Projects, Flowers and Cruising

As we are approaching summer, we have been completing quite a few repairs to the boat. Ever since we had the boat, the tachometer has not worked properly. After much troubleshooting, a rebuilt alternator, new tachometer and replacing the battery isolator with an automatic charging relay, we finally have a fully functioning battery charging system and tachometer. We also had to swap out a bad engine temperature sender. In addition to these repairs, we replaced all the 110 outlets, cleaned all electrical contacts and scrubbed the boat. She is ready to take on the summer!

Thankfully, the weather has been really nice the last month. Spring is here and things are in bloom!

We are finally now able to participate in a few activities with the Anacortes Yacht Club. They have been closed down due to COVID, but are starting to have more activities and open up. We participated in the Shake Down Cruise to La Conner. The club had about 20 boats tied up to the marina dock for the weekend and we had happy hour on the dock. A group of us went on a bike ride around the tulip fields in Skagit County for the tulip festival. Skagit County is the world’s second largest tulip and daffodil farming region for bulbs and cut flowers. The bike ride was magnificent, with views of the snowy peaked Olympic Mountains to the southwest and snowy peaked Cascades to the East The ride through the tulip farms was amazing.

After returning to Anacortes for a few days to resupply, we headed out to the San Juan Islands for a cruise. Callooh! Callay! was outfitted with fresh tulips for the trip. Don’t worry, the tulips were part of the swag given at the yacht club cruise. We didn’t sneak into the field and cut any flowers for the making of this picture.

We cruised to the west sound at Orcas Island and stayed at the Orcas Island Yacht Club as a part of our reciprocal Yacht Club agreement. There is a fantastic hike near the club with great views.

We headed to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island next, and spent a few days around town. Then off to Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island before returning home to Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes.

Back at our slip in the marina, we are impressed that the seals in the slip across from ours have figured out the social distancing thing. I counted about 8 of them, hauled out almost exactly 6 feet apart.

Thankfully, we hope that socially distancing will soon be a thing of the past as we were able to get our vaccine. We both should be fully vaccinated by May 11th. Next stop – the east coast with a trip to Miami, Jupiter, Lutz and Tavares Florida to see family and friends, and Simsbury, CT to see family. We are so excited to be visiting friends and family soon!