The long awaited day has arrived and we left the Everett Marina at 7:30 this morning. We slept on the boat last night after our 4th of July celebration at the house so that we could get an early start. We had a long but uneventful trip up to Roche Harbor where we caught up with the Edmonds Yacht Club. They are just beginning the Commodore's Cruise so we will travel with them for four days and then branch off with our friends and head up to the Broughtons just east of the north tip of Vancouver Island. This is the furthest we have ever gone so we are excited to get up north and explore some places that we have heard about but never visited.
As we approached La Conner we noticed a boat that got caught on a sandbar. It looked like they were trying to use their dinghy to pull themselves off. If a captain watches his charts these areas are well marked and there really should be no reason to have a problem like this. La Conner is a lovely little town and I always enjoy entering the channel and seeing the shops and marina along the waterfront.
As we got up into the San Juan Islands we enjoyed the run between the islands and saw some eagles. It is so pretty up here and is just a sampling of what is in store for us on our trip this summer. The second picture is of Roche Harbor as we approached. We did have to take a slight delay at about that location. As I dropped the fenders off the sides of the boat I apparently did not get one clipped on properly. Instead of dangling along the side to protect us from the dock it fell right into the water. This became a "man overboard" drill for us as Bob circled around so I could grab the line with a boat hook. Definitely my mistake but a great reminder to be sure they are securely clipped in place before turning loose!
We got tied up in our slip and then walked over to the tent where the Edmonds Yacht Club had dinner set up for everyone. We barbecued hamburgers and then visited with other club members. Most of them had been at Lopez Island for the 4th of July weekend. Others had been cruising on their own and then met up with the rest of us here at Roche.
This evening we gathered together with our ICC friends for a time of fellowship and ice cream! We jokingly (and privately) call ourselves ICC which stands for Ice Cream Cruisers. We love our ice cream and enjoy it at the marinas and when we gather on our boats. Canons, Smiths and Martins were together the last few days but Moon insisted they could not eat ice cream until Bob and Laurie joined them! That is true friendship! We all gathered on Jack and Moon's boat where they presented us with special ice cream bowls for our cruise! They also loaded their special ice cream freezer with 6 cartons of Tillamook ice cream! What a fun time we had!
We also presented Al and Sue with a couple of gifts. We all went together and gave them a hand tooled leather portfolio that had their boat name "Sunshine" embossed on it. They also received from Larry a photo he had taken of Sue kayaking that turned out very cool thanks to Larry's artistic eye. They served our yacht club well as Commodore and also the three previous years as they "went through the chairs". We all felt they deserved special recognition from their ICC friends.
Roche Harbor is one of our favorite places to just hang out. We love it here because of the activity, the beautiful scenery, the walk to the old mausoleum, sculpture park and trails in the woods. I highly recommend this resort and marina to anyone looking for somewhere to spend some time. They have a lovely hotel as well as a shuttle that runs from Friday Harbor if you come across by ferry.
