Pictures from today's cruise.

[DMCI]

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[Helmar]

Looks like you didn't get yours in Dave..
The better weather has to be coming for sure and Soon I hope.
Thanks for the pictures.

[DMCI]

You can see from the pictures at the weather was nearly perfect. Lake flat, no wind, no rain, and even some sun beginning to poke through. This was about 745 in the morning and the only one there besides me where two other members and one boat. The rest of the members showed up on schedule around 10 o'clock.

I expected bad weather, and was very pleased that I had been wrong about small craft warnings and other unpleasantness. So everyone got the boat launched, motors running fine, and they set off on the morning cruise about 11:15 AM. About that time the wind started to pick up a little so the organizers recommended cruising down the coast and sticking very close to the shoreline.

I set off in my car, with my handheld VHF tuned to Channel 69. I suggested that they broadcast position and condition port reports to the rest of the crew, so that I could listen to how things were going. The next message I got was everyone was turning around and heading back this after about 15 minutes of everyone making a gallant try to make it to Fisherman's Terminal.

I went there and had lunch at the restaurant in the terminal building. Then I headed home. We will have to hear more details from the people that actually manned the various crafts. That should be more than a little interesting. (I suspect that setting off into the teeth of the storm in a small boat could lead to a very interesting experience, but we shall find out in due course.)

[Kelly]

Great pics Dave! The one pic with the sun beaming through on our boat is probably one of the most misleading pictures I've seen! While it was certainly decent weather for the launch sequence, the float immediately following was anything but sunshine and butterflies! The phrase that kept rolling around my skull as we were heading towards Lake Union: "so, there I was..."
That's usually how most good stories start right?
Actually blast off was pleasant compared to when we came out of Lake Union on the way back, holy white caps! Between the oh I don't know, 3-4 ft chop and the suicidal trainee captains on their tiny sailboats, it was a white knuckler all the way back to the ramp. I gotta say though, we didn't leave until almost 5 p.m.! My family and my son's friends are real troopers for sure.

Here are a few shots...I'm a little bummed we didn't get more pictures of the entire group, but with the weather it's understandable as to why we didn't.

My wife captured this screen shot on her phone. Note the time, then note the location of Lake Union...that's what we were heading into!
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The calm before the storm:
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Floatin' through Husky territory:
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Stopping off at Ivars for lunch:
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Even the ducks knew to take refuge from the weather!
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From Ivars we all split up. I had a quick round table discussion with the family and we decided to stay and cruise about on the Lake Union side...here are some shots from that excursion:
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Check this shot out!
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Nice shot of the Space Needle and Bearcat!
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[GregJ]

Thanks for all the pictures guys. Chuck and I had a good time and really appreciated the turn out. You guys are hard core.

[Bruce and Toby]

We had fun even with the occasional raindrop or two. Special thanks to Greg James for organizing this event.

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[McSkagit Tim Jones]

Good pics and like the video!

[Bflaherty]

Sorry we didn't make it on time to be with everyone. Although it seems like we dodged the lake Washington bullet... The crew decided we needed to celebrate Friday night and we all realized we are getting to old for "celebrations"... So after a slow start Saturday we launched at 14th street and headed for Fishermen's Terminal, then called Greg and learned that everyone was over at Ivar's (on the other end of the lake) so we slowly motored over to the restaurant and arrived just in time to see everyone off. We ate lunch and put our foulweather gear by the fireplace to dry out. Then we did a full tour of lake union before the next wave of rain rolled in... We didn't take any pictures cause I forgot the waterproof camera in the truck..

We had a great time! Thanks to Greg for coordinating this event. Even if we technically missed the event it was the perfect kick in the shorts to get the boat out on the water to start the year...

[MatsuAKboater]

Really dig the pics and video, thanks for sharing. Kelly, your Uni cuts through that chop nicely, I'm Express Impressed.