A Day of Pastoral Care

Today we took our pastoral staff out on the Sound for a day of whale watching. Pastor Craig & Jodi, Pastor Dennis & Diane, Pastor Bill & Terry, Pastor Nichole &Adam, and office admin Kari & Dan joined us at the Everett Marina about 10:00am.  We try to leave right after the whale watching tour heads out so that we can go wherever they go. They have a way of knowing where the whales are each day. I've been told they use helicopters and people often call in to let them know where whales have been spotted. We have found they tend to hang out around Hat Island and Camano Island. Sure enough, that is the area we spotted the tour boat.

For awhile we only saw a spout here and there or a little of the whales' backs. Toward the end of our time out we found a whale or two that were more active and we even got to see the whale's fluke. I was not fast enough to get a picture but Pastor Craig got a great photo which he gave me to add to this blog. We were all very happy with our many sightings.

When we turned around to back to Everett, I set out lunch and we enjoyed a nice warm ride. We still saw glimpses of spouts but decided it was time to stay inside.

When we got back to the marina I was able to get a great picture of all the staff. Thank you so much for joining us today! We had a wonderful time and want you to know how very much appreciated you are!

Sweetheart Cruise to Poulsbo

It's time to begin our cruising season so we headed off to Poulsbo for our first 2017 cruise for EYC. In the past our February cruise was to Kingston so people who did not have a boat could walk on the ferry and join us for dinner. Because of some changes at Kingston and larger boats in our club, we decided to try Poulsbo this year. We anticipated about 15 boats and maybe 30 people or so. I made arrangements for Friday night pizza from Woodfire Pizza, breakfast pastries from Poulsbo Bakery and then Tizley's EuroPub for dinner on Saturday night for 32 people.  We ended up with 28 boats and 73 people! That was wonderful but it certainly caused us to make some changes to our plans. Pizza became Domino's at  $6.99 each, pastries came from Costco and we scheduled two shifts for dinner at Tizley's. We stayed within our budget and everyone had a great time anyway!

We were given access to a small building down on the dock for gatherings but because of the size of our group, we used the boats for dinner on Friday. Everyone picked up their pizza and then drew a host boat name where they went to eat dinner with other members. It was a great way to get acquainted with other boaters. At one point, we had too many people in the room as we waited for Bob to bring the pizzas. As he looked at the water level on the dock where the building was he came on and yelled for everyone to get out of the room. I think capacity was around 25 people and we had somewhere around 60 at the time.

We did provide breakfast in the dockside room but people took their time coming to eat so we slowly filtered the group through. It worked out great and people were able to sit down and enjoy their breakfasts.

On Saturday evening we had a 5:00 and 6:45 shift for dinner at Tizley's. It came highly recommended but I would never have known it was there if we hadn't been told. It sits next to the Poulsbo Bakery and the door is at the end of a narrow alley. You go upstairs to the restaurant and there it was overlooking the main street of Poulsbo! Everyone loved their food, they provided fast service and all of us plan to go back again.

Sunday morning we provided a continental breakfast for everyone so they could leave early if they needed to. Since it was a three-day weekend several boats stayed until Monday. We gathered together Sunday night for dinner at The Brass Kraken and a great time.

Bob and I left Monday morning and had a good trip back. The weather has been pretty "iffy" and several members had some rough seas coming or going but we lucked out on the weather. It was good to get back on the water and we are looking forward to another year of great cruising and fun with friends.

Holiday on the Docks in Edmonds

We were finally able to take part in Holiday on The Docks for Edmonds Yacht Club and the Port of Edmonds. The Port provides free moorage to any yacht club boats that choose to relocate to the guest docks in front of Anthony's for the month of December. The only requirement is that the boat be decorated and it stay until the first of January. We had a great time buying lights and decorations for Synnova and taking part in all the festivities this year.

Myedmondsnews.com had some great photos of the lighted boats. The third picture was taken by contributor Denise Mead.

Since Bob is the Fleet Captain for the club this year, one of our responsibilities was to oversee Holiday on the Docks for EYC.  It is a weekend of activities to kick off the Christmas season. The first night is the ever popular TGIF (Thank God It Floats) Soup Night. There was a selection of more than 25 crock pots of soup contributed by members as well as salad, rolls and dessert. The decorations were fun with a candy theme. We have attended this before and it is a wonderful way to begin the weekend on a chilly evening.

After the soup dinner was over we tore everything down and set up tables in preparation of Saturday night's Prime Rib Dinner. We have never attended this dinner before but had heard great things. It seems like there was always one calendar conflict or another. We had fun helping with the set up on Friday night and then finished up Saturday morning.

The dinner was wonderful and the evening ended with music and dancing.

Following this dinner, it was time to tear down again and set up for Sunday's Santa Brunch. We had so many people sign up for the Santa Brunch we used rectangular tables this year and managed to squeeze in nearly 190 people. Our grandkids really look forward to this event and EYC does a phenomenal job with the details. Santa and his "crew" were fantastic. The funniest story to come out of the brunch was when Avery, age 4, went up to sit on Santa's lap. She had been waiting patiently with Cohen and Rylie while the other kids had their turns. While they were waiting, Cohen apparently whispered to her that she had been bad this year. When she sat on Santa's lap she told him "I'm on your naughty list!". He assured her she definitely was not and that she was on the good list. She was so happy and looked into his eyes with awe and snuggled up with relief! Everyone was laughing at her expressions. She was so cute! The other grandkids did great, too, and were very excited to receive their gifts.

It was a wonderful weekend and we definitely will plan to bring Synnova down to Edmonds each December. It was fun to stay on the boat over the weekend and actually get some time on her during the winter.

Labor Day in Port Ludlow With Rylie

What a wonderful weekend we had! This was our first cruise where Bob was officially Fleet Captain. He had wonderful cruise captains - Chris and Marnie White - who did a fantastic job of putting the weekend together.  It was a busy weekend but everything went so smoothly.

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.

This weekend we had two boats that were christened. The first was Rain Shadow which is owned by Lee and Sally Shobe. Bob had the privilege of doing the christenings and he started a new tradition of ringing a bell four times to signify that the captain is now on board before beginning the ceremony. The second boat was LaPaloma owned by Mike and Virginia Kelley. I didn't get any pictures of their christening because they asked me to say a prayer and ask God's blessing over their boat. It turned out very nice and we had several compliments on the christening.

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.