Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Snooze'n'Cruise with the WYC, July 28-29, 2007

This was a wonderful weekend sailing trip to Blake Island organized by the Washington Yacht Club!


100 people on 11 keelboats, 2 catamarans, and 2 dinghies. Coolers full of ice-cream, steaks, and salmon. Definitely not a regular camping trip... not to forget that Cecilia, Chino and I made over 20 sanwiches for the 1st day of sailing just for the 3 of us ... ya know, just in case the winds did not blow.


7 am: First boat ready to go! Our crew: Andy the capt'n, Anne, Cecilia, Gerardo Chino Israel Fernandez Ramirez Miguel de Rivera, Sally, Stewart, Edward, Patrick, Natalia, and Matt.


Passing by our Oceanography building where we will all defend our Masters one day. Pretty sweet deal to study by the water, we know, we know.


My boat will be called the "Flying Gypsy". The movie Gypsy Caravan: when the road bends is, by the way, excellent.


Seattle, the Emerald City, from the water.


It's Seattle. Polite driving is encouraged, even when you are on a boat. But is that a wake I see behind the motorboat!?


Our WYC fleet waiting for the bridge to open, and it does.


Waiting to transit through the Ballard Locks, from the fresh lake to the salty Puget Sound. Meanwhile, Cecilia is doing dishes in the galley. Then, the doors open and off we go...


"It is always sunny in Ballard...".


Sailing on the Sound: awesome heel, Cecilia, check out that angle! Is everyone still on board, or have we lost someone? Later that afternoon someone else was steering with a big angle and Cecilia almost rolled into the water from under the mainsail where she was peacefully taking a nap. She says she felt a hand grab her and save her from splashing in!


Quite the view, eh!?


Yes, captain! Alrite, captain! As you wish, captain!


And then we arrived at Blake Island.


Our campsite on the island.


Nothing to do but have fun! So we played a quick game of ultimate frisbee: Cecilia, Natalia, and Bhuvana face Bei, Colin, and Chino. Sally cheers for us and we win. There is no need to confirm this information, just trust me, okay.


Dinner time! Salmon, veggie burgers, or steak on the grill. For dessert, ice cream with all of these toppings! We transported the ice cream in dry ice: good idea but it was as hard as a rock after dinner and we had to put it on the grill(!) to unfreeze.


The moon was full and we all slept well. So well in fact that some of us missed the sausages for breakfast.


Various island treasures.


A salmon dinner and show at the Native American Cultural Center costs $80 to curious tourists arriving from Seattle on yucky Argosy Cruise diesel boats. We were so lucky to have sailed there and enjoyed it all way more for way less!


Bon apetit!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Cruisin Lake Washington with the Washington Yacht Club, on my mom's bday July 14, 2007

From the deck of the keel boat.*


Whoa, catamarans are hot!*


Sarah's so in charge and I am just hanging out.*
Sky took all of these pictures, so thanks!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Tom's Birthday, July 10, 2007

The grill.


The alley.


The cake.*


Tom thinks... blows ... and cuts.


The rum'n'coke.**


The bar.

Happy Birthday, Tom!
Pictures by: *David Thurman, ** Colleen Durkin