her: We're having dinner with [name I've never heard] tonight. Yay!
me: We know someone named [name I've never heard]?
Another conversation we oft repeat went a little like so:
her: Amy's coming up to spend the weekend with us!
me: Right on!
pause
me:Which Amy?
her: New Zealand Amy.
me: Ah. Right on!
And so it was that Amy, Christy's friend from her time spent in New Zealand, came up to visit us. She's temporarily in Portland but mostly living in Connecticut finishing up school. So she hopped a train up north and spent the weekend with us. As she is considering finishing her school/training in Seattle, we decided we'd give her a good taste of Seattle. So we took Hello World down to Bell Harbor Marina right on the waterfront of downtown Seattle for the weekend.
On Saturday morning before taking off, we hosted my longtime friend Kymber, her husband Jay, and their adorable daughter Beija for flapjacks on the boat.
Here's Beija and I going over proper radio protocol after breakfast.
Here's the cat, dealing not so well with all the people inside his boat.
After saying goodbye to Kymber, Jay and Beija, we buttoned up the boat and set off for downtown Seattle in the pouring rain. The wind was dead, which is OK because our mainsail furler is behaving badly and we didn't want to roll it out. So we motored for a couple hours into Elliot Bay and on into Bell Harbor Marina. Ben and Fisher left a little behind us on Ben's Westsail 28 and met us down there.
Christy doing some driving.
Me watching out for crap pots.
Bell Harbor Marina with downtown Seattle in the background.
Christy and I doing the couple pose.
We along the waterfront and on up to Pike Place Market. While we were there, we grabbed some mac and cheese made fresh at Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop. I could swim in a vat of this stuff. Seriously. After that, we grabbed some italian sausage from Uli's Famous Sausages and a bunch of fresh produce and took our haul back to the boat. Ben is a chef and does wonder with food so we gave him some pasta, marinara sauce and our Pike Place goods and he turned it into some fantastic grub.
While having drinks prior to dinner, Fisher was perhaps "over served" and after several rounds of "I love you man!", he pulled yet another disappearing act. So we dined in his absence and fretted over how he got home to Shilshole.
Fisher enjoying the Bell Harbor scenery aboard Ben's Westsail 28.
Fisher hugging the security guard that yelled at him for peeing off the dock. (long story)
Christy, Amy and I lounging.
The next morning, we woke up to a Small Craft Advisory with wind coming out of the south at 20 to 25 knots. Sweet! Downwind run to Shilshole! We helped Ben get off the dock, including Christy and I throwing his docklines in the water and me hammering my shin on our stern anchor as I fended him off Hello World. No wonder everyone in the marina showed up to help us get Hello World out of the slip. But we did so without incident, much to the surprise of those around us. After getting out into Elliot Bay, we unrolled the genoa and enjoyed a great downhill run to Shilshole.
Ben's Westsail 28.
Amy doing some driving.
I can't be bothered to stand up. Steering a sailboat is hard!
Amy enjoying a spot on the bow.
We happened up on a race right out of Shilshole as we were coming in. We just cleared the upwind mark when this dragon painted catamaran roared by us like we were in reverse.
They stationed a crew member on their starboard side just to lift our headsail out of the way. Racers don't get too worked up over wide berths.
A squall line behind the skeleton dude on the Shilshole breakwater. Made docking fun. And really wet.
All the pictures here. As usual, we didn't take any of these pictures. Amy and Ben did all the photographic heavy lifting. Thanks guys! Amy, thanks for coming up! Ben, thanks for dinner and photos! Fisher - I love you, man.
47°36'36.69"N 122°20'50.92"W
2 comments:
Just call me the Magic Man. Now you see me, now you don't. Shake and bake.
It wasn't my fault, the bartender served me too much. I think his name was Fletcher or something like that.
you know what would have worked great in all that rain? a brand new grundens sou'wester HAT. i can't seem to find one in these shots!?!?
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