We started out on Thursday afternoon from Everett with Rylie joining us for the weekend. She was very excited to come with us and is now old enough to start helping as first mate! Her job was to put the stern fenders in and out of the boat as needed. She did a very good job, too!
Once we got tied up, Rylie enjoyed playing with the fishing net we bought her. We originally got it so that when we are in Roche Harbor the kids can catch shrimp at night when they attach to the pilings. It worked great here at Port Ludlow just for chasing the fish. Another fun thing we tried was cooking spaghetti to drop in the water. Someone told us that sometimes the minnows will grab one end and swim away with it. It almost glows in the dark and it would work great but we didn't have any minnows that seemed interested. We will definitely try again sometime.
All the other boats started arriving on Friday morning. We distributed packets to all the guests and one of our new things we are trying is giving each boat an "open" sign. When they are ready to receive guests or willing to show people their boat, they can hang their sign and all the rest of us know that it's okay to stop by. Rylie made the rounds of the boats and became friends with everyone. She had fun with Ingrid and Gary Buhner on one of her stops.
Port Ludlow is a great cruise for kids. There is plenty of room to run around and we had activities for them to take part in. On Saturday we had a pinata decorating contest for kids as well as adults. Everyone had a great time and they turned out really nice.
Another fun project was organized by Larry Martin. He is a spectacular wood carver and also works with other medium. He brought pieces of soapstone cut into hearts and owls for the kids to file into rounded edges and then he polished them on his grinder. They turned out beautifully! The last picture shows the before and after rock.
After the kids were done with their projects everyone helped decorate the shelter where we did our crafts and eat all of our meals. Our theme this year was Mexican so the room had a fiesta atmosphere and the food was fantastic.
Saturday afternoon we did our famous dinghy tour around the bay and this time we ended at the Meydenbauer Outstation across from our marina. The Meydenbauer Yacht Club invited us over for drinks and we had a great time. Rylie loved the dinghy tour and had fun running around the field with those who helped entertain the kids. They have a very nice setup for their club members.
Rylie had so much fun with all the kids that attended. She spent most of her time playing with the "big kids" and also with some her own age.
One of the funniest events this weekend was the blindfolded dinghy race. Partners took a dinghy to the starting line and one was blindfolded. The other passenger would tell the blindfolded person whether to turn right or left in order to follow the course. They had to make one loop with a buoy at each end. It is so funny to watch people running into each other, going in between docked boats, and even heading completely out of the course area. One man and his grandson ended up with the Magellan Award because they so thoroughly explored the marina in their attempt to get back.
Bob got some great video and snapshots of the marina and all our boats with his drone. As we were preparing our last dinner he managed to get most of the group gathered together to get one aerial shot of all of us.
It was a great weekend and everyone had a wonderful time. It was a joy to have Rylie with us and Bob was a hit as Fleet Captain. We felt it was one of the best cruise weekends the club has had so we returned home feeling really good about it all.
