Sailing Weekend

Saturday morning started with the 5K Jogging Class.  I am happy to report that I met two people that want to jog with me during the week between classes.  I’m meeting Liz on Wednesday nights to jog at 7:00 pm and Jane on Thursday mornings at 7:00 am for a walk/jog.  She wants to train for the Seattle Marathon with me.  I’m thrilled to find someone with a similar goal.  

“Harvey” snoozing on buoy

Our first overnight sailing trip started about 12:30 Sunday afternoon.  We sailed from Everett to Langley on Whidbey Island.  When we reached the yellow buoy outside of the Everett harbor we saw the resident seal we nicknamed “Harvey” sleeping on the buoy.  We nicknamed him “Harvey” after the pooka from the movie Harvey.  Mark tacked back and forth until I could get a few pictures of Harvey.  He didn’t pay any attention to us and just dozed away in his favorite spot on the yellow buoy.   We saw a few of Harvey’s cousins out in Saratoga Passage later in the day.

Mark on the other side of Hat Island.

Saratoga Passage is the name of the part of Puget Sound on the other side of Gedney (Hat) Island.  We finally made it out of Possession Sound and saw the other side of Hat Island.  A few years ago we attended a BBQ picnic on Hat Island and visited a house that belonged to Joe’s boss  We tried to figure out if we recognized any of the houses as we sailed by.

Docked at Langley

We spent most of the afternoon tacking back and forth on Saratoga Passage until we reached the Langley marina.  The Langley harbormaster helped us dock effortlessly into our assigned slip.  Wish we had extra help getting into our slip in Everett.  We are getting much better about docking but it is always stressful, at least for me.

First Street in Langley

Langley is a charming little town up the hill from the marina.  I wasn’t worried about getting the appropriate amount of exercise because of all the walking we did.  After securing the sailboat in the harbor we walked to town and looked around.  Everything was landscaped beautifully with flowers and charming statues.  I wish I had taken a few more pictures.  We ate dinner at Cafe Langley.  

Sunset in Langley

Back to the boat for a few glasses of Asti-Spumante and to relax.  Mark also put the curtains up that I had made for the sailboat.  We tried to sleep in the bow of the boat but there really isn’t enough room up there for us.  I’m hoping there is enough room up there for Alyssa and Sarah.  We are planning a family trip to the San Juan Islands next summer.  Anyway, Mark and I ended up sleeping in the aft berths.  We both tossed and turned a bit but I’m sure we would’ve got a better night’s sleep if we spent another night there.  As in camping you always sleep better the second night.

Mark getting relaxing after a full day of sailing

The next morning dawned early for us since we went to bed early.  We made the trek into town and had breakfast at Mike’s Bistro.  Mark had pancakes and I tried a Hoppel Poppel.  It was listed on the menu as a traditional German dish.  Since I am of German ancestry I had to try it.  It turned out to be a plate of scrambled eggs, potatoes, onions and sausages. I just looked it up on the internet and this is what I found…The name Hoppel Poppel doesn’t actually mean anything but is taken from an old children’s poem called Pottkieker (literally “The person who peeked into the pot”) which goes “Mummy, mummy, what’s in the pot?”, to which the mother rather impolitely replies “Hoppel, Poppel, Appelreis, mach’ dich fort, Naseweis” (hoppel, poppel, apple rice, now get lost, nosy child”). 

After taking these pictures it was time to walk back to town to go to the quilt shop.  I was a bit disappointed in the selection of nautical themed fabrics but found some blue fabric that will work well in a nautical quilt.

The people we met while sailboating have been wonderful.  Everyone seems very friendly and helpful.  We kept running into people we met at the marina while in town.  One lady had a signal flag sweatshirt that I admired in passing and we struck up a conversation.  She turned out to be a quilter too.  She invited me on her yacht to show me her mariners compass quilts she had make.  The two quilts were beautiful.  We exchanged emails and I’m looking forward to talking to her again.

We left port around 12:30 after a nice lunch at Mike’s Bistro.  After leaving the charming port of Langley, while getting ready to hoist the sails, a bee stung me on the neck.  I’ve never been stung by a bee.  I’m very happy to be not allergic to bees.  After sailing for an hour or so Mark hoisted the spinnaker.

The video I posted is rather silly and but I learned not to turn the phone when taking the video!  Within a few minutes of taking the spinnaker video it started to rain.  We sailed for another hour to the southern tip of Hat Island before lowering the spinnaker and turning the motor on.  Made it back to the Everett Marina by 5:30 pm.  Packed the wet sails and ourselves into the car and headed back to Marysville.  A wonderful weekend spent sailing!