Day 1 - Port Ludlow - May 13, 2018

And we’re off! The day we’ve been prepping for finally arrived today on Mother’s Day 2018. Day 1 of our grand adventure and we are headed to Alaska and back on our boat “Esperança” for the next 3 months, accompanied for the first 30 days by our friends Shannon and David on their boat “Lucky Dog.” After Mother’s Day brunch with my 92 year old mother at the yacht club, we were anchors aweigh from Bellevue WA at 11:30am. Our first task at hand was to navigate the treacherous waters of Seattle’s lakes on a hot pre-summer Sunday. Everyone in any sort of vessel or anything that floated was on the water today. We got to see all kinds of bad judgment, like kayaks that clearly saw us steaming along at 6 knots and decided that they’d paddle furiously to try and cross right in front of us, a form of the game “chicken” which would not end well for them, and a family in a canoe with two young children seemingly oblivious to the imminent danger of leisurely paddling along on a collision course with our boat. They seem to not realize that we can’t just stop 60k lbs on a dime! After safely maneuvering our way through the masses we arrived at the Seattle locks, were ushered into the big locks in about 10 minutes, and we were finally free, out in the Puget Sound (Salish Sea). Our first stop - Port Ludlow where our yacht club has an outstation which means free moorage for the night! It was a beautiful sunny evening on the dock. Ed and Sharon Sweo (MBYC) pulled in about an hour after us and the 6 of us shared our first dinner of the cruise on our back deck in the evening sunshine. Dinner tonight was grilled salmon on the BBQ, Denise’s House Special Fried Rice (recipe below), and Shannon’s famous Asian Slaw. Early to bed as tomorrow we are hitting it hard, leaving at 5:30AM hoping to cross 3 straits (Juan de Fuca, Haro, and Georgia) to get to Pender Harbour (yes that’s the Canadian way to spell “Harbor”). (When I figure out how to post pictures, I will add some here and there.)

RECIPE: Denise’s House Special Fried Rice: Prepare 1 c. White rice earlier in the day (1 c. Rice to 2 c. Water) and set aside to cool. In large sauté pan, Sauté 1/2 c. diced ham in small amount of veg oil (or 1 pkg Trader Joe’s diced pancetta), and finely diced carrots (if desired), sauté until carrots soft and meat rendered. Remove from pan. Beat 2 eggs, add 1/2 c. Chopped green onion and couple dashes of soy sauce and scramble in pan. Remove and break into small pieces. Sauté prawns that have been sliced in half down the middle lengthwise until just done. Remove. Add 1T of veg oil to the pan and heat to medium high, add rice and break up clumps. Add 3/4 c. Thawed frozen peas, along with all the other ingredients and mix together. Season with soy sauce and sesame oil to taste.