Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Unsolicited rafting! A first...

La Conner is a good place for walking, with the park close by and the marina at the other end of town.

We are happy to report that no logs hit the boat! That we know of, anyway. We were hesitant to stay at the public dock again, as the current is swift and there is often debris floating by. Last time, after a small log got stuck under the swimstep, we thought we'd head for a more protected spot at the marina. We decided to chance it and are glad we did...it's fun to be right in town.

So many herons!

We headed to Coupeville. Very nice and quaint, with shops and restaurants in abundance. The dock is small, with very attentive dock hands. We soon noticed there was some rafting going on. Their dock policy is to fit everyone. A fair number of people tend to visit for just a few hours, including the little Ranger 21 that tied up to the boat in front of us for a short time.

So...imagine our surprise when we saw a boat come in and tie up to Europa!  Needless to say, we have very mixed emotions about this practice. The six people aboard were just in town for a meal, were very polite, and handled the whole maneuver well. We were grateful.

We watched a seal swimming around upside down under the pier. (Not sure what happened with that photo...I wasn't purposefully going for any weird effect!)

The wind picked up and yanked us around for a few hours that evening, keeping us up past our bedtime. We may tie too tightly to the dock...have to research the conventional wisdom on that. Next time we visit Coupeville we'll likely anchor.

And then to one of our favorite places to tie to a ball. Eagle Harbor. Unfortunately, we still haven't figured out exactly which balls belong to the City of Bainbridge. After paying for moorage and returning to the boat, the woman who owns the dock by the buoy came out to tell us it belongs to her! She was nice enough to let us stay the night, however. Grateful again.

Beautiful and clear view of Seattle!

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