Bjorklund Log: Alaska Trip Day 102

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Alaska Trip Day 102

9/23/11

Port Madison, Bainbridge Island, WA

Miles Travelled: 27

We had a nice and relaxed morning in Langley. We walked into town for coffee and pastries and to let the boys roam at the park. The sun was shining and it was glorious! We loafed around in town just long enough to let the tide come up to a sufficient level so we could pump out the holding tank…we only had about 6 feet of water and we draw 4.5 feet. We didn’t plan it, but it certainly worked out well!

The trip south was windy, with wind right on our nose so we just powered into it instead of sailing. At least the wind was amazingly warm so it wasn’t too unpleasant to be on deck even though we were heading into ~20 kt winds. We were also fighting a contrary current so we didn’t make great time, but fortunately we weren’t going far.

Tor and I love Port Madison. It’s a really well protected anchorage with a nice sticky mud bottom with pretty shallow depths for anchoring. There are lots of neat boats to look at and it is really close to Seattle, so it certainly felt like we were home after being away for 4 ½ months. In fact we even started this trip by anchoring in Port Madison for 2 nights!

We had chicken and red pepper kebabs with potatoes for supper and we were able to eat in the cockpit. The boys have been rubbing their food covered hands in their hair at several recent meals so their hair was disgusting and we decided to take advantage of the warm evening and give them a shower in the cockpit. It’s certainly the first time it’s been warm enough to do that on this trip! We rigged up the sun shower and I heated water on the stove since we didn’t have enough time to let the sun do its job. We put the boys in their high chairs in the cockpit to help keep them contained and they got clean. Yay!