May 9, 2017: Figure 8s, then partying in Poulsbo

My parents were married on this day in 1943 and enjoyed 60 years of marriage before my father died in 2003. My mom is still active as a church organist in my hometown of Idyllwild, CA.

A pancake breakfast sustained me as I spent an hour in the quiet, sun sparkled waters of Illahee State Park, where the rising tide had erased most of the curving beach, practicing, with Walt’s coaching, several boating maneuvers under power. First it was pulling Braesail alongside an anchor buoy and stopping, and then it was doing figure eights around two buoys, and then it was pretending one of the buoys was a dock to which we wanted to pull up.  There was only one other boat attached to a buoy in the marine park, making this a good spot for such exercises. I improved as I made multiple attempts, but I know that I need much more practice!

At 11 am we made for the fuel dock at Brownsville, where diesel fuel is much less expensive than it is elsewhere. I was able to handle the docking lines, and was pleased. The next stop was the Poulsbo Yacht Club guest dock, where we tied up around 1 pm after motoring in the sunshine under the serene gaze of the Olympic Mountains’ impassive pinnacles. Here again I was able to help tie up the docking lines, and when all was secure, Walt and I headed for a well-known Norwegian bakery about a mile from the marina after chatting with some of the boaters on the docks. It was a wonderful walk, past lovely houses with gorgeous gardens containing wild roses, lilacs, azaleas, rhododendrons, lobelia, candy tuft, sweet alyssum, peonies, phlox, heather, pink and white dogwood, bluebells, and many other blossoms in rainbow array.

We enjoyed looking into the windows of the shops and galleries in Poulsbo’s picturesque downtown area, and managed to come away from the bakery with a minimum of purchases, including Norwegian black bread, glazed cinnamon loaf, apple walnut sticky buns, and doughnut twists (mine was filled with peanut butter and chocolate)–mmmMMM! After strolling back to the marina, I wrote blog posts and again napped in the sunny cockpit while Walt slept in the aft cabin. By 5:30 pm we were on our way to the Yacht Club’s nicely appointed meeting room to share in the club’s “Tipsy Tuesday” activities: consuming food and wine and talking about everything (chiefly about boats and adventures thereon, of course!).

We returned to Braesail at about 8 pm after a delightful time, and it was nice to be able to skip cooking dinner and cleaning the galley and to finish some reading and writing! The evening’s light breezes defeated us in the race to bed–will they return in the morning, or will we be motoring again?