One Of My Favorite Things...What's Yours...?

[dumluck53]

One of my most favorite things in boating is to be up just before dawn, underway, on the flybridge with a cup of hot coffee. I love to watch the sunrise and feel and smell the fresh air.

This morning was one of the best. Julie and I pulled out at 4:40 a.m. from our slip. We were enroute to Anacortes to drop the boat off for some work. It was the perfect cruise...we were riding the ebb all the way up to Port Townsend.

The air was crisp, smooth and sweet. The water was almost perfect except for some chop around Foulweather Bluff. What was most beautiful was the sunrise we enjoyed as we came around Vashon Island. The sun came up blazing...the Seattle skyline was beautiful and the reflection of the sun on Mt. Rainier was awesome.

We made the run in a fast 5 hours to Cap Sante Marine. We'll be back up there later this week to pick up the boat.

What is your favorite thing/memory that is boating related?

[Go Aweigh2452]

I was 12 years old fishing with my grandpa in Moriches inlet (Long Island, NY) the summer of 1964. We got up at the crack of dawn after eating fresh fish, eggs and bacon for breakfast and headed out for a 1.5 hour trip to the inlet. We caught so many blue fish we were knee deep in them by about noon. My arms were so sore but we had a ball. My grandpa said to keep fishing cause we were going to sell them to the local fish market and pay for our trip (and then some). I saw my first water spout off the inlet and asked my grandpa what it was. Well, we quickly finished fishing and ran the boat top speed (probably around 15 knots) back to avoid the water spout and the pending bad weather (it started to rain so hard it wasn't funny). I was grateful for the water spout since my arms hurt so much. Now I understand why grandpa headed so fast back to the lagoon. That very same fishing pole is what I just gave my grandson last Monday... That is my most memorable boat trip. I miss him so much.

[Randygh]

As a kid, my most memorable boating moments where in the summer when we went salmon fishing at Ilwaco. Our vacation every summer was to go salmon fishing. We'd get up early and head out. Frequently there would be pea-soap fog and the Coast Guard wouldn't let the small boats go out. The charter boats were allowed into the soap. We'd have to raft up in the channel out to the Columbia and wait out the fog. The fog would move off shore during the day and move in at night. If the bar was smooth we'd cross it and head out into the Pacific. If it was too rough we'd fish the river. My bro and mom always got seasick, while dad and me weren't bothered. The groundswells would be so deep that we couldn't see other boats when we were in the troughs. We used herring and barbed hooks. We could keep 3 salmon each and there were no restrictions. Many times our fish box was so heavy two men couldn't get it out of the boat. My first salmon was a 10# silver when I was about 7 yrs old.

There was a very active commercial fishery at Ilwaco and it was always a thrill to stand on the dock and watch the commercial guys unload their catches at the canneries.

Now that I have my own boat and family, I enjoy a smooth run up Lake Chelan or around the San Juans. Beautiful scenary and I'm able to appreciate the many blessings I have received.

[Roel Jansen]

I am also an early riser and one of my favorites is to go out of bed and boat about 6 oclock in the morning mind at zero (but according to the admiral that's the normal state all day) and just walk around the piers and surroundings enjoying a new day to be born.

[bradvo]

I have many but I think what I like the most is when i wake up while at Anchor and see I am in the same place. Then a cup of Java with a splash of Bailys , sitting in the deck chair watching the sun rise and the Birds. The Herons are my favorite to observe.
Brad

[Dawn Dreamer]

As a kid, I loved heading out on Shediac Bay before dawn in the lobster boat with the men to pull traps.

Some of my warmest memories from my Navy days are as Officer of the Watch for the morning watch while much of the rest of the ship's company slept, and of shooting the stars at morning twilight then not letting the beauty of the sunrise make me forget to shoot an azimuth to check the gyro.

More recently, I enjoy motoring up a long misty bief through the French villages and countryside toward the day's first lock as the sun begins to brighten the eastern skies.

And I look forward to again sitting on deck in a quiet anchorage at dawn, jigging for breakfast rock fish and dreaming.

Now you don't have to ask why we named our boat Dawn Dreamer.

[Stratocaster]

Going swimming in Melanie Cove in Desolation Sound at 5:30AM, August 1999. Wife and kids still in bed. Coffee cup on the swim step, water about 80°F.

They say Desolation Sound has the warmest sea water north of Mexico....after that, I believe it.

[Numbknots]

This may sound a little sick, but it is a memory. Dad had a beautiful 52ft Monk designed yellow cedar hulled tricabin while we were in Juneau Alaska. As charter capt. he always kept a bottle of good scotch under the dinette, One time during my "chore day" cleaning the hull and scrubbing the teak my brother and I decided to play a little prank on the sea gulls. We took a half dozen dixie cups and crushe up some 'Pilot bread' and soaked them in Scotch and set them on the dock. It wasn't ten minutes till we had at least a half a dozen sea gulls snockered to the point they forgot how to fly, they would take off and stall out and crash into the water, persistant as they were they continued untill they had finished off all the crackers. We nearly busted a gut and sure made the work go better!

Tim

[Tedster]

Tim, I'm laughing my ass off here visualizing the picture! Ted :lol:

[Numbknots]

Ted,

It was probably not politically correct but sure was a hoot! As I type on the Verizon connected laptop (gotta love this technology) we are taking a side trip on the Tolly from Port Orchard to Elliott bay then back to Olympia. Seattle sure is better looking from the Water!

See ya all on the water!

Tim

[Patriot]

Last week we did an overnighter and put the anchor down at the mouth of the Mollala River. In the evening we watched a beaver gnawing the branches off a fallen tree just a hundred feet from our boat (makes you glad not to have a wooden hull).

We had morning fog, which muffles all sound. The smell of fresh coffee and bacon, the sound of water lapping against the hull . . . . what could be better?

[Odessit]

Go Aweigh2452, I have a similar memory. When I was 4, I was out with my dad on a rowboat in the Black Sea. My dad was catching these little fishes on colorful lures, and I was sitting on the bow looking at him, the bow pointing away from the shore. He caught more than a hundred of them that day and he got so carried away he never looked up. Then I turned around and I saw the sky off shore just turned black with an approaching T-storm. I pointed that to my Dad - and he dropped the rode at once and started rowing like crazy back to shore!