Over the next few days I will have a number of posts relating to a recent flurry of boat activity, and I will start today with a quick recap of a spectacular weekend of sailing last weekend. We left Bainbridge on Friday and made the long journey up to San Juan Island. It takes a good 5 hours of travel time all told, and though much of that is on ferries, it is still a bit long. Nevertheless, the closer we get to Friday Harbor the happier we become and the night aboard Aeolus was splendid.
In the morning we gathered up one of Elliott's close friends from the island and headed straight over to Spencer Spit on Lopez Island. There was no wind, so we had to motor, but it was still great.
Once we arrived at the Spit we dropped anchor on the north side as south winds were anticipated. Amy and the boys rowed the dinghy over to shore and I inflated the kayak to paddle around. The boys ran right over to a large sandy bluff and proceeded to become wild things, complete with near nakedness and guttural shouting.
They were in boy bliss for sure. Yet another reminder of why we sail our boys to remote island places and let them run free in nature. There is no type of indoor fun that can begin to replicate the whole body/whole mind/whole soul fun of wild nature play. Mind you, our boys are bright and well educated, we are not raising unsophisticated grunts, but they have childhoods rooted in free nature play, and we believe that engenders many great things for them, now and down the road. Enough soap box, anyone who has read this blog or knows us will know our views on these things.
We lounged in the sunshine and read good books, and then rose our beastly selves and strolled around the beautiful spit. Just divine.
As a stiff north wind rose that made our trip back to Aeolus a bit adventurous, we wove our way through the Wasp Islands and over to Roche Harbor where we anchored out and went to shore to join some friends for dinner. A lovely evening. When we returned to the boat we were delighted to see a full moon and pinkening sky to greet us. Just incredible.
We had Roche Harbor entirely to ourselves by the way, which is amazing because in the summer time it is wall to wall boats. The next day we took off to Jones Island and enjoyed our usual south side happiness. A bit of walking, a bit of reading, a bit of playing. I had an amazing game of frisbee with the boys on the lawn above the south beach. Owen has really grown able to play, and Elliott is as good as any adult. We did some tidepooling and then called it a day. Amy and the boys had to head home for school on Monday and I stayed over in order to haul Aeolus out of the water for a full week of work on her. That story, will come in the next post.
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