Please join us on MV Pairadice : OAK HARBOR

Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, Day 16-19

Deception Pass Bridge between Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island

We made it through Deception Pass with calm water and hardly any current, much more enjoyable than the trip thru several years ago. The rest of the trip to Oak Harbor was “Smooth Sailing” with a few visits from Dolphins to make our day. We parked at the fuel dock to take on fuel , pump out and get our slip assignments. This was the first time we took on fuel since leaving Portland and the fuel burn so far was 3.02 gallons per hour. This was good news considering all the time that the generator and heater ran while anchored. I was especially glad to be tied up to the dock with shore power, so John fired up the grill and we BBQ some pork chops. A bit of wine and I was ready to crawl in bed.

Next day we took a taxi over to the base Pharmacy to pick up our Prescriptions that would hopefully get us through the next 4-5 months. Our timing was impeccable as usual, the computers were down and the short trip turned out to take several hours. John wined and dined me in downtown Oak Harbor. We had a great Thai dinner at the “ Sweet Rice” and then off to “OHT” . Spent a few hours soaking up the local stories and walked back to the boat. Sure seemed like it took us a lot longer to walk back, might have been the amount of wine or the windy rain, but we did make it back safe and sound.

I slept in until almost noon and found John hard at it. He’s making a snubber line, what ever that is. Took him two days and numerous beers to finish it and instead of me trying to figure out what a “Snubber Line” does, he promised that when we used it I would understand.

Ran into a new Selene couple that just closed on there “Selene 36”, John and Cindy Hanson named there boat “Lucky Girl” and had the coolest dog. They were only in Oak Harbor for the day and had to find moorage in La Conner for the summer. They would meet us at the Selene rendezvous in a few days, but had a lot of stuff to take care of prior to then. Turns out they will most likely dock there boat in Portland for the winter as they are from Oregon.

Today was Tax day, and John was frustrated with the printer. He finally got it sorted out, and after writing a few fat checks to Uncle Sam and the state of Utah. He was ready to make a trip to the post office the next day. We spent the rest of the day socializing with fellow boaters here.

Monday, and John got a ride to the post office with our neighbors, Jerry and Suhwa who are live aboards on there really nice sailboat. Jerry is an ex Navy guy and has done a lot of sailing during the last 10 or so years. They are supposed to be up in Canada in May and June and hope to meet up with them. Mat and Liz also stopped by and we took a trip down to Coupeville and had lunch at “Tobies Tavern” then off to Fort Casey playing tourists. We all returned back to the boat and after many beers, lies and watching a beautiful sunset, we said our goodbyes until October when we return to Portland.

We crashed early as we had a long day ahead of us for the trip over to Roche Harbor.

Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, Day 16-21