August 12, 2013 ~ Shawl Bay to Sullivan Bay

For many years Shawl Bay has served a pancake breakfast, and today was no different.  We all clambered out with our plates and forks around 8:30 this morning and headed for the central covered area, where a platter of pancakes awaited us.  Several others were already there, and we heard them describe this as the “summer camp for seniors”, as that’s what they all were.  There were the two Nordic Tugs that we saw in Drury Inlet a couple days ago, a couple sailboats and a couple trawlers – all manned by the senior set.  One couple travels to Alaska every other year, and in the off years comes this far and spends several weeks here at the Shawl Bay dock.  They had a boarding ladder just like ours, but with a custom platform made to fit over the tie rail of the dock to keep the ladder closer to the dock.  Completing the morning gathering was the resident dock cat named, aptly enough, Pancake.  She took a liking to Erin after breakfast and jumped into her lap.  Tribble didn’t join us for breakfast and we didn’t tell her of this indiscretion.

We left just before noon, taking a tour around the harbor.  The Bead Lady, who used to be located at Echo Bay, now has her float home just around the corner from the marina.  It also seems that there are more float homes near the bay entrance than there used to be, but we haven’t been in here since our 2003 Alaska trip, so I guess that’s not surprising.

We were just a couple miles away when it started to rain, and the rain continued for the rest of our cruise to Sullivan Bay.  There really wasn’t any wind and the water was pretty smooth.  The clouds were hanging pretty low and mostly to give it some exercise I turned on our radar.  It still reports nearby boats with a green blip in the same relative position where we could see them, so all’s well there.

I radioed in a few minutes before our arrival, and we were directed back to the same dock where we were moored a week ago – Halibut Heights.  Erin, Lynn and Laura went to the store for some groceries while I filled the water tank.  We are being treated to dinner tonight at the restaurant, and the menu choices are halibut or rib eye steak.  We had some good halibut last week courtesy of Rebecca, so I’m going to opt for the steak.

Dinner at the restaurant was fantastic!  The rib eye steaks were done perfectly, and the barbecue sauce was very good despite having the bleu cheese aspect.  I had mine on the side just in case.  Erin had the halibut and it was done just right as well.  Dessert was a difficult choice, as all the options looked good.  I had a peach ice cream pie, Erin and Laura had the NY cheesecake with raspberry drizzle, and Lynn had apple pie a la mode.  It was all delicious, with some sample trading definitely going on.  The remains of our strawberry rhubarb pie from Shawl Bay will have to wait until tomorrow.