Lopez Islands Marine Center, Lopez Island - 7/21/2012

The weatherman is kinder today and we are blessed with sunshine.  Early in the morning we see a neighbor visit his boat to check his crab pot.  Each day we have been in Fisherman Bay we have seen dinghys cruising to their pots and emptying the day's catch.  The folks on Waioli tell us they get their limit every day.  They apparently have a live well aboard and are seen lifting a prize out for the steam pot.  We enjoy seeing them clean the crabs overboard, with the steam rising from the boiling pot behind.

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After breakfast we call Islands Marine marina for guest moorage availability and we are in luck.  As Kenmore Air makes a pass by, we lift anchor, drop some mud and grass, and cruise over, threading our way through the crab pots to our assigned slip.

Find Willie's Tug............

This marina and the Lopez Islander Resort marina are close together, with a one mile walk into the village.  We go exploring.

Herb finds Gizmo, a steam boat.  I love the wood fired boiler, and would like to see her underway.

I find flowers, sights and scenes.

Arriving in the village, we see that it is a typical town with the Fire Station, Library, and many shops and boutiques.  Of course, the wine store catches our eye and we go in for a look.  Jake is welcome and hurries up to the counter expecting the clerk to give him a treat kept behind the counter.  There is no treat, just glasses of wine to taste, but he is satisfied with getting petted.

And we are satisfied with a bottle of Lopez Island Cab-Merlot blend, which has a pretty label designed by a local artist and features their vineyard.  We are told that grapes grow best on the eastern side of the Olympics.

Continuing our walking tour, we come to the narrow entrance to Fisherman Bay and see the much written about red marker, which guards the point of danger.  At this low tide we see why we should not go between it and land, but at high tide it is not so obvious.

Up the hill we see more of the town and the Historical Museum.  It was and is a farming community, as evidenced by the tractors we see daily on the main highway.  

The Sally J was built in Seattle in 1930 with a gillnet gear and reported to be the high boat of the Lopez fishing fleet,  catching the most salmon of the fleet.

It looks like a flea market or garage sale, but it is actually a community swap.  Bring what you don't want, take what you do want!  No money changes hands. Closed for the day, but the recycle employees next door take the opportunity to shop.

We return to the boat about Happy Hour time and Herb fires up the Magma.  Nancy is missing food pictures, so I get the camera ready.

A little garlic, a little Tony Chachere's, and Herb's magic!

While I prepare a salad, we are entertained by the Evening flight of Kenmore Air and have the close up view, as he taxies to the dock of the Resort Marina.

And Off we Go!

Pork Ribs Done to Perfection

Willie of Willie's Tug,

   and of Walldog, Willie and Jake

   Saturday, July 21, 2012