Seabeck

Seabeck Bay was a well placed location for us to stop after a long day of motoring. There is a private marina in the bay, but we chose to stay at anchor not far outside of the marina-proper. At the far end of the bay was a nice shore in which Moose could get out and stretch his legs each day, although a fair dinghy ride away. The closer shore, at the marina, had a general store and a pizza place as well as some spiritual retreat across the street. Two of the three sounded handy for our stay. Kerri also saw that a whiskey distillery was noted on the map nearby, but they seemed to have closed down some time ago. I pretty sure it was the only reason Kerri even wanted to come to Seabeck.

My morning view back to Meriwether as Moose does his business on shore

The bay also happened to look as if it would nicely shelter us from a scheduled southerly wind on Tuesday evening. It would blow at 20+ knots, so we were hoping to protect ourselves from the brunt of it. This proved to be untrue, and the wind blew all day Wednesday, as well. Not that long ago we would be super-worried about being at anchor in 20 knots, but our confidence in Meriwether’s abilities have grown. Our anchor held us just fine, and Meriwether handles the waves created by the wind like a champ even with her tendency to want to face perpendicular to it half the time. I don’t know if it is boredom or just the desire for the waves to tickle her sides, but the old girl loves to dance around at anchor, getting her ass way out there at times.

Sometimes I think she makes it a game to not touch land for as long as possible, even when coming to land with Moose and me.

Even with the wind, everything went smoothly for the week. It was nice to get out of a marina and have what peace and quiet we could find in the more populated south-sound. The retreat would ring what sounded like a San Francisco trolley bell from time to time, and the road nearby had it’s fair share of traffic noise, but all in all it was fine. We did get a wee bit of nature sounds as well, from a local bald eagle family and the dozens of seals (and their farting sounds). Hey, if a seal pops it’s head up nearby, give it a loud fart sound. They love it.

The view towards the marina, and our only neighbor – an unoccupied sailboat with a “Don’t tread on me” flag at half mast.