Part 2, Puget Sound
April 26-May 4, 2005. With the passage complete Gay and Wyman settled into cruising mode by spending three days at Bell Harbor Marina in downtown Seattle where we walked to Pike Place Market, the oldest continuously operating farmer�s market in the U.S., renowned for its bakeries, its farm-fresh produce and flowers, and its seafood. The approach to Seattle by boat is quite spectacular with the Space Needle, sports stadiums and sparkling sky scrapers�sort of like San Francisco without a red bridge. We were joined by good friends Glenn and Penny Byrd aboard Barnaby, a lovely 54� custom built Sunnfjord motor yacht. We met the Byrds on our first cruise to the Pacific Northwest in 2002 and have buddy boated from time-to-time ever since.
Both boats moved on for two nights to the village of Poulsbo in Liberty Bay. Poulsbo has done a fair job of preserving its� Norwegian heritage with brightly painted houses, charming gift shops, bakeries and restaurants.
The next two-night stop was Blake Island State Park, a 475 acre preserve only seven miles from downtown Seattle�the local equivalent of SF�s Angel Island. As we look forward from the pilot seat the Space Needle and the burgee flag pole on the bow pulpit are side-by-side and appear to be the same size and shape. By Monday morning only Safari and Burnaby remained after a busy weekend of family activity. Since the island is densely wooded, lots of activity seems to take place around the tiny harbor: in the evening the deer wandered down to inspect the visiting yachts, an otter spent an hour playing in the sand on the beach less than 20 yards from the boat, a raccoon waddled over to pass the time of day with the otter, a great blue heron posed on the sea wall, a magpie and a raven prattled on about local politics while a bald eagle pondered affairs of state in the top of a nearby tree, the purple martins cleared the air of flying insects while barn swallows rested on the bow-pulpit, a pileated woodpecker tapped out a beat to which a kingfisher danced atop a piling and a pair of Canada geese announced their arrival by loudly honking out of tune as they swooped in to land with a splash along side. The otter thought he was the target of the noisy dive-bombing geese and scrambled head over heels down the beach, dove in the water and swam like a torpedo toward Safari�finding safety under the dock. As the tide and night fell, a pair of raccoons sampled the seafood buffet on the seawall and the great blue heron tip-toed along the shoreline. The next morning we discovered tiny hand prints left by a curious raccoon on our teak cockpit cap rail. I would discuss our morning walk in the woods the next morning, but space here is limited.
We took advantage of two more nights back at Bell Harbor Marina in Seattle to keep a doctor�s appointment and to see long-time friend Heidi Gans along with three new family members: husband Marcus and daughters Gracie (2 �) and Ava (6 weeks). We also played tourist by taking the Underground Seattle Tour and seeing the IMAX show of the Mt. St. Helens eruption