hope island
Date: April 25, 2023
Time Start: 11:50 a.m.
Time Finish: 5 p.m.
Cruise From: Swantown Marina, Olympia
Cruise To: Hope Island and return to Swantown
Engine Hours Start: 1494
Engine Hours Finish: 1498
Weather/sea conditions: Scattered white clouds, blue sky and sun, low 60's, lite breeze
Our first cruise of 2023! How sad that we had to wait until April to get out on the water, but this is a happy day for us, with a pretty perfect cruising kind of day. And look how perfect NORTH STAR looks now that she has been cleaned and coated with a ceramic coating! Tim from the factory completed our annual engine tune up, so we are excited for another season of boating.
Time Start: 11:50 a.m.
Time Finish: 5 p.m.
Cruise From: Swantown Marina, Olympia
Cruise To: Hope Island and return to Swantown
Engine Hours Start: 1494
Engine Hours Finish: 1498
Weather/sea conditions: Scattered white clouds, blue sky and sun, low 60's, lite breeze
Our first cruise of 2023! How sad that we had to wait until April to get out on the water, but this is a happy day for us, with a pretty perfect cruising kind of day. And look how perfect NORTH STAR looks now that she has been cleaned and coated with a ceramic coating! Tim from the factory completed our annual engine tune up, so we are excited for another season of boating.
The emphasis is on the cruise today as we follow along the Cooper Point shores of Budd Bay, enjoying the waterfront homes along the way, and noting that there are some great beaches to walk along (but with no one on them!).
At Hunter Point we see of lots of gulls and porpoises, so many porpoises! There must be schools of fish in the area to draw them here. All we get are quick glimpses of the dark arching backs and fins of the porpoises as they pass by, creatures on a feeding mission.
We tie onto a buoy next to little Hope Island Marine Park for a lunch picnic aboard NORTH STAR. The tide is low, and there are plenty of raccoons foraging along the beach. We manage to do a bit of boat cleaning before releasing our lines from the buoy.
The cruise home on this lovely spring day has treats for us, too. Mt. Rainier is stunning, we see more gulls and more porpoises, and the Adventuress on a visit to South Sound is under full sail. Schools of fish make themselves visible, too, gathered together in a frenzied ball at the surface.
Winds have kicked up as we return to Swantown. The Olympics are peeking above the clouds, and cormorants wait for us on the channel markers. And that's it for our first boat outing of 2023, a pretty terrific day!