The last weekend in September is the beginning of fall, but the weather is summer-like for a couple of more days with expected highs near 80 degrees. So rather than stay at home and do chores, we opted to go out on the boat for a couple of nights and enjoy the last of the warm weather. For two nights out, we decided not to venture very far but tried two new overnight places.
The first day we docked at Blake Island State Park, a short 7 miles away. This island is only accessible by boat and has a small marina and numerous mooring buoys. Fiddler is too long at 46 feet to tie to the buoys which have a maximum vessel capacity of 45 feet. We docked at the marina, taking the last spot large enough for Fiddler. The park host was as surprised as us at how busy the marina was. During the summer months, the Argosy cruise boats bring visitors from Seattle to see the Native American show and salmon bake at Tillicum Village.
We put on our walking shoes and hit the trails. We didn’t get very far before we encountered local masked inhabitants.
The park host recommended that we not leave any food out or doors open on the boat. The raccoons wait for visitors to leave their boats and attempt to steal their food. We locked it up.
There are several miles of easy hiking trails around the island. We walked a three mile loop, half along the shoreline.
As we got back to the marina we encountered the tame deer that also make their home here. 
The next day we left the dock and cruised a short distance to Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island. Our yacht club has a dock here and we hoped there would be room. Unfortunately, there was another boat already there for the weekend. We tried to squeeze in but there wasn’t enough room. We anchored instead and took the dinghy in to walk around town and have dinner. We had not previously anchored or spent the night in Eagle Harbor.
The harbor has a very nice view of downtown Seattle. The first picture is taken in the evening and the second is taken in the morning.
The clouds and rain moved in overnight and the high temperature dropped to the 60’s. The warm summer days are gone. We will have intermittent stretches of good boating weather throughout the fall and part of the winter. In the mean time I will work on the many projects and maintenance items necessary to keep Fiddler in top condition.
Here is what our track looked like: 
