Made it to Oak Harbor, WA

We got the boat underway from Meydenbauer Bay this morning at 8:00 AM and where though the locks and into Puget Sound at 10:00. We had a great 3 days with our yacht club using the Meydenbauer Bay Yacht Club facilities. Lots of food and drink and just conversing with like minded people. The weather was pretty much crap the entire weekend but we still had fun.

We had some excitment on Friday evening. Our little Westie, Maddie was chewing on this chew stick thing and started choking. Karyl was afraid she would die and called an emergency animal clinic in Bellevue. I thought Maddie would be OK but was overruled and Karyl was able to find someone at the party who would take her to the clinic. The vet at the clinic took a bunch of x-rays and even put the dog under so they could examine her more closely. They finally decided the dog was out of danger and Karyl took a taxi (it was now after midnight) back to the boat. Karyl called me when she arrived to come up and pay the taxi. I was just lying in bed waiting for her but had dozed off. So, up and get dressed and down the long dock to the marina gate where the taxi was waiting for me.

On Saturday, one of our members with the largest boat took anyone who wanted to go on a boat trip to Newport Shores. This is a place that had made a housing development sometime around the 50's or 60's with canals cut into Lake Washington. We toured up and down the canals looking at the fine houses, most of which had a large boat tied up in front of their house. Very nice. There where 4 houses for sale and I figured we could get one of them for around 3 mil and I would need another 3 mil for a presentable boat to park in front. Where is my lotto ticket?


On Sunday we had more food and drink and in the evening there was a raffle ticket drawing. I had bought 10 bucks worth and then on the last drawing I won the big prize of $100. YEAH!!

Karyl's cooking in Oak Harbor

Now we are in Oak Harbor and will get with my brother and his wife tomorrow to spend the day and have a rib dinner. We manage to get the Oak Harbor Yacht Club reciprocal slip for the next 2 days so we are basically staying here free. Just $6.00 for the electricity.

We are on the way north

We finally got underway for our trip north and possibly to Alaska. We left Port Orchard Thursday, the 27th of May. We decided to change our plans somewhat and first attend our yacht club rendezvous which takes place every Memorial Day weekend at the Meydenbauer Yacht Club facilities.

After spending a week or more packing up the boat

This is just part of the food that needs a home.

we headed to the Ballard Locks and then into Lake Union. We spent the first night at the docks where I bought the boat. They wanted to check on my troublesome sliding door that gets us into the boat. It has been known to stick so hard it can’t be opened without a huge struggle. On Friday we headed into Lake Washington and towards Meydenbauer Bay. It was cold and rainy all day and today isn’t much better.

Meydenbauer Bay Yacht Club

We will stay here until Monday and then head to Oak Harbor for a few days to see my brother John and then on to Bellingham to see our friends, Tom & Louise. After that we plan on going straight to Vancouver, BC to see our Yuma neighbors, Steve & Carrie.

POOR MAX

Poor Max had to go under the knife Thursday. He tore the ACL on his right hind leg and was in a lot of pain. He did the same thing a couple of years ago on his left hind leg. We think this happen because after we came home from Yuma, he was doing a lot of stair climbing - something we don't have in Yuma. He seems to be doing well so far. We just have to keep him fairly immobilized for awhile.

On another note, we are still planning on heading north on the boat sometime in the later part of May. Waiting for Max to heal may cause another delay but we don't know for sure yet.