It poured rain in Roche Harbor for a bit on Monday (4/21) and then cleared for a decent day. Got in a nice walk and a paddle. Not much going on this time of the year, and we were alone for a while toward the end of the guest dock.

Tuesday was a day for wildlife. We left Roche around 8:30am for a long slow cruise to Squalicum Harbor, Bellingham. As we passed the south eastern tip of Spieden Island we got fairly close to these enormous sea lions:

Passing along the northern edge of Orcas Island we spotted a wildlife watching boat and kept the binoculars aimed their direction as we continued east. We finally spotted the pod of orcas they were tracking. Too far away to get photos but some nice breaches spotted with the binos.

We were lucky enough to get reciprocal yacht club moorage at the Squalicum Marina, courtesy of our fellow members. The slip was bow-in port tie and instead of backing in, which we would normally do (so that we can starboard tie) we took the opportunity to dock on the port side and work on that neglected side of our boat! Scrubbing, buffing, polishing, rust removing, etc. Looks much better!

We enjoyed attending our first Squalicum Yacht Club meeting, seeing a few people we’d met previously and meeting many other members. The potluck was good (deviled eggs always a hit) and the guest presenter from the Working Waterfront Coalition was interesting.

We departed bright and early Thursday morning, en route for the La Conner Marina and the American Tug Spring Fling gathering.

There were just a few boats already there when we arrived so were able to get on the inside of the guest dock, as we prefer. Our friends Shannon and Steve (of Ramble On) are not bringing their boat north from Portland this summer so attended with their trailer instead. We spent time with other friends as well, and met many other AT owners. Hardly any of the Canadian boats were in attendance this year. Makes one wonder…

It was a fun weekend and the weather was darn near perfect! La Conner was busy because of the tulip festival. Good times hanging out with Shannon & Steve!

AT (Kady Krogen!) did a great job, feeding us two lunches, a dinner, drinks, and desserts.

Nick attended a maintenance presentation and learned more about water in the keel, which seems to be a common thread of conversation. We’ve decided to haul the boat out this fall, so we’ll work on a time frame and make an appointment with La Conner Maritime Service.

We had a Coast Guard safety check (with Dennis from one of the Power Squadrons) and failed…only because our sometimes-faulty horn decided not to cooperate. A weak bleat instead of a blast. We a made quick trip to the auto parts store and purchased their last hand-held air horn, so we’ll be getting our sticker.

I got a shot of some of the other boats departing behind us – fun to see them all lined up. I think there were 27 boats at the gathering.

Nice, short cruise back to Skyline, but Nick realized the bow thruster didn’t work properly when docking. Another thing that will need to be researched and fixed. (I did lean on the thrusters a bit hard this morning while leaving the dock in the current of the Swinomish Channel!)

We have no further boating plans for a while, as we have several appointments and other things going on over the next few weeks. We’ll attend an RV show next weekend. Yep, we’re planning to extend our adventuring! We are just in the beginning stages of researching and looking, so more about this topic at a later date. Most importantly, we are wanting to stick close to home to support Sierra and Brian as they await their baby. So exciting!