My oldest daughter Jennifer and my grandson Hayden are in town for about a week to help celebrate the holidays. We didn't know if we'd get the opportunity to make a boat trip, but the weather cooperated, and it looked good for a day trip.
We have pretty short daylight hours at this time of year and the nearest USFS docks are at least 2 - 3 hours away, so I decided to head for Icehouse Cove. This is a locally named cove that is only about an hour or so away from town. There is no dock there, but there is a mooring buoy.
Here's a map snippet from my Garmin InReach showing our short route to the cove and back.
We got down to the boat harbor about 8:30 AM. I didn't want to run in the dark after my recent encounter with a submerged object causing lots of damage. The sun was still coming up in the East as we approached the boat in the slip.
We got all the gear stowed, the engines running, and eventually got away from the dock without any issues. The weather was cold & clear with a light NW breeze pushing us out of the slip.
Here was my crew for the day. One of the drawbacks to having Starlink WiFi aboard is that now my guests spend a lot of their time on their devices rather than looking out the windows at the scenery, or better yet, having an actual conversation.
Shortly after leaving the harbor, we encountered a fog bank which required running under radar for a while. The fog cleared when we got out to the Mountain Point area.
We had to run a little slower than I normally would have due to the fog, so it took a little longer to get out to the cove. The mooring buoy was open so with Jennifer's help we were quickly tied up and secure.
The weather was great. Here are a few shots of the beautiful area where we were privileged so to spend a few hours.
Hayden is now a veteran of many boat trips, and he is starting to learn how everything operates on the boat and where everything is stored. And of course, being 9 years old he wants to help with everything. Here he is pumping out the water in the bottom of the raft.
He's impatient for slow and old Poppop (that's me) to get ready for our raft excursion.
We went out in the raft together and I got some photos of the area. There is a cabin (more like a shed) that has been built on a platform near the entrance to the cove. There is a small lake behind the building site and a small creek runs out from the lake, so I suspect they get their freshwater from that creek. I was surprised to see that there is no stove pipe coming through the roof of the cabin, so I wonder what they do for heat.
After lunch Jennifer let Hayden take the raft out alone, on the condition that he stay inside the cove. She tried to get him to wear his heavy jacket as it was very cold out, but again, being a 9-year-old, he knew better and only wanted to wear his sweatshirt. After about 2 minutes out in the raft he came back to get his heavier jacket. I guess mother knows best after all.
The short daylight hours necessitated a short stay in the cove. Hayden wanted to do some bottom fishing on the way home, so we left at about 1 PM. We did stop and anchor for about an hour so he could drop down and do some fishing, but to no avail.
We got safely into the stall at about 3:45 PM, just as it was getting dark.
I guess given the date it's safe to say that this was the last boat trip of 2024.
We logged 18.7 nm on this trip.
Perhaps one of the best photos from this trip was taken by Jennifer when she was heading up the ramp to the truck back at the harbor. Mr. Seal was just hanging out right below the ramp.
I'm looking forward to more boat trips in 2025!
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