We pulled anchor from Penrose park and took off through Pitt Passage but not before Skylar and I studied the charts closely.  This can be a tricky little passage be we made it through without incident.  The weather was just cloudy most of the way but as we got close to Olympia the rain started to dump hard.  We waited a few minutes before prepping the boat to dock but it became evident it wasn’t going to let up soon.  So we geared up and braved the rain.  It was actually kind of fun.  The wind and water was so calm, just the rain pouring down.

After getting tied up we spent the next few days checking out the city and the farmers market.  We took the kids to the Capital for a self guided tour that was really fun.  Our friends Scott and Trisha drove down to bring their son Dylan (Skylar’s friend) to stay on the boat with us for a few days.  Skylar was excited to have a friend on the boat and we were happy to have him.

After leaving Olympia we set a course for McMicken Island state park.  This is a new anchorage to us and we wanted to check it out.  A tiny little island creates the state park with a drying spit that connects to Harstine Island at low tides.  We anchored on the North side then got the kayaks down for the boys to play around and explore the island.

After getting our new boat back home to Tacoma and safely in the boathouse, we spent the next couple weeks stocking, organizing and running every system.

We usually do a 2 week trip to the San Juan’s at the end of June right after the kids get out of school.  But this year, with the new boat, we wanted to stick closer to home so we went south instead of north. 

Tuesday the 20^st of June we finally left the dock (we had planned to leave a couple days before that but couldn’t get it together) headed for Penrose State Park only a few miles away.  We wanted to anchor the boat for the first time so we dropped the hook, safely securing us to the seabed.  We cruised around the bay in our 18’ center console boat we were learning how to tow behind the big boat and we went on some fun hikes in the park.  This trip is all about taking it easy and learning our new boat.

After a couple nights at Penrose we decided to head to Olympia for some fun in the city.  The weather forecast for next couple days was not too good so we thought being in the city was our best bet.