Scandinavian Villages and Native American Longhouses by Sailboat (Day 2)
After our fun Saturday in Poulsbo, we woke early on Sunday morning and departed the marina to get to Blake Island early. The water was pure glass and it was super quiet in Liberty Bay as we untied and headed out. Halfway down the bay a power-boater came up alongside, a hundred yards or so off our port side, then sped up and crossed in front of us (creating a wake for us to cross) then turned back and headed back behind us, crossing our wake from starboard side to port side, and then heading back alongside our port side again, finally heading far off to port toward shore. It was sort of strange, there were no other boats in the bay, and there was no navigational reason that the other boat needed to circle us.
After being intercepted by the Liberty Bay Surveillance Faction we made our way out of the bay and headed out toward Blake Island, dodging the ferries as we transited Rich Passage around the south end of Bainbridge. Since there was very little wind we had to motor pretty much the whole way.
The entrance to Blake Island State Park Marina is clearly marked but fairly tight–we entered the harbor just fine and tied up to the dock. Blake Island is a small island almost directly West of downtown Seattle. The entire island is a State Park and in addition to the park marina, there are mooring buoys all the way around the island. On the island there are paths, beaches, playgrounds, historical sites, and more, including one very specific, rather well-known, attraction–Tillicum Village.
Tillicum Village has been a local attraction longer than I’ve been alive, apparently since before the 1962 Worlds Fair. There is a traditional Native American Longhouse on the Island and they host Salmon Bakes for Lunch and Dinner on weekends. This includes a buffet meal and a stage show that teaches about Native American culture. This has been going on for a long time now and it is managed by Argosy Cruises now. Most visitors come across Puget Sound from Seattle on an Argosy boat, attend the Salmon Bake, and then return back to Seattle on the boat. But if you visit on your own boat you can stay longer, explore the island and still attend the Salmon Bake and show.
Once we secured Mobert on the dock and plugged in to shore power, Devon, Morgan, Olivia, and Nessa (the dog) headed to shore to play. I stayed aboard to clean up the boat while watching the Seahawks game. The girls had a great time spinning on the tire swing, chasing geese, spying on deer, and trying to find the hiding raccoons. We had reserved spots for the Sunday lunch Salmon Bake so after the girls got back from playing we changed clothes and headed up to the Longhouse.
We timed it just right, beating the crowd from the Argosy boat to get our mug of steamed clams and a nice little table inside to eat them. It turns out that Tillicum Village has a full bar and it is glorious! Inside the common area you can observe the fire pits where they bake the Salmon filets and once they were ready we headed in and got seated at our table. The buffet food was surprisingly good and after we’d eaten, dessert was served and the show began. Due to the darkness of the show it was difficult to get pictures but it was definitely interesting. We definitely recommend Tillicum Village if you’ve never been. I even managed to track the Seahawks game on my phone during lunch which unfortunately ended in a loss for the Seahawks.
After a short tour of the gift shop, and listening to one of the guides tell stories by the totem pole, we headed back to the boat for quiet time.
After quiet time I took the girls and Nessa back to shore to play and the girls spent a lot of time on the tire swing. What IS IT about tire swings anyway, other than they are awesome! We saw more deer, tons of geese, and at least one more raccoon. While we were playing, Devon was back on the boat making home-made pizza’s which turned out great! Mobert has a pretty nice oven (an Eno 4-burner propane stove/oven) and this was the first time we’ve used the it.
It rained A LOT during the evening and night-time and as usual bedtime for the girls was rough. We realized, too late, that putting the girls to bed at different times (ie: Olivia first, followed by Morgan) might work better than what we’ve been doing. If Olivia is already asleep before Morgan goes to bed I think both would have an easier time of it.
The next morning (Monday) we woke up, walked the dog, and untied Mobert from the dock. We wanted to get back through the locks and bridges no later than 3pm since it was a weekday. To accommodate rush hour in Seattle, the drawbridges only open between 10am and 3:30pm on weekdays. On a good day it takes 2 hours to transit the locks and all 5 drawbridges so we needed to give ourselves at least 3 hours to be safe.
We crossed the channel toward West Seattle then turned north to cross outside Elliott Bay. As the wind picked up we decided to take advantage and actually sail. So we put up the asymmetrical and ended up sailing on it all the way back across to the North end of Bainbridge, continuing on after a jibe to the East toward Shilshole. It was glorious! As we approached the Ballard Locks we dropped the sail, put out fenders, and readied lines. For the second time this year, we had to wait a while for the train bridge to open before we could get into the locks.
We got into the locks and tied up as directed, then watched as a Catalina 42 came into the locks at speed and managed to hit us, taking a chuck of fiberglass out of our boat, on its way into the locks. PEOPLE PLEASE!! Pay Attention! I chatted with the skipper for a while (holding my tongue about his lock technique) about some work he had done at the boat yard and how he was bringing his boat back to have them fix work they did incorrectly. Since it was the same boat yard where I was planning to get work done soon I was curious about the issues and how they handled them. He told me what the issues were but also noted that the boat yard was taking responsibility and dealing with it all at no cost.
We made it through the locks and headed to the Ballard Bridge, the first drawbridge east of the locks, and watched the same Catalina 42 skipper completely miss the boat yard, go through the drawbridge just behind us before realizing he needed to go back through the bridge, but not before the drawbridge had already come down. I don’t know about you, but this skipper gave me zero confidence that he knew what he was doing. 3 more bridges and we were home free in Lake Washington.
Devon had to join a conference call for work before we got back to the dock in Kirkland and didn’t want kids or boat motors adding noise so we decided to sail for a while longer. We raised the asymmetrical again and sailed up the lake, all the way to Kenmore at the North end. Since we had the same 12-13kt southerly we’d had all weekend, we made pretty good time up the lake. Once we got to end of lake we put the sails down and drifted for a while until her calls were over. After that we motored back to port, cleaned up the boat, loaded the car, and drove home. All in all a wonderful weekend on the boat. And since when do we get 65F sunny weather in October in Puget Sound?
