February 13th 1998, Friday the 13th. I have often read that you are not supposed to leave port on a Friday the 13th. But hey, it's not like we are crossing the Pacific, we are just going to Blake Island in the middle of the Puget Sound. I tell Amy this old sailor's superstition and she freaks out on me. I realize Aim is more superstitious than I had thought. We head out anyway.
This is our traditional "Valentines Day Cruise" - our fourth year running. To be honest, two of the cruises didn't really qualify as cruises, per se. In 1995 and 1996 we stayed at the dock and made dinner. We had a great time despite the fact that we never left the marina. In 1997 we actually headed out to brave the wild, arctic waters of Puget Sound. We spent one night at Blake and one night at Winslow (Eagle Harbor). In 1997 we had such a great time we almost didn't come back home.
Anyway, that brings us to 1998. This year we are headed to Blake for one night and then on to Poulsbo for the second night. We leave Elliot Bay Marina at 8.00PM on Friday. The trip to Blake is only 6 or 7 nautical miles. It is cloudy night  with the wind blowing from the southeast at about 5 knots. Our trip is "navigationally uneventful" however, we watch an awesome moon-rise behind downtown Seattle. The moon is huge and yellow and looks almost surreal. When we get to Blake, the unimaginable occurs - the marina is packed and boats are rafted up to each other. Shikes. Who would have guessed in the middle of winter. There is a barge with a crane at the south end of the marina doing some sort of maintenance work. We moor up to the temporary dock on the east side of the marina clearly marked - No Moorage. Oh well. We will gone before anyone is up the next morning. Amy and I settle down below to a lasagna dinner and some cheap red wine. After dinner we fall asleep watching Airforce One. Great movie by the way.
The next morning we wake up and celebrate Valentines day. I make some coffee and we get under way by 8.30AM. Amy brings up some warm Cinnebons. Typical Seattle winter day. Light drizzle, 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Oddly, the wind is blowing from the west at about 6 to 7 knots. We are headed to Poulsbo via Rich's Passage. We had meant to get up a bit earlier to catch slack at Rich's Passage - but the the warm v-berth was much cozier than the 49 degree cabin. Poulsbo is a mere 15 nautical miles from Blake.
Unfortunately we miss slack water by about an hour and a half and end up fighting about two and a half knots of current. I snap a few photos of the city and with the snow covered Cascade mountain range behind. The Bremerton ferry comes barreling through the passage at 20+ knots. After we clear Rich's passage we head up the west side of Bainbridge Island. Amy reads out loud while I drive and navigate. Amy is reading "All the President's Women" from the current issue of People Magazine. We laugh at the ludicrousness of the whole sordid Monica/Bill Clinton story.
Finally we pull into Poulsbo at 11.30AM and moor at the old marina near town. Moorage is a bargain - $10/night plus $3 for power. The Gig Harbor Yacht Club is having some sort of rendezvous at the marina. We manage to park (Amy doesn't moor, she parks) in one of the reserved slots, but the Yacht Club Fleet Captain (Margaret) is nice enough to let us stay. We are surrounded by Grand Banks - one 32 and two 42's. The Grand Banks called Options has a very cool crew of two beagles. After taking some good humored flack about being sailboaters we go for a walk around town.
After walking around town we go back to the Patience and watch 'Picture Perfect'. Good girls movie. While watching the movie Amy and I eat so much valentines' day candy we start to feel ill. After the movie is over we crank up 'Show Me Love' by Robyn and try to piss off the nearby Grand Banks with our in-house dance party. They don't seem to mind. Tonight we are supposed to be eating one of Amy's killer chicken dishes. We realize we forgot to pack the chicken and end up walking up to the grocery store again. On our way back to the boat Amy tolerates me while I shoot some more pictures. Back on the boat we settle down to some music, cheap red wine and our dinner. During dinner we achieve an new all time "indoor winter temperature record" for the Patience - 84 degrees. Wow. This is made possible due to the oven, stove and porcelain heater all being on. Aim is in heaven, I can barely breathe. A far cry from the all time Patience indoor low of 35 degrees (Victoria, BC - 1/1/95). Tonight is relatively early to bed as we need to get up early and go home and take care of Bark's.
We wake up at 6:45AM on Sunday. I am starting to feel sick and have a really sore throat. Amy and I walk up to town and get coffee and donuts from the bakery. We go back to the boat and pull out of Pousbo at 7:30AM. Our trip back to Elliott Bay Marina will be via Agate Passage and around the north end of Bainbridge Island. This time we have timed the tides a little better. We go through Agate passage with a 2.5 knot ebb behind us. We reach a maximum speed (over ground) of 8.5 knots. The route through Agate passage is very pretty. We power by Port Madison which looks like it would be a nice stop-over. At Point Monroe, we leave Bainbridge behind and head across the Puget Sound to Elliott Bay Marina. The rest of the way home we buck the still ebbing current and the southerly wind. The wind is relatively strong and is blowing 15 knots with gusts to 20. Wow, what a day to turn around and sail to Port Townsend. Oh well. While docking, I manage to underestimate the strength of the wind and mess up my first approach. We try again and get moored without doing any damage. Valentines Day Cruise 1998 is over. We had a great time once again.

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