Off to Poulbo

Now that we know we will not be receiving documentation any time soon, there is no reason to sit by the mailbox. July 3rd we cast off the lines and motored out of Bainbridge Island, headed up to the Poulsbo 3rd of July Fireworks Extravaganza. We still had most of the hardware stripped off the decks, so we were compelled to motor the whole way. As fate would have it, the wind came up to about 20 knots or so directly on the nose.

 It ended up taking us about 4 hours to go the 16 miles, even though we were going 6 knots pretty much the whole way. The anchorage was filled with boats, aobut 7 or 8 hundred by my guesstimation. We went in, found a reaonable looking spot, and dropped the anchor. We realized that we take up a lot of space and were uncomfortably close to another boat. We got a hint from the other boat owner standing on the bow of his boat shrugging his shoulders at us. After a little discussion, we decided to look for a bigger opening in the crowd. The anchorage is huge and it was easy to find a spot with plenty of room. We settled in for the night and watched a huge fireworks display. It was absolutely freezing, I stood on the companionway ladder with just my head sticking up for most of it. When the display was over, the local boaters streammed past for hours heading home. The next day was more of the streaming out of boats that had come just for the nights fireworks. There were 20-40 boats streaming out of the anchorage all day long on the 4th. Next day we moved up near the town to practice the anchor drill and make access to town easier. The anchorage is beautiful, with Mt Ranier off to the SE, and seals on the breakwater. We hope to get a couple more projects finished here and move on to the San Juan Islands for a few weeks.