Sarah and I were ready to get away from the Marina again. We planned to keep things easy and sail to Blake Island. We had a few more Seattle errands to run the next week and staying near by would keep things easy. Our friend Sam liked our plans, and I invited him to bring Hydra out to meet us.

Sarah, Lillie and I headed out on a Thursday, we anchored in what has become our usual spot. We deferred pumping out before leaving Elliot Bay Marina due to a stiff breeze. Since our black water tanks were full, the next day involved a quick tour of Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge to take care of business before our friends arrived. The trip was quick, the pump out was uneventful. Now we know our way around Eagle Harbor, if we ever need to being Spice in there again.

We made it back to our anchorage after a few hours, but our friends on Hydra were stuck. A parade of super yachts and commercial traffic was taking all of the lock space, leaving Hydra and the Richardson family waiting for three hours in the Lake Washington Ship Canal in the gray cold Seattle drizzle. By late afternoon, a text let me know our friends were near. I grabbed the binoculars and spotted a tall black carbon mast on the horizon steaming our way.

Not long after, Hydra was coming along side Spice, readying lines for the raft up. The weather gave us a northerly with 15 kts of wind and rain, not ideal. The sustained winds had created waves that we didn’t really notice on Spice, but the waves were tossing Hydra around on the lines next to us like a bucking bronco.

Fortunately, everyone was able to come aboard for drinks and dinner. Lillie immediately grabbed Charlie, and they played for hours.

After dinner, we all piled into the dinghy and headed to the Blake Island marina for a short after dinner hike. Max lead us off the main trail and onto a more interesting path that involved a fair bit of parkour over fallen trees and mud bogs. Lillie was having a great time, but she was running out of steam. It was almost two hours past bedtime.

That evening, we chatted for a while after the kids had gone to bed. I won’t say Sam is cheap, but I will say that Sam’s Scottish and Canadian upbringing means he seeks out good value. Sam was very excited by the idea that one could drop anchor here, or any number of places in the area, at no cost. Here we were, relaxing in a nicely appointed apartment with 360° waterfront view, rent free. Anchoring out is very good value indeed. For that moment, we let ourselves forget all of the costs and stresses that go along with maintaining a boat that allows one to live in such moments.

The next morning, we made breakfast on both boats. Hydra’s galley cooked up pancakes with genuine Canadian maple syrup. Spice’s galley cooked up crispy hash browns and bacon. Lillie asked for her life jacket and disappeared into Hydra for a couple of hours while all of the cooking was going on.

The Richardson clan had to return that day to get Max to work. There was enough time for Lillie, Sam, Max and me to explore Blake Island’s western moorings. We used our anchor to take soundings to see if Hydra could make use of the mooring balls. We were getting a little more than ten feet on the beach side of the ball, which isn’t enough margin to be comfortable for Hydra’s eight foot deep rudder. Sam is just going to have to get comfortable dropping anchor!

The Richardson’s departed and it was just us again. The weather was still a bit ugly, but we knew Lillie needed more beach time before departing. We also wanted to inflate Lillie’s clear-bottom raft, her own personal dinghy. The next day gave us sun breaks and the motivation to make it to shore. We made sandwiches and managed to bring all of the other beach landing items and made our way to the island.

We left the dink bow up, stern out on the beach. A few boat wakes were all it took to break over the transom and swamp the boat. Doh! It took ten minutes of manual bridge pumping to get dry, and ended with a bit more seaweed in the boat than we started with. We turned to boat beam to the waves and made a mental note for future landings.

I set off for a run around the island. I hope I’m making a habit of exercising again. The run through the trees was just what I needed. I felt like a wood elf weaving and dodging. Though in my stiff and squishy state, I probably looked more like Gimli the mountain dwarf. People tell me I have the silliest running style and I’m sure my lack of activity hasn’t helped matters in any way. But I say, “pisshaw!” I didn’t care how I looked, I was having fun on the trail.

When I returned, I saw that Lillie had made a new friend. She met another four year old girl named Cora. She and Cora were making sand-pies for Sarah and running in and out of a drift wood beach fort.

After a couple of hours Cora’s parents gathered her up with the other kids to return to their boat and then on to Seattle. We traded pleasantries, and they asked if we had any plans. We told them about our circumnavigation and found out that are planning a similar adventure and plan to leave the Seattle at the same time. We may have serendipitously met a boat-buddy with same-aged kids.

We got a chance to use Lillie’s dinghy on our way back to Spice. We headed back to Elliot Bay to continue the last few Seattle-side tasks on our list.