Looking Forward to Boating Season!

We’re ready for boating season – are you?

I don’t know about you, but after weeks of cold, rainy weather we’re ready for boating season and some sunshine! Of course, with our boat still in dry dock after six weeks, we’re not missing much.

Next month, will be a full year that we have been boat owners and we certainly traveled a lot of places for first time boaters. That’s the great thing about mooring at Elliott Bay Marina, we’re close to so many great ports that are a day trip away.

Some of our favorite spots

In celebration of #ThrowbackThursday, I thought I would share some of our favorite destinations. These include Kingston, Gig Harbor & the San Juan Islands.

salmon bake indian reservation — Blake Island

The best view is still at home

Even if Scott and I don’t take the boat out, we love to spend the night at the marina. We are very lucky to have such a beautiful place to relax and entertain friends and family. This year, we plan on exploring more of Seattle on foot from the marina.

holiday party marina — Olympic Mountains

Here’s to another great boating season! We look forward to sharing our journey with you this summer! We should be bringing Kokomo home in the next week or so, so stay tuned! Cheers, Scott and Ally

Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube

#BoatingJourney #KokomoSeattle

March 8, 2018

Hauling Out Our Boat

Hauling Out Your Boat for the First Time

For any new boater, hauling out your boat for the first time is nerve racking to say the least. Scott and I had met with Seaview Boatyard at the Seattle Boat Show in January and took advantage of their “boat show special”, which was 1/2 off the haul out and 20% off labor. When you are talking $110/hour for labor, 20% is a big savings.

We scheduled our haul out a month ago, not knowing what the weather window would give us. Thank God is was dry and sunny. We did have northerly winds at 10mph, which made the journey from Elliott Bay to Shilshole Marina a bit wet and choppy.

Our brother-in-law, Kurt joined us on the trip, as he is familiar with hauling out and the boatyard.

Prepping for the trip

Since we couldn’t take the dinghy, we had to remove it and secure it to the dock. Then I drove to Shilshole, dropped off our truck and Kurt drove us back to Elliott Bay.

The tricky part about this trip, is that we have a broken prop and we didn’t want any vibrations that can ruin our shaft. So we traveled at about 6 knots all the way there.

Arriving at Seaview Boatyard

It took us about 30 minutes to round the point and arrive to Seaview. They had told us to call the office if the sling wasn’t out, so that’s what we did. Soon, we noticed they were putting in another boat, so we waited about 10 minutes in the fairway. There was no traffic, so it was not a big deal.

After they put the sail boat in, they waved us in. We didn’t have any fenders out, since we were heading straight into the slings. But with the northerly winds and a broken prop, it became a bit challenging. As we approached the piling you see on the far right of the photo above, it became apparent to Kurt we might hit it. He was on a bow and quickly attempted to push us off. I was on the stern and didn’t get to the starboard corner in time before we hit it. Thankfully, it struck our toe rail and didn’t do any damage.

When you pull into the slip, they have you shut off your engines and they quickly secure the boat with the slings. Kurt shut off the power and we locked up the cabin. I was waiting for them to tell me to step onto the dock from the Port side, when he told us to get on the bow, climb over our railing and reach for the ladder (that was 10′ above the water) to get on the dock! Remember, I’m short and this was not an easy or non-terrifying feat for me. LOL.

Up and away Kokomo goes

The three of us got on the dock and they quickly brought up our boat and wheeled her to the hard. What a sight that was!

What do the props & stern drives look like?

A few months ago, someone on Facebook posted the photo below and I was terrified that is what Kokomo would look like!

Luckily, Kokomo looked surprisingly clean! We dock our boat on our Port side and 85% of the winds come from the north. This means that the current, winds & debris are coming at our Port side and simply collecting there. We think this is why our Port side stern drive looks much worse than the Starboard side.

We expected that our anodes would need to be replaced and sure enough, they do! What are we talking about??

From Google: “The way we counteract galvanic corrosion is to add a third metal into the circuit, one that is quicker than the other two to give up its electrons. This piece of metal is called a sacrificial anode, and most often it is zinc. In fact, most boaters refer to sacrificial anodes simply as zincs.”

The three of us then spent some time with Andy, the manager at Seaview to go over what we wanted to have done. This includes:

Pressure washing
New anti-fouling paint
Cleaning and waxing the entire boat
10 Point Inspection including the trim tabs, anodes, seacocks – but no engine
Replace both propellers
Replace the anodes

We are also having a Mercruiser mechanic inspect the stern drives and make sure we are in tip top condition for boating season. This should all take about two weeks or so. What will all this cost? Not sure yet, but we will be sure to let you know!

Yes, this is also the time we should be having our open house and getting ready to move into our new apartment. Crazy lives we are living right now!

Our Bayliner is 32′, but in this photo it looks like a huge yacht next to Scott!

We captured the entire journey on video, so that we could share this with you all too.

Stay tuned for our next update! Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel and share with other friends & boaters.

Thank you for following our journey! Cheers, Scott and Ally

March 5, 2018March 13, 2018

Keep up with us!

Keep up with what’s happening this week

The next few weeks are going to be very hectic for Scott and I as we get closer to putting our house on the market. We’ll do our best to keep everyone up on what’s happening here on our blog. As we mentioned last week, our lives are very crazy right now.

We have two big things happening:

Prepping & putting our house on the market
Hauling out the boat for paint & engine work

House Update

Last week we had all brand new carpets put in by Empire Carpets and they were fantastic! The team was efficient, friendly and did a great job. On top of that, the entire project was very affordable. If you are looking for fast and quality service, I highly recommend Empire today!

Later this week, we are having the floors refinished, so stay tuned for those photos and update.

When it comes to prepping our home to put it on the market, I have been really picky about everything. I want it to be pristine and perfect. So over the next week, we’ll refinish the floors, clean up the yard, deep clean the house and make it picture ready! Yesterday, we toured three homes and two of them were between $800k-$950k. I was shocked as to how grungy they were. I would be embarrassed if anyone came into our home with it looking the way these did. So hopefully, I do a good job on my own house.

Moving stuff to our storage unit

Now that we have our storage unit in downtown Seattle, we’ll be making many trips to it. Right now, it’s actually FULL of boat stuff, from carpets, to beds, to bedding, coolers, bbq…..you name it, it’s there! It will be nice when we get the boat in service and we can free up all that space. Check out our fun video from our second load to the unit:

We looked at a couple of apartments yesterday, because we had some spare time. One of them was about 560sq ft (YIKES), right above the viaduct (noisy!), expensive, but the views were amazing. Don’t worry, we’re not moving in there.

Bellevue Staycation

This week, we are celebrating our 15 year wedding anniversary AND having our floors refinished. Since we have to move out for three days, we’re staying at the Marriott Courtyard in Bellevue. We plan on touring about ten apartments on Friday and Saturday, as we want to lock in our new apartment in a week or so. Yes, things are happening fast!

Hauling Out

This Wednesday we are hauling out the boat to Seaview Boatyard. Thank God the weather is forecasted to be sunny at 51 degrees. Whew! We don’t have to go far, but we still will be moving with a broken prop. Scott and I will need to unhitch the dinghy and tie it up to the dock. The trip should take about 20 minutes, if all goes well.

Be sure to subscribe to both our blog and YouTube channel to follow the day’s events. We will also share our stories on Instagram and Facebook. So stay tuned and keep up with us! New adventures await.

Cheers,

Scott and Ally

October 25, 2017

Our Favorite Caribbean Vacations

Favorite Caribbean Vacations

Scott and I have many favorite Caribbean vacations. Though we live on the West Coast of the United States (where most folks go to Hawaii or Mexico), we only go to the Caribbean. There’s something about the smell of the tropical air, the warm breezes and the steel drum music that takes you away instantly. Our love for the Caribbean started on our honeymoon, during our first trip to Antigua. Antigua is located in the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea and also the Atlantic Ocean, as you can see in the second image below.

Antigua

For our honeymoon in 2003, we stayed at the Sandals Antigua Resort. We picked Antigua because the resort was unique and looked romantic. Since then, the resort has doubled in size, but kept it’s quaint beach front. Now Antigua is one of our favorite Caribbean Islands.

swimming in the caribbean sea — March 2003

We returned to Sandals Grande Antigua in 2011 after their big remodel. During this trip, we took our first circumnavigation tour of the island on the Wadadli Catamaran. The tour took about seven hours and was so fun!

In 2016, we came back to Antigua which I wrote about in my blog. We spent so much time touring the island, both on land and at sea, that I wrote four blogs about our trip. Click on the titles to links to the blogs.

Antigua – Part I – Xtreme Circumnavigation Tour & Sting Ray City

Antigua – Part 2 – Land Based Tour & Nelson’s Dockyard

Antigua Part 3 – Circumnavigation Tour – Hells Gate Island & Bird Island

tourist spot antigua — This rock island has the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Read our blog for more details.

tourist island excursion antigua — View from the top of Bird Island

Antigua – Part 4 – Fun Beach Days

Bahamas

We have only been to Nassau, which is the capital of the Bahamas. Surprisingly, it is almost parallel with Miami. Be sure to keep that in mind if you visit the Bahamas (or Key West) in January, as it can be cold!

When Scott and I visited Nassau in 2008, Florida had a freeze and we had a few days where it did not get above 60º. However, it is a beautiful place and we hope to return and visit the Exumas and the swimming pigs someday.

Jamaica

Jamaica is located due west of Haiti & Dominican Republic. We have been to Jamaica five times over the past twelve years. The primary reason is that the island folks are extremely friendly and it’s affordable from Seattle. Again, we have always stayed at a Sandals Resort each time. We have been to Montego Bay, Negril, Ocho Rios and White House.

Montego Bay

Our first trip was to Montego Bay and Sandals resort, was located across the street from the main airport’s runway. I’m not joking! It turned out to be a cool thing and we didn’t have to drive for hours to get to our hotel. When the planes fly over, everyone waves!

Unfortunately, a huge tropical storm came through during our trip so we did not do any water excursions.

White House

White House is located on the west side of the island and Sandals Resort is located in a 500 acre wildlife refuge park. There is nothing around it, but it is gorgeous! It has a great bay for Hobie Cat sailing and it is really peaceful. There is a bit of a drive to get there (about 2 hours) but the roads have improved. Scott and I have been to White House three times.

One of our favorite things we have done, is visiting Floyd’s Pelican Bar, which is located on a sand bar. You take a small dinghy from your boat out to the bar. They sell (warm) drinks and cook up some food.

We have also taken a few cocktail cruises during our stay in Whitehouse.

Negril

On one trip to Jamaica, we split up our vacation between Whitehouse and Negril. We drove north for about an hour and it was an easy trip. Negril is very cute and has many famous tourist attractions. We did not do any of them, as we simply relaxed by the pool. The resort offered a free glass boat tour in the bay, which was fun. But beware, because the resort at the end of the beach is nude and they also do boat tours!

Ocho Rios

Ocho Rios is located on the northeast end of Jamaica and about two hours from the airport. Unlike many of the other cities we traveled to, the highway was paved and easy to drive on. However, this was not our favorite place at all. It might have been because we didn’t like the resort at Sandals or because it wasn’t as tropical as on the west side. The water is rougher and not as turquoise and clear. We did take a catamaran cruise to the Dunn River Falls (we didn’t do the chain to the falls). Of course a squall showed up, so it wasn’t a great day on the water.

Dominican Republic

We visited the Dominican Republic in February 2017. I did write a blog about our trip and voyage. It is a beautiful island and it has cool caves. It just was not our favorite of all of the islands we have been to.

As we visit more places, I will be sure to add them to our list!

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?

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 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

August 23, 2017October 18, 2017

A Quick Boat Trip to Kingston – Boating Journey

Visiting Kingston, a small quaint town just across from Edmonds & NW from Seattle

Visiting Kingston, which is in the state of Washington, not the UK. Why would I even mention that? That’s because as I was trying to find the phone number for the Port of Kingston Marina on google as we were approaching the port and the only one that kept popping up was in the UK! Luckily there’s a great app that we used all summer, DockWa that is like open table, but it’s for dock reservations! Super easy to use.

Scott and I planned a boating weekend with our close friend Randy and his girlfriend Meghann on our boat Kokomo. Originally, we were going to do a two night trip going to Edmonds first then Kingston. Unfortunately, like many marinas in the summer time, Edmonds was completely booked by a yacht club. Instead, we decided to stay Friday night at our marina, do a cocktail cruise and then have dinner in Ballard.

We spent an hour before their arrival prepping the boat, making the beds and gassing up. One thing to remember in Washington when getting gas for your vessel is to save your receipts! You pay road tax when you buy gas, but the state will reimburse you for that tax, since you are not driving on roads. Here’s the scoop on Fuel Tax Refunds.

Seattle activities

This happened to be Hempfest in Seattle this weekend, which is held at the Seattle Sculpture Park along the waterfront. This also brought out all kinds of fun people, including these rafting on large ruby ducky’s.

While we attempted to enjoy some appetizers and a cocktail overlooking Downtown Seattle, it was nearly impossible as the wakes from other boats were sloshing us all over the place. I don’t recommend trying this!

Soon we turned back to our marina and the clouds were beginning to roll in. What a cool sunset and view they created.

After we provisioned the boat, the four of us headed into Ballard for dinner.

An evening in Ballard

We made reservations at Moshi Moshi Sushi and the food was fantastic! It’s located on Ballard Avenue in the heart of all things exciting! I used to live in Ballard from 1999 to 2002. Back then, there were only a handful of restaurants on Ballard Avenue. Now there is one every fifty feet it seems.

The four of us finished the night at one of our favorite old time stomping grounds, The Conor Byrne Irish Pub. They have live music and the bar is very old. It was so fun going back and revisiting an old fav.

Off to visit Kingston!

Since we couldn’t check into Kingston until 1pm, we had decided to wait until the afternoon to leave. Meghan and Randy arrived to our doc about 2pm and we set off soon after.

Soon after this video, we thought we were having engine trouble. We stopped, checked the props, all was good. We think the issue was we were having trouble getting the boat to plane out and it was struggling a bit. After trying again, we were off and running!

The conditions were warm and sunny with winds coming from NNW at about 9mph. There were lots of sail boats taking advantage of the winds!

Turns out that Kingston is only about 12 nautical miles from Elliott Bay, so we arrived in about 30 minutes! The marina is located around the corner from the Mukilteo-Kingston Ferry Dock.

We finally arrived (after just 30 minutes!)

Our friends Cory and Stacy were already at the marina on their boat Bold Adventure, a 37′ Larson. They were in slip 16 and we were in 18. So that worked out perfect for them to meet us. It is a bit tricky entering the marina, because you don’t know at first which side of the dock to be on, but we figured it out quickly that the even numbered slips were on the inside.

As we approached our slip, we soon realized that the bow line was NOT THERE! What the?? Well, it was, but it had come loose from the railing and we obviously dragged it all the way from Seattle! That line could have gotten caught up in our prop. Luckily, it was in perfect shape, so no damage done (or so we hope!)

We were ready to relax and have a beer now with Cory and Stacy.

The marina is quiet and the staff was super friendly. After lunch, we decided to explore the town.

Visiting Kingston is an easy two block walk

Kingston is not very big. It has a few restaurants and shops along the main road, which leads to the ferry terminal. We stopped into a d’Vine wine bar and they were doing a wine tasting! Imagine that. LOL. We met with the owner and she was super friendly and it was fun to talk shop with her. The wines were from Long Cellars out of Woodinville and they were fantastic! We bought a bottle of the Faiken Red.

Just around the corner from d’Vine is Sweet Life Cakery and they specialize in cupcakes. Scott was in heaven and bought a half a dozen cupcakes, including a chocolate salted caramel cupcake. I just now realized that I should have taken a photo of the cupcakes! Instead I was too excited about the “giant chair” right outside. In fact, these chairs are all over town! Here’s the back story about them.

Summer Concerts in the Cove

All summer long, Kingston has free concerts at the marina park which are sponsored by the Kingston Chamber of Commerce. Saturday night, they had Sister Mercy a rhythm and blues band. They were fantastic! We brought a picnic dinner and sat on the lawn for a perfect evening!

Randy was generous to bring two phenomenal bottles of wine, including the Caymus Select Cab and the Five Star Cellars Merlot. Both of which, were stunning wines and a true treat!

The marina is very quiet and we couldn’t have asked for a better night to relax and catch up with good friends.

The next morning, I made another frittata in my Good Times Xpress Redi Set Go Cooker! oven. I can’t imagine not having this on the boat! If you don’t have one, go get one today! I use it regularly to make omelets, frittatas and toast bagels when we are on the boat. There are tons of recipes that come with it too!

Uh Ho, Not again!

We planned to leave Kingston soon after breakfast as we knew we had a couple of hours of cleaning to do when we returned. Unfortunately, when we started the port side engine we heard a terrible sound so we shut the engine off. Uh ho! Not again. Scott opened the engine door and we tried starting it again. Watching it, the serpentine belt was not moving. Great. This was the same engine we had to replace the power steering pump on during our trip to the San Juan Islands. Scott determined that the belt just wasn’t tight enough, so after a few adjustments we gave it another shot and Voila! We were in business once again. Whew!

We left Kingston during low tide and the channel was about 11 feet deep. However, some folks in the bay were not so lucky and were grounded until high tide came back.

Now that we know Kingston is so close to Seattle, we’ll plan a few more trips to visit Kingston.

Once back at Elliott Bay, we spent a couple of hours cleaning the inside and out. It is amazing how nice it looks when it is cleaned! As I was cleaning the back end, I had my sunglasses on my head and suddenly they fell off into the darkness of the marina below. Always an adventure when we are on #KokomoSeattle

Lessons learned on this trip:

Make sure all of your lines are secured, even after you leave the marina
Don’t wear your sunglasses on your head when working on your boat