed donut holes plus orange-cranberry scones for tomorrow. We left the marina at 6:45 and headed south down Liberty Bay. We timed our departure to hit slack water at Rich Passage which leads back out to Puget Sound. Our journey was uneventful and we entered Gig Harbor just before 11:00. We tied up at the Jerisich Public Dock near downtown Gig Harbor. This was another new place for us. We walked into town for lunch and did some exploring.

We went out for our afternoon walk along the waterfront and ended up at 7 Seas Brewing where we had a beer on the outdoor patio.

Dave ready to drink beer at 7 Seas Brewing, Gig Harbor.

Friday morning we did a few chores. Early Friday afternoon we walked north along the waterfront to the head of the harbor. Late Friday afternoon, we walked south along the waterfront to the harbor entrance, then stopped for supper at a local barbecue place.

The entrance to Gig Harbor.

Saturday we did morning chores and I put out the hummingbird feeders, then we went to the Tides Tavern for lunch. Late Friday afternoon, we walked up the hill from the harbor to the Cushman Trail head, then followed the trail north along the creek and power lines and circled back to downtown.

The Tides Tavern, Gig Harbor. They have their own dock where you can tie up your boat and then walk up to the restaurant for lunch or supper.

Jerisich Public Dock, Gig Harbor. It was almost empty when we arrived but filled up for the weekend.

April 4, 2021 - Gig Harbor to Jarrell Cove State Park (28 nm, 4.1 hours): We left Gig Harbor early Sunday morning to catch the flood tide south through the Tacoma Narrows.

Seabiscuit approaching the Tacoma Narrows Bridge from the north.

It was very quiet out on the water. We saw a few fishermen and the ferries making their regular runs. We turned into Jarrell's Cove about 10:00. This was another new place for us. Jarrell's Cove is near the northwest corner of Harstine Island. As you enter the cove, there is a small marina on the west, two state park docks on the east and 14 mooring bouys in the center. We tied up at the end of the inner state park dock. We spent two days at the park, hiking the trails around the campground and enjoying the sunshine.

Seabiscuit at the Jarrell Cove Marine State Park dock.

April 6, 2021 - Jarrell Cove to McMicken Island (6 nm, 1 hour): Our next stop was McMicken Island, a marine state park on the east side of Harstine Island. We anchored on the northwest side of the island, our first anchorage of the season. We uncovered the dinghy and let the sun warm it up while we did a few boat chores. After lunch, we launched the dinghy, took it for a spin around the cove and then went into the beach on the island. We took the loop trail through the woods, then walked along the beach where Dave found a sand dollar.

The dinghy anchored on the tombolo that connects McMicken Island to Harstine Island.

Seabiscuit at anchor, McMicken Island.

B on the beach, McMicken Island.

April 7, 2021 - McMicken Island to Olympia (14 nm, 2.2 hours): It was windy and overcast this morning with some light rain. We heaved anchor at 9:30 and headed south to Olympia, the capitol of Washington state. This was another new place for us. We tied up at the Percival Landing Public Dock near downtown and the Capitol Complex. We walked through downtown and stopped for lunch. Later in the afternoon Dave got his first haircut since we left Kodiak in July and we had supper at a neighborhood bar and grill.

View of the Washington State Capitol Building from our stern while we are docked at Percival Landing.

It had been three weeks since our first Covid vaccine shot and we were ready for our second jab. We found a small clinic in a suburb east of downtown that was accepting walk-ins for second doses, even if you didn't get your first dose there. Thursday we did a few morning chores and then walked out to the clinic for our shots. We're very grateful that we were able to get our vaccines and both of the clinics we went to were very accommodating.

After our shots, we rode the bus (we discovered that the buses in Olympia are free) from the clinic to a shopping area. We had lunch, did some shopping and then rode the bus back to the dock. We weren't sure if we were going to have any side effects from the vaccine so we spent a quiet evening on the boat.

B sitting on the west side of Percival Landing with Seabiscuit docked on the east side of the channel.

Other than a sore arm on Friday morning, we didn't suffer any side effects. We spent the morning doing chores, then walked west to another shopping area for a few more things. We rode the bus back into downtown, had a beer for happy hour at a nearby taproom, then had supper at a wood-fired pizza restaurant.

It was rainy, windy and cold when we got up Saturday morning but the rain stopped ~9:00 and the sun came out. We walked to the Farmers Market and bought some fresh greens, baked goods and plants for B's planter box.

Lots of different lettuce and greens to choose from at the Farmers Market.
We got four different varieties plus some herbs to plant in B's planter box.

Our goodies from Farmers Market. In addition to the plants, we got cheese, bread, scones, radishes, garlic, arugula, fresh salad greens and microgreens.

We ate brunch at a cafe along the waterfront then came back to the boat to unlax. Late afternoon, we walked around Capitol Lake and the Capitol Complex, through the Yashiro Japanese Garden, to the french patisserie Left Bank, then to the Whitewood Cider Teeny Tiny Taproom. The taproom is located amongst a group of food trucks so we ate supper while tasting five different ciders.