Fun – Page 42 – Sheila365

Good day.

Today was a pretty full day. The weather was supposed to be colder and drizzly, but it turned out to be another lovely day with blue skies. Keep ’em coming.

Mom and I went to the Armed Forces Day parade, one of the oldest and longest in the country.

I squeezed in a little geo-caching during the afternoon, and then headed over to Seattle to meet my sisters and spent a few hours on the waterfront. We ducked into this little corner o’heaven to watch the Sounders game (win!).

And then caught the ferry home. Pretty views from the stern.

Motoring around the Sound.

Fran and Art took me for a boat ride today after work. It was a treat, the weather was nice and the Sound was like glass. Its amazing how fast you can get from one place to another by boat in these parts.

This is a view of the Olympics from Dyes Inlet, The Brothers peak on the left.

And a view of the Seattle waterfront, from just off Blake Island, a ferry, hazy Cascades in the background, and the space needle far left.

Navy band unplugged.

It is Armed Forces Week in this traditionally U.S. Navy home of the Puget Sound area. Mom and I caught a very nice performance by the Navy’s wind quartet and brass quintet at the local library tonight. Lots of feet were a-tappin’.

Go Navy! 🙂

And, the program:

Tuesday night Broadway.

We went to see War Horse tonight at the Bass Concert Hall. I was more taken by the intricate, life-sized horse puppets than the overall story. But, it was opening night, and was well done.

Stalked by ducks.

We enjoyed a fun raftup last night with Lori, Dave, Kurt & Kevin. The wind was slack and light overnight, and we ended up getting our anchor lines twisted. We knew that was the case, though, so we were prepared for it when we went to pull up our anchors today. We enlisted the kayak and detached the anchor rode from Nirvana entirely while Camelot pulled theirs up, untwisting them as we went along. Back on-board Nirvana, we reattached our rode and pulled our anchor up and got underway. Next time, we’ll put out a stern line. 🙂

As we headed back to the marina, the two ducks that hang out in the cove were behaving very strangely. They have been in the cove everytime we have gone out there this year, and they hang out by our boat. We’ve named them George and Gracie. This time, though, as we were motoring along, they followed us well out of the cove, swimming hard to try to keep up.

They would fall behind and then take flight and land next to us near mid-ships. Then drift back to where we were pulling the kayak, and tried to keep up again.

They repeated this over and over. After watching them do this five or six times, we slowed down so we could see what they would do when they caught up with us. And they proceeded to paddle right up to the transom.

And Gracie jumped aboard as we were moving along. George seemed a bit more reserved.

Eventually they got tired of playing with us and moved along.

…..funny birds.

Fly ’em if you got ’em.

Anchoring out tonight with Lori and Dave on Camelot, and Kurt and Kevin on Dancer.

A sort of pet adoption.

We had a great night on the lake last night. And a beautiful sail home today. We got home this afternoon to find that 2 of our neighbor’s cats have decided they want to hang with us. All the perks of owning two cats, but none of hassle. One of the cats has been hanging out in our yard for the last week or two. Today he brought his buddy.

Spaaaaaaah-ed.

Today was spa day!!! An annual indulgence with girlfriends for the last 15 years or so. I’ve been staring at this one on the calendar with anticipation for a while.
How can you not relax at a place like this? The Lake Austin Spa Resort is a beautiful retreat, if only for that one or two days a year.

And I couldn’t resist trying a panorama shot:

Afterwards I joined monte at the marina to anchor overnight in our favorite cove.

A good day!

Tulip hexaptych.

I may have mentioned that I love tulips. 🙂 And, I’m always amazed at how much they continue to grow after I put them in a vase. I brought home a bunch of gorgeous light pink ones on Saturday. Then I proceeded to take a snapshot for the next six days to capture their growth day to day. Kinda cool.

The circle of life.

Today we met Julie’s new dog, Blake. She’s a good doggie, and I know will bring much happiness into eachothers lives.

Today we also learned that another one of our canine friends, Kokopelli (aka “the Admiral”), left us for the big boat in the sky. Farewell, Koko, you were a great boat dog, and a good friend to Marty and Sue for many years. Sail on…. we’ll miss you. 1-DSCN3701

I’ve missed my birdie.

First day back. Buried in email. My feet are sore from the decks. I have a plethora of bruises and scrapes. We have a pile of laundry to do. The fridge is empty. I still feel the sway of the waves. But I’m still smiling at all the laughs we had.

I miss my birdie, though, we’re going to pick him up tonight.

April 9 – Heading home.

Wednesday, April 9.

We all flew to San Juan together. Then headed to our respective destinations. What a great trip! Monte, you were an awesome Skipper. Susanne and Laura, you are TROOPERs! We’re so glad you could come along on this adventure.

This is our third charter with ProValor Charters, thanks Jim & Cecilia!

Thanks to Doray and Tom for Keeto-sitting.

And thanks, too, to Marty & Sue for teaching us the charter ropes on our past trips with them. We are looking forward to you joining the next trip with the crazy B-dockers.

I go to come back!

Our route…

So…. would I want to do the whole check-out-of-BVI, check-in-and-out-of-USVI, then check-back-in-to-BVI Customs & Immigration thing again? Not sure. St John was amazing, but it did burn some of our days planning where and when to check-in/out. I guess the take away is that it is best to be flexible….especially with the weather… and just roll with it.

April 8 – Our last night.

Tuesday, April 8.

This morning we dinghied over to shore to tour the shops and artists’ wares at Trellis Bay.

One of the bathyspheres that they cut away to make the fireballs for the full-moon parties.

We missed Full Moon by about a week this trip. Next trip we'll definitely have to book during a Full Moon! — We missed Full Moon by about a week this trip. Next trip we’ll definitely have to book during a Full Moon!

On the sail back to Fat Hog’s Bay today, Susanne was at the helm and Laura worked the lines by herself. They’ve both done really well with learning the ins and out of the boat, and they’re bonifide sailors now!

We got to the marina in time to finish up the closing paperwork on the charter. We’ll spend the night on the dock, since our flight leaves at 7:30 AM tomorrow. It’s a bittersweet day. Sad that it’s almost over. But ecstatic to use the showers at the marina!

We walked over to Red Rock for an amazing dinner. A perfect last supper for a fantastic trip. So many great memories and experiences. As always, I already can’t wait to come back.

April 7 – The Baths.

Monday, April 7.

This morning we are headed to Virgin Gorda to see the Baths – always an awesome sight no many how many times you’ve been before. The winds and waves were strong, but not too strong. We made it to the Baths with one tack.

When we arrived, the mooring field was already full, so we had to wait a bit for a ball to free up. One finally did, and when we tried to get the ball, we approached it from windward – a mistake in our haste to get the ball. We drifted too quickly after hooking the ball with the pole, so that we had to drop it and the pole in the water. I jumped in to retrieve the pole and we were able to hook it the second time, before the other circling boats did. Never a dull moment.

There was a yellow flag warning at the Baths, so the swim from the dinghy dock to the baths was a challenging one. Some of the sights from this trip to the Baths:

Looking out at the mooring field from the Baths.

We all enjoyed a cheeseburger in Paradise at Poorman’s Bar at the foot of the hill. For extra points, we all had to execute a dinghy flop one more time for the ride back to the boat. No pics of that, though. 🙂

After the Baths, we headed for Trellis Bay on Tortola to spend the night. We hit the Loose Mongoose for happy hour ashore (and a quick update on the Final Four and Championship game).

Sunset over Tortola - from Trellis Bay. — Sunset over Tortola – from Trellis Bay.

Then headed back to the boat for our last dinner aboard, and we played Rummikub until we couldn’t keep our eyes open. Noone made it ashore to watch the NCAA Championship game.

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