Summer 2021 Highlights

 

Touch of Gray in the Swinomish Channel

While waiting for Touch of Gray – undergoing some upgrades at Tomco Marine (American Tug) – we've spent some time talking about our wonderful season of boating. Yes, we still have a couple of months and surely will have more fun cruising adventures ahead, but while not boating…we’re talking and thinking about boating. As a boating friend and I recently discussed, the more we go out, the more we want to go out!

As a recap, we first saw Touch of Gray (or ToG) at the American Tug dock last summer. It took some time to sell our previous boat, and we finally took delivery of ToG (AT362-01) on March 15, 2021.

She’s gorgeous! Roomy and comfortable, with an awesome davit system for our 10-foot AB (with 20hp Tohatsu outboard), and a spacious top deck. She runs beautifully and we’ve put many hours in (and 108 nights aboard!) since early spring.

ToG's dinette

Nick at helm

Dinghy & davit

Beautifully fitted hanging lockers

ToG in Everett

Happy hour on ToG's deck, Garrison Bay

It’s been an interesting couple of years. In brief: We both retired in 2019; a pandemic ensued; we’ve helped care for two new grandsons; we bought a new boat. We’ve curtailed international travel; we’ve spent far too much time contemplating our navels; we’ve spent some time thinking about the next chapter of our lives (more about that another time).

One highlight of this summer’s adventures was the 45 days we spent mostly in the San Juan Islands. Our daughter joined us for the first few weeks, we met up with extended family for a week in Roche Harbor, and generally had an amazing time on the water.

Sierra & Nick kayaking at Cypress Island

Duck Lake on Cypress

Janine & Sierra, Deer Harbor

Nick & Sierra (signaling # of crabs!)

Our oldest grandson, Mac, asleep aboard ToG

Sierra with new toy - Roche Harbor

Grove of Garry oaks at cemetery, British Camp 

Wescott Bay oysters aboard Coorie Doon

Sunset at Semiahmoo

Lost dock cart retrieval efforts, Semiahmoo

One thing we truly enjoy is connecting with boating friends. We’ve had several opportunities to cruise and hang out with friends – people we met through boating, and people we knew previous to boating who just happen to share the same passion for being on the water. Here’s to you – you know who you are. 😊 To many more years of boating fun with Coorie Doon and Stay Awhile!

Looking forward, we will continue to boat throughout the winter as weather and schedules permit. We want to pick a place (Friday Harbor perhaps?) and spend an entire month. We want to plan 2022 trips, hopefully into BC (which we missed this year – so far) as well as a trip to Alaska in 2023. Very much anticipating getting together with other AT owners when rendezvous restart! We want to continue to explore further upgrades that will make our lovely boat even better (washdown system, bimini & dodger, water filtration, e.g.).

We look forward to getting back on the boat within the next week.  We have a land-based wine tasting weekend planned with friends and family coming up, as well as the holidays – other that that we are on the water!