We had a great time on Saturday night on the hook, hanging out in Eagle Harbor. We slept in late on Sunday. When we finally did get up, we dinghied into town for some breakfast (tip: don’t eat at the Big Star Cafe in Winslow, Wa.).

Got some coffee and did some walking around town. The wind was picking up, so we decided to head for home. Just as we got out of Eagle Harbor and past the channel markers we put up the sails and sat back as the wind died and the tide turned against us. No worries though, we had all day and the sun was out. The wind picked up to about 8 knots after abit and we started making pretty good head way.

I snapped this photo of the downtown Seattle skyline half way home.

If we are headed north from the south part of Pugent Sound this is the site that we see just before turning into Shilshole Bay and heading to the Marina. This is a point of land called West Point. Those are old light house keepers houses on the point:

I had a choice, I could change the oil in the boats engine, then go down to the storage place and organize it…..or I could go sailing. Tawn was at work until 9pm, and I really did’nt feel like changing oil or cleaning out the storage shed. So sailing it is.

This would be the first time I took the boat out Single Handed. I’d taken our old boat StrangeCrew out on my own a few times, but there is a huge difference between a 27 foot Catalina and a 38 foot Hans Christian. Alot of which is the fact that not only is it a big ass boat, but also because it was our home. *gulp*….whatever….lets go sailing.

I had my plan of action all lined up and was just about ready to cast off the lines when my dock neighbor, Hye, pops his head out of his boat and offers a hand with the lines.

Leaving the dock was easy, I had no worries about that. Motored out into Shilshole Bay with about 10 knots of wind out of the NorthWest. I headed into the wind, hit the AutoPilot to hold the course and hoisted the mainsail. Once that was up, I fell off the wind and put up the Foresail.

The wind built up to about 15-16 knots, and stayed NW. It was a perfect sail, the seas built a little from flat calm to about a foot or so. Just as I made the bouy at the entrance of Eagle harbor the wind died slightly and I dropped all sail, turned on the engine and motored into Eagle Harbor on BainBridge Island. As I was motoring in I once again set the Auto pilot to hold me on a course so i could get the anchor ready to deploy. Unfortunatly, there was absolutly no room to anchor inside the harbor, and instead of anchoring out side in the wind and waves, I found a city mooring ball that was not being used. Not sure how legal it was to use it but I decided to use it anyway. After all, whats the use of flying a Pirate flag if I’m not willing to ignore a few laws now and then.

I called Tawn and told her she would need to take the ferry over to Bainbride from downtown if she wanted to find home tonight. :)