Subject: The "Last Hoorah Cruise - Gig & Poulsbo" Review - Sep 18-22, 2019
This "Last Hoorah" cruise was organized by Bob & Kim Giles. They did a fantastic job for selecting two marinas out of a possible 234 in the Puget Sound area; Gig and Poulsbo marinas for this. Bob wanted to setup a south to mid Puget Sound cruise as apposed to going north vs. his earlier cruise up north for his 2nd Annual Roaming Rondy - Chatterbox Falls. Bob obviously pays a lot of attention to the cruise routes and the selection of interesting marinas for us to visit.
I was able to catch the 2nd Annual Roaming Rondy - Chatterbox Falls group at Cap Sante earlier this year but because I had scheduled a visit to the La Conner Maritime Services for my Volvo LowSpeed software/hardware installation, I had to leave them to travel back to La Conner for the servicing.
However, for the "Last Hoorah Cruise - Gig & Poulsbo" I was free to attend and cruise this wonderful event.
I left my homeport of Edmonds at around 9 AM on Sep 18 and immediately had to slowly navigate through a large number of small and large fishing boats trolling for Salmon with some moving about quickly from one spot to another. A few yells were thrown my way to stay off their sterns and my muttered response was "it's better to catch your line than to hit your boat." :lol:
No matter, once clear of the 'pesky' fishing boats (joking)... I set course in pristine water conditions to cross over to the east side of Bainbridge Island and cruised slowly toward Blake Island with Seattle's Elliot Bay to my east. It was early morning and the cloud base over Seattle was awesome looking with several of the high rise buildings lurking in the low clouds and mist. It was so surreal looking from my boat. I had to resist looking at the Seattle scene as Ferry boats ply the route between Elliot Bay and Bremerton... so kept a watchful eye for them on my Chart plotter having the AIS 800 helping me.
After passing by Blake Island the route taken was to use the west side of Vashon Island (Colvos Passage) - and again, watching for the Ferry boats plying between West Seattle, Vashon Island and Southworth-Fauntleroy when entering the Passage. The Passage is quite long (some 13 miles from north to south) down to Gig Harbor. The water conditions were simply ideal for a slow cruising speed while taking in the sites and scenery. At the southern point of Colvos Passage one briefly catches site of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge before hanging a starboard turn (somewhat acute turn) into the narrow and shallow entrance to Gig Harbor. I paused before making the turn into the harbor as the entrance was narrow and shallow, and to wait for any boat exiting the entrance. Sure enough, a large 'gin palace' was exiting and this gave me a good clue for the correct safe route approach into/through the harbor entrance. 😉
Once into Gig harbor it was a slow cruise down to Arabella Landing Marina (which I missed on my first pass and had to swing back to find it). This marina is quite small and the only one Bob found that would accept reservations. When I docked there was one RT31 "Sweet Pea" already there. They offered to help me 'land' safely. 😀 This Arabella marina charges just $1/foot with FREE power, water and shower facilities. The shower facility was absolutely 'top notch' and would be something one finds in a high-price well designed home. The shower room was fully tiled - floor to ceiling, a good 8'x8' in size, tiled seat, hooks for clothing, a wonderful shower head with a light rain-like water spray, and best of all - no time limit. One could stay in the shower for as long as you wanted using the rotary dialed timer that gave 60 mins for a full turn. 😀
Gig Harbor is very arty and scenic, with a number of new buildings sporting modern architectures. Every where I looked I came across nicely organized water flows onto rock formations making beautiful splashing sounds - very calming and seating by them one could easily meditate I suppose. I managed to pickup a few 'arty' items at several of the nearby shops. One was so large (a painting) the shop owner was nice enough to bring it to the Arabella Landing marina's entrance later in the day - nicely wrapped and protected in plastic sheeting. I then was able to carry it to my boat and secure it safely inside the cockpit's full enclosure - just as well as on the final day leaving Poulsbo it was raining. The whole group decided to eat a later dinner at the Tides Tavern on the water front - very nice.
Leaving Gig after two days it was convenient to slide down south a few miles to see the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. I made one pass under the bridge in both directions to see if I could catch sight of the Giant Squid (a local myth).
Then it was a northerly cruise up along the Colvos Passage to west side of Blake Island and through the Rich Passage channel over to Point White and taking a leisurely starboard turn to go north using the calm waters of Port Orchard on up to Battle Point, then passing 'Torpedo Alley' in Keyport Lagoon, then into Liberty Bay and onto the Poulsbo marina. I was told several years ago that the Naval torpedos like to home in on RT blue hulls. :lol: I now have Hero Red so felt quite safe passing this area.
There's a very long stretch of no wake going into Liberty Bay so it can take a good 30 to 40 mins to get to the Poulsbo marina that is the last one to be located.
We had two days at Poulsbo and a number of unexpected RT/CW boats arrived during this time. One surprise for me was a 2010 R25 (Classic). This was my 1st RT boat and is now on its 3rd owner. The owner was very keen on meeting me to show me the boat which he had kept in pristine condition with all my mods still intact and being fully used.
I had the chance to dine at Sogno di Vino on Front Street in Poulsbo - a favorite for Gill and I whenever we docked at Poulsbo. Next door to this restaurant is The Green Light Diner and is well equipped with all the trappings of the late 1950s and 1960s - including a wonderfully colored nostalgic CD Duke Box.
The friendly group had many delightful happy hour periods and it was kind of sad to leave on the Sunday and because the weather had turned to gray skies and light rain for everybody's return trips back home.
My return trip from Poulsbo to Edmonds was somewhat uneventful and my R29 CB handled things well. When exiting Liberty Bay and into the Keyport Lagoon Bob & Kim in their R27/OB were nice enough to help me capture a few photos of my R29 CB slowly cruising and one with it at WOT. The WOT photo looks as if my boat was about to leap out of the water with its stern well and truly 'seated' and bow pointing skywards. :lol:
When wanting to enter my Edmonds marina I again had to navigate through countless fishing boats and this time also a flotilla of sail boats with sails fully deployed that kept wanting to cross my path... it was quite a job navigating all of this while deploying fenders and securing my Jake who was desperate for land... 😱 :roll:
I reference a shared photo album below that has some of the better images I captured out of some 220 photos I took.
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1AGWxe86G4Z9ie
Three cheers for Bob & Kim is well deserved by this person. 😀
This "Last Hoorah" cruise was organized by Bob & Kim Giles. They did a fantastic job for selecting two marinas out of a possible 234 in the Puget Sound area; Gig and Poulsbo marinas for this. Bob wanted to setup a south to mid Puget Sound cruise as apposed to going north vs. his earlier cruise up north for his 2nd Annual Roaming Rondy - Chatterbox Falls. Bob obviously pays a lot of attention to the cruise routes and the selection of interesting marinas for us to visit.
I was able to catch the 2nd Annual Roaming Rondy - Chatterbox Falls group at Cap Sante earlier this year but because I had scheduled a visit to the La Conner Maritime Services for my Volvo LowSpeed software/hardware installation, I had to leave them to travel back to La Conner for the servicing.
However, for the "Last Hoorah Cruise - Gig & Poulsbo" I was free to attend and cruise this wonderful event.
I left my homeport of Edmonds at around 9 AM on Sep 18 and immediately had to slowly navigate through a large number of small and large fishing boats trolling for Salmon with some moving about quickly from one spot to another. A few yells were thrown my way to stay off their sterns and my muttered response was "it's better to catch your line than to hit your boat." :lol:
No matter, once clear of the 'pesky' fishing boats (joking)... I set course in pristine water conditions to cross over to the east side of Bainbridge Island and cruised slowly toward Blake Island with Seattle's Elliot Bay to my east. It was early morning and the cloud base over Seattle was awesome looking with several of the high rise buildings lurking in the low clouds and mist. It was so surreal looking from my boat. I had to resist looking at the Seattle scene as Ferry boats ply the route between Elliot Bay and Bremerton... so kept a watchful eye for them on my Chart plotter having the AIS 800 helping me.
After passing by Blake Island the route taken was to use the west side of Vashon Island (Colvos Passage) - and again, watching for the Ferry boats plying between West Seattle, Vashon Island and Southworth-Fauntleroy when entering the Passage. The Passage is quite long (some 13 miles from north to south) down to Gig Harbor. The water conditions were simply ideal for a slow cruising speed while taking in the sites and scenery. At the southern point of Colvos Passage one briefly catches site of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge before hanging a starboard turn (somewhat acute turn) into the narrow and shallow entrance to Gig Harbor. I paused before making the turn into the harbor as the entrance was narrow and shallow, and to wait for any boat exiting the entrance. Sure enough, a large 'gin palace' was exiting and this gave me a good clue for the correct safe route approach into/through the harbor entrance. 😉
Once into Gig harbor it was a slow cruise down to Arabella Landing Marina (which I missed on my first pass and had to swing back to find it). This marina is quite small and the only one Bob found that would accept reservations. When I docked there was one RT31 "Sweet Pea" already there. They offered to help me 'land' safely. 😀 This Arabella marina charges just $1/foot with FREE power, water and shower facilities. The shower facility was absolutely 'top notch' and would be something one finds in a high-price well designed home. The shower room was fully tiled - floor to ceiling, a good 8'x8' in size, tiled seat, hooks for clothing, a wonderful shower head with a light rain-like water spray, and best of all - no time limit. One could stay in the shower for as long as you wanted using the rotary dialed timer that gave 60 mins for a full turn. 😀
Gig Harbor is very arty and scenic, with a number of new buildings sporting modern architectures. Every where I looked I came across nicely organized water flows onto rock formations making beautiful splashing sounds - very calming and seating by them one could easily meditate I suppose. I managed to pickup a few 'arty' items at several of the nearby shops. One was so large (a painting) the shop owner was nice enough to bring it to the Arabella Landing marina's entrance later in the day - nicely wrapped and protected in plastic sheeting. I then was able to carry it to my boat and secure it safely inside the cockpit's full enclosure - just as well as on the final day leaving Poulsbo it was raining. The whole group decided to eat a later dinner at the Tides Tavern on the water front - very nice.
Leaving Gig after two days it was convenient to slide down south a few miles to see the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. I made one pass under the bridge in both directions to see if I could catch sight of the Giant Squid (a local myth).
Then it was a northerly cruise up along the Colvos Passage to west side of Blake Island and through the Rich Passage channel over to Point White and taking a leisurely starboard turn to go north using the calm waters of Port Orchard on up to Battle Point, then passing 'Torpedo Alley' in Keyport Lagoon, then into Liberty Bay and onto the Poulsbo marina. I was told several years ago that the Naval torpedos like to home in on RT blue hulls. :lol: I now have Hero Red so felt quite safe passing this area.
There's a very long stretch of no wake going into Liberty Bay so it can take a good 30 to 40 mins to get to the Poulsbo marina that is the last one to be located.
We had two days at Poulsbo and a number of unexpected RT/CW boats arrived during this time. One surprise for me was a 2010 R25 (Classic). This was my 1st RT boat and is now on its 3rd owner. The owner was very keen on meeting me to show me the boat which he had kept in pristine condition with all my mods still intact and being fully used.
I had the chance to dine at Sogno di Vino on Front Street in Poulsbo - a favorite for Gill and I whenever we docked at Poulsbo. Next door to this restaurant is The Green Light Diner and is well equipped with all the trappings of the late 1950s and 1960s - including a wonderfully colored nostalgic CD Duke Box.
The friendly group had many delightful happy hour periods and it was kind of sad to leave on the Sunday and because the weather had turned to gray skies and light rain for everybody's return trips back home.
My return trip from Poulsbo to Edmonds was somewhat uneventful and my R29 CB handled things well. When exiting Liberty Bay and into the Keyport Lagoon Bob & Kim in their R27/OB were nice enough to help me capture a few photos of my R29 CB slowly cruising and one with it at WOT. The WOT photo looks as if my boat was about to leap out of the water with its stern well and truly 'seated' and bow pointing skywards. :lol:
When wanting to enter my Edmonds marina I again had to navigate through countless fishing boats and this time also a flotilla of sail boats with sails fully deployed that kept wanting to cross my path... it was quite a job navigating all of this while deploying fenders and securing my Jake who was desperate for land... 😱 :roll:
I reference a shared photo album below that has some of the better images I captured out of some 220 photos I took.
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1AGWxe86G4Z9ie
Three cheers for Bob & Kim is well deserved by this person. 😀