Blake Island Camping: Day 1

Departure: 11:30am August 23rd, 2007
Return: 3:30pm Auguest 25th, 2007
Weather conditions: Sunny, cloudy, windy, calm, foggy, overcast, you name it
Boat: Blue Club Boat
Crew: 6 (Woody& Family)

So sit right and I'll tell a tale
a tale of a fateful trip,
that started on these tropic shores
aboard this tiny ship....

Figure 1: Strange Tall ship

I'm not sure why the Gilligans Island theme song runs through my mind as I prepare to share our latest family adventure. Maybe it's the size of the boat, or the length of the stay, or maybe it's the simple madness of press-ganging one's family onto a long voyage along with all the gear and supplies requisite for family camping.

This was our 2nd "annual" Blake Island camping trip. "Annual" has such a nice ring to it doesn't it? Like it's a tradition. And yet, it's not quite a tradition. I think there is a threshold that must be passed before a regular even becomes a true tradition. I don't know what that is, but we're not there yet. It takes more than 2 times; I know that. The real question is, will we do it next year?



The adventure entails "sailing" from Gig Harbor to Blake Island and camping for two nights - returning on the third day. I'm going to break my report on the trip into 3 entries. This first entry describes the preparations and trip on the first day.

Figure 2: Wow! A lot of stuff.

Preparations
If I had a strength, I would say it is the ability to make a plan. I like to plan and organize, and so planning a trip like this is almost fun for me. It's still work though! Last year when we went, I created a document that described everything we needed so I was able to leverage from that to create a new one this year. HEre's a link if you are curious
Blake Island Excursion 2007.pdf

It's a working document so I won't make any apologies about layout, organization or syntax. It was useful to have. It has a menu, packing list, 3 day agenda and travel plan, activities we can do, tides, weather forecasts and maps of the island and harbor. I'll let you link to it if you care.



Okay, this is getting boring, I'll speed up. We packed, we packed and we packed some more. Six people need a lot of junk for a trip like this. It got a little stressful at the end. One of the other adults in our group "checked out" because of the stress and a couple of work assignments popped up at the last minute. Still, it eventually started coming together. Our AWOL member revived, I finished my work tasks and we got the boat packed and ourselves ready.

A part of our tradition for this trip is completely calm waters when we leave, and this time was no different. We had no illusions, we rigged the sails, but we immediately fired up the iron genny and motored out of the harbor.

Immediately outside the harbor we saw an interesting tall ship. It was larger than the Amazing grace. It had two masts, but I don't think it was a schooner as both masts appeared to be the same size. A stream if thick black smoke was streaming away from their smokestack (yes a smokestack on a sailboat) as they motored across the narrows. We entertained the idea of motoring closer, but they really took off and were gone. It was amazing to see an old ship like that move so quickly. After that we continued north up Colvos Passage.



Time passes.

WE finally hit a good patch of wind off Richmond Pt., or maybe it's Pt. Richmond, so we turned off the motor. We had a very pleasant sail for probably about two hours as we sailed from Pt. Richmond almost to the end of the passage. At that point we realized we needed to just get there. Everyone was tired of being on the boat, and the final straw, was the departure of the wind itself.

The marina at the island was full so we unloaded in the temporary zone before moving the boat out to a mooring ball. It's always a little embarrassing to haul so much stuff out of the boat, but we needed it. What can I say.


Setting up camp is always the fun part for me. I also like moving into a new home, and rearranging the rooms in an old one. Maybe I'm just a homemaker at heart. The girls helped by building a fire and setting up the bedding in the tent. This tent was a brand new 8 person tent. Monica pointed out that it's still a "one man tent". Being traditionalists, we brought 5 bundles of firewood with us ($5 here vs. $9 at the concession stand on the island); one for each meal. The first meal was foil dinners which everyone usually loves. They weren't quite as popular with everyone as last year though.


And that, my friends was Day 1 of our adventure. Stay tuned for Day 2.