Our son, Ross, who lives in Portland, OR, joined us for a few days. We explored Gig Harbor together, he helped us get to the store to stock up on groceries and we played a few games of Liverpool. Kismet, sitting pretty in Gig Harbor Captain Ross!             Christopher, (above-left) brother to Sarah, our soon-to-be daughter-in-law (fiancé to son Skyler), lives nearby, just south of Seattle so he made a special trip to Gig Harbor to have lunch with us on Sunday. It was nice to spend some time with Christopher and get to know him a…

Puget Sound is the second-largest estuary in the country. It was formed around 15,000 years ago by a massive glacier moving south across the area. This glacier was over 3,412 feet thick. As it moved south, it shaped the land like a giant bulldozer, carving out the basins that make up Puget Sound. Over fresh waters of 10,000 rivers and streams of the Seattle area flow into the Puget Sound creating the estuarine habitat that's so valuable for wildlife in the sound. Our first stop is Gig Harbor, a very unique boating destination. We'll be attending the PNW MTOA Rendezvous…

Port Madison is a very well-protected anchorage, it felt more like being on a little lake. We are finding that the Ranger is not only easy to handle while docking but dropping the hook was almost effortless.

Smooth sailing today on the Sound and LaConner Pass. Returning to Cap Sante Marina for one night before we head over to the San Juan Islands. As we were approaching our slip we happened to see Herb and Willie on Willie's Tug, (above-left) we already feel like we know them because we've been corresponding with them on the Tug Nuts forum. They are also new owners of an R27 with a gorgeous yellow hull. Just after we tied up to the dock, we helped Jo into her slip next to us. She had just come from the Gulf Islands today, we…

Not long after we set the hook for a peaceful night at anchor in Oak Bay along comes this racing skull with mostly women aboard. I think we provided some amusement as they had a ton of questions about the "cute tug boat." We knew they were a friendly and happy group when they started to inquire about what sort of alcoholic beverage we might provide them for happy hour. Apparently, they were on an end-of-class outing and were not too serious about practicing. You wouldn't normally think you'd run into many social opportunities when anchored out for the night…

We didn't linger too long in Bremerton after the Ranger Tugs Rendezvous because we had a really interesting cruise planned for today. We said our goodbyes to new boating friends and shoved off the dock late morning. Just around the corner from Bremerton sits Blake Island, a 476-acre Washington State Park which lies in Puget Sound approximately eight miles from downtown Seattle. This Island, with its five miles of beach shoreline and magnificent views of the Olympic Mountains and Seattle skyline, is only accessible by boat.  The island was an ancestral camping ground of the Suquamish Indian tribe. Later, it…