Sat Aug 27th – We arrived in Seattle for a few days of school clothes shopping. This is a tradition for us, we always end our big summer boat trip in Seattle getting the kids new clothes for before school starts in just a few days.

Having been out on the water for 30+ days you get used to nature and the wilderness. Seattle is always somewhat of a culture shock after the experiences on the water. As we arrived in Seattle and walked up to the city there was all kinds of city life going on. Ava took it all in then looked up to Julie and I and honestly said “how could people survive here!”.

We don’t have cable TV at home, so one of our traditions is to download the whole season of Deadliest Catch and watch it on on our summer boat trip. This year Ava and Skylar really got into it (not super appropriate for Ava but with a 15-year-old brother there is only so much you can do). They loved the new guy Sean Dwyer on the F/V Brenna A. Ava especially thought he was the coolest guy ever, and loved that he treated his deckhands nice, didn’t smoke, and “didn’t swear much”.

I knew the boat was moored somewhere in Seattle during the off season so I decided to see if it was in town. A quick search on the internet revealed the boat had just come home a week ago and was now moored at Fisherman’s Terminal. On Sunday around noon we caught an Uber to Fisherman’s Terminal to try and catch a glimpse of the Brenna A. Keeping our intentions a secret from the kids we told them we were going to lunch. After lunch at the terminal we set off on a “walk around the docks” in search of the famous boat.

Not more than 5 minutes, Julie spotted the boat! Then we told the kids what our real intentions were for coming here and Julie revealed that she spotted the boat. Ava got super excited and just stared at the boat in awe while we took some pictures. As we got closer we noticed a familiar face in the pilothouse. It was the real Sean Dwyer and he gave us a wave! A minute later he actually walked off the boat and down to say hi. Ava turned red with excitement while she told him all the reasons he was the best Capitan on the show. “Well, I just really like you because you don’t smoke, you don’t swear, and you don’t slap people in the head if they fall asleep at the wheel!” He laughed, said “thank you” then continued to talk with us for a good 10 minutes about all kinds of things. He was a very nice guy and we were grateful he took time to meet us. Ava was especially excited, she couldn’t quit talking about it, saying “I met Sean Dwwwwyyyyyer, I met Sean Dwwwwyyyyer” in a little tune.

Thursday Aug 25^th – After a relaxing morning at Spencer Spit, we decided to head for Anacortes just across Rosario Strait.  Our generator needed an oil change and Anacortes was just the place to do it.  After getting tied up, Skylar and I went into town on some rickety old bikes the marina loans you.  They have baskets perfect for loading up the supplies we needed.  Back with the goods, we got the oil changed in the generator and some maintenance done on our watermaker.

We all went for a nice walk in town and had dinner out.  That evening we decided to do a family dock walk.  We love doing dock walks, looking at all the boats, what we like about them, what we don’t, what we would change, etc.  By the end we all have our own idea of the “perfect boat”.

The next day we fired up the Cummins and headed south through the Swinomish Channel.  We were officially out of the San Juan Islands now and it was a little sad knowing our trip was about to end in a few days.  We had a quick stop at the American Tug docks where one of our refrigerators got installed after getting repaired.  Then we pressed on, cruising south down the west side of Camano Island.  Looking at the chart I saw what looked like an ok, fair weather anchorage off Camano Island called Elger Bay.  It was very exposed to the south but the weather was fairly good with 10 knots of wind out of the North.  There was not another boat anchored in the bay but we decided to spend the night anyway and got a good set on our anchor.  There were some crab pots in the bay so Skylar and I decided to set one ourselves.

At dusk we went out to pull the pot.  Lucky us, we had 2 nice size legal crabs in the pot!  We chucked them in the boat and headed back.  When we got back I decided I wasn’t up for cleaning just 2 crab and we needed to take off early tomorrow.  Back we went to the crabbing grounds to give the crab to a nice man we met out on the water.  He was crabbing himself but welcomed the addition to his catch!

We had a calm night but the next morning we woke up to building winds out of the south.  The boat was starting to get rocked around a bit so we pulled anchor and headed south for Seattle.  The south wind continued to build as we passed Langley, then Edmonds, all the way to Seattle.

Tuesday Aug 23^rd – After spending the last few days at a docks, we decided to head out of Friday Harbor for some anchor time.  Our first destination was Indian Cove on Shaw Island.  Having never been there before we scouted the area for a good anchorage.  There was only one other boat anchored in the bay so we had our pick.

After getting settled in we all jumped in the dinghy for exploration and beach time.  We made a narrow shallow passage in the dinghy not fit for a big boat.  It was fun, the water was running fast, whisking us through the channel.   After exploring the outskirts of the island we made our way to the beach.  The kids played in the sand while Julie and I relaxed.

We had an amazing quiet night anchored in beautiful bay with only one other boat.

The next day we set off for another anchorage at Spencer Spit.  The wind started whipping up some be we were able to get snugged in on the lee side of the spit.  We decided to spend the evening on the beach as the sun went down.  Ava made a fantastic work of art out of a bunch of sticks she found on the beach.  It took her a long time and she was so proud of her creation.  As the sun went down into a beautiful sunset we made our back to the boat for another relaxing night at anchor.