Come Sail Away

I'm often a fair-weather sailor, so the record breaking rain this October - May, combined with over-committed weekends means that I haven't done as much sailing this year as normal - just one sail to Bainbridge Island at the end of January. Last weekend's sun drew me out again.

While the wind started out a reasonable 7 knots when we left the house, by the time we made it to Shilshole, it had switched directions and dropped to 3 knots, so we motored to Kingston. On the journey, we saw porpoises, leaping fish and the ever-present kelp.

Our trusty autopilot, navigating us through the glassy seas

Edmonds-Kingston ferries

When we arrived, milkshakes seemed just the thing, so we stopped in at Mora Creamery where I sampled the gianduja (chocolate-hazelnut). We finished up our shakes in the park near the ferry dock, ducking frisbees from the adjacent game.

Sitting in one of the Kingston big chairs

By the time we were ready to leave, the wind had picked up, allowing us to fly the spinnaker. One of my dreams/bucket list items is to be able to "dock without freaking out" and I'm happy to say that our docking experience went well enough that Trent complimented my line handling.

Trent estimated that he had 1-3 hours of boat work to do, so I opted to take the bus home. Sadly, I realized once I rang the bell to get off the bus, that my carefully packed bag did not include house keys, so after a leisurely trip to the grocery store, I finished the warm summer evening on my porch, reading a library book on my phone and streaming Tacocat and Beach Boys songs for a mini-dance party.