Wanting to make our departure align with a strong push around around Tumbo and down pass Waldron Islands, we went down to the boat Friday night for a reasonable 9:15am departure Saturday morning. While I wouldn't call it 'dark out', it was still past sunset when we rolled the cart towards our slip -50 yards away I could already recognize the bird bombs ALL OVER the deck that had just been washed and prepped 3 days earlier. Too late to deal with, but got to give it yet another scrub in the morning.
The strong push gave us real good speed -7+ much of the last half, and sat at 9.9kts for 30 sec. at one point. We got in just past one, and found a good showing of PRYC boats already taken over one of the two floating docks near the head of the harbor.
Saturdays weather was mixed, but improved as the day progressed. In the afternoon there were joint appies on the dock and lots of visiting into the evening, but nobody really lasted that long.
Sundays weather followed a similar pattern, but by the time we began our 'Amazing Race' competition, the sky was blue. The crew from Avalanche did a great job of organizing it. There were several teams of two participating, but after a very slow start (thanks to me), we steadily worked our way through the ranks. After an AMAZINGLY fast scrambled letter/phrase puzzle (thanks to me!), we ended up bowing out to the crew of Zelda in the final event, beaten by 3 seconds. Congratulations to them!
The evening pot luck dinner could have been renamed the 'stuff your face with all this delicious food' dinner. Nobody went hungry (yet somehow, most seemed to find room for dessert).
Monday was the best day sunshine wise, as we awoke to blue, sunny skies. With most planning a later departure of around 2:00-2:30 (again the current around Tumbo), we did a group walk in the morning to help burn off some of the previous evenings' supper. The tide was not as predicted in the tables and we received much less help than we anticipated. There was a little bit of wind however (3-5kts) that allowed us to gain a little bit of weigh, so we still did make reasonable time motor sailing.
All in all, one of those most enjoyable of weekends that end too soon. (more photos here)