Oil & Grease Buster!

Prepping for maintenance duties

Oil & grease on my shirt already?! Today I ran around picking up oil, a funnel and other supplies that we will need to change the oil on the boat. (I’ll put a blog together in a week or so about everything we are doing to prep the boat for winter….and also since I posted this, we have decided not to use auto oil after all. Stay tuned)

boat maintenance supplies

Anyhow, I visit my local Auto Zone for the supplies and the gentleman is very nice and says that the oil only comes in 1 qt containers, so he’ll get me a box since I needed ten of them. This was just a quick stop on my way to the grocery store. Today we are having another Seattle record heat wave (yes, it is September 28th and it’s 85º). When I left the house, I threw on my favorite sleeveless golf shirt from Lady Hagen figuring I wasn’t doing much other than a few errands.

After I put the box in the truck I happened to look down and noticed I had two HUGE black oil stains on the front of my favorite shirt! You have to be kidding me?! If you know me, this always happens. Because of that, I have every stain remover in my laundry room. Most of the time they rarely work, so I was not hopeful. I decided to try the Oxi Clean Max Force stain remover and OMG, it was gone instantly! No joke! I should have taken a before and after photo, but I was more concerned about getting the grease out of my shirt asap! LOL

This is a must for any boat and anyone working on a boat, as oil and grease seem to show up everywhere.

Here’s a link to Amazon to buy it:
OxiClean Max Force Laundry Stain Remover Spray 12 ounce – 2 pack

oil & grease buster

Another favorite stain remover

While I’m on a roll about stain removers and how they don’t usually work, I do have a favorite for carpet! Since Scott and I were in the wine business for over ten years, it wasn’t uncommon for wine to be spilled anywhere in our house. Yes, we sold many “wine stain removers”, but honestly they don’t really work either.

The only thing that works great for serious carpet stains like wine and pet accidents, is Spot Shot. We keep a can of it on the boat (sadly, we’ve already had to use it for Mac) and a few in our house. They make two kinds, one for regular household stains and one for pets. I like both! The pet stain remover is non-toxic for animals, so we use that one. If you like to entertain, especially with wine, be sure to keep a can of this on hand!

You can buy these anywhere and also at Amazon, just follow my links:

Spot Shot Instant Carpet Stain Remover 14 oz (Pack of 1)

Spot Shot Non-Toxic Pet Instant Carpet Stain Remover 14 oz Aerosol (Pack of 6)

carpet cleaner pets

Okay, so that’s my plug for products this week. In fact, this was a very impromptu post, but I felt as if I needed to do a public service announcement! At least I feel better now that my shirt is stain free. Stay tuned for our next few blogs as we’ll give you details as to what we are doing to prep the boat for winter. Cheers, Ally

This post may contain affiliate links for products I mention.

September 26, 2017September 26, 2017

Favorite Boating Blogs

Thinking back on how this dream of living on a boat started, it all began when I started following other boating blogs. Business would be slow at our wine shop and the weather was miserable. Why not immerse yourself in someone’s journey? The unfortunate part of following other bloggers is that in some cases their boating journey comes to an end. I remember feeling a bit depressed, know that they had to be sad too.

Some of our favorite old blogs were found on Sail Blogs. Here you can search through the list of active blogs and read where they are in the world and what they are doing.

Our Favorite Boating Blogs Right Now:

Sailing Britican – This is a family of three on board their 56′ sailboat and they have traveled over 18,000 miles over the past three years. They share a lot of tips, lessons and advise on their blog.

Quit Your Job & Live on a Boat – Author Ed Robinson wrote his first book “Leap of Faith – Quit your job and live on a boat” which tells the story of how he and his wife left the rat race and are now living on their trawler in Florida. You can follow him on Facebook too.

Sailing Totem – This is a family of five on their 47′ sail boat, which left the Puget Sound in 2008. They are still cruising and both of them co-author many articles in 48º North and Sail Magazine.

Lahowind – This was one of my favorite blogs to follow. Jereme & Kim from Florida decide to leave the rat race for one year onboard their 37′ sailboat along with their dog Oliver. They traveled all over the Caribbean, got engaged and returned home a year later. They sold their boat, married and had a child. Now she blogs about family and raising their baby. Kim is a professional photographer and her photos & videos of the Caribbean are stunning. Check out her photos & video of the pigs in the Exumas!

Jill and Jake Adventures – This couple started sailing in February 2015 from the East Coast down the ICW onto the Caribbean. Be sure to start reading from the beginning to really feel their adventure.

Sailing La Vagabonde – This is a YouTube blog following an Australian couple as they sail on their new Catamaran across the oceans of the world.

I am always looking for new blogs to follow, so if you have any favorites, please share with us! Cheers! Scott & Ally

September 22, 2017November 7, 2017

A Summer to Remember

Pacific Northwest Summer

Pacific Northwest Summer has come to an end and it surely will be one to remember for a long time. Everyone teases us for all of the rain we get and how dreary Seattle is. So imagine their shock when we say we didn’t have any rain for almost four straight months setting an all time record! Of course, we watered our plants and yard every day, only to get a $1000 water bill this week! Finally, Autumn is here and we are looking forward to it.

The Summer of 2017 will always be the one where our boating journey began. Scott and I really lucked out having a great weather summer. Normally in Seattle our summer starts on July 5th and doesn’t last very long. Thanks to our great summer, we made sure we took advantage of our time on our boat.

Pacific Northwest Cruising Destinations

In the short four months we have been boaters, we covered a lot of water in the Pacific Northwest. When Scott and I first got the boat, we didn’t expect to make that many trips at first, but we got the cruising bug instantly. Where did we visit?

mooring balls pnw bainbridge island — Port Madison

western sunset boating seattle — Dusk at Elliott Bay

We also went through Deception Pass on our way home from the San Juan Islands. That was on our bucket list!

Labor Day in Seattle

We enjoyed the three day weekend of Labor day turning it into a four day mini vacation. We started in Gig Harbor, then Seattle and then the Ballard Locks!

One of the coolest things we did this summer that I recommend every boater do at least once, is go through the Ballard Locks! We had so much smoke from the fires in Eastern Washington that all of our photos and videos have a “burnt sienna” look to them. Check out our video below:

It was definitely a summer to remember. Seattle usually has a mild Fall season in September and October, so we are looking forward to spending some weekends on the boat coming up. Stay tuned! Cheers, Scott and Ally (and Mac too)

September 19, 2017

Boats Afloat Show 2017

Boats Afloat Show 2017 on Lake Union

Scott and I attend the Boats Afloat Show each year. Seattle has two main boat shows, one in January and the other in September. The January show is held at the convention with a floating show on Lake Union. Then in September, they do just the floating show. This is a great show, because the weather is normally nice and you get to tour some larger vessels, typically 45′ and up.

Now that we have owned our Bayliner Ciera 3055, Kokomo for five months, we feel comfortable making the next step. Remember, the main reason we bought THIS boat was to make sure we liked boating and sleeping on it. We are hoping to find a larger boat that we might be able to live on, come spring time. While at the Boats Afloat Show, we looked for boats and features that would work for us.

Check out the SeaRay 48′ Sundancer

The Sea Ray Sundancer is not set up for a liveaboard. However, we were curious to see how this “weekender” was set up in comparison to our Bayliner 3055.

The cockpit and deck is very roomy. What was really cool about this model, is the captain’s seat swivels towards the other seats on deck, so everyone can mingle.

The beam (the width of the boat) is just under 15′. To compare, our boat is about 11′.

With the extra 4′, it is much roomier inside the cabin, than on our boat (of course, this boat is also 48′ long).

Our boat for comparison:

I did love the size of the galley and all of its’ counter space. I mean, I guess you really could live on this if you wanted to. In addition, it had a two burner stove tope with a microwave / oven combo.

The main stateroom was in the V-Berth and very roomy for two people.

The main head had a separate shower stall which is nice. Having a separate shower stall keeps the rest of the head dry.

In the aft berth, the Sea Ray Sundancer has two full size beds.

Overall, this was a very nice “weekender” as we call it. It would certainly be much more comfortable than our current boat, but we didn’t pay $515,000 for our boat!

Scott and I walked the entire show. We ran into our broker, Eddie from NW Yachts and he had some recommendations for us too look at. Of course, this will have to wait until next spring! Did I mention that my job was eliminated in August and now I’m job hunting? Oh yeah, that too.

Dream Yachts

Not really seeing anything that we liked, Scott and I were about to head home when we stumbled upon M/Y Gal Sal, a 1998 NorthCoast Custom Yacht for $939k. This yacht is moored at our marina, Elliott Bay Marina on G Dock. We walk by it every time we go to the fuel dock. Now we have our chance to take a peek at what she looks like on the inside! Trust me, she did not disappoint us!

I think we could live on this boat, what do you think? It’s hard to see in the photo below, but right next to Scott is the dining room with six chairs. The opening on the left is the pass through to the galley.

The oven on this yacht is bigger than mine at home!

I got so caught up in the beauty of this yacht, that I failed to take a lot of photos. But I did manage to get one of the main head with his and hers sinks!

If you needed to do engine work, there’s plenty of room!

From the helm, there was lots of visibility for the captain.

Modern Day Yachts

For kicks and giggles, we decided to tour the 2017 Presitige 750 which was about $3 million. The decor was modern and very sleek.

Here’s a funny story about our tour of this yacht – not really! I get that there are hundreds of people looking at boats and most of them are “looky loos”. However, the broker doesn’t know who is actually in the market to buy a yacht. After I took the photo below, Scott went into the galley and opened the fridge to look in. Within seconds the broker, who was standing where I took this photo, shouts “It’s a Fridge!!”

I looked at him and said, “why are you shouting that at him?” and his reply was that they didn’t want hundreds of people opening the fridge. Are you thinking what I am at this point? If that’s the case, why don’t you put a note on the fridge that says “Please don’t open”?! He was so rude, that if we were in the market, we certainly would not buy from this guy!

Yes, this foot belongs to the rude yacht broker

The yacht was very modern and sleek. We toured this yacht with our marina neighbors, who own a 75′ yacht. In their opinion, this modern look will be outdated in a few years. (Remember the yachts of the 1980’s and the disco lighting?).

Overall, it was interesting to visit a boat show as boat owners (finally!). The big Seattle Boat Show is this January and they will have two satellite shows, one on Lake Union and the other at Bell Harbor. At that show, they will have supply vendors showcasing their products, which will be a great resource for us. Stay tuned! Scott & Ally on Kokomo

September 17, 2017September 21, 2017

Cleaning the Bimini Top

Bird Poop!

When you keep your boat in a marina, you are going to have to deal with lots of bird poop! The bimini top on our boat is black canvas and it’s nearly impossible to clean the back end of it during regular washes. This is because we can’t reach it from the front and it’s too tall to reach it from the swim platform.

Scott and I knew we need to address this, as our neighbor’s boat in the marina was covered in heron poop!

The dirty job

We figured we could remove the top and lay it on a tarp on the dock to scrub it clean. In fact, we had purchased outdoor fabric guard by 303 Products, but it has to be absolutely clean and dry before you apply it. Scott thought we just needed to remove one of the rods and slide it out and we would unzip the rest.

The highlighted area shows where the rod is attached to the inside of the bimini

Now what?!

The bimini had to be cleaned and so we decided to unzip the back of it, so the dirty part would hang down into the boat. Can you say “YUCK!”?

This is not “art”, but heron poop all over our canvas! So I moved the tarp into the boat and put a large beach towel on the floor right below where we would be scrubbing to catch any water. (I did take a photo of all of this, but I guess it didn’t take). Scott used a bucket of clean water,Mer-Maids Canvas and Vinyl Cleaner and a scrub brush to clean it. We rinsed it with a bilge sponge with clean water. It wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly better than it was!

Once we were done, I wanted to figure out a way to deter the herons. All of our marina neighbors are laughing at us, as they say there is nothing we can do. They say we just have to clean it regularly. Not giving up, we decided to put up an Inflatable Owl and Bird Repellent Scare Tape. Let’s see if it works!

If anyone has suggestions on what has worked for you. please let us know. We’ll check on it in two weeks and give you all an update!

Cheers,

Scott and Ally

September 13, 2017September 29, 2017

Potable Water on a Boat – How do you know if it’s safe to drink?

Do we have potable water on our boat?

Our Bayliner Ciera 3055 comes with a 35 gallon water tank. Every boater we have talked to uses the water in their holding tank for everything from washing hands to drinking.

I admit, I’m a bit of a water snob and I can only drink bottled or filtered water. When we bought our boat, it had sat on the hard for over two years. This told me that the water in the tank had to have gotten stagnant. However, it never had an odor and was crystal clear. Perhaps it was bone dry?

When Scott and I took possession of the boat, our broker Eddie was cleaning it up and had filled up the water tank.

Friends of ours recommended that we add a tablespoon of bleach to the water tank each time we fill it up. In order to do that, we need to put bleach in a water bottle and then tip it down into the tank. Since the side of the boat is at an angle, this is more difficult than you realize.

We fill up our water tank using a special micro-bacterial hose Teknor Apex Zero-G Hose . We also make sure that the opening of the hoses never touch the dock and when we are done, we connect to the two ends together to keep organisms out. Be sure to drain your hose completely before storing.

When you are filling up your water tank at the fuel dock, those are typically just garden hoses. With that said, if we fill the water tank using the dock’s garden hoses, then I never put the hose directly into the tank because they are just laying on the dock. I let the water run for about 15 seconds and I hold it about 1″ from the opening.

So back to the question – is the water potable?

We do use our water for:

Washing dishes
Brushing our teeth (yet I still use bottled water for that)
Washing our hands and face
Boiling water for pasta and veggies

But I don’t use the water for anything we would consume. What does that mean exactly? Well, for coffee I boil bottled water (it’s a mental thing). When I rinse food like veggies and meat, again I only use bottled water. I don’t mind using it for boiling pasta as all of the germs would be killed and we also aren’t drinking or eating that water.

Recently, we grilled up Salmon and Veggies and I rinsed them at home before we left.

So the answer is really up to you and your comfort level. Since we use our water regularly, the water in the tank stays fresh. Keep in mind, that some marinas (especially around the San Juan Islands) don’t have “good” water and many boaters will avoid filling their water tanks. In addition, many boaters do not recommend using bleach as it can be very harsh. We have only put in about 2 tbsp total all summer long.

Our recommendation is to see if your water is clear and odor free. If it is, then you decide what you are comfortable with. If it is not, then see a boating specialist for recommendations.

Scott & Ally

This post may contain affiliate links for products I mention.

September 12, 2017November 5, 2017

New Favorite Kitchen Gadgets

Every Boater Needs Kitchen Gadgets

When you are occupying a small space on a boat, then kitchen gadgets come in handy. The first weekend Scott and I stayed on our boat Kokomo, we quickly learned that preparing food isn’t that easy.

I had bought a cutting board and a knife set, but the cutting board is either too small or it slides around. The knives got dull very fast too.

Knife Sharpener

Soon I was looking for kitchen gadgets to help solve this problem. Since I don’t mind chopping my own ingredients, I first looked for a knife sharpener. The one we have at home is electric and big – that won’t work on a boat. Then I found, this portable KitchenIQ Knife Sharpener on Amazon for only $5.99! Plus it had over 8100 great reviews! Guess what? We love it too. It’s small and fits perfect in the galley utensil draw.

However, when you are using a small cutting board, it’s difficult to chop a large quantity of ingredients as they tend to fall off and land on the floor. That’s when this awesome gadget comes into play!

Onion (and other veggies) Chopper

The Vidalia Vegetable Chopper by Müeller chops way more than just onions! It has two chopping sizes (1/4″ dice & 1/2″ dice) and it keeps all of your ingredients inside the container! It’s so easy and it works great! I ordered this on Amazon too for just $19.99

I do recommend putting round objects, like onions, tomatoes round side down on the blades for best results.

Here’s a quick video demonstration:

Order your Chopper Here!

Cheese Graters

This gadget does way more than grate cheese. It also slices and juliennes veggies. After you are done, simply store all of the graters and slicers inside the entire kit! This is one of my favorite kitchen tools for the boat!

As I continue to find items that work great on the boat, I will be sure to share them with you in our blog. A few items we have already mentioned that we use regularly is our Xpress Redi Set Go Oven (which is now called Xpress Platinum Countertop Cooker) and our Magma Grill.

Cheers! Ally

This post may contain affiliate links for products I mention.

September 9, 2017September 25, 2017

Going through the Ballard Locks for the First Time

Ballard Locks

Scott and I didn’t want to finish the season without going through the Ballard Locks for the first time. They are also known as the Hiram M. Chittenden locks. We invited my college friend Jen and my sister Susan and her husband Kurt to join us as all three have been through them before.

We decided to go through the locks the day after Labor Day, thinking that it would be less busy. Friends of ours have their boat moored inside the locks and this past summer it often took them hours to get through. The weirdest part of the trip was that everything was “orange” as Western Washington was engulfed in ash and smoke from the fires in Eastern Washington.

Before you go through the locks, you do need to have on board, two 50′ lines each with a 12″ eye on each end. These are not cheap and luckily we had our rewards from West Marine that we used to purchase them.

Entering the Locks

As we entered the locks, we immediately saw a huge yacht in front of us. We slowly followed it and what we thought was a fire boat behind it. Turns out it was their tender!

Thank God we had Jen, Kurt and Susan with us, as we had no idea what to do. There are two sets of locks. The large one holds many boats and the outside boats tie up (using your 50′ lines) to the cleats at the locks and then boats inside tie up to one another. In the small lock, you simply tie up to the wall and go through individually. As we got closer to the actual locks, we figured out we were probably heading into the large locks.

Once inside, the lock workers shouted down to us to tie off to the sail boat next to us. We used our own line on their cleats. Make sure your fenders are up high, as you will be locked in tight with the other boats!

Then a few minutes later, they had another 30′ boat tie up to us. Once we were all tied up you can see how tight we all are inside the big lock.

In this entire process, this huge M/Y Spirit, a 178′ yacht came in behind and next to us. She was coming down from Alaska for maintenance work at one of the shipyards. She sleeps 11 guests and has a crew of 13. It’s available for charter for just $270k per week during the low season.

Once all of the boats are tied up, they close the locks and they raise us up to the height of the locks, which is about thirty feet or more.

Our Lucky Day!

We really lucked out on our first trip through the locks as we literally came straight into the big locks without waiting, tied up and then waited a total of fifteen minutes before they filled up the lock. The sailboat next to us had been waiting on the wall for over an hour and a half! Overall, it took us less than an hour from the time we entered the channel to when we left the locks.

You do feel a bit weird having all of the spectators watching you. We felt like we should do the parade wave!

There is not a lot to see as you travel through the Fremont Cut. It is very industrial and there are a lot of large vessel shipyards.

We planned on having lunch at one of the restaurants at South Lake Union , but there was no transient moorage as they were setting up for the Boats Afloat Show next week. When you are at South Lake Union, you do have to be watchful to stay out of the fairway for Kenmore Air.

The crew decided to have lunch at Ivar’s Salmon House located at the north end of Lake Union. They have a nice long dock, with easy access.

Going back through the locks again

After lunch, we headed right back to where we came from. We had no idea if it would be crowded again. As we approached the locks, there was only one small sailboat in front of us. You will see a red or green light at the locks, which will tell you if you can enter or not. Within about ten minutes the green light for the small locks came on and we followed the sail boat.

The locks crew had us use our small lines to tie up to the moving wall. Again, make sure your fenders are up high, so you don’t rub on the wall. After we were tied up, they closed the small locks and the two of us went down about thirty feet and off we went.

I have to say that this journey was one of the coolest things I’ve done in awhile! Originally we were going to moor Kokomo inside the locks. Can you imagine us going through these on our first day of owning and operating a boat?! Crazy. If you have the opportunity to go through them either on your own boat or someone else’s I highly recommend it.

Cheers, Scott & Ally on Kokomo

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017

Labor Day with Family in Seattle

Spending Labor Day in Seattle

We spent Labor Day in Seattle this year. Scott and I left Gig Harbor on Labor Day morning and headed back to Elliott Bay Marina first thing in the morning. His brother and his family were coming down for an afternoon cruise on Kokomo.

The winds had calmed down from NNW 9mph to about 5mph. Since we were scheduled to go through the Ballard Locks the following day, Scott & I decided to head towards Shilshole Bay and check out the vessel traffic.

There is a resident seal that sleeps all day on one of the green buoys and everyone was excited to see some marine life!

Checking out the entrance to the Ballard Locks

We made our way up the channel into the entrance of the locks and there was a line of boats waiting to go through the locks. Soon, we turned around and headed back out. What was shocking to us was how many paddle boarders and kayakers were literally in the channel entrance with a line of boats coming in.

On our way back to the marina, a large yacht passed us (M/Y Ocean Pearl) and I said “I bet it’s heading back to our marina”. Sure enough, it was waiting along our dock when we arrived. This is a 115′ Christensen custom yacht and is available for charter. It accommodates up to 11 guests and primarily stays on the West Coast.

It was a fun afternoon with everyone. When we came back to the marina, we kept looking for our resident seals, but they never appeared.

By 5pm on Labor Day evening, Seattle skyline had turned into a “burnt sienna” theme due to all of the smoke and haze from the Eastern Washington fires. It did make for some beautiful photos though.

Night time brought out an orange moon that hovered over Seattle.

The next day, we woke up covered in ash from all of the fires. What a mess! Just the day before a vast majority of the boats in the marina were being cleaned and scrubbed after the big holiday weekend!

Since it had been so warm last night, we slept with the hatch open. Great, we breathed in soot all night!

Marine Life at Elliott Bay Marina

Scott and I walked down the dock early the morning to run into all of these fellas! We’ve been at Elliott Bay Marina since May and never have we seen them on the docks. We know they are a nuisance, but still it was cool for us to see them for the first time.

Every morning our dock starts to move up and down, probably due to the tide change. I tried to capture it and on this morning it was pretty mild.

As I walked back to the boat, I was thankful that our boat doesn’t have a heron on it making a big mess. Then we decided to take a peek at our own canvas and sure enough, it looks the same. Ack! That will be on next weekend’s project list.

Stay tuned for our next blog, as we go through the Ballard Locks for the first time!

Cheers, Scott & Ally on Kokomo

September 7, 2017September 25, 2017

Labor Day Weekend-A Trip to Gig Harbor

Labor Day Weekend at the Gig Harbor Marina

Scott and I had no plans for Labor Day weekend, so we decided to go down for one night on Sunday on our boat Kokomo. Gig Harbor is located just southwest from Seattle.

We were able to make reservations at the Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard about one week out. After we made our reservations, they emailed us our slip number (B24), the codes for the restrooms and a map of the marina.

The weather was warm and sunny, 85 degrees with winds NNW winds at 9mph. We went through Colvos Passage on the east side of Vashon Island as it would be quicker and ideally more calm. There were a lot of boaters in the passage, along with gobs of green floating plant life.

Unfortunately this past week, Washington state has been battling some major fires in Eastern Washington and near Mount Rainier, so as we got closer to Gig Harbor the skies got smokier.

It took us about 1 hour to get there and as soon as you exit the passage, it does get extremely windy. You have Commencement Bay to your east and the Tacoma Narrows to your south. We were trying to figure out where the entrance to Gig Harbor, as we could see it on the map, but not physically.

Getting into Gig Harbor

As you can see by the image above, the entrance is very narrow and not visible from boaters coming from the north until you start to travel west. As Scott and I approached the narrow channel to the harbor there was a lot of marine traffic – both boaters and kayakers!

The entrance to the harbor is just around the corner of the beach sticking out (hard to seer!!)

Once inside the harbor, it was very crowded with boats anchored and on mooring balls. Scott and I were not sure where to go when we first entered the harbor, as the fairways are not marked. But we had a map from the marina, so we were able to figure out which way to go. I will tell you that if it’s windy and during tide change, the current is very strong inside the harbor.

Our slip was next to the permanent moorage and all of the guest slips are single slips, which we enjoyed. You do have to be careful that you don’t hit the posts holding up the roof though.

After a quick lunch on the boat, we decided to check out this cute town. The marina is literally in the heart of the town with lots of shops and restaurants within walking distance. Much different than our trip from the San Juan Islands, when we visited Oak Harbor!

Scott and I decided to try and find 7 Seas Brewing and on our way, we stumbled upon the Skansie Brother’s Netshed. The netshed was built in 1910 just after Andrew Skansie built his home in 1908. He immigrated from Croatia in 1907 and was one of the first settlers in Gig Harbor. This is now maintained by a non-profit organization and it was full of historical items.

This tour is free to the public, but they do rely on donations. Be sure to stop in and check out this historical place. You will also notice along your walk, that many of the buildings have historical significance and stories in regards to the early settlers of Gig Harbor.

Where is 7 Seas Brewing?

Scott and I continued walking north through Gig Harbor, looking for the brewery and we then stumbled upon Arabella’s Landing Marina. This marina was sold out, but is also very popular for guests.

Eventually, we found 7 Seas Brewing, which was not on the main drag. In fact, it appears to have been originally some sort of grocery store or shopping center. It was over 90 degrees and by now we were hot and thirsty. It was so refreshing to sit inside and cool off. The staff was super friendly and surprisingly, children are allowed. They even offer retro board games for families to play.

We each ordered a flight of four samplers for just $5!

Shopping for Gifts

Our good friends watched our golden retriever Mac this weekend, so I was on the hunt for a thank you gift. Gig Harbor is full of quaint boutique shops and so this was not a difficult task.

On the main drag, we came upon “For the Love of Spice” store. I love to cook and so do our good friends, Dave and Kathy. I knew I would find something here. We met the owner, Windy and she hand makes all of the spices herself. They also feature an olive oil and vinegar bar, artisan made pastas, rare and unique grains, flavored sugars, and infused salts. We lucked out that they happened to also be doing a wine tasting. For $5/pp, you get to try three wines out of a selection of over ten wines. Scott and I purchased a bottle, so one of our fees was waived.

If you love to cook, this is a must visit!

Wait, there’s more!

We continued our way back to the marina and came upon Heritage Distilling.

Scott and I have only been to one other distillery and Heritage was sampling everything they make! You buy the tastings in packages and we both decided to sample two 1/2 oz liquors plus one cocktail, called a Bevanda for $7.50.

The Brown Sugar Bourbon was a bit sweet. We bought a bottle and I plan on glazing our Thanksgiving turkey with it! Yum.

People were lined up along with small bar trying all kinds of spirits. The guy next to us, sampled the vodkas above including the Ghost Pepper vodka!

Now that we had covered all three beverage groups for tastings, it was time to head back to the boat and relax before heading out for dinner. I happened to find out earlier that one of my childhood friends, Ben was also in Gig Harbor on his boat with his wife Maria. They came over on their dinghy for a quick visit and it was great hearing their boating stories. Ben has been super helpful these past few months with advice and tips on boating.

Dinner in Gig Harbor

Many of our friends had told us we needed to go to the Tides Tavern for dinner. Since we were only here for one night, then this was where we were going. It was Labor Day weekend and yet we were lucky to get right in. They offer good pub grub and seafood. Our server was very friendly and funny.

After a long day of boating, walking, shopping and drinking we were ready to call it a night.

Labor Day

The marina was very calm in the morning. We made breakfast and headed out about 9:30am. It was warm & sunny with winds about 14mph NNW. The harbor was once again filled with boats and kayakers, so be careful as you exit the harbor. Considering it was Labor Day Weekend, Gig Harbor was still easy to get around and visit.

The Colvos Passage was very choppy and windy coming home, as we were heading right into the wind. Scott and I arrived back to Elliott Bay Marina about an hour after we left.

If you haven’t been to Gig Harbor, we highly recommend it. It is an easy boat trip from Seattle and a fun day for everyone. Scott & Ally on #KokomoSeattle