Sep 24 – Lake Union to Port Madison, 11 miles

Although it’s no longer officially summer, it’s still boating season so we’re extending this log by a few more pages. We’ve spent the last few weeks doing a lot of painting and varnish work on the boat and now are taking the opportunity to enjoy some of our Indian Summer weather. We recently joined the Classic Yacht Association and have decided to attend their next event, which is a rendezvous at the Port of Poulsbo. We have on board as our guests our friends Trav and Barb. They are selling their boat and getting out of boating after 40+ years so are happy to be out on the water with us. Also on board for her second trip is our cat Tribble.

We headed out a day early, with the plan to cross over to Bainbridge Island in the afternoon and spend a leisurely evening at anchor before heading around the corner to Poulsbo and the festivities. It also eliminates the possibility of crossing shipping lanes through late September morning fog in the event it materializes on Friday. Although we had planned an early afternoon trip down to the dock, we were all ready to get going in late morning, so we picked up Trav and Barb (they live about a mile from us) and headed down to our moorage on Lake Union. We have limited parking there – sometimes it’s not a problem and other times it’s jam packed. This morning, much to our dismay, it was the latter. We parked temporarily in the remaining spot for Fluid Ride, a bike shop on the premises, and unloaded our gear from the car to the boat. I then made the rounds around a couple blocks checking all the untimed parking spots. Not only were they all full, there were two or three other cars prowling around looking for space as well. I returned to our still empty temporary spot, and we decided on Plan B, which was to drive to Ray and Mary’s and have Ray drive me back, then take our car home. As Trav and I headed to the car to do that, a spot opened up next to Gallery Marine and we whisked into it. Since it was on the Gallery Marine side, I went into the office to make sure it was okay to leave it there for a few days. Permission granted - problem solved.

We puttered around at the dock for a bit putting stuff away and finally backed out around 2 o’clock to head down the Ship Canal towards the locks. As we approached we could see several boats waiting, with the small lock green light just coming on. We knew there were too many boats ahead of us for us to get in on that locking, and we were redirected into the large lock. Ahead of us were a couple of tug boats and a large barge, so most of the lock space was taken with that. There was just enough room for two boats behind the barge, and we ended up on the wall just in front of the gate as it closed. Rafted to us was a 42’ Ocean Alexander. After securing their lines to us, they mentioned that they had been waiting nearly two hours, so we were even happier with our good timing as to our arrival. With the lock gate closing behind us as soon as we were secured, we had a quick descent for being in this lock. Sometimes it can be an hour’s wait as it fills with other boats, but the barge took care of that. We were out in the sound in no time.

The weather was perfect for our crossing, and we proceeded at a leisurely 8 knots. We headed a little off course to cross behind a large container ship that was coming past Kingston on its way to either Seattle or Tacoma, then headed on in to Port Madison, where we dropped the anchor around 4 o’clock.

Port Madison is lined with docks and homes – some very upscale and others from another era. It’s an eclectic mix and provides for a very nice setting. It’s also very peaceful and quiet here, with the solitude interrupted only by the occasional lawn mower.

Trav had brought along a slab of fresh salmon, and Erin prepared it with a light brown sugar glaze and lime slices for a delicious dinner. Sunset was around 7:30, and we played a full round of Mexican Train dominos on into the night, finishing around midnight.