Friday, September 7 – Lake Union

Last night a lady came walking down the dock and knocked on our door.  She told us her husband was bringing a boat into the marina but it had broken down.  I thought she was going to ask us to go out and tow him in, but that had already been taken care of with Vessel Assist.  She had a bag with some cruising books and other papers for him, and asked if we’d hold them for him to pick up when he showed up.  If so she would telephone him and tell him, Norm, where to retrieve the bag.  About an hour later I saw a Vessel Assist boat cruising in with a flashing orange light and towing a sailboat.  They ended up being tied to the pier just behind us, and after they got settled in I saw someone coming to the boat.  Sure enough, it was Norm, and we did our good deed for the day.

 

Another beautiful day was brewing first thing this morning.  Ray fixed everyone a heap of hash browns, and scrambled eggs using the last of the liquid egg carton we had.  We pulled away from the dock about 10:15, all charged up and ready to go.

 

It was going to be a warm day, and by the time we got past the Mukilteo Lighthouse, we had the windows removed from around the bridge.  For much of the trip we cruised south at the same speed as the breeze – in other words we had none.  Cruising past the Picnic Point area we encountered probably a hundred or so small boats out fishing, scattered clear across the sound.  There was either some sort of derby going on, or it was just a great day to be fishing.

 

Eventually our clear view of Mt. Baker to the stern was replaced with a view of Mt. Rainier ahead.  We got to Shilshole around 12:30, and were surprised that there was quite a bit of boat traffic already queued up inbound for the locks.  The small lock opened in short order, but we were about two boats too far back for that locking.  Some commercial traffic was approaching from behind us, and about then the large lock opened with quite a few boats heading out.  We were eventually directed to the large lock behind a dive platform boat and what looked like a brand new river pilot boat.  It was a huge inflatable that, from its markings, would be headed for duty on the Mississippi River.  For only the second time in our 14 years of locking through the large lock with the Potentate, we were not directed to the wall but tied up to a cruise for an easy ride up.  The tide was fairly high so we didn’t have an extraordinarily long wait.

 

We pulled into our moorage slip around 2 o’clock and, as we anticipated, the lake was quite a bit lower – enough that we didn’t need our steps, which we had put in our car when we left.  By now it was pretty warm out, and as we discovered later the temperature reached 90 degrees in Seattle – first time in September since 1990.  We packed up just a few essentials for us, including the cat, of course, and delivered Ray and Mary to their house before heading on home.

 

It was great to be out on the salt for an extended time – we’re still rocking here at home.  In spite of a couple of issues with our charging system and engine cooling that came to light, we had a great cruise, and the weather couldn’t have been better.  We never once got any salt spray on the windows so it was definitely smooth cruising all the way.  I think we had a few raindrops one day, although I can’t remember exactly where.  It wasn’t enough to be measurable. 

 

I’ll be posting some additional photos throughout the blog in the next day or two.