12-12-2010 - Christmas Lighted Boat Parade (La Conner)

It's that time of year again.  Time flies when you are having fun!  We've been participating in the La Conner boat parade since we moved here in 2003.  We watched it in 2002 and decided that if we moved here this parade would become a tradition for us.  We have done it every year since, except one year when the weather was absolutely terrible with very cold temps and high winds.  We instead gathered on our boat tied safely in its slip, with our friends, and turned on the boat lights.

This year's parade theme was "Rudolf and his friends."  Kathy came up with the idea of making the side of our flybridge a giant sleigh with Santa riding inside, and friend Jen convinced Kathy that it could be done.  A rope would lead to the bow where a large herd of reindeer would be towing the sleigh.  The herd of reindeer would be all of the kids that come along in our annual tradition.

That plan all sounded great, until I started with a blank piece of paper and tried to figure out how I was going to make it happen.  Sounds easy enough, but I struggled with the concept for a day before coming up with some possible ideas.  Once I had the basic idea figured out I printed out a picture of our boat on our broken laser printer (something in the toner cartridge has fallen apart and the resulting printout is, well, quite unique) and sketched out what I was going to try to do.

How do I make a sleigh out of the rope light we already have?  Hmmmm...

The boat parade concept.  Our printer is broken, can you tell?  Hint, Hint Santa!

I started on Saturday the weekend before the parade to make the sleigh.  The sleigh was the 'centerpiece' of the decorations and if I couldn't pull it off, there would still be time to do something else.  3-4 horus of work with some wood scraps, about 50' of PEX flexible plumbing pipe, about 80' of rope light, and a few hundred wire ties to hold it all together, it was starting to take shape.  Much to my surprise, it looked pretty good once darkness arrived and I turned on the lights.  We invited our usual boat parade crowd over for dinner at our house on Sunday and several of us guys went down to finish the decorations.  Even with 4 of us putting up lights we worked on it for a few hours.  It's a lot of work decorating a boat!

I know you are dying to see the boat, so here it is:

"Synergy" ready for the 2010 boat parade.

On the day of the big even we took the boat over to the La Conner marina guest dock for a free night of moorage and to gather with all of our yacht club friends on the dock.  We had a great time and there was a light dinner before the parade at the clubhouse.


Boats gathering on Satruday for the parade.

 About an hour before the parade start our friends started arriving at our boat.  We had the Daltons (Mark, Jenn, Aidan, Grace), the Southards (Jamie, Sarah, Braden, Will, Emily), the Schornack kids (Vaughn, Mason, Tess), and the Swigerts (Steve, Sue, Aubrey).  That's a boat full, for sure.  At parade time it was pretty warm (upper 40's) but the rain had arrived and was coming down strong and steady.  Our plan was to have the kids on the bow singing Christmas carols but the rain certainly made that a bit less appealing to the kids.  Fortunately these kids were in the Christmas spirit and belted out "Rudolf the red-nose reindeer" as we passed by the parade judging boat.  Only a few kids were left on the bow by the time we got to the end of town, but several of the Mom's were still singing up a storm.  What troupers!

Looking good!

It's fun walking the dock on parade night.

After the parade was the always fun Swinomish Yacht Club party.  The house band rocked the clubhouse all night long.  There was great food and lots of friends to talk to.  Santa even made an appearance, arriving on a big red firetruck!

Kevin tells Santa what he wants this year!!!  :-)

The highlight of the event for Kathy and I though was when the awards for the best decorated boats were presented.  Guess who took first place?  We did!  Wow, that's two years in a row.   I don't see how I can keep this streak going, as I really struggled with the whole sleigh project.  I wonder what the theme will be next year, and what Kathy and Jenn will come up with to challenge me.

Nov. 28, 2010 - Thanksgiving, Westsound and Jones Island

We ended up in Sandpoint Idaho last week and had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner over there a few days early with Kathy's parents and Steve's Mom and Sister.  That freed up our Thanksgiving weekend to allow for a longer boat trip.  It snowed in western WA a few days before Thanksgiving which caused all sorts of driving problems for people.  A boat is relatively immune to such issues, so we decided to escape the mess on the roads and seek out some peace and quiet on the boat.

Leaving snowy La Conner on Thanksgiving morning.

The wind forecast for Thanksgiving evening is not good with 30-40 knot winds coming.  We really feel like we want to spend Thanksgiving night on a dock, so we can sleep easy if the winds do kick up.  We are going to try the Orcas Island Yacht Club reciprocal dock in Westsound.  Since we belong to the Swinomish Yacht Club there is no cost to use the dock.  We arrive after a nice easy trip to the islands and find the dock empty.  Nice!

Thanksgiving.  Synergy at the Orcas Island Yacht Club dock in Westsound.

 We have a very nice, but non-traditional, Thanksgiving dinner; pizza!   It was unique and it was great!  After dinner we play games and enjoy being tied to the dock when the winds do indeed kick up a little.  For once though we get a good nights sleep despite being in 30 knot gusts.  In the morning I take a little exploratory walk in hopes that a nearby bed and breakfast's restaurant is open for breakfast.  But, it's closed for the season.  We have breakfast on our boat instead and then depart Westsound thankful for the nice solid dock we were tied to last night.

We are now headed to Jones Island where we spent New Years Eve this year.  It's a great island, but we have not been back since.  We've heard they are rebuilding the dock so we don't expect to find any dock space there this time.  We are also worried that we might not find an empty buoy too as this is a popular island (at least in the summer).  As we enter the north bay we find it completely empty so we grab a buoy.  After lunch we row over to the dock (under construction, and a TOTAL mess) to go for a long hike.  We bring our cat along, which we do when there aren't other people (or dogs) around.  We are gone for about 2 hours and have a great time getting some exercise on this cold but beautiful fall day.

Talking a walk on Jones Island with our cat Zappa.

Zappa isn't your typical kitty cat....  He's really more like a dog in many ways.

Our friends the Dalton's are coming later today to join us at Jones Island and we hope the buoys remain open all day. Nobody else arrives and the Dalton's grab the buoy next to us.  Perfect!

Our two boats alone in the north bay of Jones Island.

They row over for a visit shortly after arriving.  It is really nice to have such great friends to meet up with out here.  We have seen almost no other boats despite the great weather, which makes this island experience even more special as we know that no one else is enjoying this wonderful place.  We have it all to ourselves.

On Saturday morning we meet the Dalton's at shore to go for a hike.  They have never been here before and the kids immediately start exploring.  We all hike around the island which has a wonderful trail circling it.

Cindy, Grace, and Kevin peeling bark from a Madrona.

Jenn, Aidan, Grace, and Mark.  What a nice day!

Kevin, Grace (holding Zappa) and Cindy.



Picnic time.  Hot chocolate with whipped cream for the kids.



Kevin says "Shhhh.... don't tell Mom where I'm hiding!"



Kathy and Jenn go for a row, and some alone time.

It's a very nice day filled with activity and fun in the sun.  Saturday night, after we all eat dinner together on our boat, we witness 3 major lighting flashes to the north, probably north of Sucia and Patos.  Everything is calm where we are with clear skies, but it's pretty ominous looking to the north.  A bit later we all row to shore for a beach fire and some left over fireworks from the 4th of July.  The weather is very calm, for a while.  The wind starts to whip up a bit, and it starts to rain despite the clear skies overhead. 

Beach fire and marshmallows with our friends.

After some fun fireworks we pack up our stuff and head for the dinghies.  They are bouncing around like corks on the waves, and it looks pretty spooky in our flashlights.  This is going to be an adventure.  Then I notice that one of our ours is missing.  Great; now we can't even row back.  Fortunately Jenn is willing and able to row her family back to our boat and then come back for us to get us to our boat, with our one-oared rowboat in tow.  Thanks Jenn!  The Dalton's pile into thier dinghy and row back to their boat.  As I pull our dinghy back onto the swimstep to secure it, the remaining oar slips over the side and into the cold waves.  We watch helplessly as it disappears from view in our fading flashlight beam.  "Oh, well, I think they sell them in pairs anyway."  It's a rough night with some pretty big waves pounding us.  It starts to calm down around 3:00AM I guess.  And this was supposed to be a night with NO wind?

Sunday it was calm again but us adults were pretty tired because of the waves and wind.  It never seems to fail, a few nice days/nights followed by a rough and tumble night.  It wasn't forecast at all, but that's not unusual for our neck of the woods.  It was probably totally calm last night just 5 miles away.  Mark goes out in his dinghy looking for our missing oars and finds one on shore, and the second under teh new dock.  They appear undamaged.  Phew!  I know now that I need some sort of tether on these oars to keep them attached to the boat.  We row to shore after breakfast to hike around the other side of the island, which is just as nice as the side we hiked yesterday.  After lunch it's time to leave, and Grace gets on our boat to play to with Cindy on the ride back to Shelter Bay.  Another fantastic weekend on the water, with our great friends.

Spectacular rainbow on our way home.  So that's what the pot of gold looks like!

Just a few more minutes before we are home.  Bummer!!!

November 14, 2010 - Guy's Trip to Lopez Island

It's my semi-annual guy's boat trip.  This time we are headed to Mud Bay at the south end of Lopez Sound.  This is a good place to be in strong southerly winds, and the forecast for Saturday is calling for rain along with stong winds from the south.  Mud Bay is shallow (about 10-15 feet) and has a great mud bottom that our anchor really works well in.  No waves will make it into the bay in a south wind so it stays calm even when the winds are howling.  We should be safe here.

The guys arrive early on Friday afternoon, and we are underway by 1:15 which will allow us plenty of time to get to Lopez before dark.  Daylight savings has kicked in and it's dark by 5:00PM these days.

A beautiful day to cruise to the San Juans.

We have a terrific ride over in the sunshine.  There is almost no wind so crossing Rosario Straight is uneventful; just smooth water and sunshine.  As we go through Lopez Pass I am blinded by the sun which is now pretty low in the sky.  This made it hard to see all the crab pot floats in Mud Bay.

Blinded by the Light!  Lopez Pass headed toward Mud Bay.

We drop the anchor and get a great bite from the anchor.  I let out 100' of chain in just 12' of water.  That's enough scope to hold us in a hurricane :-)  We make dinner, have a few beers, watch a movie or two, and chat the evening away.  I unfortunately don't sleep well as the wind kicks up in the middle of the night.  I'm up checking things out multiple times throughout the evening due to the anchor watch alarm sounding twice, the high wind alarm sounding, the vacuflush toilet suddenly pumping for no reason, the sound of the anchor dragging across the bottom as the wind shifted (the anchor chain noise is transmitted right into the bow of the boat because it travels up the chain).  When I do awake in the morning the first thing I do is make a pot of coffee; I NEED it!

After a lazy morning sitting around catching up on all of our lives we get the dinghy in the water to take a ride over to Paul Allen's "estate" to do some water-based sightseeing.  He has a LARGE complex on Lopez in a spectacular location.  There are several "no trespassing" signs along the beach and we have no intent of landing here, but we do see a door open in one of the buildings and someone steps out to let us know we are being watched.  No big deal, but it's clear that we are not invited to come any closer.

Just a portion of Paul Allen's waterfront estate.



Totem Pole.  I think it's saying "go away, trawler-trash!"

 After looking at several very large buildings, an unbelievable amount of waterfront for one person to own, a totem pole, a large dock and several mooring bouys, we decide to head over to a little beach at Lopez Pass where we can go ahsore.  We go for a little hike there and it starts to rain.  We continue our hike around the island and then head back to the dinghy and don our wet lifjackets and get into the wet dinghy.  Then we zip back to the boat as fast as we can in hopes of remaining dry.  It mostly works as we aren't really very wet when we get back.  The heat of the furnace feels nice though as it was a cold ride back in the rain.

Ron and Mike.  Hmm, what are they doing?

BBQing steaks;  Are they done yet? 

We spend the rest of our weekend on the boat due to cold, rain, and drizzle.  During that time we watch a few more movies, drink some beers, have a few great meals, and "hang out."  It's nice to get together a few times a year like this so we can spend time really getting caught up with what we've all been doing, how our families are, what we have planned for the future, and simply having fun away from the pressures of everyday life.  I'm looking forward to another trip in the spring.

November 7, 2010 - Hope Island

What a crazy week it's been; Halloween, a birthday party at Jungle Playland for a girl on Kevin's soccer team, half days at school most of the week, two parent-teacher conferences, Kevin's 6th birthday birthday and two nights of activity for that.  Kevin had a sleep over for his birthday party on Friday night which kept us from boating on Friday.

Kevin turns 6 years old.  Wow, time flies!

Kevin opens presents from his friends.  They all spent the night.

After the last child was picked up from our house Saturday morning we began loading the boat for an overnighter at Hope Island.  The wind forecast isn't great with a small craft warning for tonight.  But the predicted direction is from the south to southwest.  We plan to anchor on the north side of the island which usually provides plenty of protection.  At noon we are ready to go and head out.  The weather is good with overcast skies (but no rain) and no wind.  We anchor on the north side of Hope Island but we have trouble getting a good hook from the anchor.  It takes two attempts which is unusual for our Delta anchor.  But the second attempt looks good with no slippage as we back down on it for a few tests of the set.

Zappa watches Steve setting the anchor.

It's not really nice enough to head to the beach so we play games, break out the legos, watch some music videos, and Cindy works on a Spanish lesson via Rosetta Stone on the laptop.

Cindy takes a Spanish lesson on the laptop in Mom and Dad's bedroom.



Kevin plays with Legos while Steve watches a rock concert DVD.

After dinner the kids watch some of the movie "How to train a dragon" and then off to bed.  They were pretty tired from the sleepover (Cindy's friend Roxy came over to help and also slept over) and they went to bed early, and easily.  Kathy and I stay up for a while but also go to bed early.  The wind has kicked up a bit, but not bad yet.  Not long after retiring to our bed, the GPS anchor alarm sounds a warning that we have moved beyonds the boundary I have set.  I rush up to check out the situation and find that we have indeed moved;  we are now quite close to shore.  We will have to pull the anchor and move.  Kathy and I discuss the situation and decide the best plan is to pull anchor and head back to Shelter Bay.  The wind is not blowing in the forecasted direction, and it is much stronger than forecasted.  So, in our minds, the forecast isn't accurate and we just don't know how bad it might get.  This is the kind of scenario that leads to a very sleepless night while constantly watching the situation to make sure we are safe.

We pull our anchor and slowly motor back to our marina.  Obviously it is completely dark.  The moon is just a sliver and there is heavy cloud cover so there is virtually no light to help us along the way.  We have our driving lights, the battery powered handheld spotlight, and the remote controlled spotlight all turned on.  With that we can see well enough to avoid the several crab pots we observed on the way up to Hope Island.  The wind is really blowing, much more than the 25 knots that was forecast.

It's an exciting ride back to Shelter Bay.  The wind is so loud that Kathy and I can barely communicate to each other despite being only two feet apart.  There are white caps and rolling waves with spray being blown off the tops.  Spray is coming up over the boat and is illuminated in the spot lights, giving us time to duck under it if we can react quickly.  Kathy decides to ditch her salt-spray covered glasses and put in her contacts so she can see again.  There are no other boats out here.  We are hoping that the winds will be calmer in Shelter Bay, but as we turn the corner to navigate the narrow Shelter Bay fairway the wind is still very strong.  I'm concerned about getting into our slip in these conditions, in total darkness, while tired and stressed out, at midnight.  But, we get into the slip without incident.  Phew!  Our hearts are racing as we settle into the cabin after securing the boat to the dock.

We sleep well overnight tied safely in our slip.  We hear the wind whipping through the marina from time to time, and notice that the rain is intensely strong at times.  I'm glad we decided to come home.

After breakfast I set the clocks back an hour (daylight savings time this AM).  As I'm doing this on the weather stations we have onboard I decide to check the maximum winds they recorded last night.  Much to my surprise all three stations recorded a peak gust of 56 knots at 10:30PM.  That's 64.4mph!!!!!  For reference, category 1 hurricane strength winds are 65 to 83 knots, not much more than our 56 knot gust.  I knew it was stong, but I didn't think it was THAT strong.

It rains all morning and we hang out on the boat and have breakfast while watching a rainbow that ends on the Shelter Bay golf course.  The kids play with Legos and also spend some time learing more Spanish.

Kevin and Cindy work on their Spanish.

It was an unexpectedly short trip, filled with late night adventures on the "high-seas."  It's good practice to run around at night, and every time we do we discover issues that need improvement.  Our lighting still isn't what it should be, and the spotlight's remote control on the flybridge isn't working correclty.  Also, the handheld spotlight battery died about the time we got to Shelter Bay, rendering it useless.  I have just added more to my project list, but the next time we have to navigate at night we will be even better prepared.

October 17, 2010 - MacKaye Harbor

It seems as though we haven't been out on the boat in a long time.  It's been 3 weeks, but for us that seems like an eternity.  We've had some bad weather on the weekends since we went out last, and Kathy was out of town with her girlfriends for a concert, so we really have not been able to go until this weekend.  The weather is fantastic with clear skies and no wind.  The summer heat is gone with overnight temps in the 30's and the daytime highs in the low to mid 50's.

Kevin had a soccer game Friday night which makes leaving Friday almost impossible unless we are willing to run in the dark, which isn't very wise as there is a lot of tribal crabbing going on and running over one of their floats after dark would be very easy to.  Wrapping 100' of line around my props is not something I want to deal with in the dark.  So, after soccer we went home and had dinner, then walked down to the boat for the evening.

We slept in until 8:00 and then got underway.  Kathy wanted to pull the boat out of the slip, and she did a great job.  She drove the boat out of Shelter Bay where we could see a little fog hanging on the water.  We were concerned about fog on the way over to Lopez but it never materialized.


Kathy at the helm leaving Shelter Bay.  Light fog on the water.

It is a very easy ride across Rosario Straight to the south end of Lopez Island.  We are headed to a place where we've had a few bad experiences due to strong winds causing us to rock and roll severely all night.  The forecast is calling for NO wind, and we hope that holds true.  We anchor in the bay along with one other power boat about our size.  The other boats in the bay are always there, so we are sharing this place with just one other boater.  This time of year is great as there just aren't many people out so we sometimes have places to ourselves that during the summer are packed with boats.  I really don't understand why more people aren't out on days like this?

After lunch we hop into the dinghy for a short ride to Iceburg Point where we beach the boat and start our hiking.  This is a great place with lots of trails along several miles of shoreline.  It is very rugged with glacier polished rocks and upturned striated rock formations that are very unique.

The kids check out navigational marker #2

Checking out the cool rocks.  Notice the glacier polished one behind.



Rugged Lopez coastline.  Sunny and cool fall cruising.

 We spend nearly 4 hours hiking around Iceburg point and stop for a picnic about 1/2 way through our day.  There is a lot to see here.  We have found yet another great place to go with the kids.  This one is better in cool weather when they don't want to be in the water because there really is no beach to play at here, but it is definitely beautiful.



Returning to the main trail after taking a nice side trip to the water.

 

HUGE driftwood on the south side of Lopez Island.



Iceburg point provides a lot of photo opportunities.

Rock climbing in Iceburg Point State Park.

It was a wonderful day with lots of hiking.  We head back to the boat and turn on the furnace because it is getting cold again tonight.  After a very calm evening at anchor we awake to a beautiful morning of sun and light fog blowing through the bay.  It is very picturesque.

Sunday morning.  A nice day ahead of us.

Lovely autumn morning; sun and fog.  Clear and cold.

After breakfast we play some games.  Then we take the kids out on the dinghy to have them practice driving and docking the dinghy.  We spend some time with them each trying to drive the dinghy up to a fender we've tossed in the water.  Then it's over to a dock to let them practice the real thing.  They both did a GREAT job!!!



Kevin practices docking the dinghy.



Cindy gets her "driving lesson."

Another fine weekend on the boat.  Summer is definitely gone, but so are the crowds.  In many ways this is our favorite time to go boating!

Update: We have been out on the boat 23 weekends this year with a goal of getting out at least 26 weekends. Oct 17 marked the end of week #41 in the ISO week number calendar. There are 52 weeks in a year, so there are 11 weeks left in this year. I think we can get out at least 3 more times during the remaining 11 weeks. This would allow us to meet my goal of "using our boat every other weekend" in 2010. I think we can do it!!!!

Sept. 27 2010 - Search and Rescue Mission

I got called out today with Skagit Bay Search and Rescue to look for a body.  There were two Skagit Bay Search and Rescue boats and the Skagit County Sheriff Boat.  I won't go into any details but it was a very uneventful mission.  We found nothing despite looking for more than 3 hours.  The weather was very warm but it was blowing quite hard when we left La Conner and the three of us on the "Safe Boat" got pretty wet.

One of the Search and Rescue boats.

The Skagit County Sheriff's boat.

Video from the "Safe Boat", the second Search and Rescue boat.

The ride home was much more pleasant that the trip out.  The wind had died down and with the warm air it dried us all out.  I'm happy to help when I can, and someday I'll be on a mission that will make a real difference in somone's life.  In the mean time, it's a great training ground for learning all about boating safety and what can happen if you choose to ignore safe boating practices.

Sept. 26 2010 - Hope and Kiket Islands

It's been a while since we've been out boating as a family and we really miss it.  We would normally leave on Friday afternoon but Kevin is now playing soccer and he has games on Friday nights.  It is really fun to watch him and the other kids playing.  Kevin loves it so far.  He is a very defensive player and seems to want to be the goalie (even though at this age they don't have goalies).

Kevin guarding the goal while Madoc keeps an eye on the ball.

After the game we walk over to the elementary school for an open house to see both Cindy and Kevin's classrooms.  My sister Pat and my mother came to the soccer game and also to the open house.  Pat and my mom get to meet their teachers too.  Afterwards we all went to dinner at our local Mexican restaurant.  Then the four us headed to our boat and a night tied safely to the dock.

Kathy and I wake up just after sunrise and get the boat going while the kids are asleep.  It's a beautiful morning as we leave Shelter Bay at sunrise.


Leaving our marina at sunrise.  What a great way to start the day!

Recently I swapped out the flybridge radar display for a unit that is also a chartplotter.  It connects to the pilothouse radar display which turns that display into a chartplotter.  So now I have 3 chartplotters in the pilothouse.  I also have an old laptop setup as a chartplotter as a backup.  Talk about redundancy in the event of failure.

3 chartplotters:  Raymarine, PC-based, and the iPhone (lower right).

Cindy gets up early and reads a book while in transit.

It's blowing 20+ knots from the south so we are headed to the North side of Hope or Kiket Island to escape the wind.  We decide on Hope Island because it will be more protected from the wind if it shifts to the SE as predicted.  We drop the anchor close to shore at Hope Island and then have breakfast.  After breakfast we hop in the dinghy to go explore Kiket Island.  Although this is close to home and a place we have anchored at many times it has always been "off limits" for exploration because it has been privately owned.  But earlier this year the state of Washington bought the island for $14.3 million and it is now part of the state park system.  There have been no improvements yet and I believe the only access right now is from the water.  Here is the complete Kiket Island story from the Seattle newspaper:

Seattle Times story about Kiket Island

It is a great place and it is so close to home.  It opens up yet another option for hiking and beach combing for us.  We have so many places to go that are literally at our our back door; boating is very good near Shelter Bay.  Kiket is an interesting place to explore with a boathouse, house, swimming pool, tennis court, and many small outbuildings from when it was privately owned.  The house is pretty nice and still has some furniture inside, but is clearly unoccupied.  We picked some apples from a tree out front and then walked around the house.  What a view this place has!  Deception Pass to one side, and a great view south toward Mt. Rainier.  This is the kind of property that dreams are made off; seclusion, incredible views, private beaches, a forest, and surrounded by water on 3 sides.  There is a tiny spit that connects Kiket to shore and the gravel driveway runs across this spit.

View of Deception Pass.  Fresh apples from a tree in the front yard. 

The bay on Kiket with the boathouse.  Nice beach.  Lots of driftwood.

The house (now empty) and large front lawn.

After we hike around Kiket a bit we get back in the dinghy to have lunch on our boat.  The wind has kicked up to at least 25 knots and we are zipping along over the whitecaps in our 12' dinghy.  It is warm and sunny and the kids are giggling with every wave; it was a fun ride back.   Once back to the our boat we make tuna melts in the new propane oven.  The propane oven works much better than the old electric unit it replaced.  The tuna is from my tuna fishing trip a few weeks ago.  Some of the tuna we caught went to a cannery and is now in cans like you would buy from the store, except it is better than any tuna I've had before.

After lunch we head over to Whidbey Island in the dinghy to play in the sand at Ala Spit.  This is a favorite of ours as it is very close to home, it has nice sand, and there is a lot of driftwood to explore.

Kevin jumping off the driftwood into the warm sand.

Cindy's turn!

Making sand castles.  It's windy today.

Doing cartwheels in the sand.

Somersault races in the sand

After several hours of fun in the sand we head back to the boat.  Kathy and the kids play UNO for a while and I work on trying to fix a few window leaks while it is dry outside.



Skip, Skip, Reverse, Draw Four!!!!  Ha Ha, I win.

After dinner the kids watch a few Mario short cartoons on DVD and then off to bed.  It's supposed to rain tonight and all day tomorrow.  That's exactly what happens.  At about 12:30AM it starts to rain, and at times it is POURING.  It was a very wet night and the wind whips and whirls too.  But, it was a good night on the hook and we wake to mist and drizzle, and fog.

Rain and fog.  What a difference a day makes.

It was very nice to get back out on the boat.  The weather Saturday was spectacular.  I fear that Saturday could be the last really nice day of the year.  Let's hope not!!!