Molly Loves Paris: Sailing in Puget Sound for a Day

"And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement,

He asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?"

They gave Him a piece of broiled fish,

and He took it and ate it in their presence."

Luke 24:41-43

Our friend Chuck Goodwin was given a 26 foot sail boat by his mother. It is most certainly his pride and joy. When he asked if we'd like to go sailing with them some day, I was delighted. That was last summer. Now it's understandable that we didn't go out with them last year, as they needed to learn to sail the boat. But they have done all their homework, taken all the necessary classes and then some, and done a lot of practicing.

So Riley called them up and asked if the offer was still good. We were wanting to go to a baseball game, and it seemed like we could surely fit in the sailing at the same time, as both the game and the Goodwins are in Seattle, while we live in Portland. We got tickets for the game on Sunday, and scheduled to go sailing on Saturday. As the time grew near I did become a little anxious about the whole thing. What if we drowned!? But I was praying and trusting the Lord to keep us safe.

We drove up on Friday, taking Emily with us as Heidi was also going to Seattle this weekend to visit her sister-in-law. We left Christian with Annie, to be picked up after work by Heidi. We thought that it would be easier on Heidi to drive up with only an 11 year old. As Riley and I headed out of town I noted that it was noon and we would need to eat. He wanted to grab a sandwich at Starbucks, but I knew that Emily would not eat that and would be very hungry, and I suggested that we stop at our favorite Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood. We ordered one lunch special, dry fried beef Szechuan, and a bowl of hot and sour soup. I have to say that I've never seen Emily eat so much food at one sitting. She stuffed in everything, much to the surprise of the waitresses. After lunch we went through the Starbucks drive thru and headed north. In no time Emily was fast asleep, I think because she was so nice and full.

When we got to Southcenter in Tukwila we stopped at IKEA so I could change Emily and so she could run around a bit. We then were back on the freeway and it was not long before we were at the apartment of Iris and Travis. I took in the Annie DVD and the Max and Ruby DVD and Iris put on Max and Ruby straight away, and this made Emily feel quite at home and we kissed her good bye without a fuss.

It then took us about 45 minutes to get to Bothell, but we did it without hardly a hitch. Chuck and Lynn had dinner all ready to go.

We were having barbecued salmon, green salad and rice. They were barbecuing the salmon in the back yard, behind the boat. It was a really lovely piece of copper river salmon.

And the salad was really good also, as the dressing had sesame oil in it and there was apple diced small.

So the next day we were up and ready to go at 8:40. Our first stop was at a Starbucks with parking for a big car and a big boat. We just got our stuff to go, which I was a bit disappointed about, but then I had no idea how far it was to the place where we launched the boat. Seattle is so big. The distance was about 17 miles on two way roads.

We arrived at Shilshole Bay at about 9:45. I got off the boat with my camera to take pictures of the surrounding area while Chuck and Lynn got the boat ready to sail.

It was all about piers and water and boats and boaters.

At 10:57 the boat is finally ready to sail and heading (backing?) towards the water. We stayed on the water for about 6 1/2 hours before we got off on dry land for a while. In the beginning we were under motor power. This was not good for me as the smell of gas fumes makes me sick, which is exactly what happened. I kept hoping that I would recover, but with the ups and downs tat we experienced on Puget Sound it only got worse. I took a few pictures and promptly put the camera away, because I wasn't sure about my steadiness,

After about 2 hours on the water, and still feeling bad, I decided that if I didn't go to sleep I couldn't be sure what would happen. At first I went below, but quickly realized that that was definitely worse than above. Back up on deck I laid down in the clearest spot available, and though it took a while to fall asleep because of the movement of the boar, I did go to sleep. It turned out that everyone slept at one time or another also. I was so glad to be asleep! Then at some point things got hot, but luckily Riley had put a hat on my head, so though I did get a bad sunburn, it would have been a lot worse. When I woke up I happily laid under the hat, waiting until I felt okay enough to sit up. I could hear everyone talking about the Seattle skyline, and I knew that sooner or later I would like to see it. It must have been about 4 o'clock when I sat up.

One of the first things I saw was a boat so loaded with people that it looked like a refuge boat, but surely it was just a party boat.

At this point it was 4:20. We bobbed about on the water for about 75 more minutes, with our boat being tossed about by the wakes of various big ships. It's amazing to experience the wakes of different large vessels. The worst was a tug boat. Even the huge cruise ship wasn't as rough as the tug boat.

At about 5:30 it was decided that we would try and dock at Bell Harbor Marina, which is situated just in front of Pike's Market. Chuck had telephoned into the office of the harbour to see if there was a docking spot. They said they weren't sure, so we should just go in a see. They had never docked there before, but Chuck and Lynn were excited to try. The boat is park just to the left of the big pole at the center of the picture below.

We were off the ship at about 5:35 and we headed to shore. Our first stop was at a store that Lynn had told me sold really great licorice. It was good, but not ultimativo. Riley paid for it and when we came out and I saw Riley clutching the bag boy-style I offered to put the licorice in my purse, but he declined. Turns out thathe bought chocolate and he didn't want it to melt.

Unfortunately by the time we reached Pike's Market it was closing, as it was just past six. But I was just simply enjoying walking on firma terra. If we had arrived earlier it would have been much more crowded. It was in fact a beautiful day, a 10 for sure.

After about 20 minutes of wandering around the market we headed for a taco stand near the harbor.

Chuck and Lynn are quite fond of the restaurant we ate at, but I wasn't really hungry. I had a cup of chowder and some bites of a fish taco, which was nice, but not zippy enough for my taste.

By 7:20 we headed back to the boat. Upon getting on the boat I quickly decided that it would be good if I was below deck right away so that I wouldn't smell the gas fumes. I decided to stand for most of the time, as that kept me the most stable. Luckily there were windows that I could look out. As it turned out Chuck decided that he would use the motor the whole way back, I think this was in part due to the fact that the sun was going down, and if we weren't quick we would be getting the boat out of the water in the dark, which was just about what happened. But he did not have the dodger up, and it was getting very wet up top, so Lynn and Riley soon joined me down below. Chuck valiantly stuck it out, getting very cold and wet, and he got us back to Shilshole Bay by 8:50. So that took almost 1 1/4 hours at full throttle, or what ever it is that boats do.

The sun was just setting as we got in. So we were sure just in the nick of time. The tide was the other problem, it was the highest they had seen, and this made it difficult to get the boat up onto the trailer.

By the time the boat was out the sun was just about gone.

It took about an hour to get the boat ready for the road. Chuck and Lynn are meticulous about all the details. I think that we were finally on the long road home at about 10 o'clock. We were home by 11, and I went straight to bed because I was really tired, as was Riley. It turned out that Chuck was up until 1 o'clock cleaning the salt water off the boat before he went to bed.