Back in Seattle

Back in town again. The trip up from Olympia was nice, two days, pretty easy.
I went surfing on saturday and sunday, down in Westport Washington, and Bryan entered into a surfing contest. He made it through his first heat and into the semi-finals. I haven't surfed in a long time, so it was great to get out there and play around in the waves. Here is a shot of him on a really big wave, ripping it up...
Now I'm trying to decide what to do next. I could sail up to Bellingham and watch the Ski to Sea race, or I could stay in Seattle for Folklife festival, or I could go to the Gorge, or just go sailing.

Olympia

I just made it to my sister's place in Olympia, and this small town has changed a lot in my mind. I think that when you drive to a place, it really takes on the qualities of the road you took, and I've always driven through a lot of traffic to get to Olympia. Traffic with a lot of hot stinky exhaust. Olympia was always Impatient, too far away to get to easily, to close to get away from the problems of seattle.
The journey changes the destination, though. When sailing to Olympia, I've discovered this small, beautiful city on the south end of the Puget Sound. Who would have thought? So after a long few days of greys and blues, Red and Green shine brightly from the ground here! Also, the weather has improved a lot, and it was great wind today, I flew the spinnaker all day long and had sunshine on my shoulders.

Here's a video of flying the spinnnaker:

Heading out again...

To Olympia! I had a great weekend of Ultimate Frisbee, seeing some friends, and bidding a good friend farewell. The guy who got me started sailing is finally moving out of Seattle, (though he's been threatening to do so for years), down to Newport Oregon. I'll miss him.
I'm sore from all the playing, and if you don't know what ultimate frisbee is, well, its a game where you sprint your butt off all day long. So my butt is sore, as are my feet and legs. Onward to the water then!
Here's some pictures from this weekend:
So I plan on being in Olympia Thursday night, then spending the weekend there, and heading back north on Monday. If anyone wants to try to meet up for a part of that trip, I'd be happy to have you on board.

Back in Seattle

I got back home last night, and I'll be in seattle for the next couple days, I think I'm going to leave again next tuesday. I'll be going south to Olympia to visit my sister. I've never sailed south of seattle, so I'm kind of excited.
I'm also playing a lot of frisbee this weekend, so that should be good too. If you are in seattle, give me a call or an email, and let's try to hang out!

The essentials

I've gotten it down. I know what food I can eat, how long it will last, and I've figured out sailing by myself, anchoring by myself, and there is plenty of room here for me.
But I'm starting to want to share my day with others. Its a small island that I live on now, and I'm excited about coming back to seattle for a few days, and playing at Gnarly Gnines. (frisbee tournament, for those who didn't know)
What I am saying is that there is so much beauty to see in a day, and the time is perfect, but I'm getting a little lonely.
So here is my relief, I'll share some of the things I've seen over the past few days.
I left Bellingham Monday morning, and made it to Anacortes, then stayed the night, and continued on Tuesday to Smith Island. I've been past the island many many times, but never actually stopped there, so this time I did, and wow. I saw something like 10 eagles, 4 nests, Harlequin ducks (first picture), all kinds of shorebirds, and there was a really neat old house with a dead bald eagle in it. They are HUGE. There is also a really cool grass that grows over the island, and I was wading through it . I like wading through grass. Here's a picture of some of it waving in the winds.
There was also a tower that has a bunch of weather instruments, and I climbed it and had a nice view of everything.
I saw a plover or something that I couldn't identify, but it looked kind of cool...
I also took some more videos. We'll see how they turn out...
This one is about sailing alone...


And once I got to the jungles of Smith Island, I took this one: