April 2017 7 days on Bainbridge Island

 7 days on Bainbridge Island and the Boat Projects Begin.

Our Daughter planned a getaway to Bainbridge Island during the Seattle spring break week. Since most of almost 4 year old Big D's weekly activities would be closed for the week she smartly rented a house on Bainbridege Island and invited us to join them. Great, I would be able to get away each day for some boat project time. Bainbridge Island was a very pleasant surprise, even though we had all been there several times, it was usually just for a day trip or just passing through to other Olympic Peninsula destinations. Bainbridge Island is an incorporated island so all the towns are managed under one local government. BI is just a 35 minute ferry ride from Seattle across Elliot Bay to Eagle Harbor and  the town of Winslow. Seven days allowed us all time to get to know the community of Winslow and Bainbride Island. You switch to Island Time and at 25 MPH you are forced to slow down and enjoy the environment. We really liked this community, it is just diverse enough that anyone can fit in and of course our marina is in Eagle Harbor so having the time to find things like marine/hardware stores and other things one might need gave us the opportunity to see how easy it is to live in this community without having to drive elsewhere for everyday needs.The island is a forest, in fact if your in the Pacific Northwest and your not in the smack dab of a beautiful forest, that is because they clear cut the trees to build something like Seattle.

The entrance to Eagle Harbor by vessel is from the South, the channel marrows as you near the entrance and you have to stay out of the way of the constant ferry traffic. In the lower right side is Blakely rock, a future dingy exploration adventure.

The first afternoon we walked to a nearby park to begin the exploring.

GiGi, can you do this?

Our Eagle Harbor Marina is on the south shore, about a ten minute drive from where we were staying for the week.

Good to arrive or depart at high tide.

Fitting the new Stem fitting was the high priority project so we tackled that first. I spent a few hours removing the front rub rail and cleaning all the surfaces for bedding the stem.then the Admiral showed up and sat on the dock holding a wrench to keep the bolts steady as I laid across the open anchor locker with my arm in an access hole up to my elbow blindly reaching in with a socket wrench to install the lock washers and nut. Seven bolts in all but it took a few hours to accomplish this. The new stem was thicker Stainless so it required a trip to the local hardware for 1/4" longer stainless steel bolts for a few of the holes.Our bodies took a while to recover from our lack of Gumby like elasticity, but We Got 'er Done.

Getting away gave these two some bonding time, being a Big Brother is not always easy sharing mom, so having time to relax together and play is priceless. 

Mom found Battle Point Park, a great place to dig with sticks.

The first trip to the boat, Big D learned how to fill a bucket with water and look for any sea creatures that just might happen to visit.

Next day we all took a 20 minute drive to Fay Bainbridge State Park

You can see all the way South to the Port of Seattle and Mt. Rainer.

North toward Port Madison and far beyound to Mount Baker.

This interesting cove adjacent to the park at low tide.

It was an Easter Shell Hunt

Best finds ever

True Love

And a big crab shell

You have to find the flat ones

A great log hut.

Seaweed to boot.

No matter where you in this region, if you can just walk to a clearing you have a view of some part of the Olympics, or the Cascades. From the beach at Fay Bainbridge you can see Cascades from the Peak of Mount Baker which is North to the East of Bellingham all the way south to Mt. Rainer.

This was a day of sometimes rain but it cleared up enough to see the Cascade Range. Looking East towards Edmonds with the Olympics in the background and one sailboat.

South to Rainer

And just over that point across Madison Bay is the peak of Mount Baker.

What is that Black thing sticking out of the water, A whale fin?

Done for the day

Great place to wait on the bus to the Ferry Dock

Found some worms on the sidewalk, took them home for further study.

Back to Battle Point Park for Skipper training.

No hesitation in giving the Captain and Admiral orders.

Now for the real application, winch training.

Helm training.

VHF Radio Telephone Communication training.

On our last day the Admiral wanted to do some more touring before our last boat project for the week, so we drove to Hidden Cove Trail Head.Hidden cove is Center right.

We walked about 3/4 mile down Hidden Cove trail and realized it may not take us where we wanted. So we walked back up the hill and drove to where we believed the park was.

Hidden Cove Park Public dock is marked by the purple pin , the park is covered by trees. I have been in the cove three times by boat, it is interesting that the home on the island at the top center is completely surrounded by water by high tide. This cove has a very special Aurora. 

Hidden Cove Park Public Dock

You can see Mount Baker a little better from here.

As I was standing here taking in the cove a very healty Sea Otter swam towards me from the bank, unfourtunately my phone battery was to low for a video, he swam under the dock and headed deeper into the cove.

Our last project for the week was to remove the old life lines, mark them and bring them bak to Seattle to take to Fisheries Supply to have some new ones made. 

We went to the Ferry but since it was the end of Easter weekend there was a couple mile long line, we decided to just go check out another park and hope the line would get better later. We drove past our marina to Rockaway Beach Park.

You can see the Seattle cityscape in the distance

Blakely Rock is the purple pin just off Rockaway Beach, a future adventure.