With the sale of Jerry's house in November, we no longer needed to stay around Sequim and decided a different choice for winter sounded good. All of the boats mooring for winter are docked on the F Dock, leaving the E Dock for guest moorage. Poulsbo does limit liveaboards for winter, but we do have a few others here on F Dock.
I can't say enough about how much we are loving being here in Poulsbo for the winter. We've enjoyed watching groups from nearby yacht clubs come in for a weekend, as well as the occasional large yacht arriving for a day or two.
We arrived on a Saturday and were greeted by a large group of boats from a yacht club in the Southern Puget Sound area. All of their boats were decorated with Christmas lights, and it was quite a festive welcome to Poulsbo. Downtown Poulsbo has many activities during the holiday season and we've been treated to carolers walking the streets, a horse-drawn carriage on the weekends offering rides to the shoppers, Santa and Mrs. Claus walking the downtown area, and a display of lights to put any Scrooge into the festive spirit. The Poulsbo Yacht Club put on a Christmas Lighted Boat parade that was quite impressive with the number of boats participating, the elaborate decorating done by the boat owners, and the number of viewers on the walkway overlooking the marina.
One special night the Argosy ships from Seattle arrived for their annual Christmas Ship Festival. Three ships, all decked out with Christmas Lights, arrived at the marina, one with Christmas music playing through its outside speakers. Guests arrived at the marina and were directed to their ship for their cruise. As the ships left the marina, carolers on the biggest ship performed a short concert for all of us in the marina to enjoy. The music could be heard into the downtown area, too. The boats took off for their two hours of cruising, returning later in the evening, and once again we were treated to Christmas music until the boats left at about 10:00 p.m., returning to the home base in Seattle.
December 19th we woke to snow here in Poulsbo. Quite a beautiful sight. We were happy to be on the boat and not having to be in a car driving anywhere.
Christmas found us over in Edmonds to visit with Jerry's son, Sean. The crossing was a bit of a bumpy ride from swells, along with a rather large wake from one of the passing cargo ships that had some wine glasses flying out of their "secure" spot. We have since switched to stainless steel wine goblets after the 12 wine glasses we bought for $10 from Costco all broke over a period of a few months. We love the new goblets as they hold 10 oz. to the top, so you can give a nice 8 oz. pour of wine. We have not noticed any difference drinking out of stainless steel. However, you may have to be the judge on whether or not we have a wine palate.
The sun came out for a short period while in Edmonds and we enjoyed the view of some of the Olympic mountains from our moorage. Dinner at Anthonys, always a treat, added to the festive feeling, as the entire restaurant was decorated with lights, and the Edmonds Yacht Club had their boats lit up directly below the restaurant windows.
We are looking forward to 2013 and would like to wish everyone the best for the New Year. We hope to see many of you out cruising during the coming year.
