We had breakfast the next morning at the cabin then it was time to weigh anchor.  At 11:15am we took off for Seattle.  We had a smooth run north catching the last of the ebbing tide.  We are loving our new boat!  Best of all is the raised pilothouse where all 4 for us have a place to sit and look out.  Its awesome!

Bell Harbor was our destination however today is was being guarded by the US Navy.  With the bow of a destroyer sticking out into the entrance of Bell Harbor Marina we had to radio for a Coast Guard boat to escort us in.  These small Coast Guard boats were protecting the destroyer with a 500 yard keep out zone.  If you wanted in they had to guide you, machine guns and all.  It was actually really exciting to see these guys protecting our country!

At 3:43pm and 43.18 nautical miles we arrive in our slip.  We had a great dinner at Ettas then grabbed a few groceries for the walk back to the boat.  Bell Harbor marina is always kind of loud at night, its not one of those peaceful marinas but it sure is beautiful with the city skyline right out your window.  This night was especially loud as the 90 degree day required open windows and Navy ship was docked right next to us.  We were not sure if it was their generators running or what but it was loud!  I wouldn’t call it a good nights sleep.

Trip Log – 73.84 nautical miles

The family reunion was a lot of fun.  It’s always nice to see everyone all together having a good time.  John and Tootie open up their cabin to everyone and put in a lot of work to make it a success.  Thanks for everything you do.

All the kids roamed around like a pack of wolves going from one adventure to another.  The rope swing is always a huge hit and watching them treasure hunt at the beach was fun.

Eating fresh clams just harvested off the beach (sorry no crab) makes the best appetizer to a great dinner later that evening.

We woke up to a fog layer over all of Oro bay. It was a beautiful sight. As the sun started to burn it away we knew it was going to be a hot day!

One more day of crabbing then off to Pirates Cove this evening. We had no indication our luck would change but I actually had high hopes of some crab after leaving the pots in all night. When the fog burned off Skylar and I ventured out for the pull. We also had the stuck pot to deal with. Hopefully the owner of the commercial pot it was stuck to has already pulled his up and set mine free. We pulled the 3 free pots first and of course nothing but starfish, rock crab and females. So much for the overnight trick! It was time to go get the stuck pot. The commercial pots were still in the area but our pot was nowhere to be found. We circled the area several times thinking it must be there but it was gone. What happened to it we will never know!

We set the pots back for one more pull in a couple hours but we were mentally done. We decided to take a nice hike around the island then get out of dodge. I was anxious to get back out on the boat and on to our next destination. We gave away our 2 lonely crabs to a nice guy on the dock who was helping Skylar fish and shoved off for a quick run to Pirates Cove.

We ran the boat at 8 knots for the 15.75nm trip. The boat runs really nice at that speed as we burned just 3 gallons per hour.

We pulled into the cove and ventured over to our usual anchoring spot. In 20’ of water we set our anchor for the first time paying out 120’ of rode with no worries of swinging into anyone around. There’s nothing much better than the moment you turn off the engine after setting the hook.

At just about 90 degrees the heat started to fill the boat as we sat still in the water. Julie had the bright idea to jump off the top of the pilothouse into the water. Skylar and I went for it. The fall was fun but wow that water is cold! Even though it was Julie’s idea we could not convince her to make the plunge. Even Ava jumped off the swim step!

The day wrapped up taking the dinghy to shore to meet up with some family getting to the cabin early for tomorrows big reunion.