It’s been a bit since I posted a real-time update on here. We’re having so much fun and jumping from place to place so often that it’s getting hard for me to keep up. This is a good thing!!

So, I left off on our time spent at Elliot Bay Marina. It was nice there, but the cell signal sucked for working and I just couldn’t get over how expensive it was to remain in a marina night after night after night. I was beyond ready to go when we finally left on June 11th!

Blake Island Marine State Park

We left Elliot Bay Marina on a Tuesday evening, headed for Blake Island. We hoped that we would be able to get a spot at the dock (they have limited space) and that the cell signal would be sufficient for us to work. If we had those two things working in our favor, we planned to stay for a whole week.

We had favorable-enough winds to get the sails up and sail to Blake Island! It was such a wonderful evening for it and we had a blast as a family.

When we arrived at the state park, the nice volunteer stationed there guided us into the only spot on the dock where we could fit and helped us get safely tied which was really cool. We have an annual WA State Parks Moorage Pass ($200 for our boat for the calendar year) so we were able to stay on the dock for just the $6/night for power. We checked our cell services (we have 3 carriers for work options) and knew that we would have a better signal for working at Blake Island than we had at Elliot Bay Marina. Yay! We could stay for the next week!

Immediately upon getting tied up, we were told to lock up our boat and not leave any food out at all as the raccoons would get it. We went for a quick walk to check out the gorgeous sunset, and weren’t off the boat for more than 10 minutes when we looked over and there was a raccoon on our boat already! Ha! Pesky critters!

So we had a low key week at Blake Island, very reminiscent of the times we loved at Government Island down on the Columbia River. There’s something really special about visiting an island only accessible by boat and without cars or roads. We spent the mornings working and the afternoons exploring the island on foot and by dinghy. And on the weekend, we celebrated Father’s Day.

Breakwater Marina – Tacoma WA

On Tuesday the 18th, we left Blake Island and headed down to Tacoma. We needed to stage further south in preparation for our rendezvous with a few other boats that weekend at Anderson Island. Additionally, I needed to go to Portland for the day on Wednesday the 19th for work.

We stayed at Breakwater from Tuesday until Friday. In the afternoons, we explored along the waterfront and got hand-blended milkshakes from a cute little sandwich shop just up the hill from the marina and ferry terminal.

Oro Bay – Anderson Island

On Friday afternoon, we met up with our friends on SV Muse and traveled together down to Anderson Island for our weekend rendezvous.

When we arrived at Oro Bay, we were greeted by new friends aboard SV Captain Musick. They were there to meet with us and had arrived from Olympia earlier in the day and were already settled at anchor. Muse and Mosaic circled around a bit and found suitable spots to drop our own anchors for the weekend.

We had such a fantastic weekend with these two other boat families. We pot-lucked for dinners and lunches and spent all of our free time hanging out either on one of the boats or exploring the island peninsula which boasted a nice walking trail.

Swantown Marina – Olympia WA

Sunday came and we all had to leave Oro Bay. Captain Musick and crew headed north for a 2-week cruise among the San Juan Islands, Muse and crew headed back to their home slip in Tacoma, and we continued southward to Olympia. We got in some sailing on the way and got to Olympia’s Swantown Marina in time for a stunning sunset walk.

Brenden had to leave us on Tuesday afternoon to go to Portland for the week for work. It was an interesting and new experience for me to be alone with the kids for such an extended period of time. But we had staged in a good marina in a very walkable town and the kids and I enjoyed daily walks into downtown Olympia to explore the Hands On Kids Museum, the farmer’s market, the Olympia waterfront, boardwalk, city fountain, playground, and several book stores. We even took the bus to the State Capitol Building and took a tour of the building and grounds.

The marina wifi was good and we had an enjoyable week even if we did miss Brenden. When he came back home on Sunday morning, we readied ourselves and the boat and cast off the dock lines for our next stop: Eagle Island. But more about that, next time. Thanks for reading, cheers!  ~Rachel