In the continued interest of cleaning up leftovers, Erin took the remaining eggs from the fridge, along with a couple onions, sausage, bacon bits, a few potatoes from the back deck of the Bar-T-Na and some cheese to whip up a huge frittata in our large frying pan. After the final step of baking in the oven for a few minutes, we loaded up a tray with dishes, silverware, napkins and so forth, and invited ourselves over to the Bar-T-Na for a final morning breakfast. We spent some time reviewing the highlights of our trip and marveling at all the good weather we had.
Trav and Barb's original plans called for them to remain up north for another 5 or 6 weeks after we headed towards home, but with his popped knee not making any further improvement, they decided a couple weeks ago that they would follow us back home as well. Trav now has an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon this coming Friday as the first step in getting his bad wheel fixed. They will still be boating, though, with their newly acquired Edmonds slip as a base of operations for the next month.
That Edmonds slip wasn't to be vacated until noon today, so we had no plans for an early departure from Everett. Also, we wanted to arrive at the locks in Seattle at high tide, not low tide, so an afternoon cruise was planned for that as well. Trav decided to bake some brownies before their departure, mixed them up and loaded them in their oven. When it was time to check if they were done, he found that he still had cold batter in the pan. His stove is wired so that you can either use the stovetop or the oven, but not both, and somehow it had been switched to stovetop mode. We offered to take his pan of brownies and bake them in our oven if he wanted to get going, but he chose the easy remedy, which was to move their departure time back another hour. I think he thought he'd never see his brownies again if he left them in our oven. Could've been right.
Bar-T-Na left the dock around 1:30 in the afternoon, giving us some wave height reports as they cruised towards Mukilteo. That daily afternoon wind had started in the morning today, stirring things up a bit, but not all that badly. We left about an hour and a half later, and I was pleased that our maneuver with hard left rudder was able to crab the boat sideways against both the wind and current to clear the dock without outside help.
Once we passed Mukilteo the water settled down just as Trav had reported on the radio, and we removed the rest of the windows on the bridge to enjoy the weather. Trav had reported via cell phone that they were at their slip in Edmonds, in a location that would allow us to come alongside. We arrived there around 4:30 or so, cleared the breakwater to the harbor and moored briefly to Bar-T-Na while Trav and Barb hopped on from their stern to ours. We were away again and out of the harbor in less than five minutes.
We continued on towards Shilshole, where we'd lock through to fresh water, the ship canal and Lake Union. We had the wind and seas to our stern, so although the water was somewhat choppy, we had a smooth and pleasant ride. It was a great way to end our cruising time together, having the Wills aboard the Potentate on its final leg home. We all enjoyed the ride from the bridge, and had an amazing view of Mount Baker off our stern as we left Edmonds. Soon Mount Rainier and the Columbia Tower both came into view over the horizon as we got nearer to Seattle. We arrived at the locks to see that the lock gates were closed, and boats were rising with their sterns towards us. We headed over to the waiting wall and tied up there to wait for the next locking. We were the only boat there, and normally we'd be taken into the small lock, but it is out of commission with some sort of bearing wearing out on one of the gates. It will be used only for emergencies until it's repaired sometime in October.
Eventually a large fish processing vessel was loaded in the lock outbound, and when it and a few boats exited the locks we thought we'd be called in. It didn't happen that way – instead the gates were closed again. I turned our VHF radio to channel 13 to monitor the commercial lock and bridge chatter, and heard a tug calling bridge 4, the railroad bridge just behind us, asking when they'd be opening. Commercial traffic takes priority at the locks, and a barge load of sand and gravel was on its way in. It was standing off waiting for the railroad bridge to open, and the bridge was staying closed until a soon to arrive long freight train could pass. The freight train was a long one. It kept slowing down as the engine end was approaching downtown, and yet the cars kept coming across the bridge. It finally cleared, the bridge opened and the barge came forward. Behind it was another tug boat, and the lock master radioed that tug that he would be closing the gates behind the barge, and then reopen them once it was secured so the tug could enter. When the second tug entered, I was encouraged by the fact that the gate didn't close right behind it. Once it was secured they called for all boats to enter the lock, larger boats first. We quickly untied and headed in, taking the spot against the wall directly behind the tug.
This process took about an hour and a half, and in the meantime, our ride home, provided by Mary Nordby, was waiting near our moorage. She had come down early but was content waiting and working on some puzzles. We called her on the cell phone once we had cleared the locks, and she went next door to the Northlake Tavern and ordered a couple of pizzas to share with everyone. What a nice treat to end our evening. With pizza waiting and evening falling, we abbreviated our normal victory tour around Lake Union to a brief cruise by the houseboat community and headed for home.
We have literally thousands of photos and a couple hours of video to boil down into a reasonable show, and lots of mail to sort through as well. It's good to be home, but we had a great time accompanying the Wills on what may very well be their last season aboard the Bar-T-Na. It was indeed a Sentimental Journey.
